ESA’s Navigation Directorate – already the design architect of the Galileo satellite navigation system, Europe’s largest satellite constellation – is reaching out to European industry as it plans the development and in-orbit validation of future ‘positioning, navigation and timing’ (PNT) missions into novel orbits.

L3Harris is making a strategic investment in laser communications company Mynaric with plans to make increased use of that technology for space and other applications.

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Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jul 06, 2022
Even before the summer's hottest, driest weather has arrived, wildfires have taken a heavy toll in some parts of the U.S. This spring, in collaboration with fire response teams, NASA researchers tested their prototype tools to help make the demanding job of wildland firefighters safer. One element of the solution developed by NASA's Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operat

Washington DC (SPX) Jul 01, 2022
A 15-year study led by the Carnegie Institution for Science details the origins and diversity of every known mineral on Earth, a landmark body of work that will help reconstruct the history of life on Earth, guide the search for new minerals and ore deposits, predict possible characteristics of future life, and aid the search for habitable planets and extraterrestrial life. In twin papers

Newly-developed orbital and suborbital launch vehicles are being readied for test flights at the Jiuquan spaceport as China’s efforts to foster a commercial space sector advance.

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In a complex role-played version of a mission to the Moon, controllers at ESOC combined with a team of geological scientists and ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter to oversee a rover’s collection of rock samples. Acting as if he were in lunar orbit, the astronaut was in fact based in a hotel room in Catania, Sicily, with the rover 23 km away and 2 600 m uphill on the volcanic flanks of Mount Etna. As Thomas commanded the rover to pick up rocks his hand experienced just what the robot’s gripper felt – an added dimension in remote

Cologne, Germany (SPX) Jul 06, 2022
Researchers at the University of Cologne and Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic) have discovered the fastest known star, which travels around a black hole in record time. The star, S4716, orbits Sagittarius A*, the black hole in the centre of our Milky Way, in four years and reaches a speed of around 8000 kilometres per second. S4716 comes as close as 100 AU (astronomical unit) to the bl

Moscow, Russia (SPX) Jul 06, 2022
The Sun is our superstar, continuously providing our planet with energy, light, and heat, thus making it a very habitable environment for life. However, it is also the source of powerful explosions, which can affect astronauts and modern technologies in space and on Earth. At the beginning of the 17th century, Galileo Galilei dared to direct his telescope to the Sun and discovered sunspots there

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) Jul 06, 2022
Sidus Space, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIDU), a Space-as-a-Service company focused on mission critical hardware manufacturing; multi-disciplinary engineering services; satellite design, production, launch planning, mission operations; and in-orbit support is proud to announce that Dhruva Space's Satellite Orbital Deployer successfully achieved space-qualification on June 30. Dhruva Space's Satellite Or

Harwell UK (SPX) Jul 06, 2022
SatixFy Communications Ltd has announced its critical role in enabling the first ever demonstration of a high-speed, low-latency link with a LEO satellite constellation incorporating 5G. SatixFy has partnered with OneWeb under the ESA Sunrise Partnership Project, with support from the UK Space Agency, to develop a compact electronically steered multi-beam array suitable for mobility servic