SPACENEWS

UN:IO consortium consists of 14 leading European NewSpace companies, led by Reflex Aerospace, launch provider Isar Aerospace and laser specialist Mynaric Smallsat mission integrator NanoAvionics, together with other UN:IO consortium members, will start working on a feasibility study, which has been granted 1.4 million EUR (1.6 million USD) by the European Commission, to create a Read More

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VgSkMDaFNk NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, also known as IXPE, lifted off Thursday, Dec. 9, at 1 a.m. EST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.     After a successful launch, the rocket performed as expected, with spacecraft separation taking place 33 minutes into flight. Approximately one minute later, the spacecraft Read More

The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) is designed to answer fundamental questions about the Universe. One of Webb’s key science goals is to study the nearby cosmos: uncovering hidden parts of our Solar System, peering inside dust clouds where stars and planetary systems are forming, and revealing the composition of exoplanets in more detail. Exoplanets Read More

In brief Applicants to ESA’s astronaut selection are being thanked for their patience as thousands of acceptance or rejection notifications are distributed to candidates across Europe. In-depth Head of Space Medicine at ESA, Guillaume Weerts, says he and his team have been very conscious of the need to give every application the attention it deserves Read More

The city of Fairbanks, the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska, and its surroundings, are featured in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image. Visible in the top-left corner of the image, Fairbanks is located in the central Tanana Valley, straddling the Chena River near its confluence with the Tanana River – a 940 km tributary Read More

…at 1:00 AM EDT (6:00 UTC) What is IXPE? Built by Ball Aerospace it is the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer and has three identical space telescopes that measure the polarization of comic rays from black holes, pulsars and neutron stars. These are the most violent areas of the solar system and IXPE will capture new Read More

Mirror, mirror, on the Moon, how far away are you?  High-accuracy Tests is seeking the answer to this and more questions on general relativity, the gravitational dynamics of the Earth-Moon system and the deep lunar interior.   MoonLIGHT is a laser retroreflector, imaged here, which allows laser beams sent from Earth to be reflected back from Read More

First satellite mission hosting a high-energy astrophysics payload by LANL in 20 yearsDedicated nanosatellite mission to measure cosmic diffuse gamma-ray (CDG) background Smallsat mission integrator NanoAvionics US has received a mission contract by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world. The 12U (1U equals 10 × Read More

NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission is the first satellite dedicated to measuring the polarization of X-rays from a variety of cosmic sources, such as black holes and neutron stars. Credits: NASA NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch and launch activities for the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission, the first satellite Read More

A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket carrying the Space Test Program (STP)-3 mission for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command lifted off on Dec. 7 at 5:19 a.m. EST from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. To date ULA has launched 147 times with 100 percent mission success. STP-3 Read More