A miniscule special ingredient blended with satellite materials could lead to significant mass savings for future missions. An ESA project with Adamant Composites in Greece tested how the addition of graphene – microscopic flakes of carbon just a single atom thick, combining robust strength with electrical conductivity – plus other nano-sized materials has the potential to optimise a satellite’s thermal and electrical properties.

Carlsbad CA (SPX) Oct 13, 2022
Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT) reports that reports that the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite has completed mechanical environmental testing. This is a significant milestone that is designed to verify the satellite can endure the rigors of launch and continues the momentum for launch later this year. During mechanical environmental testing, the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite was subjected to simulatio

McLean VA (SPX) Oct 13, 2022
SpaceLink, a company that provides secure data relay from any orbit, any time, announced it was awarded a contract by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) to study how commercial optical ground terminals will integrate into the Near Space Network. The funded study includes a demonstration of end-to-end transport of multi-source data at the SpaceLink gateway in the Mojave Desert. SpaceLi

Leiden, Netherlands (SPX) Oct 13, 2022
An additional six of Airbus' Sparkwing solar panels have been selected by Aerospacelab to accommodate their ramp up towards higher satellite production volumes. The panels are designed and produced at Airbus' Dutch site in Leiden. The ordered configuration, consisting of two single panel wings, each measuring 1070x570mm, is identical to the set recently delivered by Airbus for the first flight m

Menlo Park CA (SPX) Oct 13, 2022
Airbus Ventures announces its newest lead investment in Solestial, Inc. ("Solestial"), the solar energy company for space. The round was joined by AEI HorizonX, GPVC, Stellar Ventures, Industrious Ventures, and others. This new funding will be used to ramp up production and customer engagement capabilities, as the company expands ground and flight testing in parallel; additional investments in R

Following its unanimous approval by ESA Council on 17 March, the Association Agreement between ESA and the Slovak Republic was signed on 14 June at ESA ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

ESA’s Mars Express has captured the rare moment of Mars’ small moon Deimos passing in front of Jupiter and its four largest moons ­– the focus of ESA’s upcoming Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer launching next year. Celestial alignments like these enable a more precise determination of the martian moons’ orbits.

Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 13, 2022
New research makes hypotheses that NASA's Europa Clipper can test: Any plumes or volcanic activity at the Jovian moon's surface are caused by shallow lakes in its icy crust. In the search for life beyond Earth, subsurface bodies of water in our outer solar system are some of the most important targets. That's why NASA is sending the Europa Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter's moon Europa: There

Leicester UK (SPX) Oct 13, 2022
The cocktail of chemicals that make up the frozen surfaces on two of Jupiter's largest moons are revealed in the most detailed images ever taken of them by a telescope on Earth. Planetary scientists from the University of Leicester's School of Physics and Astronomy have unveiled new images of Europa and Ganymede, two future destinations for exciting new missions to the Jovian system.

Washington DC (SPX) Oct 13, 2022
Analysis of data obtained over the past two weeks by NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) investigation team shows the spacecraft's kinetic impact with its target asteroid, Dimorphos, successfully altered the asteroid's orbit. This marks humanity's first time purposely changing the motion of a celestial object and the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology.