Thales Alenia Space has secured a US$256 million (€235m) contract from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to develop a dedicated In-Orbit Servicing (IOS) demonstration mission scheduled to launch in 2026. Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between Thales, a French...
ESA’s JUICE (JUpiter ICy-moon Explorer) mission, built by Airbus, which is planned to make detailed observations of Jupiter and its three large ocean-bearing moons, has managed to finally deploy the 16 m radar antenna for the Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME)....
After spending 276 days in orbit, China’s unmanned mini-shuttle/spaceplane, dubbed the CSSHQ 1, landed on 8 May following its second flight in orbit. No TV coverage of the landing was released, or even its landing time, but the China Aerospace Science and Technology...
Orbit Fab has raised US$28.5 million in a Series A funding round to propel forward its first missions to provide satellite refuelling services in GEO, LEO, and VLEO orbits. The latest injection of funding was led by 8090 Industries. Other investors included Stride...
While landings on the Moon have been done before and are now regarded as a known technology, something not previously catered for is communications to the lunar far side. For example, the Apollo and Surveyor lunar landing programmes all touched down on the Earth...
European space manufacturer Thales Alenia Space has been awarded a contract to build seven satellites for the Italian IRIDE constellation. Six of the 170 kg satellites will be equipped with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that will be able to image the ground through...
