Galileo Second Generation is on the way with new and enhanced navigation satellites that will offer novel signals, services and even more precise positioning. But all the work being done to make it happen hinges on this single item at ESA’s Navigation Laboratory at ESTEC. The G2 test user receiver is designed to quantify the improvements the Second Generation will bring compared to current satellite navigation systems and will be used to verify the performance of early receivers processing the first G2 signals in space.

A satellite has been launched that will demonstrate the latest technologies for connectivity and for Earth observation. The ALISIO-1 satellite was developed under an ESA Pioneer Partnership Project with satellite manufacturer and operator Open Cosmos, based at Harwell in the UK.

Discovery helps answer the question: How small can you go when forming stars?
Brown dwarfs are sometimes called failed stars, since they form like stars through gravitational collapse, but never gain enough mass to ignite nuclear fusion. The smallest brown dwarfs can overlap in mass with giant planets. In a quest to find the smallest brown dwarf, astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found the new record-holder: an object weighing just three to four times the mass of Jupiter.