PARIS (ESA PR) — With a boom in the global market for Earth observation information and data products, participants at this year’s Φ-week conference have been digging deep into the ‘market perspective’. This important topic includes how to gain a better understanding of what governments, industry, the public and other users of Earth observation products and services need and expect to create value for society and the economy.

MADRID, Spain (ESA PR) — How to propel a spacecraft without propellant? Use electrodynamic tethers. These are long, strong conductors connecting two spacecraft. When direct current is applied to the tether, the tether exerts a force on the spacecraft, causing it to either accelerate or brake. Such tethers might be used to perform fuel-free orbital manoeuvres, or deorbit satellites at the end of their working lifetime to prevent buildup of […]

PARIS (ESA PR) — Nothing could stop the 19 finalist teams of the 2021 European CanSat competition – not the Covid restrictions, nor the fact that this year’s challenge had to be run in a fully virtual mode – from performing as top space professionals and impressing the jury of experts!

The 2021 European CanSat Competition virtual edition took place from 29 September to 8 October 2021. The teams took part in this virtual campaign after either winning their national competition or being selected by ESA to represent their country in this exciting championship.

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — This morning, October 17, 2021 at 07:35:44 Moscow time, the descent vehicle of the manned transport spacecraft Yu.A. Gagarin “(Soyuz MS-18), which undocked three hours earlier from the International Space Station, landed at a design point in Kazakhstan. A crew consisting of Hero of Russia, Roskosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and space flight participants within the framework of the scientific and educational project “Challenge” Klim Shipenko and Yulia Peresild returned to Earth.

A Russian Soyuz crew vehicle set to return to Earth tomorrow caused the International Space Station to lose its attitude control on Friday morning when its thrusters fired longer than planned. It was the second such incident on the station involving a Russian vehicle this year.

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — In accordance with the Russian flight program of the International Space Station, on October 17, 2021, it is planned to return the crew of the Yu.A. Gagarin “(Soyuz MS-18). Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and space flight participants – director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild will return to Earth.

CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE BASE, Fla. (NASA PR) — NASA’s Lucy mission, the agency’s first to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, launched at 5:34 a.m. EDT Saturday on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

GREENBELT, Md. (NASA PR) — NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope observations of Jupiter’s icy moon Europa have revealed the presence of persistent water vapor – but, mysteriously, only in one hemisphere.

TUCSON, Ariz. (World View PR) — World View, the leading stratospheric ballooning company, today announced an expansion of services that includes the global launch of the first-of-its-kind, edge-of-space experience. The World View space tourism experience is the most affordable, longest duration and most accessible space experience on Earth. As a purpose-first company, World View is focused on inspiring, creating and exploring new perspectives, offering participants more accessibility to space tourism experiences than ever before. World View’s mission is to bring as many people as possible to the edge of space so that at 100,000 feet, they’ll see a world without borders or species and come back driven to make the world a better place. The company believes that by reaching a critical mass of people experiencing what has been labeled the Overview Effect that humanity will be able to markedly improve the future of our fragile Earth.

MUNICH (Mynaric PR) — Mynaric and H3 HATS today announced the successful start of a joint demonstration campaign to showcase laser communication capabilities for high-altitude long endurance aircraft using industrialized optical communications terminals. Initial flights of the campaign demonstrated key performance criteria of Mynaric’s HAWK product currently in pre-series production onboard one of H3 HATS’ aircraft. Where previous tests of this nature have used one-off prototypes or technology demonstrators, today’s announcement marks the world’s first demonstration of an industrialized optical communications terminal for airborne applications.

PARIS (ESA PR) — The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Defence Agency (EDA) today agreed to further deepen their already close cooperation around cyber-resilience, aiming to strengthen Europe’s capacity to protect systems and networks critical for space.

Why it matters: Cyber-attacks can target individuals, companies and public institutions and civil services such as energy grids, water treatment and distribution, financial markets, autonomous vehicles and supply chains for food and medical goods like vaccines. And these all increasingly reply on satellites and space-based services.

ESA is committed to protecting its space assets and those of its partners and Member States. To that end, cyber-resilience is an on-going project, and includes activities such as ESA’s Cyber Centre of Excellence and Cyber Security Operations Centre. 

BREMEN, Germany (DLR PR) — The development of greenhouse systems is essential in order to enable life on the moon and Mars in the long term in the future. This requires bio-regenerative life support systems that close vital cycles. After more than a year of joint design and development work in cooperation between the Dutch company Priva and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), two prototypes of a nutrient mixing system for future lunar and Mars greenhouses have now been completed and installed. Tests of the promising systems begin in the DLR’s EDEN laboratory in Bremen. The aim is to set up a 1: 1 demonstrator of a lunar greenhouse system there by 2025.