A consortium of Ukrainian, Nordic and eastern European companies is hoping to raise more than 100 million euros ($115 million) to build a constellation of 70-plus imagery satellites that would provide intelligence along Russia’s border.

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The German Aerospace Center, DLR, has partnered with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on a planned low-cost asteroid mission called Destiny+, expected to launch toward the asteroid 3200 Phaethon in 2024. 

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The nonprofit International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) issued a new report in March calling for the establishment of an independent Space Safety Institute to speed development of commercial space flight safety standards and certification processes.

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Leaps in capabilities of commercial constellations of small Earth-observation satellites and the decreasing cost of their services were at the center of a debate about the future of publicly funded Earth-observation missions after Spire CEO Peter Platzer introduced the company’s ambition to become “the Amazon” of space.

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The European Space Agency expects to carry out the qualification flight of the Space Rider spaceplane in 2021 followed by multiple demonstration missions before handing over the program to industry, according to Lucia Linares, head of ESA space transportation strategy and policy.

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The European Space Agency plans to launch an Earth observation satellite equipped with an artificially intelligent processor that would enable the spacecraft to make decisions regarding what to image and which data to send to the ground.

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U.K. Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Hillier says the cost-effective technology with its short development cycles would enable the military to always take advantage of the latest technological developments, unlike the traditional slow-paced military satellite projects.

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The U.K. Space Industry Act, passed last month, aims to "future-proof" the country’s space sector as it faces the challenging Brexit period while striving to become a major global space player.

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A 15 million euro ($17.8 million) contract to build one of the five Copernicus Data and Information Access Services (DIAS) platforms has been awarded by the European Space Agency to a Polish-led consortium – the biggest ESA deal the ex-communist country closed since having joined the agency in 2012.

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A 99 million pound ($132 million) satellite test facility to be built at the U.K.’s Harwell Campus should bring more business to the space hub here and ensure Britain’s satellite manufacturers can carry on without disruption post-Brexit, according to Chris Mutlow, director of RAL Space, the space division of the U.K. state-run Rutherford Appleton Laboratory here.

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Airbus has signed a contract with the European Space Agency to develop a Copernicus Data and Information Access Services, orDIAS, platform that will make data from the Earth-monitoring constellation more accessible to users from about mid-2018.

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The U.K. plans to become a haven for space startups from all over the world as it aims to grow its space industry to control 10 percent of the global market by 2030.

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The European Govsatcom demonstration project is on schedule to start providing secure satellite communications services to governmental users next summer, according to Holger Lueschow, satellite communications program manager at the European Defence Agency (EDA).

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The low-Earth-orbit sun-synchronous mission will carry a panchromatic and multispectral camera.

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Europe’s aerospace industry is getting ready for NASA’s proposed Deep Space Gateway, hoping Europe will have its own module at the lunar-orbit space station resupplied by a European transportation system.

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Billed as “the first commercial European opportunity to conduct research in space,” Ice Cubes offers researchers room to conduct experiments inside Europe’s Columbus module aboard the ISS.

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Today’s OHB might be Europe’s third-largest space sector corporation, harvesting prestigious government contracts, but the Bremen-headquartered firm still remembers its modest beginnings.

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Balloons, airships, unmanned planes and other so-called pseudo satellites loitering in the stratosphere are likely to enrich the global communications and Earth-observation ecosystem in the not-so-distant future.

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If Europe wants to take a lead role in this necessarily global endeavor, it needs to step up its game, Rolf Densing, head of the European Space Agency’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) said Oct. 25 at Space Tech Expo Europe in Bremen, Germany.

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The European Union might ban the use of the toxic satellite propellant hydrazine as early as 2021, which would present a major setback for the block’s space industry.

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Ariane 5 is one of the world’s most reliable launcher but its makers aren’t resting on their laurels. Following the 2015 creation of Airbus Safran Launchers, a joint venture between the two main contributors to the European rocket program, the company renamed itself to ArianeGroup and embarked on a journey through the quickly changing space industry landscape.

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With three companies developing dedicated small-satellite launchers, Spain is establishing itself as Europe’s NewSpace rocket hub. Although none of the three have launched their first rocket, that's not stopping them from making the case that Spain should build a spaceport.

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Speaking at Space Tech Expo Europe, Marc Valés, head of future programs at ArianeGroup, said that in addition to the existing cubesat standard, 50-kilogram-class nanosatellites should also be standardized.

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The relationships between France and Germany are key for the success of Europe in the increasingly competitive global space sector, Jean Pascal Le Franc, the French space agency CNES’s director of programming, international and quality, said Oct. 24.

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