Paris, 23 April 2021. – Fresh wind in GEO: The European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus completed the design of OneSat, a new standard of a software defined and fully reprogrammable satellite platform, Airbus and ESA said. The fully reconfigurable OneSat product line features major innovations and disruptive technologies, ESA and Airbus said.
Read More »Satellite Vu funds thermal satellite to monitor energy waste
Paris, 23 April 2021. – The UK startup Satellite Vu raised €4.16 million to launch “the world’s first satellite constellation capable of imaging the thermal footprint of any building on the planet every 1-2 hours”, the company said. The seed round was led by Seraphim Capital.
Read More »NASA’s rover extracts oxygen from Mars atmosphere
Paris, 22 April 2021. – Another breakthrough: NASA’s Mars rover Perseverance was able to extract oxygen from the Red Planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere, the U.S. space agency said. “While the technology demonstration is just getting started, it could pave the way for science fiction to become science fact – isolating and storing oxygen on Mars”, NASA said.
Read More »Crew-2 mission to ISS set for launch on 23 April
Paris, 22 April 2021. – SpaceX and NASA are targeting tomorrow, Friday, 23 April, for the Crew-2 launch to the International Space Station (ISS), SpaceX said. Falcon 9’s launch of Dragon’s second six-month operational crew mission to the ISS is scheduled for Friday, with a back-up opportunity on Monday, SpaceX said.
Read More »Virgin Orbit to launch six LEOs for HyperSat-Qinetiq
Paris, 22 April 2021. – Virgin Orbit will launch a series of six hyperspectral LEO satellites for the defense and security company QinetiQ and the geospatial analytics company HyperSat, Virgin Orbit said. Virgin Orbit will provide launch services for each satellite via its LauncherOne system. The first satellite will launch no earlier than 2023.
Read More »Moon missions generate $42bn over next decade, NSR says
Paris, 22 April 2021. – Moon missions will generate more than $42 billion of revenue for the international space sector, NSR newest Moon Markets Analysis report found. The report forecasts 140 Moon Missions launching over the next decade to generate $42.3 billion, NSR said. Major growth areas include orbital and surface infrastructure building.
Read More »Experts wary of space debris while SpaceX denies “close call” with OneWeb
Paris, 21 April 2021. – European space experts call for a better control of space debris and regulation of space traffic, the Financial Times (FT) reports. The launch of thousands of new satellites in ‘mega-constellations’ to improve global internet access will exacerbate the growing problem of space debris, the FT quoted experts from a conference of the European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday.
Read More »Spire Global works with Findus to track space debris
Paris, 21 April 2021. – The Austrian new space investor Findus Venture works with the startup Spire Global to “tackle the growing problem of space debris”, the companies announced. They signed a second partnership agreement to launch the ADLER-2 satellite that aims to “further enhance orbital debris monitoring in low earth orbit, and expand novel atmospheric sensing capabilities".
Read More »ESA and FAO cooperate to address food security
Paris, 21 April 2021. – The European Space Agency (ESA) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) cooperate “to better address major global issues such as food security, and to take further advantage of the digital transformation in agriculture”, ESA said.
Read More »Amazon contracts nine Atlas V for Project Kuiper
Paris, 20 April 2021. – 9 times 5: Amazon contracted nine Atlas V rockets to launch its Project Kuiper broadband constellation, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced. With Project Kuiper, Amazon wants to increase global broadband coverage through a constellation of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).
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