Satellite News
OneSat Final Design Review Successfully Achieved
Airbus has passed an important milestone for the OneSat flexible satellite product line, with the Final Design Review successfully achieved with customers and space agencies. The fully reconfigurable OneSat features major innovations and disruptive technologies including the latest digital processing and active antennas enabling several thousand beams
NASA and the new urgency of climate change
When Joe Biden was elected president, many expected NASA would shift direction, emphasizing climate change over human spaceflight. Three months into Biden’s term, it’s increasingly clear those changes aren’t nearly as radical as some might have thought.
Exploration News
Alpha: Second Space Station mission for ESA’s Thomas Pesquet begins
Saturday at 11:08 (CEST) the Crew Dragon spacecraft with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide docked with the International Space Station’s Node-2 Harmony module
NASA’s Mars helicopter completes second, higher flight / Succeeds in Historic 1st Flight
The second flight of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter in the Martian atmosphere Thursday took the rotorcraft higher than its first hop. A third takeoff as soon as Sunday will take the helicopter more than 150 feet away from its makeshift airfield as engineers attempt more daring test flights.
NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Extracts 1st Oxygen from Red Planet
The growing list of “firsts” for Perseverance, NASA’s newest six-wheeled robot on the Martian surface, includes converting some of the Red Planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen. A toaster-size, experimental instrument aboard Perseverance called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) accomplished the task. The test took place April 20, the 60th Martian day, or sol, since the mission landed Feb. 18.
China announces Zhurong as name for first Mars rover
China named its first Mars rover “Zhurong”, a fire god in ancient Chinese legend. Announced at the opening ceremony of 2021 China Space Conference in Nanjing
China ready launch new space station core module
The Long March 5B carrier rocket tasked with launching the core capsule of China’s space station was moved on Friday morning to the launch tower at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province
China, Russia welcome int’l partners in moon station cooperation
China and Russia’s aerospace authorities have invited all interested countries, international organizations and partners to cooperate in a moon station project.
Launcher News
SNC Creates Sierra Space “ Space a s a Service”
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), the global aerospace and national security leader, announced the creation of Sierra Space, a new commercial space company. The new company’s “space-as-a-service” business model will leverage cutting-edge technologies, such as Dream Chaser spaceplanes and expandable LIFE habitats,
NewSpace News
Accion systems second of two TILE 2 in space propulsion system
Accion Systems today announces that two TILE 2 in-space propulsion system units will launch onboard an Astro Digital micro-satellite aboard the June 2021 SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare launch.As part of the mission Accion Systems and Starfish Space will complete an on-orbit proximity operations demonstration. The team will combine Starfish’s CEPHALOPOD software and Accion’s TILE 2 thrusters, both already a part of the Tenzing mission, to work together to perform the first ever demonstration of rendezvous and proximity operations trajectories using low-thrust electric propulsion.
QuinetiQ To Lead Hypersat’s Hyperspectral Satellite Design Development
Hypersat has awarded a design-phase contract to QinetiQ Inc. (QinetiQ) for their next generation hyperspectral satellite — this study will be an enabling activity for a potential constellation of six LEO satellites that Hypersat plans to launch and that will be capable of producing greater information about the material properties on Earth than any current
Albedo’s Seed Round Delivers $$$Millions
Albedo has plans to design and operate a constellation of satellites that capture visible and thermal imagery at the highest resolution available and the company has announced a successful seed round that resulted in $10 million in funding to help meet their business and technology goals. The firm’s mission is to be the catalyst in […]
WARPSPACE Developing Inter-Satellite Optical Comms Net + Raises Series A Financing Round
WARPSPACE Co., Ltd., a space startup from the University of Tsukuba in Japan, has closed their Series A financing round with additional funding of 400M JPY ($3.6 million) from The Space Frontier Fund (operated by Sparks Innovation for Future Co., Ltd.) and KSK Angel Fund LLC, which is led by professional soccer player Keisuke Honda.
The “Go Ahead” Given By ESA For The Second Scout Satellite Mission — HydroGNSS
The second Earth Observation Scout mission, HydroGNSS, will provide measurements of key hydrological climate variables, including soil moisture, freeze–thaw state over permafrost, inundation and wetlands, and above-ground biomass, using a technique called Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reflectometry. In doing so it will complement missions such as ESA’s SMOS and Biomass, Copernicus Sentinel-1 and NASA’s […
Space Safety News
SpaceX and OneWeb spar over satellite close approach
An alleged close approach between satellites from OneWeb and SpaceX led to a meeting between the companies and the FCC, but the companies don’t completely agree on what resulted from that discussion.
ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers on sheltering from space debris
Andre Kuipers is one of a handful of astronauts who has had to ‘shelter-in-place’ from a piece of marauding space debris. In 2012, a debris fragment was spotted heading towards the International Space Station. Its orbit was hard to predict but it looked like it could pass at a distance of approximately 10 kilometres: that meant code red.
New laser to help clear the sky of space debris
Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have harnessed a technique that helps telescopes see objects in the night sky more clearly to fight against dangerous and costly space debris. The researchers’ work on adaptive optics – which removes the haziness caused by turbulence in the atmosphere
Science & Technology News
Radar satellites can better protect against bushfires and floods
New research led by Curtin University has revealed how radar satellites can improve the ability to detect, monitor, prepare for and withstand natural disasters in Australia including bushfires,
