ESA -Decisions from the 2022 Space Summit

European leaders today confirmed their ambitious plans to work closely together to accelerate Europe as a world leader in space during a series of high-level meetings held in Toulouse, France. Under the plans, ESA, the EU and their member States are uniting to ensure that Europe fully realises the enormous untapped potential for space to Read More

United Launch Alliance Contracts with Milling Precision to Build Components for the Atlas V Rocket

United Launch Alliance announced today that it has contracted with Milling Precision in Wichita, Kan., to supply components for its Atlas V rocket. The Atlas V rocket has launched 90 times with payloads for the Department of Defense, NASA and commercial customers. “I had the opportunity to visit Wichita recently and meet with current and Read More

Deep down temperature shifts give rise to eruptions

The astonishing force of the Tonga volcanic eruption shocked the world, but the fact that this underwater volcano actually erupted came as less of a surprise to geoscientists using satellite data to study changes in the temperature deep below Earth’s surface. The cataclysmic explosion of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcano in January is reported to Read More

ENAIRE recovered 71.7% of flights in January compared to 2019 levels

Month by month, the trend continues as air traffic recovers to pre-pandemic levels. ENAIRE managed over 100,000 flights in January (103,579), which is just 28.3% below the average for the entire network for the same month in 2019, a record year for traffic before the effects of COVID took hold in 2020. This figure means Read More

SpaceX, Virgin Orbit and Ferrari join ESA-NASA Advanced Manufacturing event

Confirmed speakers at next month’s ESA-NASA 1st International Conference on Advanced Manufacturing for Air, Space and Land Transportation include leading technologists from Airbus, Boeing, SpaceX, Virgin Orbit and Ferrari’s Formula 1 team. Registration is now open for the four-day online event, which will include more than 185 speakers from the scientific and engineering communities. Close-up X-ray imaging of Read More

ASTRA’s Demonstration Launches From SLC-46 But Has An In-Flight Failure. All Payloads Are Lost!

Sadly on ASTRA's 3rd attempt from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station SLC-46 at 3:00 PM EDT 2-10-22 for the first demonstration mission ELaNa-41 with NASA liftoff was successfully but an in-flight failure caused the rocket to not reach orbit and all payloads on board were lost! The two previous scrubs was an issue with a Read More

SpaceX – Geomagnetic storm and recently deployed Starlink satellites

On Thursday, February 3 at 1:13 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Falcon 9’s second stage deployed the satellites into their intended orbit, with a perigee of approximately 210 kilometers above Earth, and each satellite achieved controlled flight. Read More

ASTRA Scrubs ELaNa 41 Rocket Launch carrying four NASA Venture Class CubeSats

Seconds Before Launch 2-7-2022! ASTRA scrubbed their 2nd launch attempt a demonstration mission for NASA just as the five Delphin kerosene engines ignited briefly due to what the company is reporting as a minor telemetry issue. On Saturday February 5th ASTRA scrubbed the launch attempt due to a radar system issue with the United States Read More

Space repairs in 360° Cosmic Kiss – with video

Scientist, engineer, test subject and tradesperson – astronauts in orbit wear many different hats. In this 360° timelapse, ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer works to repair a faulty valve behind EXPRESS-Rack 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brq9nTofsJw Water On-Off Valve 8 (WOOV-8), along with WOOV-6 and WOOV-7, determines whether the cooling water of Europe’s Columbus module flows through, or bypasses, Read More