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Smile is a brand-new space mission currently in the making. It will study how Earth responds to the solar wind and solar storms.

At the European Space Agency’s technical heart in the Netherlands, engineers have spent the last four months carrying out ‘spacecraft environment testing’ – putting Smile through its paces to make sure it is ready for the shaky rocket launch, the vacuum of space and the extreme temperatures it will face in orbit around Earth.

Now all complete, Smile is one step closer to launch in 2026.

This video provides a glimpse into the testing process. It

Φsat-2, a miniature satellite, has completed its commissioning and has begun delivery of science data, using algorithms to efficiently process and compress Earth observation images, as well as detect wildfires, ships, marine pollution and more.

Daytona Beach, FL (SPX) Jul 09, 2025
Cosmic dust does far more than float through space. It's the raw material from which stars, planets and possibly even life emerge. Yet astronomers have long puzzled over where this vast amount of dust comes from and what it's made of. Dr. Noel Richardson, an associate professor of Physics and Astronomy at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and his students are answering these questions

Princeton NJ (SPX) Jul 09, 2025
Instead of a tempest in a teapot, imagine the cosmos in a canister. Scientists have performed experiments using nested, spinning cylinders to confirm that an uneven wobble in a ring of electrically conductive fluid like liquid metal or plasma causes particles on the inside of the ring to drift inward. Since revolving rings of plasma also occur around stars and black holes, these new findings imp

London, UK (SPX) Jul 09, 2025
A new UK-led satellite mission concept aims to strengthen the country's position in space weather observation and forecasting by deploying a suite of homegrown scientific instruments on a low-cost spacecraft in low-Earth orbit. The proposal was presented Wednesday at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting 2025 in Durham. UK-ODESSI (UK-Orbital pathfinDEr for Space

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 09, 2025
In a strategic move to reinforce India's space sovereignty in the quantum era, Space TS and Synergy Quantum have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to co-develop the nation's first indigenous quantum-secure satellite systems and supporting technologies. This collaboration unites Space TS's expertise in satellite systems engineering with Synergy Quantum's leadership in post-quantum cybers

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 14, 2025
The Moon's near and far sides differ dramatically in terrain, crust, and volcanic history-a mystery that has long perplexed scientists. This disparity is now better understood thanks to China's Chang'e-6 mission, which launched on May 3, 2024, and returned 1,935.3 grams of lunar material from the South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA) on June 25, 2024. The SPA, a 2,500-kilometer-wide structure, is the ol

London, UK (SPX) Jul 14, 2025
If we're to land humans on Mars in the coming decades, we'll have to know what challenges await them when they get there. Enter M-MATISSE, a potential precursor to a crewed mission to the Red Planet which could use UK instrumentation being promoted at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting 2025 in Durham to revolutionise our understanding of space weather on Mars.

London, UK (SPX) Jul 14, 2025
A mystery interstellar object discovered last week is likely to be the oldest comet ever seen - possibly predating our solar system by more than three billion years, researchers say. The "water ice-rich" visitor, named 3I/ATLAS, is only the third known object from beyond our solar system ever spotted in our cosmic neighbourhood and the first to reach us from a completely different region o

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jul 14, 2025
In a concerted push to support China's rapidly expanding low-altitude space sector, six leading universities will introduce an undergraduate major in the field this fall. The program, approved in April by the Ministry of Education, is part of a national strategy to cultivate professionals for an industry projected to surpass 1.5 trillion yuan ($207 billion) in value by the end of 2025. The