Esrange Space Centre, Sweden (AFP) Dec 8, 2022
As the mercury drops to minus 20 Celsius, a research rocket lifts off from one of the world's northernmost space centres, its burner aglow in the twilight of Sweden's snowy Arctic forests. Hopes are high that rockets like this could carry satellites as early as next year, in what could be the first satellite launch from a spaceport in continental Europe. At the launch pad, about an hour

Paris (AFP) Dec 8, 2022
Projects to develop space centres that can launch satellites into Earth's orbit are sprouting up around Europe, amid the soaring popularity of small rockets and the commercialisation of space. By the end of this year, Spanish start-up PLD Space expects to launch its Miura-1 mini-rocket from the El Arenosillo site in the southern region of Andalusia. Satellites will also be launched "in t

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
The German federal government has launched the Small Satellite Initiative with the aim of consolidating the German space industry and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially start-ups, actively involved in the small satellite sector. The Bundestag allocated 10 million euros for this purpose in 2022. On 6 December 2022, representatives from industry, research and politics

Vilnius, Lithuania (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
Absolut Sensing, a subsidiary of the Absolut Group specialized in the measurement of greenhouse gas emissions, has achieved a significant milestone with the selection of satellite manufacturer Kongsberg NanoAvionics (NanoAvionics) to build its demonstration satellite dubbed "GEN1", after a rigorous selection process. Under the mission agreement, NanoAvionics will provide its 16U nanosatellite bu

Huntsville AL (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
Orbital Assembly (OA), a leader in the race to make Hybrid-GravityTM space accessible for leisure, commercial and industrial activities has announced a crowdfunding equity offering (Regulation CF). The company continues to seek investment to initiate full scale human factors design in conjunction with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, to begin construction of the first orbital flight hard

Austin TX (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
Slingshot Aerospace, Inc., a company building data and analytics products to make space operations safer, has announced that it has raised $40.85 million in an oversubscribed Series A2 funding round. The round was led by Sway Ventures and included participation from others, including C16 Ventures, ATX Venture Partners, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and Draper Associates,

Paignton UK (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
Spirent Communications plc (LSE:SPT), the leading provider of test and assurance solutions for next-generation devices and networks, has announced availability of SimORBIT, the first high-accuracy orbital modelling software solution specifically developed for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite simulation. Created in partnership with spaceborne receiver developer SpacePNT, Spirent SimORBIT ena

Beijing, China (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
Designed for the "Meridian Space Weather Monitoring Project-II", five digital ionosondes have been installed and start operation at the observatories of this Project, according to the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on November 16, 2022. The ionosphere stretches roughly 50 to 400 miles above Earth's surface, right at the edge of space, and

Los Alamos NM (SPX) Dec 08, 2022
The standard view of gamma-ray bursts as a signature for different types of dying stars might need a rewrite. Recent astronomical observations, supported by theoretical modeling, reveal a new observational fingerprint of neutron-star mergers, which may shed light on the production of heavy elements throughout the universe. "Astronomers have long believed that gamma-ray bursts fell into two

Washington DC (UPI) Dec 7, 2021
NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity completed its 35th flight over the weekend, setting a new altitude record of 46 feet in the thin Martian atmosphere. The 4-pound chopper's previous record was 39 feet, according to NASA's Ingenuity flight log. The helicopter was deployed from NASA's Perseverance rover that landed on the Martian surface in February 2021. Saturday's Ingenuity flight