CELESTA, the first CERN-driven satellite, successfully entered orbit during the maiden flight of Europe's Vega-C launch vehicle. Launched by the European Space Agency from the French Guiana Space Center (CSG) at 13.13 UTC on 13 July 2022, the satellite deployed smoothly and transmitted its first signals in the afternoon.

Weighing one kilogram and measuring 10 centimeters on each of its sides, CELESTA (CERN latchup and radmon experiment student satellite) is a 1U CubeSat designed to study the effects of cosmic radiation on electronics. The satellite carries a Space RadMon, a miniature version of a well-proven radiation monitoring device deployed in CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The first stunning images from the James Webb Space Telescope were revealed this week, but its journey of cosmic discovery has only just begun.

Here is a look at two early projects that will take advantage of the orbiting observatory's powerful instruments.

The first stars and galaxies

One of the great promises of the telescope is its ability to study the earliest phase of cosmic history, shortly after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.

The more distant objects are from us, the longer it takes for their light to reach us, and so to gaze back into the distant universe is to look back in the deep past.

A swarm? Of bugs?

Not quite—Swarm is ESA's mission to unravel the mysteries of Earth's magnetic field. It's made up of three satellites, A, B and C—affectionately known as Alpha, Bravo and Charlie.

What happened?

A small piece of human-made rubbish circling our planet—known as space debris—was detected hurtling towards Alpha at 16:00 CEST, on 30 June. A potential collision was predicted just eight hours later, shortly after midnight. The risk of impact was high enough that Alpha needed to get out of the way—fast.

There's rubbish in space?

A lot of it. Old satellites, rocket parts and small pieces of debris left over from previous collisions and messy breakups. Each little piece can cause serious damage to a satellite, and larger ones can destroy a satellite and create large amount of new debris.

Was this the first time this has happened?

That day? Maybe. Ever? No way. Each one of the ESA's satellites has to perform on average two evasive maneuvers every year—and that's not including all the alerts they get that don't end up needing evasive action.

Since the launch of the first man-made earth satellite, the number of space objects has been rapidly increasing. According to the authoritative statistics from NASA, over 6,400 orbiting spacecraft still existed until early 2021. Furthermore, the total number of rocket debris above 10 cm has exceeded 16,000. The space environment has become highly congested due to the increasing space debris, seriously threatening the safety of orbiting spacecraft.

Space-based situational awareness, as a comprehensive capability of threat knowledge, analysis, and decision-making, is of significance to ensure space security and maintain normal order. Various space situational awareness systems have been designed and launched. Data acquisition, target recognition, and monitoring constituting key technologies make major contributions, and various advanced algorithms are explored as technical supports.

However, comprehensive reviews of these technologies and specific algorithms rarely emerge. This disadvantages the future development of space situational awareness. In a review paper recently published in Space: Science & Technology, Shuang Li from College of Astronautics, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, reviewed and analyzed research advancements in key technologies for space situational awareness, indicated the future directions of the key technologies, and emphasized the research prospects of multiagent and synergetic constellation technologies for future situational awareness, aiming to provide references for space-based situational awareness to realize space sustainability.