Image: Cosmic neon lights

The end of 2020 marked a notable milestone for Europe’s Galileo First Generation, as the programme chalked up its 500th ESA Engineering Board.

COVID-19 has revolutionised security practices along with other parts of everyday life: screening people via personal ‘patdowns’ is no longer safe. ESA-developed passive terahertz technology – enabling the detection of items hidden under clothing from a distance – is helping to fill the gap. The US Customs and Border Protection agency is among the latest of more than 200 users of the technology, deploying it to secure the US border.

Washington DC (UPI) Jan 6, 2021
The Minuteman III program of 450 missiles, begun in1970, must be replaced and not extended, U.S. Strategic Command chief Adm. Charles Richard said. Richard's comments, made during a virtual briefing on Tuesday, come as President-elect Joe Biden's incoming administration considers ways to reduce the cost of a planned 30-year, $1.2 trillion modernization of the United States' nuclear defe

Evry, France (SPX) Jan 11, 2021
Building on a year that confirmed Arianespace's unique capability to offer launch service solutions tailored for its customers' varied requirements, the company is well prepared for the future with its family of launchers and the capacity of three spaceports. CEO Stephane Israel said Arianespace continues to demonstrate its flexibility in responding to both commercial and institutional mar

Washington DC (UPI) Jan 7, 2021
SpaceX successfully launched a Turkish communications satellite, the Turksat 5A, from Florida on Thursday night. Liftoff occurred at 9:15 p.m. aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which was about 45 minutes later than SpaceX had originally scheduled for the launch though well within its four-hour launch window.

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 11, 2021
As NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars, the agency's quest to seek answers about our solar system and beyond continues to inform those efforts and generate new discoveries. The agency has extended the missions of two spacecraft, following an external review of their scientific productivity. The missions - Juno and InSight - have each increased our understanding

McLean CA (SPX) Jan 11, 2021
Airbus has signed a contract with Intelsat to build two OneSat satellites operating in multiple frequency bands for Intelsat's next-generation software-defined network. The contract was signed on 31 December 2020. The satellites will be based on Airbus' OneSat product line, the latest generation of fully flexible, in orbit reconfigurable, Software Defined Satellites (SDS). OneSat is design

Toronto, Canada (SPX) Jan 11, 2021
What feels like up may actually be some other direction depending on how our brains process our orientation, according to psychology researchers at York University's Faculty of Health. In a new study published in PLoS One, researchers at York University's Centre for Vision Research found that an individual's interpretation of the direction of gravity can be altered by how their brain respo

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 11, 2021
NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) signed a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) reaffirming the agencies' longstanding relationship to foster robust American commercial space transportation capabilities, including commercial crew and cargo activities. The NASA-FAA MOU follows the success of NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 launch - the first crewed mission from American soil to be li