Space Exploration

By Raphael Roettgen US$158 million of announced space-related financing rounds in March 2020 bring the total for the first quarter of 2020 to approximately US$550 million. The March number is the lowest monthly number so far, but it is worth noting that it does not include SpaceX’s ongoing funding round, …

On 26 March 2020, the Government of Canada issued a new contract to MDA for the continuing operations and maintenance of the Mobile Servicing System, the Canadian Space Agency’s robotics suite—comprised of Canadarm2, Dextre and the Mobile Base System—on the International Space Station (ISS). The contract, worth $190 million, will enable MDA to provide essential engineering and logistics support over …

NASA announced on 27 March 2020 hat it has selected SpaceX as the first U.S. commercial provider under the Gateway Logistics Services contract to deliver cargo, experiments and other supplies to the agency’s Gateway in lunar orbit. The award is a significant step forward for NASA’s Artemis program that will land …

A White Paper from the Luxembourg Space Agency, announced on 27 March 2020, focuses on opportunities for collaboration between terrestrial and space mining sectors On 9 October 2019, the second Mining Space Summit gathered more than 180 experts, from 24 countries, working in fields as diverse as oil & gas, …

Airbus announced on 26 March 2020 that it has received confirmation from ESA of a successful end to the In Orbit Commissioning (IOC) of CHEOPS after the IOC review on 25 March. This critical phase was performed by Airbus in Spain with the support of the Instrument Team (University of …

Adapted from a Twitter Thread by astronaut Anne McClain One thing astronauts have to be good at: living in confined spaces for long periods of time. Here are some tips for all who find yourself in a similar scenario. Nearly 20 years successfully living on the International Space Station and more than 50 flying in space did not happen …

The UAE Space Agency, in collaboration with Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), has launched the Kibo Robot Programming Challenge (Kibo-RPC), an educational competition about creating a program to operate free-flying robots in the International Space Station (ISS).    Students from all over the UAE are invited to take part …

The Europlanet Society has launched a €10 million (approximately US$10.75 million) project, the Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure (RI), to provide open access to the world’s largest collection of planetary simulation and analysis facilities, as well as a global network of small telescopes, data services, and community support activities. Europlanet 2024 …

To protect the health and safety of the NASA workforce as the nation responds to coronavirus (COVID-19), agency leadership recently completed the first assessment of work underway across all missions, projects, and programs. The goal was to identify tasks that can be done remotely by employees at home, mission-essential work that …

According to a 17 March 2020 report in The National, the launch of the UAE’s Mars orbiter, slated to lift off from Japan in July, is on schedule despite the Covid-19 pandemic. The Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre told The National that the launch date has not been changed and that …