Space Missions

The first science experiments that will be hosted on the Gateway, an international outpost which will orbit the Moon, have been selected by ESA and NASA. Europe’s contribution will monitor radiation to gain a complete understanding of cosmic and solar rays in unexplored areas as the orbital outpost is assembled …

The Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis I mission has successfully completed several months of simulated space environment system level testing in the NASA-owned thermal vacuum chamber at Plum Brook Station in Ohio, according to a 16 March 2020 announcement by Airbus. The tests were conducted in two phases; a 47-day …

It is already hard to believe that there is ice on Mercury, where daytime temperatures reach 400 degrees Celsius, or 750 degrees Fahrenheit. Now an upcoming study says that the Vulcan heat on the planet closest to the sun likely helps make some of that ice. As with Earth, asteroids …

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Roscosmos Space Corporation announced on 12 March 2020 that they have decided to postpone the launch of the second ExoMars mission to study the Red Planet to 2022. The joint ESA-Roscosmos project team evaluated all the activities needed for an authorisation to launch, …

Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall and Sekou Ouedraogo, President of the African Aeronautics & Space Organisation (AASO), signed a partnership agreement to develop ,the ActInSpace international hackathon in Africa. The fourth edition of ActInSpace will be held in April this year and Burkina-Faso, Ghana and Nigeria …

The Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES) Board of Directors convened for its 362nd session on 12 March 2020. During this meeting, they gave the go-ahead to engage France in the development of the French-Indian Trishna programme and to pursue activities for the new Space Inspire series of flexible satellites, as …

NASA/JPL?Cornell Katarina Miljkovic, Curtin University We’ve all heard of earthquakes, but what about marsquakes? NASA’s InSight mission has, for the first time, recorded seismic activity coming from Mars’ interior. The observations, recorded in 2019 and published today, will help understand the red planet’s internal structure, composition and dynamics. It opens …

Caltech and JPL have been successful partners in space exploration since the mid-1930s. In their tradition of intermixing in unique ways fundamental science, technology and engineering they develop a collaborative multi-disciplinary cross-agency research program to advance and accelerate scalable hybrid quantum networking and communications technologies. To support the increasing data …

Axiom Space announced on 5 March 2020 that it is planning history’s first fully private human spaceflight mission to the International Space Station. Axiom has signed a contract with SpaceX for a Crew Dragon flight which will transport a commander professionally trained by Axiom alongside three private astronauts to and …

Sen, a British space company establishing video streaming media to provide real-time and timely Ultra-High Definition (UHD) video of Earth, has contracted NanoAvionics to build the first five nano-satellites of its constellation. Sen has already demonstrated its technology of streaming ultra-high definition (UHD) video from space. It is now focused …