World Region – Europe

With the UK Space Conference 2023 taking place in Belfast, the UK government has announced it’s bidding to join the Atlantic Constellation involving small satellites for Earth Observation. Along with Spain and Portugal, the UK will contribute a “pathfinder” satellite designed to aid early detection of climate change indicators. This will be built by the UK space startup Open Cosmos ...

The Andøya Spaceport in Norway has officially opened, readying itself to be the future launch site – for small and medium sized satellites – of Isar Aerospace and its Spectrum rocket. Located at Nordmela on the Norwegian island of Andøya, the site’s opening ceremony was presided over by H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, pictured below. The spaceport describes itself ...

The EC has announced a 56 company collaboration in microelectronics and communications technology. The collaboration is backed by €8.1 billion in state aid from 14 countries and hopes to attract another €13.7 billion  of private investment. Participants include Airbus, ASML, Ericsson, GlobalFoundries, Orange, ADI, Continental Automotive and Bosch. “We need to be pioneers. We need to develop truly innovative solutions ...

Italy has banned ChatGPT. It follows bans by Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. The Italian data-protection authority said  it was imposing an “immediate temporary limitation on the processing of Italian users’ data” . The authority said there were privacy concerns and said it would ban and investigate the chatbot and look at  whether it complied with GDPR. The regulator instanced ...

The European Investment Bank (EIB), which is the financing institution of the European Union, has loaned €300 million to SES to fund software-defined satellites enabling service reconfiguration and instant in-orbit adjustment. SES is satellite telecommunications provider and the seven-year term loan will back “investments related to the design, procurement and launch” of three satellites to deliver broadcast and broadband services ...

STMicroelectronics is planning integrated silicon carbide substrate manufacturing facility on the Italian island of Sicily to support demand for SiC ICs from automotive and industrial customers. “Production is expected to start in 2023, enabling a balanced supply of SiC substrate between internal and merchant supply,” said the company, which is planning to reach 40% internal substrate sourcing by 2024. To ...

Intel has picked Vigasio, near Verona, in Italy’s north east region of Veneto to be the site of its new European packaging plant according to Reuters. The plant will cost €4.5 billion and is expected to employ 1,500 direct jobs and create 3,500 indirect jobs. It is due to come online in 2025-7. The Vigasio site is part of an ...

Italy looks like following the example of Germany and paying 40% of the cost of an Intel plant. Germany is paying Intel $7.3 billion towards the $19 billion cost of a fab-site at Magdeburg. According to Reuters the plan to build the $5 billion Intel packaging plant in Italy is set to be completed by the end of this month. ...

Avio, the Italian aerospace engine specialist, has won contracts worth €338 million from the Italian government to boost the country’s space industry and liquid propulsion expertise. They are the first two contracts of Italy’s implementation of the “Next Gen EU” initiatives for Space – with the European Space Agency (ESA) as the official Contracting Authority – and they are looking to ...

Spain is  to spend €11 billion on semiconductors, says prime minister Pedro Sanchez (pictured). “We want Spain to be at the vanguard of industrial and technological progress,” said Sanchez, adding that semiconductors are of “global geostrategic importance” and that  Spain “will not lose the race to the most advanced technology.” “This ambitious project to bring major investments to semiconductors and ...