Space Exploration

Axiom Space has announced the full crew complement for Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2), the second all-private mission to the International Space Station (ISS). 

In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisherTorsten Kriening spoke with Matthias Gronowski, Chief Engineer of Orion ESM at Airbus Defence and Space in Bremen , about the leanings from the Artemis-1 mission, the challenges, and the way forward to the next mission. We spoke with Matthias during the Moon Media Day at the Airbus Bremen facility on 9th Feb 2023 on the visitor gallery above the ESM cleanroom.

Small satellite mission integrator and bus manufacturer Kongsberg NanoAvionics has doubled its satellite production capability by officially opening its manufacturing, assembly, integration, and testing (MAIT) facility in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Three European Service Modules (ESMs) are currently undergoing integration in parallel in Airbus’ Bremen cleanrooms. Consequently, the integration of ESM-3 is almost complete, and ESM-4 is well underway. As a result, the newly arrived ESM-5 structure is undergoing initial integration. Each ESM requires the integration of more than 22,000 elements.

The European Space Agency (ESA)'s CHaracterizing ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops) mission has observed a dwarf planet in our Solar System, contributing to the discovery of a dense ring of material around it. The mission discovered that the Dwarf Planet Quaoar had a ring of almost seven and a half times the radius of the Dwarf Planet. This consequently opens up a mystery for astronomers; why has this material not coalesced into a small moon?

Ploughshares Senior Researcher Dr. Jessica West spoke with Brian Gallant, the founding and current CEO of Space Canada, an association established in March 2022 to represent Canada’s outer space innovators and allied industries. Nine companies originally came together to found Space Canada (https://space-canada.ca), with the aim of “strengthen[ing] the Canadian space ecosystem.”

KSAT is currently installing four new antennas in Antarctica, expanding its capacity in the U.S. by adding multiple antennas in Hawaii, Alaska and the Southeast, and also expanding its footprint through partner networks. These antennas will add to KSATs current network with systems that will meet its new entrants and legacy operators' unique needs. Expanding Ka-band systems will also provide increased flexibility for missions requiring high-bandwidth communications.

NASA has invited U.S. and Indian space agencies dignitaries and media members to see the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)’s science payload in a Jet Propulsion Laboratory clean room. The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar is an Earth science satellite that NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) are jointly building. NASA invited the dignitaries to get a look at it before shipping it out to its last stop in Southern India before launching it into orbit. 

NASA has selected veteran astronaut Joe Acaba as chief of the Astronaut Office at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. As a result, Acaba will take the place of NASA astronaut Drew Feustel, who spent two years as deputy chief and has been acting chief of the office since NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman left the post late last year.

Spacemind, the space division of the Italian company NPC, has successfully launched three Italian nanosatellites, DanteSat, Futura-SM1, and Futura-SM3, into orbit. The successful launch has also validated the operation of the new SMPod CubeSat deployer, onboard equipment, and a larger version of the Artica deorbiting sail.