The European Space Agency’s Hera spacecraft has lifted off on a unique mission to the binary asteroid pair Didymos and Dimorphos. The probe will seek new insights into planetary defense techniques that could protect the Earth from asteroid impacts in the future, following up on NASA’s DART mission which intentionally struck Dimorphos in September of 2022.
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Falcon 9 currently finds itself in the midst of its third grounding in 2024. Following a successful launch of the Crew-9 mission and crew aboard Crew Dragon Freedom on September 28th, the Falcon 9 second stage experienced an anomaly during its deorbit burn, causing it to fall outside of the designated safe zone.
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The joint European/Japanese BepiColombo mission completed its fourth encounter with Mercury on Wednesday, September 4th 2024. The flyby was the latest of many gravity assists the mission needs to decelerate itself into Mercury orbit, and took the spacecraft closer to the planet’s surface than ever before.
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On July 9, 2024 at 3:00 PM EST, the inaugural launch of Ariane 6 took place, carrying with it the promise of renewed access to space for Europe.
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Ariane 6, the European Space Agency and Arianespace’s next-generation rocket, is ready to perform its maiden flight on July 9, 2024.
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For Asteroid Day 2024, we’ll be briefly covering updates to various small body missions, and exploring how these vital ambassadors from Earth teach us so much about our origins.
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Throughout the tremendous rise of the commercial space ecosystem, Europe has been eyeing numerous partners in the private sector to facilitate access for the continent in a new and changing world – one that could rewrite the narrative for future space exploration.
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The European Space Agency (ESA) and SpaceX are preparing to launch the long-anticipated EarthCARE mission on May 27, 2024, set to improve climate models and weather forecasts by studying Earth’s radiation budget in new detail.
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On Monday, 22 April, ESA celebrated the graduation of its class of 2022 astronaut candidates. The ceremony, held at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, signified the successful completion of basic training for the five European astronaut graduates and the Australian Space Agency’s first astronaut, all now eligible for spaceflight assignments.
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After meeting to discuss ideas and assess technologies, the European Space Agency has begun the process of designing their next “Large Class” mission – one that could explore Saturn’s moons of Enceladus and Titan up close.
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Amidst schedule delays and uncertainties surrounding the return to flight of the Vega launch vehicle, the European Space Agency and European Commission are considering the purchase of an American Falcon 9 rocket to launch their Sentinel-1C climate satellite, with a decision expected in the coming days or weeks.
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After repeated delays, the European Ariane 6 rocket has completed a crucial hotfire test of its Vulcain 2.1 engine, one of the final key steps in preparing the vehicle for its maiden launch in the coming year.
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On November 13 2023, NASA’s Planetary Science Advisory Committee, which advises all of NASA’s planetary science interests, held a meeting to discuss the state of various programs heading into 2024.
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In the atmosphere of an exoplanet 120 light years away from Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected carbon-bearing molecules, some of which have scientists questioning the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.
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The solar system contains 8 planets, each possessing incredible uniqueness. Of these, some stand out as being perhaps the least explored. Every planet has had at least one orbiter take incredible amounts of in situ observations for years on end if not decades, except the Ice Giants…
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NOV. 18, 2020-On Monday night, Vega mission VV17 lifted off on an ill-fated flight – losing two payloads and marking the second failure in just three launches for the troubled European smallsat launcher.
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FEB. 14, 2020–Five days ago, the cooperative NASA-ESA Solar Orbiter mission took off on an Atlas V 411 from Space Launch Complex-41, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, towards the poles of the sun. Yesterday, United Launch Alliance’s CEO Tory Bruno hinted that it may be the most accurate insertion ever done by ULA.
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