News

AST SpaceMobile’s newly announced plan to create a jointly owned European satellite operator for direct-to-smartphone services comes at a pivotal moment in the region’s push for greater space autonomy. The Texas-based low Earth orbit (LEO) operator’s partnership with European telecom giant Vodafone, which was already set to provide the cellular spectrum needed to launch its services in 10 countries, ultimately aims to extend coverage across the entire continent.

Japanese microgravity services startup ElevationSpace has become the first customer in Asia for Germany’s Isar Aerospace, which now only needs a launch license to debut its two-stage Spectrum rocket after clearing tests. ElevationSpace said March 3 it has booked a second-half 2026 launch with Isar Aerospace for AOBA, a 200-kilogram spacecraft designed to test a recoverable platform for space-based experiments and manufacturing.

In an online converstaion, Tess Hatch covers the evolving landscape of space investment and commercialization. Hatch, a former venture investor now in a banking role, discusses the shift in financing for space startups, moving from equity investments to debt financing. She highlights a significant trend where many space companies are now branding themselves as defense tech firms due to updated government contracting methods, making defense-focused business models more attractive to investors.

The company troubleshot several issues but ultimately decided to call off today's (March 3) attempt.

Spire Global established two-way optical communications for the first time between two six-unit cubesats. The cubesats, equipped with an optical communications payload about the size of a tissue box, transmitted data as far as 5,000 kilometers.

Europe's new heavy-lift rocket, Ariane 6, is to carry out Monday its first commercial mission as European nations seek to secure independent access to space amid a shock rapprochement between Moscow and Washington. The high-profile mission comes as French President Emmanuel Macron calls for Europe to reduce its security reliance on the United States and the European space industry struggles to remain competitive in the face of Elon Musk's Space X.

The first metal 3D part ever created on orbit has landed on Earth. The sample was produced in ESA’s Metal 3D Printer on the International Space Station. Now, it’s on Earth for the first time, at ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands (ESTEC).

The European Commission is figuring out how it could help Ukraine secure satellite communication capacity in the wake of Elon Musk reportedly threatening to pull Kyiv's access to his Starlink network.

The Seamless Air Alliance (SAA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) are pleased to announce significant advancements in the development of 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) for aviation connectivity. This collaborative effort marks a major milestone in the integration of space-based communication technologies to enable a seamless extension of mobile networks to provide in-flight connectivity and exceptional passenger experiences

Co-locating with Farnborough International Space Show, ISRSE-40 will explore the synergies between emerging technologies, interdisciplinary collaboration, and global partnerships to foster a deeper understanding of Earth-system dynamics and their applications. A four-day long conference on climate change, environmental monitoring, sustainable land and marine resource management, resilient urban and infrastructure systems, innovative earth observation technologies, interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral collaboration and EO

Member countries should “unite our defense efforts in space” Andrius Kubilius says. European Defense and Space Commissioner Andrius Kubilius called today for a "European Space Shield" to unite its defense efforts in space. "I want to set up a dialogue with member states and space commands to look at options towards a European space domain awareness to monitor threats, including military threats" he said in a speech at the 17th European Space Conference.

The latest analysis from the European Space Agency (ESA) Planetary Defence Office has reduced the probability that asteroid 2024 YR4 might impact Earth in 2032 to 0.001%.