A detailed concept for a lunar habitat, created by one of the world’s leading architectural firms with ESA technical support, is currently on show at the Biennale in Venice. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, originator of many of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, worked with ESA on a semi-inflatable habitat design which could be part of a long-term vision for an international Moon settlement.

Week in images: 31 May - 04 June 2021

Discover our week through the lens

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Warsaw – the capital and largest city of Poland.

New York (AFP) June 3, 2021
United Airlines announced plans Thursday to buy 15 planes from airline startup Boom Supersonic in a move that could revive the high-speed form of air travel after the Concorde was wound down in 2003. Under the deal, United would purchase Boom's "Overture" aircraft once the planes meet "United's demanding safety, operating and sustainability requirements" with an aim to start passenger travel

Washington (AFP) June 4, 2021
There is no evidence that unexplained aerial phenomena spotted in recent years by US military personnel are aliens, an upcoming government report quoted by The New York Times Thursday said, but officials still can't explain the mysterious aircraft. The newspaper, which cited senior administration officials briefed on the findings of the highly anticipated report, said they were able to confi

Washington (AFP) June 3, 2021
A SpaceX rocket took off Thursday for the International Space Station carrying supplies for scientific experiments, including some surprising passengers - squids and virtually indestructible microorganisms called tardigrades. The rocket, leased by NASA, launched from Florida at 1:29 pm local time (1729 GMT). The Dragon capsule detached from the Falcon 9 rocket about 12 minutes after take-of

Xichang, China (XNA) Jun 04, 2021
China sent a new meteorological satellite into planned orbit from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province on Thursday morning. The satellite, Fengyun-4B (FY-4B), was launched by a Long March-3B rocket at 12:17 a.m. (Beijing Time). It was the 372nd flight mission of the Long March rocket series, said the launch center. As the first of China's new-generation meteorologi

Luxembourg (SPX) Jun 04, 2021
Kleos Space S.A, a space-powered Radio Frequency Reconnaissance data-as-a- service (DaaS) company confirms the successful dispatch of its cluster of four Polar Vigilance Mission satellites (KSF1) from Delft in the Netherlands to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Under a rideshare contract with Spaceflight Inc., the satellites will lift-off aboard the Spaceflight SXRS-5 / SpaceX Transport

London, UK (SPX) Jun 04, 2021
SES Government Solutions (SES GS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SES, and Isotropic Systems, a leading developer of transformational broadband terminal technologies, announce the successful completion of the first of two milestone next-generation antenna trials with the U.S. Military aimed at unleashing unprecedented information distribution to warfighters across the battlefield. The U.S. A

Austin TX (SPX) Jun 04, 2021
The surface of the sun churns with energy and frequently ejects masses of highly-magnetized plasma towards Earth. Sometimes these ejections are strong enough to crash through the magnetosphere - the natural magnetic shield that protects the Earth - damaging satellites or electrical grids. Such space weather events can be catastrophic. Astronomers have studied the sun's activity for centuri