LUXEMBOURG (Luxembourg Space Agency PR) — On 10 December two new laws enhancing Luxembourg’s legal framework for space activities authorisation and supervision were submitted to Parliament for approval. The legislation responds to a growth and diversification of activities carried out by space players, especially from private industry.

The Chamber of Deputies unanimously voted the law on the approval of the Convention of the Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space (draft law n° 7270) and the Law on Space Activities (draft law n° 7317) was passed by 58 votes in favour and 2 against.

LUXEMBOURG (LSA PR) — Luxembourg just entered a strategic partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) to create a “European Space Resources Innovation Centre”, called ESRIC in abbreviated form. Unique of its kind, ESRIC aims to become an internationally recognised centre of expertise for scientific, technical, business and economic aspects related to the use of space resources for human and robotic exploration, as well as for a future in-space economy.

Based in Luxembourg, ESRIC will partner with public and private international players in this field to create a hub of excellence for space resources in Europe. The creation of ESRIC was part of the Luxembourg government initiative SpaceResources.lu launched in 2016 to establish an ecosystem favorable to the development of activities related to the exploration and use of space resources.

LUXEMBOURG (LSA PR) — The Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) and the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) appointed Mathias Link as the Director ad interim of the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC).

In August 2020, the LSA and LIST jointly set up this new innovation centre as a department within LIST during the first phase. The European Space Agency (ESA) will join as a strategic partner by the end of 2020. The creation of ESRIC follows a Memorandum of Cooperation signed between ESA and the Luxembourg Government in 2019.

LUXEMBOURG (Luxembourg Space Agency PR) — On 20 October GomSpace’s subsidiary in Luxembourg and the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a development contract valued at EUR 1.350.000 for the continued development of GomSpace’s satellite operations platform called HOOP by GomSpace Luxembourg SARL.

The development of the Hands-Off Operations Platform (HOOP) to enable autonomous satellite operations for single satellites and constellations was initiated in 2018 (https://gomspace.com/news/gomspace-luxembourg-receives-development-cont.aspx) under a first development contract resulting in the development of the minimum viable product. HOOP is today fully flight proven and operationally deployed in customer projects.

LUXEMBOURG (Luxembourg Space Agency PR) — The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg became a founding member of the Artemis Accords when Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot signed the Accords on behalf of Luxembourg. The virtual signing took place yesterday 13 October at the 71^st International Aeronautical Congress.

LONGUEIUL, Quebec (CSA PR) — The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is working with national and international partners to write the next chapter of space exploration—sending humans to more distant destinations like the Moon and Mars.

Today, the CSA proudly joined other space agencies – NASA, the Australian Space Agency, the Italian Space Agency, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the Luxembourg Space Agency, the United Arab Emirates Space Agency, and the UK Space Agency – in signing the Artemis Accords. This commitment is an important first step towards ensuring safe and sustainable exploration beyond Earth’s orbit.

LUXEMBOURG (GomSpace PR) — GomSpace Luxembourg SARL and the European Space Agency (ESA), today signed a contract to continue development and implementation of the Juventas CubeSat in support of the Hera mission.

The contract value is approximately EUR 11,000,000, focused on delivery of the Juventas spacecraft and its associated payloads for launch with Hera in 2024. The amount will be divided between several partners, whereof GomSpace share is about EUR 6,100,000.

LUXEMBOURG (LSA PR) — On 4 August 2020, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Ministry of the Economy, as the supervisory body of the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA), and Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) in view of the creation by the end of 2020, in Luxembourg, of a “European Space Resources Innovation Centre”, called ESRIC in abbreviated form.

Signed today by the Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot, Chairman of the Board of LIST Jacques Lanners, and CEO of LIST Thomas Kallstenius, the agreement paves the way for cooperation between LSA and LIST to implement the national component of this initiative until the European Space Agency (ESA) joins the project in turn as a strategic partner as provided in the Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of Space Resources signed by Luxembourg and ESA (Space19 +) during the ESA meeting of the ministerial council in November 2019 in Seville.

Video Caption: LuxSpace CEO, Jochen Harms, on putting the ESAIL microsatellite into orbit. ESAIL is part of ESA’s Partnership Projects and has been developed to enhance the next generation of space‐based services for the maritime sector. The spacecraft will track ship movements over the entire globe as it orbits the planet.

LUXEMBOURG (Luxembourg Space Agency PR) —Frontier Development Lab (FDL) – an artificial intelligence research accelerator for space science – has kicked off its 2020 program on a virtual platform with researchers and faculty from across the globe.  

The Luxembourg Space Agency partners with FDL for the 4th consecutive year.

The teams, comprised of early-career PhDs in AI and interdisciplinary science domains, are supported by subject matter experts from NASA (including NASA Headquarters, NASA Ames Research Center and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center) and the SETI Institute together with FDL Partners: Google Cloud, Mayo Clinic, Lockheed Martin, MIT, USGS, IBM, Intel AI, Luxembourg Space Agency, NVIDIA, Planet and Augustus Intelligence. Along with expertise, FDL partner organisations support advanced AI research by providing funding, hardware, AI/ML algorithms, datasets, software and cloud-based super-compute resources.