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Are you passionate about space and looking to build a long-term career in the European space sector? Do you have two to three years of professional experience and a Master’s degree? The European Space Agency is offering a unique opportunity through its Junior Professional Programme (JPP), designed to cultivate the next generation of space professionals.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) announced today a collaboration to enhance the integration of European space applications in the financial sector, ultimately benefitting industries such as investment banking and insurance.

The head of the European Space Agency called on Europe to increase overall spending on space as he prepares a new three-year budget for the agency. Testifying before a European Parliament committee May 13, Josef Aschbacher said it was a “miracle” that Europe has achieved leadership roles in some space fields, like Earth observation and navigation, given that its spending on space lags far behind the United States and China.

Redwire executives, in a May 12 earnings call to discuss the company’s first quarter financial results, emphasized recent contract wins in Europe and the growth of the company there, such as the opening of a new office in Poland.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced a new collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), days after the US government proposed slashing NASA’s budget by 24%, putting joint projects at risk. The statement of intent signed by ESA and ISRO on May 7 covers cooperation on human space exploration, initially focusing on low earth orbits but later extending to the moon.

Two new drone designs, Apollo and Athena, are in development at Kratos with a particular focus on collaborative operations with other crewed and uncrewed aircraft, and an eye toward sales in Europe. The modular Apollo and Athena designs are smaller than the company’s XQ-58 Valkyrie, and could be configured to carry weapons, electronic warfare systems, or additional sensors.

The 2024 Annual Report from the European Defence Agency (EDA) gives us many reasons to be optimistic. It shows a continent waking up to the need for more cooperation, faster and better innovation and more intelligent investment in security. But for all the progress Europe is making — and that shouldn’t be dismissed — it still lags behind the United States and China in one absolutely critical area: harnessing the power of startups.

Poland has successfully launched a single-stage rocket demonstrator at the Central Air Force Training Ground in Ustka. The flight was part of a project to develop a three-stage solid-fuel rocket for research payloads.

Eutelsat shares closed up nearly 13% May 5 after the French operator said it would replace its CEO with Jean-François Fallacher, a telecoms veteran joining from a key partner in Europe’s planned sovereign broadband constellation.

German defense contractor Rheinmetall plans to start building synthetic aperture radar satellites next year with Finnish SAR constellation operator Iceye, amid Europe’s broader push to bolster military intelligence capabilities.

At the one-day conference, organized by Hypex Consulting under the title Space & Defense Summit, domestic and foreign industry participants shared their views on the development directions of the sector.

Over the past three years, the EU has been supporting the Union’s SST private sector by tendering more than 142 million EUR in 106 calls to 67 EU companies (incl. subcontractors). These tenders cover a vast range of hardware and software developments to improve day-to-day SST operations as well as research and innovation activities to prepare future space surveillance capabilities of the EU. More opportunities become available on a regular basis, so keep an eye on EU SST Procurement to find out more about ongoing and future EU SST tendering processes.