Frontiers News

Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) announced on the 7th of September that the SFL-built GHGSat greenhouse gas monitoring microsatellites have achieved sustained detection and measurement of methane emissions at double the design capacity of the satellite. SFL developed all nine operational 15 kg GHGSat spacecraft on its NEMO microsatellite bus. 

ESA’s new Ariane 6 launch vehicle, consisting of its upper and core stage, has been fuelled up and its core stage engine fired. The Vulcain 2.1 engine was ignited on the launch page, and fired for four seconds before switching off and its liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen fuels were drained to their separate underground tanks. These tests are the continuation of an earlier test on the 18th of July.

Astrobotic have begun work on two NASA Small Business Innovation Research contracts that will further research on lunar plume-surface interactions (PSI), a key area of risk and uncertainty for lunar landing. This testing will generate valuable new data about how lunar dust stirred up by a lander's rocket plumes will affect landing systems, onboard payloads, landing sites, and nearby surface infrastructure on upcoming missions. The first project, 'Floatinator,' aims to control and eliminate a significant testing variable – namely, Earth gravity – that has limited ground-based lunar PSI tests.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. announced it signed a multi-launch agreement with L3Harris Technologies [NYSE: LHX] for three dedicated launches on Firefly's Alpha vehicle in 2026. The agreement further encourages Firefly, a small-lift launch services company, to ramp up production of its Alpha vehicle to support the growing needs of both Government and commercial customers. Firefly will provide rapid launch capabilities for L3Harris to achieve direct access to low Earth orbit at a lower cost and support the responsive space needs of the U.S. Government. The three missions will launch from Firefly's SLC-2 launch site at the Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Aditya-L1 solar observatory was successfully launched on the 2nd of September. It will be the first Indian satellite mission to study the Sun. It has seven instruments which will be used to investigate open questions about our dynamic star. Four instruments will view the Sun directly.

Space Tango, a provider of automated microgravity solutions for research and manufacturing, announces the appointment of S. Sita Sonty as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective September 1, 2023. Sonty succeeds Co-Founder and current President, Twyman Clements. Prior to joining Space Tango, Sonty led the space industry practice for the Boston Consulting Group. She was also the Head of Human Spaceflight Sales at SpaceX, where she executed the first private spaceflight sale on the Crew Dragon on a Lower Earth Orbit Free Flyer and to the International Space Station.

TNO, the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS), and a consortium of other European partners join forces in the LaiQa-project to develop space internet for cities and continents. Signal losses in fiber over distance are a major hindrance to the future of global quantum internet. Therefore, the project focuses on using satellites to connect cities and continents to eventually become a part of the global quantum internet and fully benefit from its promising applications.

Lockheed Martin has successfully deployed ten of its satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO) in support of the Space Development Agency's (SDA) Tranche 0 Transport Layer (T0TL) mission. SDA's T0TL is a proliferated LEO constellation that will demonstrate low-latency communication and provide a resilient network of integrated capabilities. The company's 10 small satellites successfully separated from the launch vehicle and are now in orbit.

September is upon us, and as our gaze shifts towards the stars during those warm, clear nights, SpaceWatch.Global brings you its fifth and final collection of the Summer Listening Series. Based on the vote by our newsroom, we have mapped out an interstellar journey across five categories. After "Moon and Exploration," "Climate - Space - Earth," "Trendsetters," and "Space Debris and Regulations", this week is the turn of  "Women in the Space Sector"

A NASA team in Utah’s West Desert is in the final stages of preparing for the arrival of the first U.S. asteroid sample. A mock-up of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample capsule was dropped on Wednesday from an aircraft and landed at the drop zone at the Department of Defence’s Utah Test and Training Range in the desert outside Salt Lake City.