European launch provider Arianespace successfully launched an Ariane 5 ECA vehicle from Kourou Space Centre, French Guiana, at 1220 GMT on 25 December carrying the 6.2 metric ton James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The JWST was starting its 29-day transfer to the L2...
European Space Agency (ESA) has selected Airbus DS to design and manufacture its fourth “Medium-class” Cosmic Vision mission. The Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey (ARIEL) mission is an exoplanet survey telescope, set to launch in...
After weather delays, a Russian-built Soyuz ST-b/Fregat MT launch vehicle on flight VS-26 operated by Arianespace and commissioned by ESA, lifted off with the pair of 715 kg Galileo navigation satellites from Sinnamary, near Kourou, French Guiana at 0019 GMT on 5...
A Vega rocket lifted-off from the European Spaceport, French Guiana, carrying the Pleiades Neo 4 reconnaissance satellite plus four small co-payloads at 0147 GMT on 17 August. The payloads were carried to sun-synchronous low Earth orbit and were sequentially deployed...
Some years ago this column started its annual analysis called “The Great Space Race”. The idea was that while the original “Moon race” ended in 1969 when the USA beat the Soviet Union onto the lunar surface with its Apollo 11 human landing, a new one has...
ESA decided the winner of its fifth “Medium-class” Cosmic Vision competition on 10 June. Out of the two finalists the Venus-oriented “EnVision” orbiter won out over the gamma-ray burst studying “THESEUS”. The initial call for...
