Tag Archives: ESA

Voyager Space and Airbus Defence and Space announced on the 2nd of August a new agreement to pave the way to develop, build, and operate Starlab, a commercial space station planned to succeed the International Space Station. The US-led joint venture will bring together world-class leaders in the space domain, while further uniting American and European interests in space exploration. 

ReOrbit, a Helsinki-based provider of software-enabled satellites, announced on the 1st of August that it is joining ESA’s high throughput optical network (HydRON) programme as a space segment partner. The two existing consortia, led by Airbus Defence and Space (ADS) and Thales Alenia Space, have both contracted ReOrbit

Euclid's two instruments have captured their first test images. The mesmerizing results indicate that the space telescope will achieve the scientific goals that it has been designed for - and possibly much more. Although there are months to go before Euclid delivers its true new view of the cosmos, reaching this milestone means the scientists and engineers behind the mission are confident that the telescope and instruments are working well.

Hisdesat, the Spanish Government satellite operator, has announced that the first satellite in the SPAINSAT NG program, SpainSat NG-I, will be ready for launch in the summer of 2024 after confirming that the program is making good progress. Space X will be responsible for launching the Spanish satellite into orbit with a Falcon 9 launcher from its base at Cape Canaveral or from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Aeolus, the European Space Agency (ESA)’s wind mission, reentered Earth’s atmosphere on 28 July at around 21:00 CEST above Antarctica, with the US Space Command confirming the reentry. The reentry came after a series of complex maneuvers that lowered Aeolus’ orbit from an altitude of 320 km to just 120 km to reenter the atmosphere and burn up. Crucially, these maneuvers, the first assisted reentry of its kind, positioned Aeolus so that any pieces that may have failed to burn up in the atmosphere would fall within the satellite’s planned Atlantic ground tracks.

A project led by the University of Oxford has trained a machine learning model in outer space, on board a satellite. A group of researchers led by DPhil student Vit Růžička participated in the project. During 2022, the team successfully pitched their idea to the ‘Dashing through the Stars’ mission, which had issued a call for project proposals to be carried out on board the ION SCV004 satellite, launched in January 2022.  

The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded Spire Global a €16 million phased contract for the EURIALO project. The project will develop the preliminary design and demonstrator for a global space-based independent aircraft surveillance system. It is part of ESA’s program of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) in its Directorate of Connectivity and Secure Communications.

The finals of the 2023 European Rover Challenge (ERC 2023) will happen from 15-17 September, as 25 of the world's best student teams from 12 countries will present their rovers in the robotics competition finals. The ERC 2023 program will also include interesting interdisciplinary debates on space exploration and the opportunity to experience state-of-the-art robotic solutions

ESA has conducted extensive work on In-Orbit Servicing (IOS), including as part of its Clean Space initiative for the removal and prevention of space debris. ESA Preparation invited industry partners to outline their vision of Europe’s first IOS mission, which could be launched as early as 2028. 

The United Kingdom (UK) has published its National Space Strategy in Action policy, setting out how the government will deliver on the ambitions set out in the National Space Strategy and summarizes the government's achievements so far. Primarily, the policy paper sets out the next steps in implementing the National Space Strategy across each of its four pillars; unlocking growth, collaborating internationally, growing as a science superpower, and developing resilient capabilities.