SPACENEWS

This simulation of ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) space truck reentering Earth’s atmosphere starts by representing the surrounding of the spacecraft as a three-dimensional cloud of interconnected points, a so-called ‘computational grid’. This forms part of the process of modelling the hypersonic motion of gases around the falling spacecraft through ‘Computational Fluid Dynamics’. This study Read More

Next generation rocket to transform the future of space launch United Launch Alliance (ULA) is nearing completion of the development of the next-generation Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle and sets path for its first launch early next year.  “We could not be more excited to be this close to seeing Vulcan lift off on its inaugural flight,” Read More

Following its unanimous approval by ESA Council on 17 March, the Association Agreement between ESA and the Slovak Republic was signed on 14 June at ESA ESTEC in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. Delegations from the 22 Member States witnessed the signing ceremony, with ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and the former State Secretary in charge of Read More

ESA’s Mars Express has captured the rare moment of Mars’ small moon Deimos passing in front of Jupiter and its four largest moons ­– the focus of ESA’s upcoming Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer launching next year. Celestial alignments like these enable a more precise determination of the martian moons’ orbits. Since arriving in orbit at Read More

The kinetic impact of NASA’s DART spacecraft with the Dimorphos asteroid around its larger Didymos parent body has succeeded in shifting its orbit, meaning humankind’s first planetary defence test has been successful. Observations are continuing of the debris plume caused by the collision for as long as possible, as the asteroid system gradually recedes from Read More

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is returning to Earth alongside NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, marking the end of her second mission to the International Space Station, Minerva. Watch Crew-4's return live on ESAwebTV Channel 2. UPDATE: departure on 13 October has been waved off due to unfavourable weather at the splashdown Read More

A miniscule special ingredient blended with satellite materials could lead to significant mass savings for future missions. An ESA project with Adamant Composites in Greece tested how the addition of graphene – microscopic flakes of carbon just a single atom thick, combining robust strength with electrical conductivity – plus other nano-sized materials has the potential Read More

Today our home planet Earth is being more closely monitored than at any time in its history. Some 1 460 Earth-observing satellites have been launched during the last two decades, with Europe’s Copernicus Sentinel fleet in the forefront of environmental data gathering. A new report led by the European Patent Office examining associated patent filings Read More

In brief The European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC) is a student rocket competition for European university teams organized by the Portuguese Space Agency. For the first time, ESA and the ESA Academy will send experts to support participating student teams while they prepare their student-built rockets for launch. In-depth Students of the German Space Team Aachen Read More

The EUROCONTROL Network Manager (NM) and the CEOs of the A6 Alliance have met to reflect on the traffic evolution and performance, considering the impact and contributions of all aviation actors in the network.They also discussed possible measures and lessons learnt in view of summer 2023 and elaborated on other key strategic items of common Read More