Space Missions

The ESA-NASA Solar Orbiter observatory found clues on the origin of magnetic structures dubbed switchbacks, and also revealed insights regarding the mechanisms that are likely to accelerate solar wind, the Metis Collaboration said. Solar Orbiter’s Metis coronagraph observed an S-shaped magnetic structure in the solar corona, propagating towards interplanetary space.

At the 25th World Satellite Business Week (WSBW) taking place in Paris this week, Eva Berneke, CEO of Eutelsat, gave further details on the OneWeb-Eutelsat merger announced in July, saying that the combining of the two companies is a natural third step after an initial investment followed by becoming a shareholder.

Satellite servicing and long-term orbital sustainability provider Astroscale Japan, has been selected as one of the contracting parties for the Front-Loading Technology Study in Phase II of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Commercial Debris Removal Demonstration (CRD2), the company said.

The Moon Village Association recently created the Benefit Sharing Project to consider the sharing of benefits from the exploration and use of outer space. Following its initial meeting, there was a recommendation that “we should make explicit the need to figure out how to handle commercial confidentiality.”

Engineering consultancy EECL, has signed a contract at Space-Comm Expo 2022 with Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL), to supply low noise amplifiers (LNA) for the front-end receiver of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) HydroGNSS Scout Earth Observation payload, EECL said. 

In this Space Café Radio – SpaceWatch.Global Event coordinator and Space Café Young Global Talents Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Dr. James (Jim) Green, scientist and senior advisor in the Office of the Chief Scientist at NASA, in the first week of the Space Studies Program (SSP22) of the International Space University (ISU).

Launch integration and mission management services provider TriSept Corporation, has completed the integration of two experimental mission payloads running its new TSEL satellite security operating software for a suborbital test flight aboard RocketStar’s launch vehicle set to liftoff from the Koehn Lake Bed in the Mojave Desert, TriSept said.  

ADS (the UK trade association for aerospace, defence, security, and space organisations), published a new Space Sector Outlook yesterday providing an overview of the UK space sector and its growing contribution to the country’s economy. The outlook has been produced with the help of UKspace and support from the UK Space Agency.

Arianespace’s heavy-lift launcher, Ariane 5, flight VA258, has successfully deployed Eutelsat’s Konnect VHTS (Very High Throughput Satellite) telecommunications satellite in orbit. This was the launcher’s second mission of the year, the 114th overall, and the 37th time that Ariane launched a satellite for Eutelsat.

Firefly’s second attempt at reaching orbit, Alpha Flight 2 “To the black” will carry ATHENA, Europe’s first Electrospray thruster, a propulsion technology aboard two of the satellites stored inside the rocket. ATHENA (Adaptable THruster based on Electrospray for NAnosatellites) was developed by Spanish startup Ienai Space.