2025 marks a landmark year for Europe’s ‘bridge between Earth and space’. The European Space Agency’s Estrack satellite tracking network turns 50 – and with it, its deep space antenna in Cebreros, Spain, celebrates 20 years of connecting Earth to the agency’s most distant missions.

Fittingly, this celebration of technological excellence coincides with the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II and the 50th anniversary of the ESA. To honour this convergence of milestones, ESA and the Vienna Tourist Board are orchestrating a unique mission: broadcasting The Blue Danube Waltz to its destined home among the stars.

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Media invitation: register for Living Planet Symposium 2025

Boston MA (SPX) May 26, 2025
Where did the moon's magnetism go? Scientists have puzzled over this question for decades, ever since orbiting spacecraft picked up signs of a high magnetic field in lunar surface rocks. The moon itself has no inherent magnetism today. Now, MIT scientists may have solved the mystery. They propose that a combination of an ancient, weak magnetic field and a large, plasma-generating impact ma

Berlin, Germany (SPX) May 26, 2025
Scientists at Paderborn University have set a new benchmark in quantum photonics by demonstrating the fastest control yet of individual photons in a cryogenic circuit. Their achievement marks a significant leap for quantum communication, simulation, and information processing by enabling real-time manipulation of single light particles at temperatures near absolute zero. The research team

London, UK (SPX) May 26, 2025
The unusual motion of Titan's atmosphere has been uncovered by scientists at the University of Bristol using data from NASA's Cassini-Huygens mission. Their research shows that Saturn's largest moon possesses an atmosphere that doesn't rotate in sync with its surface but instead exhibits a wobble resembling a gyroscope. Through 13 years of thermal infrared measurements from the Cassini spa

Berlin, Germany (SPX) May 26, 2025
Researchers at the University of Gottingen have uncovered evidence that material from Earth's core, including gold and other precious metals, is leaking into the planet's upper layers. Their study, published in Nature, reports the detection of the rare isotope 100Ru (ruthenium) in volcanic rocks from Hawaii, indicating that the samples originated from deep within the core-mantle boundary, around

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) May 26, 2025
Researchers from Nagoya City University and Tohoku University have successfully simulated the formation of barred olivine, a rare mineral texture found in chondrules-small spherical particles within meteorites dating back to the early solar system. Unlike textures in Earth rocks, barred olivine is unique to these primordial materials. Led by Associate Professor Hitoshi Miura, the team used

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 26, 2025
Rocket Lab USA has announced it will launch the next BlackSky Gen-3 satellite as part of its continued partnership with the real-time space-based intelligence company. The mission, named "Full Stream Ahead," is scheduled to lift off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand during a window opening May 28, 2025 (UTC). This upcoming flight marks the second of four planned Electron missions this y

Paris, France (SPX) May 26, 2025
Impulse Space and SES have entered a multi-launch agreement to utilize the Helios kick stage for direct satellite transfers from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to Geostationary (GEO) and Medium Earth Orbits (MEO), significantly reducing orbital transit time to just hours. The inaugural mission, slated for 2027, will see Helios transporting a 4-ton-class payload directly to GEO within eight hours af