Image: The Cheops satellite being fuelled with hydrazine at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on 23 November. A highly specialised team of fuellers is at work, protected by special suites. Fuelling is controlled via a dedicated set-up which allows to control accurately the quantity of propellant loaded in the satellite tank. Scheduled for launch on […]
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano has made robotics history, reaching out from the International Space Station in orbit around Earth at 8 km/s, to control an Earth-based rover, equipped with an advanced gripper possessing the equivalent mobility and dexterity of a human hand. To source
Video: 00:02:37 Ina Cheibas talks about her YGT experience in the Advanced Concepts Team at ESTEC, Netherlands, where her role was to propose and develop additive manufacturing techniques for a space habitat with in situ resources. To source
Discover our week through the lens (25-29 November 2019). To source
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and his spacewalking buddy NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan will venture beyond the International Space Station’s airlock for the third time on 2 December as part of a complex series of spacewalks to service the Station’s cosmic ray detector AMS-02. To source
Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Lake St. Clair, forming the border between Ontario, Canada to the east, and Michigan, US to the west. The Saint Clair River is visible at the top of the image and flows southwards, connecting the southern end of Lake Huron with Lake St. Clair, visible in the […]
Video: 00:02:39 In this week’s edition of the Earth from Space programme, the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Lake St. Clair, forming the border between Ontario, Canada to the east, and Michigan, US to the west. See also Lake St. Clair to download the image. To source
Video: 00:04:18 Interview with ESA Director General Jan Wörner following the conclusion of Space19+, the ESA Council at Ministerial Level, held in Seville, Spain, 27-28 November. Find out more about the biggest ever budget committed by ESA ministers To source
ESA Press Release No.22-2019 ESA’s Council at Ministerial Level, Space19+, has concluded in Seville, Spain, with the endorsement of the most ambitious plan to date for the future of ESA and the whole European space sector. The meeting brought together ministers with responsibility for space activities in Europe, along with Canada and observers from the […]
This week, the UN World Meteorological Organization announced that concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached yet another high. This ongoing trend is not only heating up the planet, but also affecting the chemical composition of our oceans. Until recently, it has been difficult to monitor ‘ocean acidification’, but scientists are exploring new […]
The Orion spacecraft that will fly farther from Earth on the Artemis I mission than any human-rated vehicle has ever flown before, arrived at NASA’s Plum Brook Station yesterday. This was the first voyage of the assembled spacecraft – the size of a two-storey house – that includes NASA’s Crew Module and Crew Module Adapter […]
Strange ribbons of purple light that appeared in the sky – known as Steve – became the subject of debate in 2017, as their origins were unbeknown to scientists. Now, photographs of this remarkable phenomena have been studied to understand their exact position in the night sky. To source
Large antennas are our only current way of communicating through space across vast distances, and every now and then they need to be spruced up to ensure we can keep in touch with our deep-space exploration spacecraft. To source