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Galileo has grown to become Europe’s single largest satellite constellation, and the world’s most accurate satellite navigation system, delivering metre-level positioning to more than 3.5 billion users around the globe.
It all began at ESTEC’s Test Centre, Europe’s largest satellite testing facility. This is where the very first positioning fix took place in March 2013, after the launch into orbit of the initial four IOV satellites. Following that, all 34 Galileo Full Operational Capability satellites also passed by ESTEC for their pre-flight testing.
This 3000 sq. m environmentally-controlled complex, operated and managed by European Test

By reducing the mass of rocket stages, ESA hopes to increase payload-to-orbit performance. That is the objective of a programme called PHOEBUS (Prototype of a Highly OptimisEd Black Upper Stage), which aims to produce upper stage tanks and structures in carbon fibre. Now, following completion of the project’s preliminary design review, ESA has contracted prime contractor ArianeGroup to build a full-scale upper stage demonstrator.

In a little over a month, the window of opportunity for nominating deserving scientists for the prestigious ESA-EGU Earth Observation Excellence Award will close. With the period for lodging nominations closing on 7 December, past nominators and winners reflect on how this award has increased the visibility of their scientific research and opened new avenues to working partnerships.

Sde Boker, Israel (SPX) Nov 01, 2022
NASA and several other national space agencies have recently revived their lunar colonization programs. One of the key factors that needs to be solved is how to power a future such colony. Can uninterrupted solar power feasibly be realized without energy storage? On Earth, providing 100% of electricity demand 100% of the time solely from renewables, but without energy storage, is unfeasible.

Santa Rosa CA (SPX) Nov 02, 2022
Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS), a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, announced that it is first to gain Global Certification Forum (GCF) validation of a 5G location based services (LBS) Assisted Galileo (A-Galileo) test case by combining 5G new radio (NR) and global navigation

London, UK (SPX) Nov 02, 2022
On Friday November 4, the Swedish spacecraft MATS, carrying AAC Clyde Space solutions, is planned to launch onboard a Rocket Lab Electron launch vehicle from the Mhia Peninsula, New Zealand. MATS is a Swedish scientific satellite mission which will use optical measurements techniques to investigate atmospheric waves in the mesosphere with the aim to get a better understanding of global win

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Nov 02, 2022
Delivered by Millennium Space Systems, a Boeing (NYSE: BA) company, Tetra-1 launched aboard USSF-44 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The program was the first prototype award under the U.S. Space Force's Space Systems Command's Space Enterprise Consortium Other Transaction Authority charter. And Millennium Space Systems was the first to deliver under the OTA. "With the drive toward bett

Dulles VA (SPX) Nov 01, 2022
Northrop Grumman played a critical role in the integration, launch and deployment of the United States Space Force (USSF)-44 mission that successfully launched Monday from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Several hardware and software platforms were provided to deliver multiple missions for customers including highly complex payloads from multiple industry partners. The Long Duration Propuls

Huntsville AL (SPX) Nov 03, 2022
Planets can force their host stars to act younger than their age, according to a new study of multiple systems using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This may be the best evidence to date that some planets apparently slow down the aging process for their host stars. While the anti-aging property of "hot Jupiters" (that is, gas giant exoplanets that orbit a star at Mercury's distance or cl

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 02, 2022
We arrived at the spectacular workspace pictured above, but what made it spectacular - rocks - is what also made it tricky. Our left front wheel was propped up just enough on one of the lovely and interesting rocks to make it unsafe to unstow the arm. Thus, as Deirdra, one of my planning partners said - it felt like Mars was taunting us with some early 1990s MC Hammer. Fortunately, the rov