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ESA's newly selected astronaut candidates of the class of 2022 arrived at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, on 3 April 2023 to begin their 12-month basic training.

The group of five candidates, Sophie Adenot, Pablo Álvarez Fernández, Rosemary Coogan, Raphaël Liégeois, and Marco Sieber, are part of the 17-member astronaut class of 2022, selected from 22 500 applicants from across ESA Member States in November 2022.

The astronaut candidates will be trained to the highest level of standards in preparation for future space missions. During basic training, this includes learning all about space exploration, technical and scientific disciplines, space

Runoff and river discharge are important components in Earth’s water cycle, but as climate change tightens its grip, heatwaves and instances of drought are increasingly hitting the headlines. One would assume that this hotter weather leads to reduced water runoff, but an innovative way of using information from satellites suggests that this isn’t always the case.

Image: Integral team at ESOC during safe mode commissioning

Image: Integral's 'new safe mode' activates for the first time

Rome NY (SPX) Mar 30, 2023
The Department of the Air Force, or DAF, in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, and Space Systems Command, opened registration Feb. 22, 2023, for the qualification round of the fourth annual "Hack-A-Sat" competition, the world's first satellite hacking contest hosted for an on-orbit satellite. Hack-A-Sat is an opportunity for hackers, researchers and everyday ent

San Jose CA (SPX) Apr 03, 2023
Momentus Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTS) has successfully completed the initial test sequence on-orbit of its pioneering Microwave Electrothermal Thruster (MET) that relies on solar power and uses distilled water as a propellant. The MET is the Vigoride Orbital Service Vehicle's (OSV) primary propulsion method that produces thrust by expelling extremely hot gases through a rocket nozzle. Unlike a conv

Houston (AFP) April 3, 2023
NASA is to reveal the names on Monday of the astronauts - three Americans and a Canadian - who will fly around the Moon next year, a prelude to returning humans to the lunar surface for the first time in a half century. The mission, Artemis II, is scheduled to take place in November 2024 with the four-person crew circling the Moon but not landing on it. As part of the Artemis program,

Washington DC (UPI) Apr 2, 2023
SpaceX launched 10 Space Development Agency satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Sunday in the Tranche 0 mission. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off on a cloudy day at about 10:29 p.m. EST, marking the 22nd launch by SpaceX this year and 221st all time. A previous launch attempt was scrubbed on Thursday after one of the booster's nine engines automatically tr

Rome (AFP) March 31, 2023
Italy's privacy watchdog said Friday it had blocked the controversial robot ChatGPT, saying the artificial intelligence app did not respect user data and could not verify users' age. The decision "with immediate effect" will result in "the temporary limitation of the processing of Italian user data vis-a-vis OpenAI", the Italian Data Protection Authority said. The agency has launched an