Space Exploration

The Space Café WebTalk “33 minutes with Laura Anne Edwards - Thoughts on the Future of Space and Earth” took place on Tuesday, 29th March. Laura is an innovation catalyst, named a 2021 Top 50 Leader in Space Tech. Laura is a NASA Datanaut, a core member of the Oxford Space Initiative, TED Resident,

SpaceX is finishing the production of the fourth astronaut capsule and will not manufacture more to focus resources on its next-generation spaceship program, Starship, the company said. The decision reflects the firm’s business model relying on reusable spacecraft.

Trade and Industry Minister Gan Kim Yong signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of Singapore, making it the 18th nation and first Southeast Asian country to join the US-led agreement on space exploration. The Artemis Accords launched in 2020 with eight founding members. The Accords got their name after NASA’s Artemis Moon programme.

Following the first call for applications, the European Space Resources Innovation Centre (ESRIC) has selected the five start-ups to participate in the “Start-up Support Programme” (SSP) and begin their pre-incubation in April, ESRIC said. Space resources research and innovation centre ESRIC’s SSP

NASA announced that it will support the development of a second lunar lander to transport astronauts to and from the Moon’s surface to provide competition with SpaceX during the sustainable phase of the Artemis program. The agency will soon kick off the Sustaining Lunar Development award for a second lander separate from the existing Human Landing System (HLS).

Danish ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen has been assigned a long-duration mission to the ISS and is scheduled to fly as the pilot of a Crew Dragon spacecraft in mid 2023 or early 2024, ESA announced. Mogensen’s first trip to the Station was a 10-day mission named Iriss in 2015.

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Josef Aschbacher, Director General at the European Space Agency (ESA) and as a special guest, Dr. Alexander Gerst, ESA Astronaut about "Ambitions for the future of Europe in Space - Agenda 2025"  live

The critical mirror alignment steps of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are now complete and the team expects to meet or even exceed the optical performance science goals set for the space telescope, NASA said. Every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations, according to NASA.

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft atop has rolled out for the first time for a final uncrewed test before the Artemis 1 Moon mission. It took 10 hours and 28 minutes for SLS and Orion to reach the launch pad four miles away from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

Russian cosmonauts Denis Matveyev, Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Korsakov, the first cosmonauts to arrive on the ISS since Russia invaded Ukraine, docked wearing bright yellow suits with blue trimmings. As the standard-issue Russian uniform is blue, speculations started as to why they chose the colours of the Ukrainian flag.