Tag Archives: ESA

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Aditya-L1 solar observatory was successfully launched on the 2nd of September. It will be the first Indian satellite mission to study the Sun. It has seven instruments which will be used to investigate open questions about our dynamic star. Four instruments will view the Sun directly.

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Space Rider program has begun its validation and testing phase, as it prepares for its first flight in the third quarter of 2025. Space Rider is a reusable uncrewed robotic laboratory that will provide an end-to-end integrated space transportation system for commercial customers. When Space Rider has been launched into space it will spend two months in orbit whilst experiments and technology demonstrations take place before returning to Earth. 

NASA has launched an international crew of four representing four countries into orbit following a successful launch to the International Space Station at 3:27 a.m. EDT Saturday, Aug. 26, from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Agency’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission is the seventh commercial crew rotation mission for NASA.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has received information from the United States 18th Space Defense Squadron that it has detected new objects in the vicinity of the VESPA payload adapter. This adapter has remained in orbit following the 2013 launch of a Vega rocket from ESA’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Furthermore, it is a 113 kg, two-meter-diameter, conical upper portion of a payload adapter associated with the VV02 Vega launch that delivered the Proba-V, VNREDSat-1 and ESTCube-1 satellites into Earth orbit.

The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) is ready to launch on 26 August 2023 to observe the most energetic objects and events in the cosmos. In doing so, it will unveil the evolution of the Universe and the structure of spacetime. XRISM will tentatively launch from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan at 09:34 JST / 01:34 BST / 02:34 CEST. The mission is a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA, with significant participation from ESA. In return for providing hardware and scientific advice, ESA will also receive 8% of XRISM’s available observing time.

Greetings, SpaceWatchers, and welcome to Summer Listening Week Three! Summer is upon us, and as our gaze shifts towards the stars during those warm, clear nights, SpaceWatch.Global brings you its third collection or the Summer Listening Series. Based on the vote by our newsroom, we have mapped out an interstellar journey across five categories. After the Moon, Climate, Space and Earth this week is the turn of  “Trendsetters in the Space Sector.”

LeoLabs, a commercial provider of Space Traffic Management (STM) and Space Situational Awareness (SSA) services has shared their support for the European Space Agency's (ESA) successful assisted reentry of Aeolus, an Earth observation satellite, over Antarctica on 28 July 2023.

The first companies have joined ScaleUp Invest, a new ESA commercialisation programme, which aims at accelerating the growth of the private space ecosystem. The companies in order of acceptance are: Isar Aerospace, Rocket Factory Augsburg, Orbex, Aerospacelab, and Space Cargo Unlimited. ScaleUp will support NewSpace developments by stimulating companies to take more risks, hit the market faster, attract private and institutional investors, and introduce game-changing business innovation by providing external support to business development. This could include technical consultancy, access to facilities, in-orbit demonstration and validation opportunities.  

Axiom Space, a Houston-based space infrastructure developer, and Poland, with support from ESA have signed an agreement to send an ESA astronaut to space on a future Axiom space mission. The mission and name of the Polish astronaut will be officially announced at a later date, following approval by NASA and its international partners. In April 2023, Axiom Space and the Swedish National Space Agency signed a letter of intent to send an ESA astronaut to the ISS. Through this agreement, the upcoming Axiom Space mission, Ax-3 expected to launch in January 2024, will be the first commercial mission to the ISS to include an ESA project astronaut. 

Anzen Engineering, a Spanish aerospace engineering company announced on the 11th of August that it will participate in the ARIEL mission (Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey). It will carry out different safety and reliability engineering works in collaboration with Airbus Defence and Space, for its end consumer ESA.