Copernical Team
Simple shift could make low Earth orbit satellites high capacity
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Low-orbit satellites could soon offer millions of people worldwide access to high-speed communications, but the satellites' potential has been stymied by a technological limitation - their antenna arrays can only manage one user at a time.
The one-to-one ratio means that companies must launch either constellations of many satellites, or large individual satellites with many arrays, to prov Two new satellites added to Galileo constellation for increased resilience
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The European Galileo satellite navigation system keeps growing: a new pair of satellites has joined the constellation after a journey on a Falcon 9 rocket, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 18 September at 00:50 CEST (17 September 18:50 local time).
Sentinel-2C to Vega and orbit – fit-check to liftoff timelapse
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Video:
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From the arrival of Earth-obversation satellite Sentinel-2C in July 2024 and the first fit-check to launch on the from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, this timelapse shows how the third Sentinel 2 satellite was prepared for launch. The last Vega rocket, flight VV24, lifted off on 5 September at 03:50 CEST (4 September 22:50 local time).
Sentinel-2C will provide high-resolution data that is essential to Copernicus – the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme. Developed, built and operated by ESA, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission provides high-resolution optical imagery for a wide range of applications including land,
NASA completes spacecraft to transport, support Roman Space Telescope
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An ambitious mission to Neptune could study both the planet and Triton
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Mission concepts to the outer solar system are relatively common, as planetary scientists are increasingly frustrated by our lack of knowledge of the farthest planets. Neptune, the farthest known planet, was last visited by Voyager 2 in the 1980s.
Technologies have advanced a lot since that probe was launched in 1977. But to utilize that better technology, we first need to have a mission arrive in the system—and one such mission is being developed over a series of papers by ConEx Research and University College London. One has been published in The Aeronautical Journal by J. E. McKevitt and colleagues.
The Arcanum mission is designed to orbit Neptune and land on Triton, giving insight into both objects of interest in the system. Neptune has some of the highest winds in the solar system and the "Great Dark Spot" storm system.
Spacewalk an 'emotional experience' for private astronauts
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The commander of the daring space voyage that included the first-ever spacewalk by private astronauts described opening the hatch into the void as an "emotional experience" that left him in awe, yet deeply aware of the dangers.
Jared Isaacman, the 41-year-old founder and CEO of Shift4Payments, led the recently concluded SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission, where a team of four ventured farther into the cosmos than any humans in half a century.
Europa Clipper: 8 things to know about NASA's mission to an ocean moon of Jupiter
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The first NASA spacecraft dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth, Europa Clipper aims to find out whether the ice-encased moon Europa could be habitable.
NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft, the largest the agency has ever built for a planetary mission, will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Europa, an intriguing icy moon of Jupiter. The spacecraft's launch period opens Thursday, Oct. 10.
Data from previous NASA missions has provided scientists with strong evidence that an enormous salty ocean lies underneath the frozen surface of the moon. Europa Clipper will orbit Jupiter and conduct 49 close flybys of the moon to gather data needed to determine whether there are places below its thick frozen crust that could support life.
Watch the livestream of Industry Space Days 2024
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On 18–19 September, industry will meet at ESA–ESTEC in Noordwijk for ESA’s biennial Industry Space Days (ISD) event.
Watch ISD 2024 on ESA TV Channel Two livestreamed from Conference Hall A including presentations from ESA Directors and guests on 18 September (9:30–18:15 CEST) and 19 September (09:00–17:20 CEST). View the full ISD programme here.
HummingSat: Major progress on Intelsat and Inmarsat design reviews
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The HummingSat project has made major progress on the development of its product line, with Preliminary Design Review (PDR) meetings held for both the Intelsat 45 and Inmarsat 8 missions. These reviews are critical in ensuring that the satellite designs meet all necessary requirements before moving to the next phase of development.
Time to be inspired by planet Earth
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Swatch has again teamed up with ESA to give space fans a new opportunity to design a custom watch featuring breathtaking images of Earth from space.
