ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti was launched to the International Space Station on 27 April as a part of Crew-4 for her second mission, Minerva. One hundred days in, mission Minerva is still going strong. From completing cutting-edge research in the world’s only orbiting laboratory to sharing daily life on the Space Station via TikTok, it’s all in a day’s work for an ESA astronaut.

Image: Pure gold pin for space testing

Week in images: 01-05 August 2022

Discover our week through the lens

Boston MA (SPX) Aug 05, 2022
Giving our hardware sight has empowered a host of applications in self-driving cars, object detection, and crop monitoring. But unlike animals, synthetic vision systems can't simply evolve under natural habitats. Dynamic visual systems that can navigate both land and water, therefore, have yet to power our machines - leading researchers from MIT, the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (

Arlington VA (SPX) Aug 03, 2022
In May 2022, the U.S. Space Force held a Cyber Constructive Service (CCS) Credit Board, in which the service called for applications from civilian cyber professionals to become cyber officers in the Space Force. Casting a wide net, approximately 1,000 people attended a virtual conference, with more than 400 applying. The board further narrowed the field and 10 cyber professionals accepted

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ESA and NASA’s Artemis I spacecraft is cleared for launch after a series of final tests at the US Kennedy Space Center in Florida. ESA’s European Service Module (ESM) will provide electrical power and propel the uncrewed Orion capsule in an extended orbit around the Moon, setting the scene for future crewed missions. ESA has already delivered its second ESM for Artemis II and is currently building its third ESM. Eventually, Artemis III will return astronauts to the lunar surface for the first time in 50 years with the ESM supplying their life support in the form of

Lafayette CO (SPX) Aug 05, 2022
Small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies LLC ("BCT" or "Blue Canyon"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, celebrated the grand opening of its new CubeSat Factory in Boulder, Colorado, with members of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The expanded 31,000-square-foot facility consolidates manufacturing ef

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Aug 05, 2022
Rashmi Karanth has always been fascinated by space. As a child, she would look up to the skies and wonder what lay beyond. The computer science engineer and business technology expert also has a keen interest in data and analytics. "How you make data consumable and present it as information is something I'm very passionate about," says Karanth. Having forged a highly successful caree

Vienna VA (SPX) Aug 05, 2022
Spire Global, Inc. (NYSE: SPIR) has announced an agreement with HANCOM inSPACE ("Hancom"), initially a spin-off by Korea Aerospace Research Institute and now a part of HANCOM Group, for a second mission with Spire Space Services. Hancom will host an optical payload on a second Spire 6U satellite, named HANCOM-2, and Spire will manage the payload integration, satellite launch and mission operatio