Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 15, 2025
Firefly Aerospace announced the successful launch of its Blue Ghost lunar lander on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, marking the beginning of its 60-day mission. Following a 45-day transit to the Moon, the mission aims to deliver 10 instruments for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. A target landing date of March 2, 2025, has been set. Dubbed Ghost Riders in the Sky, Blue

Paris, France (SPX) Jan 15, 2025
A major milestone in the European Space Agency's Proba-3 mission occurred last night as the twin spacecraft, launched together in December 2024, successfully separated. This marks the start of their unique role in the world's first precision formation-flying mission. The Proba-3 satellites, launched on 5 December 2024 aboard a PSLV-XL rocket from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre, had rem

Paris, France (SPX) Jan 15, 2025
Three satellites from ESA's InCubed programme have launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, demonstrating the agency's commitment to fostering innovation and collaboration in the commercial space sector. The InCubed initiative, which stands for 'Investing in Industrial Innovation,' is managed by ESA's Pi-lab and focuses on advancing commercially viable technologies that lever

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed its first exploration data buy agreement with Hungarian company Puli Space Technologies, whose neutron spectrometer will study water ice in the Moon's south pole region and provide the first direct surface measurements from a permanently shadowed crater. Through this partnership, ESA will obtain data from the spectrometer, which will fly on Intuitive Machines' second lunar mission. 

Three InCubed satellites have launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, highlighting ESA’s role as partner to industry and its support for business and technology innovation.

A Falcon 9 successfully launched Jan.

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This is a new artist’s animation of our galaxy, the Milky Way, based on data from ESA’s Gaia space telescope.

Gaia has changed our impression of the Milky Way. Even seemingly simple ideas about the nature of our galaxy’s central bar and the spiral arms have been overturned. Gaia has shown us that it has more than two spiral arms and that they are less prominent than we previously thought. In addition, Gaia has shown that its central bar is more inclined with respect to the Sun.

No spacecraft can travel beyond our galaxy, so we can’t take a selfie, but Gaia

Image: The best Milky Way map, by Gaia (artist impression, edge-on)

Kennedy Space Center, United States (AFP) Jan 15, 2025
One rocket, two missions: lunar landers built by US and Japanese companies launched their "rideshare" to the Moon on Wednesday, showcasing the private sector's growing role in space exploration. On board the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida were Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost and ispace's Resilience from Japan, which will also deploy a micro rover

Boca Chica, United States (AFP) Jan 15, 2025
Elon Musk's SpaceX is gearing up for the seventh orbital flight test of Starship, the colossal prototype rocket the company hopes will help humans colonize Mars. A launch window from the company's Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, opens at 4:00 pm (2200 GMT) Wednesday and will be carried in a live webcast on Musk's X platform. Space enthusiasts will be eager to see if SpaceX can replicate t