Artemis I Flight Day 15 - Team Polls "Go" For Distant Retrograde Orbit Departure
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
Houston TX (SPX) Dec 01, 2022
The Artemis I mission management team met to review the overall status of the flight test and polled "go" for Orion to depart from its distant retrograde orbit, where it has been since Nov. 25. Orion will conduct a burn to depart the orbit at 3:53 p.m. CST Thurs., Dec. 1 and begin its trek back toward Earth.
"We are continuing to collect flight test data and buy down risk for crewed flight

China's six astronauts in two missions make historic gathering in space
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
Beijing (XNA) Dec 01, 2022
The six Chinese astronauts from the Shenzhou XIV and Shenzhou XV missions marked a historic moment on Wednesday as they met inside the country's Tiangong space station.
It was the first time that six Chinese were in a space station at the same time and the first in-orbit gathering of two Chinese crews.
After about two hours of preparatory work following the docking of the Shenzhou XV

Eutelsat selects Thales Alenia Space to build a new flexible software-defined satellite
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
Paris, France (SPX) Dec 01, 2022
Eutelsat Communications (Euronext Paris: ETL) (Paris:ETL) has selected Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67 % and Leonardo 33 %) to build a next-generation highly flexible, software-defined satellite (SDS).
The Flexsat (for flexible satellite) will be based on Thales Alenia Space's cutting-edge 'Space Inspire' (INstant SPace In-orbit REconfiguration) product line, enabling seamless reconfigurati

Communications system achieves fastest laser link from space yet
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
Boston MA (SPX) Dec 01, 2022
In May 2022, the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload onboard a small CubeSat satellite was launched into orbit 300 miles above Earth's surface. Since then, TBIRD has delivered terabytes of data at record-breaking rates of up to 100 gigabits per second - 100 times faster than the fastest internet speeds in most cities - via an optical communication link to a ground-based receiver in Califo

ONERA acquires two satellite platforms from NanoAvionics for its nanosat FlyLab mission
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
Vilnius, Lithuania (SPX) Dec 01, 2022
French aerospace lab ONERA (Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales) has signed a contract with NanoAvionics, a space mission integrator and satellite manufacturer, for the procurement of two 8U and 6U nanosat platforms, dedicated to ONERA 's FlyLab mission.
The contract includes the supply of all the components necessary for the operation of the satellites, but also the in

Geologist studies asteroids and moondust to decode the history of the solar system
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
West Lafayette IN (SPX) Dec 01, 2022
Michelle Thompson is a geologist. But while "geo" means earth, she studies things that are decidedly unearthly, or at least extraterrestrial: the moon and asteroids.
"I study space weathering: how space environments affect tiny mineral particles on planetary surfaces," said Thompson, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences in Purdue University

Kayhan Space awarded grant to develop autonomous collision avoidance capabilities in space
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
Lafayette CO (SPX) Dec 01, 2022
Kayhan Space, a leading provider of spaceflight safety solutions, has been awarded the largest in the latest series of advanced industry grants from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) to accelerate development of coordinated autonomous satellite collision avoidance capabilities for its Pathfinder Max software platform.
Kayhan Space has been awarded

AWS successfully runs AWS compute and machine learning services on an orbiting satellite
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
New York NY (SPX) Dec 01, 2022
at AWS re:Invent 2022, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that it successfully ran a suite of AWS compute and machine learning (ML) software on an orbiting satellite, in a first-of-its-kind space experiment. The experiment, conducted over the past 10 months in low Earth orbit (LEO), was designed to test a faster, more efficient method for customers to collect and analyze valuable space data dir

AST SpaceMobile announces pricing of upsized $75M public offering of Class A common stock
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
Midland TX (SPX) Dec 01, 2022
AST SpaceMobile, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTS) has announced the pricing of its previously announced public offering of its Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share (the "Class A Common Stock"). The Company has agreed to sell 13,636,364 shares of Class A Common Stock at a price to the public of $5.50 per share. The Company has granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additiona

Arianespace supporting the European Union's Copernicus program with Vega C
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
Paris (ESA) Dec 01, 2022
On November 29, 2022, Arianespace announced having signed with the European Commission (Directorate General for Defence, Industry and Space), a contract for the procurement of five launch services with Vega C for the Copernicus component of the European Union's (EU) Space Programme.
"I would like to thank the European commission, especially the DG DEFIS teams, along with ESA, for continuin

Arianespace Ariane 6 to launch Intelsat satellites
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
Toulouse, France (SPX) Dec 01, 2022
Arianespace signed a contract with longtime customer Intelsat to launch two satellite payloads, IS-41 and IS-44, using the heavy-lift Ariane 64 from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana in 2025. This agreement repurposes a previous launch contract and adds one additional satellite.
"We are honored, yet again, by our faithful longtime partner Intelsat with another significant contract," said

NASA's Orion capsule to leave distant retrograde orbit, return to Earth
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
Washington DC (UPI) Nov 30, 2021
NASA's Orion space capsule, which is in day 15 of its Artemis 1 test flight, is scheduled to leave its current distant retrograde orbit on Thursday, as the spacecraft begins the process of returning home to Earth.
Artemis 1 mission management leaders provided a preview on Wednesday, from Johnson Space Center, of the upcoming maneuver that will ultimately send the test flight past the mo

SiriusXM commissions Maxar to build two satellites
Thursday, 01 December 2022 11:35
New York NY (SPX) Dec 01, 2022
Maxar Technologies and SiriusXM (NASDAQ: SIRI) have announced a new agreement commissioning Maxar to build and deliver two new geostationary communications satellites for SiriusXM. The SXM-11 and -12 satellite orders increase the total number of spacecraft in development for SiriusXM by Maxar to four, following the 2021 agreement for the construction of SXM-9 and -10.
"This investment reaf

Renewed support for ESA innovation at Paris Ministerial
Thursday, 01 December 2022 09:00
Member State delegations pledged a record-breaking €16.9 billion budget for ESA at last week's Council at Ministerial Level in Paris, including renewed support for dedicated R&D programmes employed by ESA’s Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality to invent the future in space.
Pillars of Creation (NIRCam and MIRI composite image)
Thursday, 01 December 2022 07:57