Over the last four years, ESA’s Aeolus mission has been delivering unique profiles of Earth’s winds from space, improving operational weather forecasts, climate models and more – all showing that its novel laser technology is advancing science and being used for important practical applications. Adding to the list of Aeolus’ successes, a recent report highlights that the mission has also brought economics benefits to Europe to the tune of €3.5 billion, and that a follow-on mission could more than double this figure.

Shipping is the most energy efficient form of transport, and more than 80% of goods traded globally are carried via the oceans, with a doubling in volume during the last quarter of a century. Recognising the global need for seamless maritime navigation, ESA’s Navigation Innovation and Support Programme, NAVISP – inventing the future of navigation with more than 200 R&D projects initiated to date – is therefore focused not only on the land but also the sea.

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Short animation featuring key moments of the Mars Sample Return campaign: from landing on Mars and securing the sample tubes to launching them off the surface and ferrying them back to Earth.

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are developing plans for one of the most ambitious campaigns ever attempted in space: bringing the first samples of Mars material safely back to Earth for detailed study. European scientists are part of an international team giving advice on what samples to choose for return and the best analysis methods to use once they land on Earth.

The diverse

ESA’s Optical Ground Station, perched high on the slopes of Tenerife’s Mount Teide volcano, has now been peering skyward for a quarter of a century. Originally designed for laser-based communications with satellites, it is today additionally employed for tracking space debris and near-Earth asteroids as well as supporting world-class science: this year’s Physics Nobel Prize winner used the station for a quantum teleportation experiment that extended to the neighboring island of La Palma.

Washington DC (UPI) Nov 12, 2021
The U.S. military's X-37B space plane finally came back to Earth on Saturday after spending 908 days in orbit. The robotic X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-6 touched down at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 5:22 a.m. The 908 days in orbit was four months longer than any previous X-37B flight. The plane, which was built by Boeing, also carried a service module for the first tim

Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Nov 12, 2022
The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-6 (OTV-6), the U.S. Space Force's unmanned, reusable spaceplane, successfully deorbited and landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility on Nov. 12, 2022, at 05:22 a.m. OTV -6 was the first mission to introduce a service module-a ring attached to the rear of the vehicle expanding the number of experiments that can be hosted during a mission.

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Nov 18, 2022
Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, has announced that hundreds of its radiation-hardened (rad-hard) integrated circuits (ICs), including over 50 different part numbers, are onboard the Artemis 1 launch that blasted off on November 16. Intersil-brand rad-hard ICs are part of the battery management systems, RS-25 engine control

Baltimore MD (SPX) Nov 16, 2022
Micrometeoroid strikes are an unavoidable aspect of operating any spacecraft. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope was engineered to withstand continual bombardment from these dust-sized particles moving at extreme velocities, to continue to generate groundbreaking science far into the future. "We have experienced 14 measurable micrometeoroid hits on our primary mirror, and are averaging one

Irvine CA (SPX) Nov 15, 2022
First in line to receive data transmissions from the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions is using the unprecedentedly clear observations to reveal the secret inner workings of galaxies. In a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers describe their examination of the nearby galaxy NGC 74

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 18, 2022
A few days after officially starting science operations, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope propelled astronomers into a realm of early galaxies, previously hidden beyond the grasp of all other telescopes until now. "Everything we see is new. Webb is showing us that there's a very rich universe beyond what we imagined," said Tommaso Treu of the University of California at Los Angeles, princ