Space Exploration

The Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked to the International Space Station experienced a coolant leak because of which Roscosmos had to cancel a spacewalk, NASA said. NASA and Roscosmos are currently evaluating the impacts of the leak to the integrity of the spacecraft. The crew members aboard the ISS are safe. 

EUMETSAT has announced the successful launch of its Meteosat Third Generation-Imager 1 (MTG-I1) from the European Space Centre in Kourou. As a result, EUMETSAT Director-General Phil Evans said the successful launch of MTG-I1 was a critical milestone for the organization, bringing the goal of delivering essential data from the satellite’s instruments to meteorologists one step closer

Canadensys Aerospace Corporation has announced that its multi-camera AI-enabled lunar 360-degree imaging system is now on its way to the Moon.  On December 11, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the imaging system launched into space aboard the Japanese ispace Hakuto-R lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. As part of the in-space check-out procedure on its way to the Moon, one of the cameras in the system captured this spectacular image of our home planet. Also visible in the image is the spent 2nd stage of the Falcon 9 rocket, as it falls away from the Hakuto-R spacecraft.

Rwanda and Nigeria have signed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Artemis Accords, becoming the first African nations to join the accords. Nigeria's Minister of Communication, Professor Ali Isa Pantami, and Rwanda's Space Agency CEO, Col Francis Ngabo, signed the agreement on behalf of their countries. The signatures took place under the sidelines of the US-Africa Space Forum on the sideline of the US-Africa Leaders' Summit in Washington DC, United States

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has approved a resolution to halt one type of anti-satellite (ASAT) testing, a largely symbolic move intended to support broader space sustainability initiatives. The U.N. General Assembly approved the resolution, which the United States and several other nations introduced, on December 7, among other resolutions on arms control and related topics, with little discussion or debate. A total of 155 nations voted in favor of the resolution, with 9 voting against it and 9 others abstaining.

NASA has signed the US $3.2-billion SLS Stages Production and Evolution Contract with Boeing for the manufacture of the core and upper stages of future Space Launch System (SLS) rockets for the Artemis missions going to the Moon and beyond, NASA said.

Online fashion retailer Yusaku Maezawa, the Japanese billionaire who purchased all the seats aboard SpaceX’s Starship, has picked eight crew members to accompany him on the journey. for the first-ever artist-centered mission.

The UAE-built Rashid Rover, the first Emirati mission to the surface of the Moon, lifted off on board a Space X Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, US, at 11.38 am UAE time on Monday, December 11, 2022. 

Global lunar exploration company, ispace’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1 lunar lander has successfully established communications with Earth following its launch by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket yesterday, the HAKUTO-R Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, confirmed.

Yesterday, December 11, 2022, marked the end of the first Artemis mission as NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 17:40 GMT/18:40 CET after traveling around the Moon and farther than any spacecraft designed to carry humans and return them to Earth.