Paris, France (SPX) Jul 22, 2025
Vigil, the European Space Agency's upcoming space weather mission, will be the first satellite to maintain a continuous presence at the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 5 (L5), providing an unprecedented side view of solar activity. From this strategic location, Vigil will monitor the Sun's surface several days before the same regions rotate into Earth's direct line of sight. The mission is design

Paris (AFP) July 21, 2025
Since at least the time of the ancient Egyptians, people across the world have gazed up in awe at Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars blazing in the night sky. Now astronomers have discovered that this red supergiant, known to many as the hunter's shoulder in the Orion constellation, is being orbited by a much smaller companion star, a study said on Monday. It is not the first time B

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 22, 2025
NASA is preparing to launch the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) mission on July 22 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Led by the University of Iowa and supported by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), the mission aims to investigate how the Sun's and Earth's magnetic fields interact. SwRI contributed scientific leadership and d

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jul 23, 2025
Astronautical engineering is the branch of aerospace engineering that focuses on designing and developing the science of space exploration. However, its value does not start with rockets and satellites-it begins with concepts, words, and numbers. It starts with books.

With launch slated for August, the first MetOp Second Generation satellite, MetOp-SG-A1, which also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission, is currently undergoing final preparations for liftoff aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

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On 15 July 2025, with the splashdown of the Dragon capsule off the coast of California, the Ignis mission ended after a 20-day space journey. ESA project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski from Poland, during nearly 230 orbits around Earth, completed about 120 hours of telework on the International Space Station and contributed to more than 20 experiments from his orbital office.

Following medical checks on the recovery vessel, Sławosz flew to shore by helicopter and then travelled from the United States to Germany in order to undergo a week of recovery at the European Astronaut Centre. Dozens of people

The next sea-level monitoring satellite, Copernicus Sentinel-6B, has begun its journey from Europe to the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, where it is scheduled to launch in November. Carefully packed into a climate-controlled container, the satellite is currently crossing the Atlantic Ocean aboard the cargo ship Industrial Dolphin.