Tag Archives: Germany

The first half of 2019 has already proven to be a worthy time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon. With China’s Chang'e-4 mission to the far side of the Moon in January and its proactive approach to create a permanent Moon Base, Israel’s private lunar mission in February – which has paved the way for commercial lunar missions, India’s very first mission to the south pole, expected to be launched in September, and NASA’s U.S.$2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Service program and the American ambitions to send humans back to the Moon by 2024, the Moon race is on.

Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of the French national space agency - the Centre national d'études spatiales (CNES), opened the International Affairs Seminar at the agency’s head office in Paris on 13 May 2019.

EBAN Space, Europe’s largest gathering of private angel and early-stage investors in space and space-tech, the European Space Agency Business Incubation Centres (ESA BICs) and Thales Alenia Space, joint venture between Thales 67% and Leonardo 33%, recently animated the “Innovation Showcase” in Cannes.

The UAE Space Agency and Exolaunch have announced a joint agreement to launch MeznSat into orbit by the end of this year. The agreement was signed during the recent Global Space Congress in Abu Dhabi.

Following the initial institutional and commercial launch orders for Ariane 6 obtained by Arianespace since the autumn of 2017, and the resolution of the ESA Council on 17 April 2019 related to the rocket's exploitation framework, ArianeGroup is starting to build the first series-production batch of 14 Ariane 6 launchers.

The EDRS-C satellite, the second node of the SpaceDataHighway network (also known as the European Data Relay System - EDRS), will be launched into geostationary orbit at 31° East on 24 July 2019 by an Ariane 5 launcher.

U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) reached a milestone with the signing of its 100th space situational awareness agreement when the Romanian Space Agency signed an agreement with USSTRATCOM on 25 April 2019. These agreements foster openness, predictability of space operations and transparency in space activities.

Surrounded by air chiefs from 11 other nations, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein plunged deep into discussion 11 April 2019 about the changing nature of space.

ARIEL, a mission to make the first large-scale survey of exoplanet atmospheres, has launched a global competition series to find innovative solutions for the interpretation and analysis of exoplanet data.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence gave a remarkable “Kennedy” style speech on 26 March 2019 in Huntsville, Alabama, where he stated that the United States will put Americans on the Moon again - in as soon as five years. China demonstrated, with Chang'e 4, their capability to land on the far side of the Moon. Israeli NGO SpaceIL’s Beresheet spacecraft, though ultimately unsuccessful in its soft landing, did reach the Moon’s surface on 11 April 2019. This has all happened without Europe. SpaceWatch.Global Chairman, Dr. John B. Sheldon, shares his thoughts on Europe's ability to carry out Moonshots in the 21st century.