Satellite News

Design work on systems of Clearspace-1, a mission to remove space debris from the orbit, began in Europe this summer, the head of the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Moscow office, Rene Pischel, was quoted as saying.

NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) have finalised an agreement to collaborate on the Artemis Gateway. The agreement marks NASA’s first formal commitment to launch international crew members to the lunar vicinity as part of NASA’s Artemis missions.

Russia’s State Space Corporation Roskosmos will start establishing a new cluster of over 600 satellites under the Sfera (Sphere) programme from 2021, Roskosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin announced.

Thales Alenia Space has signed the first phase of a contract with NorthStar Earth and Space Inc., a Canadian space-based information services company, to start the development and production of the first three smallsat satellites that are part of the world’s first commercial space-based environmental and near-space monitoring system.

Two days after touching down on asteroid Bennu, NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission team received images that confirm the spacecraft has collected more than enough material to meet one of its main mission requirements – acquiring at least 60 grams of the asteroid’s surface material. However, the lid for the collector at the end of the probe’s arm where the fragments are being stored has been slightly wedged open by larger rocks, creating a leak.

The two European satellite passengers to be orbited on Arianespace’s next Vega launch – Spain’s SEOSAT-Ingenio and Taranis of France – have been fuelled in preparation for next month’s lift-off from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

The Spainsat NG programme, owned and operated by Hisdesat, has successfully passed the preliminary design review (PDR) of the payloads and the full satellite, including PDR of Pacis 3 elements. Spainsat NG is being manufactured by a consortium of four co-primes from Airbus in Spain and France, and Thales Alenia Space in Spain and France.

Russia’s space sector will no longer depend on imported goods by 2025, Russian state space corporation Roskosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin was quoted as saying.