SpaceWatch Global
• Joshua Faleti
Dakar will host the 2027 NewSpace Africa Conference, moving the annual gathering of African space industry stakeholders to West Africa. The announcement positions Senegal’s capital as the venue for discussions and engagement across the continent’s space sector.
Commercial Space
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Proposals for orbital data centers promise access to abundant solar power and room to scale, but could also put valuable computing infrastructure in a contested domain. The concern grows as militaries embrace artificial intelligence and treat computing facilities as critical infrastructure, raising the stakes of conflict in space.
Dakar will host the 2027 NewSpace Africa Conference, moving the annual gathering of African space industry stakeholders to West Africa. The announcement positions Senegal’s capital as the venue for discussions and engagement across the continent’s space sector.
A Falcon 9 launched 27 Starlink broadband satellites on Oct. 12, the first Starlink mission flown by the rocket since Sept. 19. The launch resumes a cadence of Falcon 9 missions to build out SpaceX’s low Earth orbit broadband constellation.
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A Falcon 9 is scheduled to launch the CRS-35 Dragon cargo mission from Cape Canaveral on Oct. 13, carrying thousands of pounds of supplies and science experiments to the International Space Station. The spacecraft is expected to arrive about 52 hours after launch with the final pair of iROSA solar arrays among its cargo.
The Luxembourg-based ispace-EUROPE and Italian space engineering firm ALTEC have signed an MoU to examine collaboration on lunar rover testing, mission simulations and operator training. The work is intended to prepare for future Moon missions; the agreement outlines areas to explore rather than a confirmed program or schedule.
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The French startup plans to use the funding to expand its fleet of autonomous hydrogen-powered airships, which inspect critical infrastructure and are already used by several major European operators. HyLight is targeting 15 aircraft operating simultaneously by 2027, as its airships take on some missions traditionally performed by helicopters.
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NASA has released the final request for proposals for the next phase of its program to develop commercial space stations. The solicitation moves the procurement beyond the earlier draft stage, inviting proposals for the effort’s next phase.
NASA has released its final request for proposals inviting U.S. industry to develop, certify and operate privately owned space stations. The solicitation sets out how the agency plans to procure commercial destinations as it prepares for operations beyond the International Space Station.
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