The European Space Agency (ESA) is urgently seeking space industry ideas on its ‘intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance’ (ISR) project which calls for a European satellite constellation for military and civil usage. But ESA has set a September 30th deadline for ideas to be presented. This new constellation, called the European Resilience from Space (ERS) is […]
The European Space Agency (ESA) has a scheme to build and launch a series of satellites capable of capturing extremely high-resolution imaging satellites to be used for European Union military and government uses. The main problem, which emerged at a session held at the Paris Air Show, is the cost of the scheme. Europe’s ESA […]
The European Space Agency (ESA) is expected to ask its 23 member governments to fund a new constellation of high-resolution satellites and budgeted at some €1.5 billion. This sum is over and above the normal budget requests which will be discussed at the upcoming November 26th-27th meeting between Ministers and ESA, and where ESA’s budget […]
A new European rocket designed to handle small to mid-sized satellites failed on its first ‘demo’ flight from Norway on March 30th. The Spectrum rocket, from Germany-based Isar Aerospace, successfully lifted off from the pad but failed a few seconds later, falling back into the Norwegian bay adjacent to the Andøya Spaceport launch site. A […]
The Seamless Air Alliance (SAA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have announced significant advancements in the development of 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) for aviation connectivity. The pair say their collaborative efforts mark a major milestone in the integration of space-based communication technologies to enable a seamless extension of mobile networks to provide in-flight connectivity and exceptional passenger […]
The UK government has invested £20 million (€23.8m) for an equity stake in Orbex Space, a start-up rocket launcher. This current round of fund-raising (the ‘D’ round) has also seen cash put up by Denmark’s EIFO fund, as well as Octopus Ventures and others. The UK cash comes from its Department for Science, Innovation & […]
The European Commission and European Space Agency (ESA) are hosting a series of events in Brussels on December 16th connected with the IRIS2 satellite scheme. First there will be technical briefing with senior EC experts and Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director General, as well as Laurent Jaffart, ESA Director of Connectivity and Secure Communications. IRIS² is […]
The European Space Agency (ESA) has, until now, attempted to return to Europe’s national governments contracts that were equal in value to their payments into ESA. ESA is introducing a new structure called ‘Fair Return’ which will allow a business (or consortium) that wins an ESA contract to choose how the contract’s value is spent. […]
The European Space Agency (ESA) has for a couple of years been talking about alternative launch contractors. It has now fleshed out its plans. It is commissioning a study to detail the potential development of a reusable rocket capable of delivering 60 tonnes to low Earth orbit. A tender document for open competition published on […]
The European Space Agency’s 2024 Space Environment Report has some hard-hitting criticism of certain satellite operators. The ESA said some satellite orbits “are getting crowded and increasingly churning with deadly, fast-moving pieces of defunct satellites and rockets that threaten our future in space.” The ESA added: “Without further change, the collective behaviour of space-faring entities […]