Introducing ESA Vigil: Earth's devoted solar defender
Thursday, 10 February 2022 14:08
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Once known as Lagrange, ESA's upcoming space weather mission needed a new name that would reflect its vital role: helping to protect Earth's infrastructure, satellites, inhabitants and space explorers from unpredictable but violent solar events like solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
With 5422 submissions from across Europe and indeed around the world—and after weeks of deliberation, countless spreadsheets, three diverse and expert judges and a lively debate—a new name has been selected for our upcoming space weather mission: ESA Vigil.
Thousands of thoughtful, clever and funny names were submitted in the Agency's #NameTheMission mission contest, which ran from May to September 2021.
Once submissions closed, a team from ESA's Communication department and Space Weather Office reviewed all submissions putting a shortlist of just nine names before a panel of invited, external judges.
Armed with their top three respective choices, the judges then took part in a lively, two-hour video chat in which they made the case for their favourite and deliberated the merits of each.
Chinese space launch startups attract a frenzy of investment
Thursday, 10 February 2022 12:50 Write a comment
A number of China’s emerging rocket companies have secured major funding rounds in recent weeks as competition to reach orbit intensifies.
Senators make new push for NASA authorization bill
Thursday, 10 February 2022 12:02 Write a comment
Senators used a NASA hearing Feb. 9 to once again advocate for an authorization bill for the agency, arguing it is vital for giving the agency direction and securing funding.
The post Senators make new push for NASA authorization bill appeared first on SpaceNews.
The drone has landed
Thursday, 10 February 2022 11:02 Write a comment
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The drone has landed New research sums up sea-level rise
Thursday, 10 February 2022 09:43 Write a comment
Sea-level rise is arguably one of the most serious consequences of the climate crisis. While using satellite data to monitor how the height of the sea is changing provides critical evidence for decision-making, satellites are also essential to measuring the individual components, such as seawater temperature and glacier melt, that contribute to the overall rise. Confidence in the accuracy of these separate measures is key. ESA-funded research now confirms that the figures match up.
Introducing ESA Vigil: Earth’s devoted solar defender
Thursday, 10 February 2022 09:00 Write a comment
Once known as “Lagrange,” ESA’s upcoming space weather mission needed a new name that would reflect its vital role: helping to protect Earth’s infrastructure, satellites, inhabitants and space explorers from unpredictable but violent solar events like solar flares and ‘coronal mass ejections’.
With 5422 submissions from across Europe and indeed around the world – and after weeks of deliberation, countless spreadsheets, three diverse and expert judges and a lively debate – a new name has been selected for our upcoming space weather mission: ESA Vigil.
Introducing: ESA Vigil
Thursday, 10 February 2022 09:00 Write a comment
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It’s the first mission of its kind, set to monitor our active and unpredictable Sun and help protect us from its violent outbursts – and it has a new name.
Once known as “Lagrange,” ESA’s upcoming space weather mission needed a new name that would reflect its vital role: helping to protect Earth’s infrastructure, satellites, inhabitants and space explorers from unpredictable but violent solar events like solar flares and ‘coronal mass ejections’.
During the #NameTheMission campaign, 5422 entries were submitted from across Europe and indeed around the world – and after weeks of deliberation, countless spreadsheets, three diverse and
Build or buy. That’s the question for constellation developers.
Thursday, 10 February 2022 05:16 Write a comment
Many satellite constellation developers are opting to build their own satellites.
The post Build or buy. That’s the question for constellation developers. appeared first on SpaceNews.
Increasing production is important for Hypersonics, Defense official says
Thursday, 10 February 2022 00:28 Write a comment
The Defense Department is working hard on developing both hypersonic offensive and defensive capabilities. But in the immediate future, one of the most important areas to be developed is increasing the capacity at which such systems can be produced, said Gillian Bussey, director of the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office.
"I would say that everything we're doing in terms of the interceptor Scientists in Britain smash fusion energy record
Thursday, 10 February 2022 00:28 Write a comment
Scientists in Britain said Wednesday they have smashed a previous record for generating fusion energy, an achievement hailed a "milestone" on the protracted path towards harnessing a power source considered cheap and clean.
Nuclear fusion is the same process that the sun uses to generate heat and proponents believe it could one day help address climate change by providing an abundant, safe a UCF lands new project to study effect of rain on hypersonic travel
Thursday, 10 February 2022 00:28 Write a comment
University of Central Florida researchers are part of a new $1 million project funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to better understand and predict how and why raindrops are affected when they cross a hypersonic shock wave.
Hypersonic speeds are those at Mach 5 and higher, or five times greater than the speed of sound. The U.S. is currently working on developing hypersoni Air Force awards contract for spaceborne weather data
Thursday, 10 February 2022 00:28 Write a comment
A Hanscom team recently awarded a $19.3 million contract to support a constellation of high-tech weather satellites capable of observing precipitation and storm structures from space. As part of the agreement, Boston-based meteorological intelligence company Tomorrow.io will provide the Aerospace Management Systems Division, headquartered here, with three-dimensional global weather and ocean dat Raytheon Intelligence and Space Releases Latest Increment of FORGE Data Framework
Thursday, 10 February 2022 00:28 Write a comment
Raytheon Intelligence and Space, a Raytheon Technologies business, released version 9.0 of the Future Operationally Resilient Ground Evolution, or FORGE, Mission Data Processing Application Framework.
Release 9.0 of the government-owned framework continues to evolve existing features such as scalability, visualization, cybersecurity hardening, and integration for the Overhead Persistent In SBIRS GEO-5 operationally accepted after exceeding on-orbit testing expectations
Thursday, 10 February 2022 00:28 Write a comment
The fifth Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (SBIRS GEO-5) satellite built by Lockheed Martin, has been operationally accepted by the U.S. Space Force less than a year after being launched into orbit.
The early missile warning satellite is a "Go-Fast" success story, completing all on-orbit testing with accelerated analysis, resulting in a 40% improvement over GEO-1 thro Glaciers are melting faster and with more consequences than expected
Thursday, 10 February 2022 00:28 Write a comment
Developments at the South Pole are raising new concerns. A group of smaller glaciers, named Pope, Smith and Kohler, are melting faster than expected. So far, the neighbouring giant glaciers, Thwaites and Pine Island, have been the focus of research because they are extremely fragile and could raise global sea levels by up to 1.2 metres.
The German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Lu