Rovaniemi, Lapland
Thursday, 17 December 2020 09:00Earth from Space: Lapland
Thursday, 17 December 2020 09:00In this week's edition of the Earth from Space programme, the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission takes us over Lapland, the largest and northernmost region of Finland, just in time for Christmas.
See also Rovaniemi, Lapland to download the image.
ESA partnering on UK’s new space thruster test site
Thursday, 17 December 2020 08:40Today marks the start of final assembly of the UK’s new National Space Propulsion Facility. ESA is providing technical oversight and financial backing for the facility, which is being equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure to test the most powerful engines used to shift the orbits of space missions.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn added to NASA launch contract
Thursday, 17 December 2020 01:58WASHINGTON — NASA has added New Glenn, the large launch vehicle under development by Blue Origin, to the list of vehicles eligible to compete for future agency missions.
NASA announced Dec. 16 it awarded a launch services contract to Blue Origin, adding New Glenn to its NASA Launch Services (NLS) 2 contract vehicle as part of an annual “on-ramp” process.
ULA’s new rocket Vulcan projected to launch in late 2021
Wednesday, 16 December 2020 22:48WASHINGTON — United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket will be ready to launch its first mission in late 2021, CEO Tory Bruno said Dec. 17.
Bruno told reporters in a conference call that ULA is confident that both the launch vehicle and its first customer — Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander — will be on the launch pad “by the end of next year.
Raymond on China’s space program: “It’s alive, well and concerning”
Wednesday, 16 December 2020 20:43WASHINGTON — China’s leapfrogging advances in space are cause for national security concern, the head of the U.S. Space Force said Dec. 17.
“China has gone from zero to 60 really quick,” Gen.
CesiumAstro founder closes in on decades-old dream
Wednesday, 16 December 2020 19:25SAN FRANCISCO – Shey Sabripour was first exposed to active phased array antennas while designing satellites at Lockheed Martin in the early 1990s.
At the time, engineers spent three to five years building a geostationary communications satellite that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to perform a specific job.
New ESA director general sees EU relations and commercialization as priorities
Wednesday, 16 December 2020 17:09WASHINGTON — The next leader of the European Space Agency says his top priorities are to improve the agency’s relationship with the European Union and support commercial space activities in Europe.
ESA announced Dec. 17 that the ESA Council selected Josef Aschbacher to be the next director general, effective at the end of June 2021 for a four-year term.
Loss of Vega flight VV17: Independent Enquiry Commission announces conclusions
Wednesday, 16 December 2020 15:51Press Release N° 33–2020
On Tuesday, November 17, Arianespace announced the loss of the Vega VV17 mission, which was carrying two payloads, SEOSAT-Ingenio, an Earth-science observation satellite for the European Space Agency (ESA), on behalf of Spain's Center for Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), and TARANIS for France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES). The first three stages functioned nominally until the ignition of the AVUM upper stage, eight minutes after liftoff. At that time, a degraded trajectory was detected, followed by a loss of control of the vehicle and the subsequent loss of the mission.
Solar Orbiter prepares for festive Venus flyby
Wednesday, 16 December 2020 15:00Solar Orbiter is getting ready for the first of many gravity assist flybys of Venus on 27 December, to start bringing it closer to the Sun and tilting its orbit in order to observe our star from different perspectives.
European Space Agency appoints Austrian scientist new chief
Wednesday, 16 December 2020 14:52The European Space Agency said Thursday that Josef Aschbacher, an Austrian scientist who leads its Earth observation program, has been appointed as the organization's next head.
The agency's 22 member states elected Aschbacher to be ESA's director general succeeding Jan Woerner, whose term ends on June 30.
House passes two space bills
Wednesday, 16 December 2020 14:45WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives passed legislation Dec. 16 to protect Apollo-era artifacts on the moon and to rename another NASA facility after the first man to walk on the moon.
The House passed on a voice vote S.
Mountains of snow
Wednesday, 16 December 2020 13:20India launches CMS-01 communications satellite
Wednesday, 16 December 2020 11:38HELSINKI — India successfully sent the CMS-01 extended C-band communications satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit Thursday with the country’s second launch of 2020.