Eutelsat completes OneWeb equity investment
Friday, 10 September 2021 10:44Eutelsat Communications confirms the closing of its $550m equity investment in OneWeb announced on April 27, 2021. Subject to completion of the subsequently announced investments in OneWeb by Bharti and Hanwha, Eutelsat will hold a 17.6% stake. Rodolphe Belmer, Chief Executive Officer of Eutelsat, said: "We are delighted to close this investment in OneWeb, giving us a foothold in the Low E
Smart T-shirt measures astronauts' vital signs
Friday, 10 September 2021 10:44At the end of October 2021, it will be time for German astronaut Matthias Maurer to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon. His first ISS mission has been named 'Cosmic Kiss'. Thirty-six experiments developed in Germany have been planned for his mission. One of them is Wireless Compose 2 (WICO2), which has been designed and prepared by the German Aerospace
Smoke alarm, burning smell disrupt crew on International Space Station
Friday, 10 September 2021 10:44Russian cosmonauts woke up to an emergency alarm Thursday in one of their service modules at the International Space Station. Audio from NASA's television feed caught a French astronaut identifying a smell of burning plastic, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Russian space agency Roscosmos told state news agency TASS that the cosmonauts turned on an air purification s
German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer is ready for his first ISS mission - 'Cosmic Kiss'
Friday, 10 September 2021 10:44At the end of October 2021, the German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer, together with the NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas H. Marshburn and Kayla Barron, are expected to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a Dragon space capsule from the US company SpaceX. Maurer will spend approximately six months in microgravity and return to Earth in April 2022. This will be the fir
NASA Mars mission begins a new chapter of science with a new leader
Friday, 10 September 2021 10:44Dr. Shannon Curry, planetary scientist and the deputy assistant director of planetary science at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) at the University of California, Berkeley, has assumed leadership of NASA's first mission devoted to studying the Martian atmosphere. On Aug. 31, Curry started her new job as Principal Investigator of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN, or MAVEN, mission
China releases first batch of gamma photon data from dark matter explorer
Friday, 10 September 2021 10:44China has released the first batch of gamma photon data obtained by the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE), according to Science and Technology Daily on Wednesday. The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Tuesday released the scientific data collected by the DAMPE, also known as Wukong or Monkey King.
House Science Committee advances budget reconciliation package
Friday, 10 September 2021 09:18The House Science Committee approved its portion of a massive budget reconciliation spending bill Sept. 9, making no major changes to its NASA provisions.
Volcanic trenches on Mars
Friday, 10 September 2021 09:00This image of the young volcanic region of Elysium Planitia on Mars [10.3°N, 159.5°E] was taken on 14 April 2021 by the CaSSIS camera on the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO).
The two blue parallel trenches in this image, called Cerberus Fossae, were thought to have formed by tectonic processes. They run for almost one thousand km over the volcanic region. In this image, CaSSIS is looking straight down into one of these 2 km-wide fissures.
The floor here is a few hundred metres deep and is filled with coarse-grained sand, likely basaltic in composition, which appears blue in the
Selection begins | ESA’s next astronauts
Friday, 10 September 2021 09:00Work is under way to sort and assess applications from more than 22 500 ESA astronaut hopefuls. The rigorous selection process will take around 18 months. Initial screening to ensure that basic criteria are met will be followed by medical and psychological tests, exercises and interviews.
ESA plans to recruit 4-6 new astronauts through this 2021-22 selection round to support the future of European space exploration. This is likely to include missions to the International Space Station as well as the Moon. As part of the selection process, ESA is also assessing the feasibility of flying an astronaut
Inspiration4 private crewed mission nears launch
Friday, 10 September 2021 08:42SpaceX is gearing up for its first purely commercial human spaceflight, but many details about the mission remain unclear.
Earth from Space: Danube Delta
Friday, 10 September 2021 07:00The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over the Danube Delta – the second largest river delta in Europe.
Cassini’s wake: how might a spacecraft disturb its own measurements?
Friday, 10 September 2021 06:30Simply by moving through the heavens, spacecraft change the space about them. Such interactions are invisible to the naked eye, but can endanger mission performance and safety. A new ESA Resarch Fellow study simulated the Cassini spacecraft in the vicinity of Saturn, checking their findings against actual space measurements. It reveals Cassini cast an ‘ion wake’ up to 6 m behind it, a void of plasma particles like a trail of a boat.
VP wants more diversity in the National Space Council’s industry advisory group
Thursday, 09 September 2021 22:47A notice could appear in the Federal Register as early as next week seeking nominations for the National Space Council’s industry advisory group, the council’s executive secretary Chirag Parikh said Sept.
Fostering diversity and inclusion takes work
Thursday, 09 September 2021 21:30Attracting and retaining a diverse workforce requires organizations to adopt a proactive approach, according to panelists at the Satellite 2021 conference.