Week in images: 14 - 18 February 2022

Discover our week through the lens

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ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst visited Thales Alenia Space in Turin recently to test out and provide feedback on accommodations for the next human outpost in space, the lunar Gateway.  

As the name implies, the Gateway will be located within the Moon’s orbit and is being built by Thales Alenia Space on behalf of ESA. Among its components is the International Habitation Module or I-Hab.

As crew quarters are designed with humans in mind, Alex both toured the mock-up and stepped into the crew quarter simulator to provide some experienced feedback. After two missions to the International Space Station – Blue

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The 3 m-long magnetometer boom of the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (Smile) is deployed under helium-filled balloons to simulate the weightlessness conditions of space.

Smile is a joint mission between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and will aim to build a more complete understanding of the Sun-Earth connection by measuring the solar wind and its dynamic interaction with the magnetosphere.

The structural and thermal model of the Smile payload module is currently undergoing testing at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. Missions frequently come ‘home’ to ESA’s technical

Saturday 19 February marks 100 days since ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer was launched to the International Space Station for his first mission, Cosmic Kiss. He launched on a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Kayla Barron, Raja Chari and Tom Marshburn as a member of Crew-3. But even before he was launched to space, he was subject to scrutiny for science. 

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Tenerife – the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands.

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English - 100 days of Cosmic Kis

On 11 November 2021, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer was launched to the International Space Station for his first mission, Cosmic Kiss. Around 100 days later, we reflect on some highlights from space.

Matthias flew to the Station on a SpaceX Crew Dragon alongside NASA astronauts and fellow first-time fliers Kayla Barron and Raja Chari, and NASA spaceflight veteran Tom Marshburn. Collectively known as Crew-3, they were welcomed as members of Expedition 66 by Commander Anton Shkaplerov, cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov and NASA’s Mark Vande Hei.

While in orbit, Matthias is supporting over 35 European

The ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft has captured the largest solar prominence eruption ever observed in a single image together with the full solar disc.

Cleveland OH (SPX) Feb 16, 2022
NASA is inviting students to participate in an essay contest to explore how it powers some of its most famous missions. The contest also encourages participants to learn something about themselves in the process. The Power to Explore Challenge, open to K-12 students in U.S. public, private, and homeschools, is accepting entries from Tuesday, Feb. 15 through Wednesday, April 13. The competi

Toulouse, France (SPX) Feb 17, 2022
Latecoere, a leading partner of major international aircraft manufacturers and the European leader in satellite wiring, is strengthening its activity in the space industry thanks to three major cooperation projects with Airbus. Latecoere designs, industrializes, produces and integrates electrical harnesses for three emblematic European space programs: the Eurostar Neo satellites, for both

Rochester NY (SPX) Feb 18, 2022
The collective activity of life-all of the microbes, plants, and animals-have changed planet Earth. Take, for example, plants: plants 'invented' a way of undergoing photosynthesis to enhance their own survival, but in so doing, released oxygen that changed the entire function of our planet. This is just one example of individual lifeforms performing their own tasks, but collectively having