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 […]

The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully launched its much-needed Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport at Kourou in French Guiana on the evening of July 9th. While the launch completed many of the mission’s key tasks, it failed during the later stage of the flight. ESA was fulsome with praise following the first, second and […]

The European Space Agency (ESA) has always worked on the basis that it would reward contributing nations with contracts that were more or less equal to their investments into ESA. There are 22 member states in ESA including the UK. This return on investment is dubbed by ESA as its “geographic return”. A meeting of […]

In “early April” the European Space Agency (ESA) expects to integrate the second booster stage onto the giant Ariane 6 rocket in readiness for the craft’s crucial inaugural flight from French Guiana. The debut flight is scheduled for between June 15th – July 31st. This pre-flight work is important and it is crucial that the […]