SpaceWatch Global
• Joshua Faleti
The European Commission, ESA, EUSPA and the SpaceRISE consortium have completed seven months of negotiations, clearing IRIS² to enter implementation. Eutelsat will lead the €3.39 billion LEO component, HispaSat will serve as ground-segment prime contractor, and SES will advance the constellation’s MEO strategy.
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The European Commission, ESA, EUSPA and the SpaceRISE consortium have completed seven months of negotiations, clearing IRIS² to enter implementation. Eutelsat will lead the €3.39 billion LEO component, HispaSat will serve as ground-segment prime contractor, and SES will advance the constellation’s MEO strategy.
NASA and the European Space Agency are defining the infrastructure needed to support a sustainable lunar base, while Northrop Grumman and the Canadian Space Agency are adapting work from NASA’s planned Gateway station for future lunar-base applications.
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The European Commission has agreed with an industrial consortium to expand and accelerate IRIS², its sovereign secure-connectivity constellation, with first launches targeted for 2029. Indra’s Hispasat will lead a services contract worth more than €1.6 billion, while total program investment is expected to exceed $18 billion.
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OHB SE says Ariane 6 could lose German, European government and commercial launch business unless political authorities quickly approve a sharp expansion of capacity at Europe’s spaceport. The German space hardware provider argues that investment must come first if Europe is to capture growing demand and keep work within its space industry.
A pointed examination of Europe’s space strategy asks ten uncomfortable questions about what the region has achieved, what has returned, and why European institutions often articulate ambitions without clearly assigning responsibility for delivery or outcomes.
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ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot has completed a third evaluation of the EuroSuit intravehicular activity spacesuit prototype aboard the International Space Station. The repeated on-orbit testing advances Europe’s assessment of a domestically developed suit for crew operations and helps validate its design in the space-station environment.
Europe is pursuing new launch capabilities across the sector, but establishing a competitive and reliable launcher ecosystem remains challenging. This field guide examines the current state of European launchers and the hurdles facing the continent’s efforts to strengthen access to space.
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ArianeGroup has completed a wet dress rehearsal of its Themis reusable booster demonstrator at Esrange Space Centre in Sweden. The milestone advances ground verification for the program’s reusable propulsion and launch-system integration, paving the way for subsequent test activity.
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