• ESA’s second Test-Bed Telescope has seen ‘first light’.
• It will help spot asteroids in space that could pose a risk to Earth.
• This telescope is the latest step towards ESA’s planned Flyeye telescope network.
• It is hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

COQUIMBO REGION, Chile (ESA PR) — ESA’s second Test-Bed Telescope, hosted at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) La Silla Observatory in Chile, has seen ‘first light’ – when a new telescope is first used to look up. 

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

After years of moving step by step, ferociously eventually, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is set to throw down the gauntlet to Richard Branson’s rival Virgin Galactic next week by announcing how people can buy tickets to space on Blue’s New Shepard suborbital vehicle.

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) core stage for the Artemis I mission arrived on April 27, 2021, at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The core stage arrived aboard the Pegasus barge from NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi to Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39 turn basin wharf. The core stage is shown being transported into the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building on a self-propelled module transporter on April 29, 2021. Teams from the center’s Exploration […]

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — Data received from the Mars Ingenuity helicopter on Thursday morning shows the helicopter did not execute its planned fourth flight as scheduled. The helicopter is safe and in good health. Data returned during a downlink at 1:21 p.m. EDT (10:21 a.m. PDT) indicates the helicopter did not transition to flight mode, which is required for the flight to take place. The team plans to try its fourth […]

Flight signals revival of giant airplane, which will focus on launching hypersonic test vehicles.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

For the first time in 2 years 16 days, Stratolaunch’s massive Roc aircraft roared down the runway at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California and soared into in clear blue sky on only its second ever flight test.

Roc took off at 7:31 a.m. PDT time, trailing a giant cloud of dust stirred up by its six jet engines and giant 385-ft long wings that hung out over the desert scrub brush. The aircraft flew over the Mojave Desert for more than three hours as a crowd that had gathered for takeoff watched.

FAA Statement The FAA has authorized the next three launches or the SpaceX Starship prototype. The agency approved multiple launches because SpaceX is making few changes on the launch vehicle and relied on the FAA’s approved methodology to calculate the risk to the public. The FAA authorized the launches on Wednesday, April 28. Prior to the launch of SN15, the FAA will verify that SpaceX implemented corrective action arising from […]

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

The International Space Station (ISS) is no longer the only human outpost in Earth orbit.

China successfully launched the Tianhe core module core module of its first permanent space station aboard a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on Thursday.

CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION, Fla. — SpaceX launched 60 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Wednesday, April 28 at 11:44 p.m. EDT. SpaceX has now launched 1,505 Starlink satellites into orbit on 25 Falcon 9 flights. A total of 1,438 spacecraft remain in orbit. Following stage separation, SpaceX landed Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship […]

• On April 28, Arianespace launched the 18th Vega mission (VV18), its second success in less than 72 hours and third of the year for the European launch services company.
   
• This launch orbited Pleiades Neo 3, the first satellite in the new very-high-resolution Earth observation constellation operated by Airbus, as well as five innovative small satellites using the advanced SSMS (Small Spacecraft Mission Service) system.
   
• Vega’s successful return to flight followed the recommendations issued by the Independent Inquiry Commission for Vega mission VV17, organized by Arianespace and ESA and implemented by Avio.

KOUROU, French Guiana (Arianespace PR) — On Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 10:50 pm local time (01:50 UTC on Thursday, April 29), a Vega launch vehicle operated by Arianespace lifted off successfully from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana (South America). This mission marked Vega’s return to flight, and was also the second successful launch by Arianespace’s teams in less than 72 hours.

BRASILIA, Brazil (AEB PR) — After the approval of the Technological Safeguards Agreement by the federal government, in January 2020, the joint work for the development of the Brazilian Space Program continued. With the creation of the Integrated Development Commission for the Alcântara Space Center (CDI-CEA), on August 13, 2020, through Decree No. 10,458, the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), an autarchy linked to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations (MCTI) and coordinator of the Commission, seeks partnerships, including in the state of Maranhão.

Leveraging existing facilities at Alcântara Space Center, the LauncherOne system allows the first ever orbital flights from Brazil

LONG BEACH, Calif., April 28, 2021 (Virgin Orbit PR)— The Brazilian Space Agency (Agência Espacial Brasileira; AEB) and Brazilian Air Force (Força Aérea Brasileira, FAB) announced today that Virgin Orbit has been selected to bring orbital launch capability to Brazil, a country which has never successfully completed a domestic launch to orbit. Thanks to the unique mobility and small footprint of Virgin Orbit’s air-launched system architecture, launches to a wide range of orbital inclinations could quickly become possible without the need for new permanent infrastructure, nor the expansion of existing facilities.

by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor

The Long Beach Harbor Commission has unanimously approved a two-year lease with SpaceX for Elon Musk’s company to use a marine terminal for the recovery of Falcon 9 first stages.