LuxSpace ESAIL Packaging and Shipment

OHB subsidiary LuxSpace’s satellite for global ship monitoring has reached its target orbit.

The #ESAIL #microsatellite for tracking ships worldwide was launched. This is the first maritime satellite of its kind produced and assembled in Luxembourg. Hear from #Luxembourg Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot about this pioneering #ESA partnership project developed with #LuxSpace and #Exactearth.

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.

Malta Maritime Pilots

On October 11, 2018, the Kristin Alexis was performing fleeting work with a crew of six, including a captain, pilot, and four deckhands (two per shift), at the Cooper Consolidated fleeting facility at Convent located at mile 161.5. About 2300, the Cooper Consolidated dispatcher informed the Kristin Alexis captain that their next job was to move the derrick-type crane barge Mr Ervin upriver to the Cooper Consolidated fleeting facility in Darrow, located at mile 175.

In this episode we have a chance to meet Ivana-Maria Carrioni-Burnett, a Marine Pilot from the UK who works on the River Thames. Ivana highlights the concerns and fear that can be felt by those working in the maritime industry during COVID19. On the vessel, the seafarers are in their own isolation, or 'families' and then the pilot and other port personnel come onboard and they may be asymptomatic. For the port personnel, they aren't sure if the crew might be infected. Then there are the...

"No day is the same, and this is what makes the job so interesting.
ANGUS MACAULAY
Pilot, Montrose Port Authority

Shipping has evolved significantly over the years. Research in maritime safety and operations over the past few decades has been intensive and has resulted in significant improvements.

Tug boats and a digger struggle to free a mega cargo ship, blocking one of the world's busiet shipping pathways.
Dozens of ships are stuck because a container ship almost half a kilometre long is wedged across the waterway.