The ESA-NASA Solar Orbiter observatory found clues on the origin of magnetic structures dubbed switchbacks, and also revealed insights regarding the mechanisms that are likely to accelerate solar wind, the Metis Collaboration said. Solar Orbiter’s Metis coronagraph observed an S-shaped magnetic structure in the solar corona, propagating towards interplanetary space.

At the 25th World Satellite Business Week (WSBW) taking place in Paris this week, Eva Berneke, CEO of Eutelsat, gave further details on the OneWeb-Eutelsat merger announced in July, saying that the combining of the two companies is a natural third step after an initial investment followed by becoming a shareholder.

The 8th edition of the largest space robotics competition, the European Rover Challenge, (ERC) has concluded this Sunday with announcing the winners. The hybrid competition included 30 academic teams from almost all continents. The audience had access to a replica of Neil Armstrong's spacesuit, and could travel to the seabed of the Pacific Ocean.

Satellite servicing and long-term orbital sustainability provider Astroscale Japan, has been selected as one of the contracting parties for the Front-Loading Technology Study in Phase II of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Commercial Debris Removal Demonstration (CRD2), the company said.

Engineering consultancy EECL, has signed a contract at Space-Comm Expo 2022 with Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), to supply low noise amplifiers (LNA) for the front-end receiver of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) HydroGNSS Scout Earth Observation payload, EECL said. 

Our Space Café WebTalk “33 minutes with Davide Petrillio - Is there (enough) room for the youth in the European space sector?” took place on Tuesday, 30th August. Davide has currently been appointed as Executive Director of the SGAC (Space Generation Advisory Council).

Launch integration and mission management services provider TriSept Corporation, has completed the integration of two experimental mission payloads running its new TSEL satellite security operating software for a suborbital test flight aboard RocketStar’s launch vehicle set to liftoff from the Koehn Lake Bed in the Mojave Desert, TriSept said.  

ADS (the UK trade association for aerospace, defence, security, and space organisations), published a new Space Sector Outlook yesterday providing an overview of the UK space sector and its growing contribution to the country’s economy. The outlook has been produced with the help of UKspace and support from the UK Space Agency.

Arianespace’s heavy-lift launcher, Ariane 5, flight VA258, has successfully deployed Eutelsat’s Konnect VHTS (Very High Throughput Satellite) telecommunications satellite in orbit. This was the launcher’s second mission of the year, the 114th overall, and the 37th time that Ariane launched a satellite for Eutelsat.

Firefly’s second attempt at reaching orbit, Alpha Flight 2 “To the black” will carry ATHENA, Europe’s first Electrospray thruster, a propulsion technology aboard two of the satellites stored inside the rocket. ATHENA (Adaptable THruster based on Electrospray for NAnosatellites) was developed by Spanish startup Ienai Space.