SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has been a huge success with the launch of DM-2 and Crew 1 for NASA last year. This year they have two more missions to launch crew rotations to the International Space Station under the Commercial Crew Program with the next coming up this week.
Date: Friday, April 23nd, 5:49 AM EDT
The European Space Agency is developing a low Earth orbit transportation system called Space Rider, and this month plans for the reusable spacecraft have started to come together. ESA describes the future system as an “uncrewed robotic laboratory about the size of two minivans” that will launch on a Vega C rocket and stay in orbit for up to two months.
The European Space Agency (ESA) held a council meeting today to discuss the maintenance and changes due to take place at Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana for 2020 through 2024. During this meeting, a contract was signed by the ESA and National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), agreeing to “maintain and modernize” the spaceport.
With reusing rockets becoming the new trend in spaceflight, it’s no surprise that the European Space Agency (ESA) is developing the capability for themselves. The development is spurred on by the same reason as everyone else: cost savings. The ability to reuse a booster turns into savings for the manufacturer and lowers cost to orbit for the customer.
NASA and ESA have announced which three astronauts will train and become crew members for SpaceX Crew-3 mission in 2021. The mission, which is expected to launch sometime in the fall next year, will carry the three selected astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
On December 9, 2020, iSpace announced that it had opened a brand new mission control center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. It will serve as the mission control for the companies commercial lunar exploration program, “HAKUTO-R.”
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from its west coast launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Saturday. The mission included a scientific payload for NASA, NOAA, and ESA called Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich. “The spacecraft is named after Dr. Michael Freilich, the former director of NASA’s Earth Science Division and a tireless advocate for advancing satellite measurements of the ocean,” according to NASA.
‘Climate from Space’ is a new and interactive online tool for visualizing how Earth’s climate has changed over the last five decades. Built by the European Space Agency, the new website relies on data collected by Earth-orbiting satellites from the 1970s to present day. ESA’s Climate Change initiative composed the data from 21 suites of climate data records.
This month NASA shared the closest images ever of the Sun’s surface obtained by a mission in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). The Solar Orbiter probe, which was sent into space on February 10, 2020, captured phenomena unprecedented in the Sun. The photos revealed “omnipresent miniature solar flames” near the surface of the star at the center of our solar system.
