Airbus U.S. Space and Defense will produce 42 satellite buses for the Space Development Agency's Transport Layer Tranche 1

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Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace will acquire a majority stake in NanoAvionics in a deal that values the smallsat manufacturer at 65 million euros ($67 million).

The post Kongsberg to acquire majority stake in NanoAvionics appeared first on SpaceNews.

A NASA-funded lunar cubesat is on its way to the moon July 4 after a series of burns by a Rocket Lab transfer stage.

The post CAPSTONE heads to the moon appeared first on SpaceNews.

The government of New Zealand has formally joined a U.S.-led ban on testing of destructive direct-ascent ASAT weapons in an effort to build momentum for a global prohibition on such tests.

The post New Zealand joins ASAT testing ban appeared first on SpaceNews.

NASA is continuing to work with Roscosmos on a seat barter agreement despite missing a self-imposed deadline last month to complete a deal in time to allow exchanges on missions launching this fall.

The post NASA and Roscosmos continue seat barter discussions appeared first on SpaceNews.

Virgin Orbit successfully placed a set of payloads for the U.S. Space Force into orbit early July 2 in the company’s first nighttime launch.

The post Virgin Orbit launches Space Force mission appeared first on SpaceNews.

Our Space Café WebTalk “33 minutes with Graham Turnock - The Accelerators: ESA’s plans to warp drive European Space” took place on Tuesday, 28th June. Graham Turnock has been a Special Advisor to the European Space Agency (ESA) since 2021. Before that, he was Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency.

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Norwegian technology corporation Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (Kongsberg), has entered into an agreement to acquire Lithuanian smallsat bus manufacturer and mission integrator, NanoAvionics, Kongsberg said. The planned acquisition will add products and technology for manufacturing small satellites to the company’s portfolio.

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The European think-tank for space, the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) and research and academic charity, the London Institute of Space Policy and Law (ISPL), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on areas such as research, events and activities, research visits, research network and engagement, ISPL said.

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This Space Café Italy will feature Cinzia Zuffada, NASA’s JPL Deputy Chief Scientist and President of the Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation (ISSNAF), in conversation with Dr. Emma Gatti, host for Space Cafè Radio and correspondent of SpaceWatch.Global for Italy. New Opportunities for Washington and Rome

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In this Space Café Radio - SpaceWatch.Global publisher Torsten Kriening spoke with Valentin Eder, CEO at Space Analyses GmbH, at the  LEO Kinetic Space Safety WorkshopThis workshop focused on finding practical solutions for the threats of space debris in low Earth orbit (LEO) and how to move forward with space exploration with industry emphasis on sustainability.

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ArianeGroup will be leading the SALTO and ENLIGHTEN projects entrusted by the European Commission to speed up the development of reusable, eco-friendly European launchers, as part of the Horizon Europe program.

The two-year reuSable strAtegic space Launcher Technologies & Operations (SALTO) project aims to test a reusable launcher’s vertical landing.

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ESA’s new medium-lift Vega-C rocket is nearly ready for its inaugural flight, with its four stages stacked stages and ready to receive the payload fairing before final checks and launch from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. 

Flight VV21 will lift off as soon as 13 July, pending suitable conditions for launch.

Image: Cosmic manatee accelerates particles from head

Week in images: 27 June - 1 July 2022

Discover our week through the lens

Video: 00:04:21

“After Euclid’s lifetime, it will just be floating in space. What if future beings found Euclid? How would they know anything about the humanity of the people?” – Tom Kitching, lead scientist of Euclid’s VIS instrument.

The team behind ESA’s Euclid mission has come together to create something special – a personal and collective galaxy-shaped fingerprint painting that has been attached to the spacecraft ready to launch into space. The collaborative nature of the artwork reflects the collaborative nature of the Euclid project overall; in both cases, people have come together to build something unique.

The Fingertip Galaxy was created by visual artist Lisa Pettibone and Euclid instrument scientist Tom Kitching. Since the very first fingerprint was pressed down in 2019, over 250 scientists and engineers have contributed to the piece of art.

So why a galaxy? Euclid is a galaxy-imaging machine that will observe billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years to make a 3D map of the Universe. The mission’s ultimate aim is to explore dark matter and dark energy.

“Although Euclid has always been beautiful in concept and materials, it didn’t really say anything about the people involved and humanity as a whole. We asked ourselves whether we could do something artistic that would speak to people,” says Lisa.

Scientists and engineers involved in Euclid were invited to dip their fingertips in paint and make their mark on a large piece of paper.

“We wanted something authentic, not perfect, and not shaped too much,” continues Lisa. “The result is a piece of art with a wonderful energy to it that captures all the energy of the people involved.”

The artwork was photographed and engraved onto a plaque using lasers at Mullard Space Science Laboratory – the same lasers that are used to etch parts for satellites. The plaque was fixed to Euclid and revealed at a ‘Goodbye Euclid’ event on 1 July 2022, when Euclid left Thales Alenia Space in Turin to head to Cannes for final testing as a complete system.

Euclid’s project scientist René Laureijs suggested adding text to the plaque to explain the thoughts behind it. Continuing the artistic nature of the project, poet Simon Barraclough wrote a dedicated poem, from which a short extract was chosen to be etched on to the plaque in a typewriter font that swirls around the galaxy of fingerprints. This video ends with Simon reading part of Since his poem.

Lisa summarises the Fingertip Galaxy: “It is adding an element of humanity to a dark, vast space, where as far as we can see there is no other intelligent life.”

Credit:

Filmmaker/composer: Sam Charlesworth

Fingertip Galaxy creators: Tom Kitching and Lisa Pettibone

Poet: Simon Barraclough – ‘Unextraordinary Light (For Euclid)’

Special thanks: ESA, Euclid mission team, Mullard Space Science Laboratory

Additional media: NASA, @jeremyperkins from unsplash.com

The quarterly ESA Impact is out now!

Welcome to the June quarterly edition of ESA Impact, an interactive showcase of the best images of the last quarter.