MetOp-A is Europe's first polar-orbiting (LEO) satellite dedicated to operational meteorology. The MetOp program was originally planned as a much larger satellite concept, called POEM (Polar-Orbit Earth-Observation Mission), a successor mission series to ERS-1/2 on the Columbus Polar Platform (PPF design).

However, this idea was abandoned at the ESA Ministerial Council in Granada, Spain, in 1992. Instead, Envisat and MetOp were born. Full approval of the EPS (EUMETSAT Polar System) program was granted in September 1998. The MetOp program is planned as a series of three satellites to be launched sequentially over an observational period of 14 years, starting in 2006 with MetOp-A (2010, 2014), it represents the space segment of EPS. ^1) 2)

SOHO is an ESA/NASA collaborative mission within ESA's `Solar Terrestrial Science Program' (STSP), and it is also part of ISTP (International Solar Terrestrial Physics Program). So far, SOHO represents the most comprehensive space mission devoted to the study of the sun and of the heliosphere. Within the collaborative mission, the functions are divided in the following way: ESA is responsible for S/C procurement, integration and testing; NASA provided the spacecraft launch and mission operations from GSFC. The following overall mission objectives are pursued: ^{1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)}

• Solar spectroscopy at soft X-ray and EUV wavelengths (study of the composition of the solar corona, of the structure and dynamics of the magnetic structures making up the corona, and of coronal holes, etc.)

• Study of the structure and dynamics of the solar interior through the observation of minute oscillations on the sun's surface (helio-seismology).

• Study of the solar wind and solar energetic particles, interaction with the Earth, plasma processes in both the solar and magnetospheric context.

Alphasat is a mobile communications service spacecraft in GEO of Inmarsat Plc. of London, UK, referred to as Inmarsat 1-XL. It uses the first next-generation European Alphabus platform and carries in addition to the commercial Inmarsat payloads four hosted TDPs (Technology Demonstration Payloads) of ESA (European Space Agency). The Alphabus/Alphasat project is covered by the ARTES-8 (Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems) European program. The four hosted payloads on Alphasat I are: ¹⁾

• TDP1: An advanced LCT (Laser Communication Terminal) representing a further development of already existing flight hardware on TerraSAR-X, NFIRE and TanDEM-X. The objective is to demonstrate GEO-LEO ISLs (Intersatellite Links) of high data rate transmissions (optical link at 1064 nm, 1.8 Gbit/s user data rate), complemented with a Ka-band payload developed by Tesat Spacecom (Germany). The payload is funded by DLR.

• TDP5: Two experimental Q/V-band communications transponders to assess the feasibility of these bands for future commercial applications - developed by TAS-I and Space Engineering, Italy.

• TDP6: Demonstration of an advanced Star Tracker with active pixel detector - developed by Jenoptik of Germany.

• TDP8: Demonstration of an environment effects facility to monitor the GEO radiation environment and its effects on electronic components and sensors - developed by Effacec (Portugal).

NanoSail-D2 is a technology demonstration experiment of NASA with the primary objective to deploy a compact solar sail boom system in space.

In a previous attempt, a team from the NASA/MSFC, along with a team from the NASA/ARC (Ames Research Center), developed a solar sail mission called NanoSail-D which was lost in a launch failure aboard a Falcon 1 rocket on August 3, 2008.

Two units of the NanoSail-D satellites have been built. NASA/MSFC plans to launch the backup NanoSail-D payload from a 3U CubeSat (nanosatellite) of ARC on the FASTSat-HSV mission. FASTSat is required to launch the nanosatellite before the NanoSail-D2 payload can be launched and deployed from the nanosatellite.

Copernicus is the European Union's Earth observation programme coordinated and managed by the European Union (EU) in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA), the EU Member States and EU Agencies.

It aims at achieving a global, continuous, autonomous, high quality, wide range Earth observation capacity. Providing accurate, timely and easily accessible information to, among other things, improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change, and ensure civil security.

The objective is to use vast amount of global data from satellites and from ground-based, airborne and seaborne measurement systems to produce timely and quality information, services and knowledge, and to provide autonomous and independent access to information in the domains of environment and security on a global level in order to help service providers, public authorities and other international organizations improve the quality of life for the citizens of Europe. In other words, it pulls together all the information obtained by the Copernicus environmental satellites, air and ground stations and sensors to provide a comprehensive picture of the "health" of Earth.

COPERNICAL.COM is the space professionals networking portal and is aimed at facilitating communication exchange amongst professionals involved in the space industry and space science fields. It provides a site for all participants in these fields including students, engineers, managers and decision-makers to present their activities and discuss issues in an open forum across the world. It also provides free and open data resources for space companies and space missions and space-related science and technology. If you are looking for information, wishing to build teams, or just want to share your experiences or projects, then this is the place for you!

COPERNICAL connects people, companies, missions and projects in the space industry.

• Find relevant space industry news,
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If you want to know where ESA spacecraft are and how they are linked to the ground, then ESA has a fantastic website.

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a volunteer-run research and outreach organization in the Boston area that works to mitigate existential risks facing humanity, particularly the risks from artificial intelligence (AI).

The institute was founded in March 2014. FLI operates grassroots-style to recruit volunteers and younger scholars from the local community in the Boston area.

The FLI mission is to catalyze and support research and initiatives for safeguarding life and developing optimistic visions of the future, including positive ways for humanity to steer its own course considering new technologies and challenges FLI is particularly focused on the potential risks to humanity from the development of human-level artificial intelligence.

It was founded by MIT cosmologist Max Tegmark and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn among others, and includes cosmologist Stephen Hawking and entrepreneur Elon Musk among others on the board of advisers.

Pocket Spacecraft is a low cost, open source, open access, mass space exploration system that anyone can use.

It is aimed to open space exploration to everyone. Its aim is to send an expedition to the moon and explore the solar system.

Sodern is a French company based in Limeil-Brévannes, near Paris in Ile-de-France, specialized in space instrumentation, optics and neutron analyzers.

Sodern activity started in the neutron area, by designing neutron sources for the French deterrent force.  In the late 1960s, it began to diversify into optical sensors and advanced spacecraft instrumentation.

Nowadays (2015) the company is active in the following fields:

• Spatial Instrumentation: activities cover several ranges of space instruments.
• Stars Trackers
• Optical Instrumentation
• Strip Filters