International
Stories around the biggest global space news, including from Europe, India, and Japan.
Ariane 5 Launches for the Final Time
Ariane 5 bid farewell today as it launched into the night sky for the very last time. The hardest goodbyes: After 25 years, 116 launches, and 82 consecutive flights without a full failure, ESA is retiring its workhorse rocket. Its final flight carried France’s Syracuse 4B satellite, which will provide army comms, and Germany’s Heinrich…
Blue Origin Plans to Build an International Launch Site
Blue Origin is planning to build a launch facility outside the US, the company’s CEO Bob Smith told the Financial Times this week. The search has just begun, and a decision on a location is not imminent. The company is also seeking new partnerships and acquisitions across Europe. Euro trip: Despite not yet having achieved…
Euclid to Launch July 1 on a Mission to Study Dark Energy
Euclid, ESA’s dark energy surveyor satellite, is slated to launch July 1 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, the space agency announced this week. Ministry of magic: The spacecraft, named after the Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria, will map the cosmos in 3D and study how dark energy shapes the universe. Scientists hope the data will…
ESA Livestreams from Mars
20 years after launch, ESA’s Mars Express orbiter is still notching new achievements. On Friday, the spacecraft broadcast the first ever livestream from Mars. Previous space missions—including Neil Armstrong’s step seen ’round the world during Apollo, and last year’s DART mission to bump an asteroid off its course—have provided the public with live imagery from…
Europe Looks to Support Commercial Cargo to LEO
Europe is seeking its own cargo transport to the ISS. Last week, ESA announced that it is looking to support private companies’ development of cargo transport capabilities to the ISS and, in the future, to other LEO outposts. “By launching this call, we are providing the supporting scheme, whereby private companies receive support from ESA…
UK Sees Payoff in Space Investment
Years of government investment in the UK’s commercial space sector are paying off. The UK received 17% of global space private capital since 2015, according to a report released Tuesday from the UK Space Agency and PwC. That makes it the second most attractive place for private sector space investment behind the US, and the…
Airbus, SES, Eutelsat, Hispasat, and Thales Band Together for IRIS2
In the ultimate example of competitors coming together, Europe’s largest satellite companies announced yesterday that they are joining forces to bid on the EU’s IRIS2 program contracts. Airbus, SES, Eutelsat, Hispasat, and Thales said the partnership will “leverage the expertise and capabilities in the field of secure satellite communications solutions,” according to a joint press…
JUICE Lifts Off Aboard Ariane 5 and Heads to Jupiter
The JUICE is Jupiter-bound. ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft launched aboard an Ariane-5 rocket this morning from the European Spaceport in French Guiana. The probe will perform four gravitational assist fly-bys of Venus and Earth before heading to Jupiter, where it’s scheduled to arrive in July 2031. The squeeze: JUICE will spend three…
Isar Closes €155M Series C Funding Round
German launch startup Isar Aerospace has closed a €155M ($167.3M) Series C funding round. The company has now raised over €300M ($323.9M) and is fully funded up to and beyond its first flight. With this latest round of funding, Isar cements its position as the most well-funded European launch startup. The next most successful is…
UKSA Funds Rolls-Royce’s Lunar Nuclear Reactor
The UK Space Agency has awarded Rolls-Royce £2.9M ($3.5M) to continue development of a lunar nuclear reactor. Under the contract, UKSA and Rolls-Royce are aiming to get a demo model on the Moon’s surface by 2029. The agency previously funded a £249,000 (~$305,000) study last year. The micro-reactor program A bet on nuclear energy is…
Spain Greenlights National Space Agency
This week, Spain’s Council of Ministers voted to approve a statute green-lightning the country’s new space agency to formally begin operations. The vote is “a determined commitment by the Government of Spain for a sector that is key, that generates opportunities, that generates quality employment, and we endow it with an initial budget of more…
Ukraine Contests Findings of Vega C Independent Inquiry
Ukraine’s space agency has questioned the findings of an independent inquiry formed to investigate the failure of a Vega C launch vehicle last December. The failure resulted in the loss of two Airbus Pléiades Neo Earth observation satellites. The independent inquiry’s findings Following a successful first stage separation and second stage ignition, a progressive decrease…
Vega C Failure Revealed
The European Space Agency announced on Friday that an eroded engine nozzle component caused the Vega C rocket failure in December. Yuzhnoye, the Ukrainian nozzle component supplier, will now need to be replaced. The supplier swap will push back the next Vega-C launch attempt to late 2023. A mishap with high stakes: “I would claim…
