international norms, rules and principles to address threats to space systems and, on that basis, launch negotiations on a treaty to ensure peace, security and the prevention of an arms race in outer space

Nearly six years ago the European Space Agency surprised its longtime spaceflight partners at NASA, as well as diplomatic officials at the White House, with an announcement that some of its astronauts were training alongside Chinese astronauts. The goal was to send European astronauts to China's Tiangong space station by 2022.

Until now, most scientists have said that outer space is 100 kilometers away.

A country’s sovereign airspace theoretically extends to the (disputed) boundary with space.

The benefits include higher resolution imagery: World View’s investor presentation claims sensor resolutions of 3 to 5 centimeters per pixel, compared to the 50 cm per pixel resolution that is top of line in space-based Earth observation. The balloons also offer more persistent monitoring by floating above one location for weeks at a time, whereas Earth observation satellites can typically gather data a few times a day at most. World View already has a partnership with Maxar, a leading satellite firm with an extensive remote-sensing business.

Axiom, a space company that flies passengers to the International Space Station and is developing its own space station, said this week that most of the demand for passenger services is coming from governments without their own space programs, not tourists with deep pockets.

But the dream of space fanatics is a proper nuclear rocket, one using a fission reactor to run an engine two to three times more powerful than any motor dependent on combusting fossil fuels. Launched into space on a conventional rocket, it could shorten trips to Mars or give the Space Force unprecedented maneuverability. Last week, NASA and DARPA, the US military’s advanced tech lab, announced a collaborative project called DRACO to build and test exactly such a vehicle.

Deep space missions regularly rely on nuclear power, using the heat emitted by radioactive substances to generate electricity without an atom-splitting chain reaction. NASA’s Perseverance rover, currently exploring the surface of Mars, is powered by one of these devices.

Asteroid miners prepare for launch. AstroForge, which wants to pluck platinum-group metals from near-Earth objects, plans to launch a payload in April that will demonstrate the ability to mine metals in space. The company also expects to launch another spacecraft onboard Intuitive Machines’ lunar mission later this year that will fly to a target asteroid and assess its viability for future mining.

That seems likely to change in the next few weeks, when an uncrewed lander becomes the first commercial vehicle to touch down on the Moon

growing support for a ban on anti-satellite weapons tests as one sign of progress, but that effort came after a series of particularly messy orbital tests, and can be seen as an effort to limit Chinese and Russian weapons development.

global governance: Rules for space traffic management, protocols for space debris mitigation and removal, and norms for economic activity in space, from resource extraction to property rights.

has readers fretting about space debris and traffic management. Given the attention to the problem, it’s unfair to say that this will sneak up on us, but the lack of urgency around addressing space safety might leave us with a nasty surprise. The leak in the Soyuz spacecraft at the ISS, likely caused by a micrometeroid impact, may be a warning for congested space lanes to come. It’s a champagne problem, in the sense that space junk worries us because of the growing value of space activity. But as I will ruefully attest on Jan. 1, champagne problems can still hurt.

Robots are headed for the moon en masse: Attempted landings from companies including Japan’s iSpace, Intuitive Machines (two different missions!), Astrobotic, plus robots built by space agencies in Japan, India, and Russia.

China’s new space station will be complete, and western researchers have already started signing up to collaborate there. Will we see a non-Chinese astronaut visit?

Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine, for example, has been a debacle, but it put an incredible spotlight everything changing in space. One of Russia’s first acts of war was hacking satellite communications networks, while SpaceX’s Starlink network became a vital tool for Ukrainian resistance. The public, along with intelligence agencies and militaries, relied on satellite data to understand and prosecute the fighting. Drones and missiles that rely on satellite navigation and communications have become central to the conflict. AdvertisementIt’s not the first “space war”—the 1990 Gulf War typically gets that distinction—but never before have space assets been so front and center.

THE ARTEMIS ACCORDS

seven nations onboard with a moratorium on destructive tests of anti-satellite weapons

he FCC adopted new rules for defunct satellites.

Firefly gets to orbit. The company has put satellites on orbit with the first launch of its Alpha rocket.

ViaSat merges with Inmarsat

the first Russian astronaut to depart from the US since the days of the Space Shuttle

when NASA announced that it would study the feasibility of a privately led and funded mission that would use a Dragon to boost the Hubble space telescope to a higher altitude, thus extending the operational life of the flagship observatory

An EU Approach for Space Traffic Management An EU contribution addressing a global challenge

Asked about the near-collisions with the China Space Station (CSS) between July and October, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian confirmed that his country had lodged a formal complaint with the United Nations

the areas of satellite launches, satellite manufacturing, propulsion technologies, and space-based services.

to “record the greatest timelapse of the universe ever made”.

along with this digital space some countries view outer space as an arena for confrontation we deem it to be a dangerous trend and propose to prohibit placement of weapons in outer space and the threat or use of force in it the relevant russian chinese draft treaty remains on the table of the conference on disarmament