Kourou (AFP) Sept 5, 2024
Europe's Vega rocket launched Wednesday from French Guiana, an AFP journalist said, carrying a satellite which will help combat natural disasters. Delayed by a day due to "electrical issues on the ground links", according to French firm Arianespace, the launch in Kourou finally took place at 10:50 pm (0150 GMT Thursday). "Successful lift-off for the last Vega mission from Europe's spacep

Boston MA (SPX) Sep 05, 2024
The members of the MIT First Nations Launch team had never built a drone before when they faced the 2024 NASA First Nations Launch High-Power Rocket Competition. This year's challenge invited teams to design, build, and launch a high-power rocket carrying a scientific payload that deploys mid-air and safely returns to the ground, integrating Indigenous methodologies. The eight-student team

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 05, 2024
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) has announced the launch window for its 53rd Electron mission. This mission will be the second of five dedicated launches for the French company Kineis. The mission, named 'Kineis Killed the RadIOT Star,' is set to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, within a 14-day window starting on September 17, 2024, NZST. Following just th

Washington (AFP) Sept 6, 2024
Boeing's problem-plagued Starliner is set to finally depart the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, returning to Earth without astronauts after NASA deemed the risk too great. The century-old aerospace giant's reputation has taken a hammering over thruster malfunctions and helium leaks its spaceship encountered on its way up to the orbital outpost in June, and the US space agency's

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ESA’s Metal 3D Printer has produced the first metal part ever created in space. 

The technology demonstrator, built by Airbus and its partners, was launched to the International Space Station at the start of this year, where ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen installed the payload in the European Drawer Rack of ESA’s Columbus module. In August, the printer successfully printed the first 3D metal shape in space.  

This product, along with three others planned during the rest of the experiment, will return to Earth for quality analysis: two of the samples will go to ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands

The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission has successfully completed its fourth of six gravity assist flybys at Mercury, capturing images of two special impact craters as it uses the little planet’s gravity to steer itself on course to enter orbit around Mercury in November 2026.

The closest approach took place at 23:48 CEST (21:48 UTC) on 4 September 2024, with BepiColombo coming down to around 165 km above the planet’s surface. For the first time, the spacecraft had a clear view of Mercury’s south pole.

The two new Galileo satellites launched in April have entered service, completing the second of three constellation planes. With every addition to the constellation, the precision, availability and robustness of the Galileo signal is improved. The next launch is planned in the coming weeks and the remaining six Galileo First Generation satellites will join the constellation in the next years.

After a year of testing, ESA’s Hera asteroid mission for planetary defence is about to depart Europe and head towards its launch site in the USA. The Hera team looked on as the crated spacecraft – along with its twin miniature CubeSats and additional equipment – was driven away from ESA’s ESTEC Test Centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Connectivity is the invisible fabric that binds our increasingly digital world together. Most of us have experienced the disruptions caused by slow internet or its absence in remote areas. ESA acknowledges the importance of 5G and 6G technologies in ensuring reliable and comprehensive connectivity across Europe and beyond.

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The Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite lifted off on 5 September at 03:50 CEST (4 September 22:50 local time) aboard the last Vega rocket, flight VV24, from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

Sentinel-2C will continue the legacy of delivering high-resolution data that are essential to Copernicus – the Earth observation component of the EU 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, water and atmospheric monitoring.

Sentinel-2C was the last liftoff for the Vega rocket – after 12 years of service this was the final