Frontiers News

Viasat, Inc. has won a contract from Northrop Grumman to support the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) initiative, called the Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) Call 003 program – better known by its nickname 'Global Lightning.' As a result, the company's high-capacity geostationary satellites will support the program, which is connecting commercial space internet services for military users

The Space Café Podcast #101:  Answers to the biggest questions in reach – ELT project manager Roberto Tamai shares insights about the  Extremely Large Telescope in Chile Episode 101 features. In this captivating episode, Markus takes us on an exploratory journey to one of Earth's most remote and intriguing places, the Atacama Desert, home to the future of astronomical discovery: The European Southern Observatory's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). Roberto Tamai, the project manager of the ELT, shares the human stories, technical marvels, and ambitious goals behind the world's largest optical and near-infrared telescope.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has disclosed the four Indian astronauts that will fly to low-Earth orbit as part of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Gaganyaan mission, which will be the first crewed Indian space mission. The Gaganyaan mission envisages the demonstration of Indian human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of 3 members to an orbit of 400 km for a 3-day mission and bringing them back safely to earth by landing in Indian sea waters. The Prime Minister made the announcement while visiting the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

LeoLabs, a provider of integrated solutions that persistently monitor activity in space to reveal threats to safety and security, has appointed Tony Frazier as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). As a result, Tony will lead LeoLabs as it scales to become a critical mission partner for combined military space operations and next-generation space safety systems.

In this Space Café Radio Frontier episode, SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Dr. Ana Pires, a geosciences researcher at the Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems|CRAS in INESCTEC, Portugal, and the Co-Lead of CAMões Crew Zero.

HyImpulse has announced that its SR75 rocket and its ground support equipment have begun the journey by ship through the Atlantic Ocean, around South Africa and to Southern Australia for its inaugural launch. Southern Launch's Koonibba test range is the final destination for the rocket, and the launch campaign will tentatively commence in mid-April at the Koonibba test range.

Airbus Defence and Space SAS ("Airbus") and mu Space and Advanced Technology Co, Ltd ("mu Space") have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on potential future Thailand small satellite missions. This MoU outlines the terms and conditions for their cooperation and the key principles that would govern their relationship for the establishment of the Project. Both parties consequently believe that their combined expertise can lead to successful collaboration in the field of advanced space technology.

Intuitive Machines has successfully soft-landed its IM-1 mission Nova-C class lunar lander (Odysseus) on the lunar South Pole after launching it a week ago from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The uncrewed lunar lander landed at 6:23 pm ET (23:23 UTC), making Intuitive Machines the first commercial outfit to soft-land on the moon. It also marks the US's first moon soft landing in 51 years. 

The UK Space Agency has opened two new funding calls worth £15 million, one for science and another for technology demonstrators. The calls are in preparation for a tentative agreement to fly a team of four British astronauts on a commercially sponsored mission, potentially to the International Space Station (ISS). The announcement follows the Memorandum of Understanding the UKSA and Axiom Space signed in October 2023, which outlined the plans to pursue a commercially-sponsored UK astronaut mission and an initial request for ideas for science and technology.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has given the green light for the realization of the Dutch TANGO satellites with ISISPACE as the prime contractor. TANGO (Twin Anthropogenic Greenhouse gas Observers) comprises two satellites flying in tandem. It will be a unique European measurement system that will determine methane, carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions for individual industrial plants. Furthermore, it measures greenhouse gas emissions at source level from power plants, coal mines, landfills and factories, among others