Copernical Team
Satellites launched to boost connectivity and create jobs
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Three more nano-satellites have been launched as part of ESA’s efforts to boost the European space industry, fostering innovation and creating jobs.
Russia races Tom Cruise and Musk for first movie in space
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Six decades after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth, earning Moscow a key win in the Cold War, Russia is again in a space race with Washington.
This time though the stakes are somewhat glitzier.
On October 5, one of Russia's most celebrated actresses, 36-year-old Yulia Peresild is blasting off to the International Space Station (ISS) with film director Klim Shipenko, 38.
Their mission? Shoot the first film in orbit before the Americans do.
If their plan falls into place, the Russians are expected to beat Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise and Hollywood director Doug Liman, who were first to announce their project together with NASA and Space X, the company of billionaire Elon Musk.
"I really want us to be not only the first but also the best," Peresild told AFP, with the clock ticking down to the planned October 5 blast-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Call—the Russian project's working title—was announced in September last year, four months after the Hollywood project.
But apart from its grand ambitions, little is known about the film.
Russian cargo ship lifts off for International Space Station
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Branson's Virgin Orbit launches 7 satellites from 747 plane
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Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit delivered satellites from three countries into space Wednesday, its second successful rocket launch from a plane.
Branson mum on when he'll launch to space on Virgin Galactic
![Branson mum on when he'll launch to space on Virgin Galactic](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2021/branson-mum-on-when-he.jpg "In this Monday, Oct. 28, 2019 file photo, Richard Branson, right, founder of Virgin Galactic, and company executives gather for photos outside the New York Stock Exchange before his company's IPO. In an interview after the Wednesday, June 30, 2021 satellite launch by his separate company Virgin Orbit, Branson said that he has to be "so circumspect" in what he says about Virgin Galactic. "All I can say is when the engineers tell me that I can go to space, I'm ready, fit and healthy to go. So we'll see," he said.")
CubeSat named for pioneer of European planetary defence
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As ESA’s Hera mission reaches the Didymos double asteroid system, it will not be there alone: it will also serve as mothership for Europe’s first two ‘CubeSats’ into deep space. Juventas, performing subsurface radar sounding, is called after the daughter of Hera. The other, spectral surveyor Milani, takes the name of the researcher who began Europe’s asteroid risk monitoring system and came up with the original concept inspiring Hera and NASA’s DART – a double spacecraft mission for planetary defence.
Iran says UAV can travel 7,000 km; Drones hit near Iraq's Arbil
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Iran has drones capable of flying 7,000 kilometres (more than 4,000 miles), the commander of its Revolutionary Guard force said Sunday.
"We have drones which can fly 7,000 kilometres, without a pilot, and land back at the same spot or anywhere else," General Hossein Salami said in a speech broadcast by state television.
He gave no other details but the new drone would give it a range of Weapons System installation begins at Aegis Ashore Poland
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Installation of the Aegis Ashore Poland's Aegis Weapon System has begun. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) recently achieved critical installation milestones of the Aegis Weapon System at its Redzikowo, Poland, facility whose design and construction efforts are being accomplished in close partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).
In March, the Aegis Weapon System completed Airbus to provide satellite-based maritime surveillance services for the UK Royal Navy
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The UK Royal Navy has awarded a 12 month contract extension to Airbus covering the continued provision of satellite-based maritime surveillance services for the Joint Maritime Security Centre (JMSC).
The contract follows the successful completion of a proof of concept phase, and will ensure the continued monitoring of areas of interest in UK waters and ultimately protect UK sovereign borde SpaceX postpones launch of 88 satellites in rideshare mission to Wednesday
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SpaceX postponed a launch Tuesday to send 88 small satellites into orbit from Florida in what is known as a rideshare launch due to interference from a possible plane in the region, a SpaceX announcer said.
"It looks like the [launch] range was a no go. There might have been an airplane in the area. We do have a backup opportunity tomorrow, but for today, that's going to do it for us,"