NASA Mission Update

• In an enormous new image, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals never-before-seen details of galaxy group “Stephan’s Quintet”
• The close proximity of Stephan’s Quintet gives astronomers a ringside seat to galactic mergers, interactions
• Webb’s new image shows in rare detail how interacting galaxies trigger star formation in each other and how gas in galaxies is being disturbed
• The image also shows outflows driven by a black hole in Stephan’s Quintet in a level of detail never seen before
• Tight galaxy groups like this may have been more common in the early universe when superheated, infalling material may have fueled very energetic black holes

Stephan’s Quintet, a visual grouping of five galaxies, is best known for being prominently featured in the holiday classic film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Today, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals Stephan’s Quintet in a new light. This enormous mosaic is Webb’s largest image to date, covering about one-fifth of the Moon’s diameter. It contains over 150 million pixels and is constructed from almost 1,000 separate image files. The information from Webb provides new insights into how galactic interactions may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe.

NASA Mission Update

• NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals emerging stellar nurseries and individual stars in the Carina Nebula that were previously obscured
• Images of “Cosmic Cliffs” showcase Webb’s cameras’ capabilities to peer through cosmic dust, shedding new light on how stars form
• Objects in the earliest, rapid phases of star formation are difficult to capture, but Webb’s extreme sensitivity, spatial resolution, and imaging capability can chronicle these elusive events

This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

MDA will design and build antennas as part of space security program

BRAMPTON, ON (MDA Ltd. PR) – MDA Ltd. (TSX: MDA), a leading provider of advanced technology and services to the rapidly expanding global space industry, today announced it has been awarded a contract from York Space Systems. The contract will see MDA design and build Ka-Band steerable antennas for satellites to be produced by York Space Systems.

Operators now have access to Teren data for operational assets and development projects across the U.S.

DENVER (Teren PR) — Teren, the climate resilience analytics company, today announced its expanded Premium 4D Content program for regions across the United States, including the Gulf Coast, Midwest, Rocky Mountains, and West Coast. Teren acquires and processes high-fidelity LiDAR data 10-100x faster than the competition, makes it available via its content library, and delivers analytics with actionable insights to energy and engineering firms.

VAIL, Colo. (TurbineHub PR) — TurbineHub‘s United States, wind-energy-focused data and geospatial SaaS, today announced the availability of Planet Labs PBC’s (Planet /NYSE: PL) medium resolution satellite data through TurbineHub’s service. Planet is a leading provider of global, near-daily satellite imagery and geospatial solutions. Through TurbineHub’s imagery analysis service, developers can access Planet’s satellite imagery to better inform their wind energy investment decisions.

DENVER (Voyager Space Holdings PR) — Nanoracks, powered by Voyager Space, today announced its second Bishop Airlock mission with GITAI, a Japanese space robotics startup. The project, marking the two companies’ second collaboration, will involve demonstrating “S2,” GITAI’s 1.5 meter-class dexterous robotic system, on the Bishop Airlock – the first permanent, commercial platform added to the International Space Station.

PARIS (CNES PR) — The week of June 27, 2022, on the occasion of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the French space agency at the French Embassy in Japan, the President and CEO of CNES, Philippe Baptiste, met with Takayuki Kobayashi, Minister of Economic Security, in charge of Japan’s space policy, and Hiroshi Yamakawa, President of JAXA. This visit contributed to confirming Japan as one of CNES’s leading international partners, allowing discussions on current projects and cooperation prospects.

Moves toward establishing a full constellation

TOKYO (Synspective PR) — Synspective Inc., a SAR satellite data and analytic- solution provider, announced that it has successfully acquired its first image from its second SAR satellite, “StriX-β”.

“StriX-β” was launched by Rocket Lab’s Electron from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula launch site on March 1, 2022 (JST) and put into target orbit at an altitude of 561km in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). Since then, it has been operating effectively and has imaged cities around the world, including in Manila, Philippines, Brasília, Brazil, and Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

• On July 5, 2022, the winners of this year’s INNOspace Masters competition were announced and awarded at a conference in Berlin.
• 337 companies, start-ups, universities and research institutions from 28 countries took part in the competition.
• The next round of the competition will start in early 2023.
• Focus: space travel, innovation, technology transfer

BERLIN (DLR PR) — On July 5, 2022, the winners of this year’s INNOspace Masters competition were announced by Dr. Peter Gräf, Director of Applications and Science at the German Space Agency at DLR, and Dr. Anna Christmann, Federal Government Coordinator for German Aerospace. Under the motto “Sustainable and Efficient Innovations for Space and Earth”, new ideas and concepts were sought that take up current challenges in space travel and other sectors and offer innovative solutions. The participants could choose from five competition categories – the “Challenges” – which cover different development and innovation phases along the entire innovation chain. Accordingly, there was an overall winner and five other winners – one per competition category.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (CASIS PR) – A wide variety of research and technology development payloads sponsored by the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory will soon launch to the orbiting laboratory. These payloads are among the more than 4,700 pounds of cargo onboard SpaceX’s 25th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission (contracted by NASA), launching no earlier than 8:44 p.m. EDT on Thursday, July 14, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

• President Joe Biden unveiled this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, during a White House event Monday, July 11
• Webb’s image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground – and reveals thousands of galaxies in a tiny sliver of vast universe
• Webb’s sharp near-infrared view brought out faint structures in extremely distant galaxies, offering the most detailed view of the early universe to date
• NASA and its partners will release the full series of Webb’s first full-color images and data, known as spectra, Tuesday, July 12, during a live NASA TV broadcast

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has produced the deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date. Known as Webb’s First Deep Field, this image of galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 is overflowing with detail.

DELFT, The Netherlands (Dawn Aerospace PR) — Dawn Aerospace has been awarded €1.4 million from the European Commission to help develop its transformative ‘green’, in-space propulsion technology.

The grant will contribute to Dawn’s continued investment in hydrazine-replacement technology. The propulsion technology will have the size and performance of a hydrazine-based system, but without the toxicity, supply chain or regulatory risk. There is currently no other option on the market that is gaining commercial traction to replace hydrazine, which in 2011, was classified by the European Commission as a substance of very high concern.