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ESA

ESA ups investment in key satellite areas

Josef Ansbacher, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) director general, in its annual press briefing, said it is looking for ideas for missions and system concepts to help us reach our goal of long-term orbital sustainability. The new programme looks forward to 2050 and ESA is upping its budget by 10 per cent this year. However, […]

January 15, 2024By Chris Forrester

Ariane 6 “on track”

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) giant Ariane 6 rocket remains firmly on track for a test launch in June-July 2024. The test flight confirmation came from the Ariane 6 Launcher Task Force, which consists of top management of ESA, as the overall Ariane 6 procuring entity and launch system architect, of the French space agency […]

December 20, 2023By Chris Forrester

ESA issues warning to Ariane 6 suppliers

The European Space Agency (ESA) issued a strong warning to contractors supplying components for its new Ariane 6 rocket. They will be barred from raising prices over and above their originally quoted costs – and that ESA expects prices to be reduced. Phillippe Baptiste, head of France’s CNES space agency, said this was not the […]

December 1, 2023By Chris Forrester

ESA extra funding for Arianespace

Government members of the European Space Agency (ESA) have agreed to fund an extra €340 million per year to Arianespace for its planned Ariane 6 rocket currently in development. The cash is needed to pay for the non-activity of Arianespace because its new rocket is extremely late. An inaugural test flight for Ariane 6 is […]

November 7, 2023By Chris Forrester

ESA chooses SpaceX over Arianespace again

SpaceX has signed a deal with the European Space Agency (ESA) over potential satellite launches, according to the WSJ. Normally – in fact almost always – ESA uses Arianespace rockets to launch its scientific and governmental missions. However, there are no Arianespace launches available until 2025. The first test flight of Arianespace’s new Ariane 6 […]

October 24, 2023By Chris Forrester

Ariane 6 engine test postponed again

The European Space Agency (ESA) has again postponed a test-firing of the rocket’s main stage. A statement on August 30th said that a planned test on August 29 was scrubbed because of problems which the Agency described as a “technical issue affecting the control bench” that handles propellant loading and the automated countdown. The key […]

August 31, 2023By Chris Forrester

GSMA, ESA comms innovation partnership

Mobile industry trade body the GSMA and European Space Agency (ESA) have signed a Memorandum of Intent (MOI) to bring the mobile and satellite industries closer together to collaborate on developing new, innovative satellite and terrestrial networks technologies. The ambition of the partnership is to further strengthen the competitiveness of both mobile and satellite network […]

July 13, 2023By Colin Mann

ESA boss praises SpaceX

Josef Aschbacher, Director General at European Space Agency (ESA) has praised Elon Musk’s SpaceX, saying that the rocket launch company “has undeniably changed the launcher market paradigm as we know it.” Aschbacher, in a blog post for ESA, said: “With the dependable reliability of Falcon 9 and the captivating prospects of Starship, SpaceX continues to […]

May 26, 2023

Ariane 6 deadline “impossible”

The European Space Agency (ESA) has issued an update to its timetable for the debut launch of its new Ariane 6 launch vehicle. The update came from a Ariane 6 Launcher Task Force set up with ESA’s top management, the launch base prime contractor (CNES), the rocket’s builder ArianeGroup, and service provider Arianespace. But the […]

May 15, 2023By Chris Forrester

Starlink, Starship and ESA troubles

SpaceX launched 21 of its larger Starlink V2 Mini satellites into orbit on April 19. SpaceX has also confirmed that it will make a second attempt to launch its massive Starship rocket later today (April 20th). However, the world’s major rocket suppliers – and their key clients – are discovering that Elon Musk’s rocket business […]

April 20, 2023By Chris Forrester