Copernical Team
Europe shoots for the moon with role in NASA programme
European astronauts could walk on the Moon for the first time in the coming years, in exchange for the continent taking on a key role in an ambitious NASA space programme.
The US space agency's Artemis programme aims to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the historic Apollo missions, which ended in 1972.
For the first time, the European Space Agency (ESA) and European aerospace giant Airbus have been entrusted with supplying vital "service modules" (ESMs) for NASA's Orion spacecraft.
In exchange, Europe has three guaranteed seats on the mission's flights, probably from 2027, although discussions are ongoing to try to get earlier spots.
The role of the Europeans is vital—they are providing "half of the spacecraft that will take people to the Moon and, of course, back to Earth safely," said Marc Steckling, Airbus's head of space exploration.
Spirit of Artemis V
Image:
Spirit of Artemis V Week in images: 06-10 February 2023
Week in images: 06-10 February 2023
Discover our week through the lens
Earth from Space: Swedish landscape
Image:
Agricultural fields that surround the cities of Lund and Malmö in Sweden are pictured in this image, captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission. Juice on final stretch for launch to Jupiter
ESA’s mission to explore Jupiter and its largest moons has safely arrived at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, where final preparations for its April launch are now underway.
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer – better known as Juice – arrived on 8 February at Félix Eboué airport in Cayenne by a special Antonov Airlines An-124 cargo flight from Toulouse, France, where prime contractor Airbus completed a nearly decade-long process of concept, design, testing and construction. Now, the spacecraft will undergo final testing and inspection by engineers from ESA and Airbus before it is fueled up and mounted on
Can you spot it?
Image:
Can you spot it? Women and girls in science: the team helping to take us to Mars
ESA celebrates the International Day of Women and Girls in Science this 11 February, and highlights the story of the first all-female Systems Team in ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility, the place where ideas for new space missions, systems and structures take definite shape.
China space station crew completes spacewalk
The crew of China's orbiting space station has completed the first of several planned spacewalks of their six-month mission, pushing such activities into the realm of routine for the country's astronauts.
SpaceX ignites giant Starship rocket in crucial pad test
SpaceX is a big step closer to sending its giant Starship spacecraft into orbit, completing an engine-firing test at the launch pad on Thursday.
Thirty-one of the 33 first-stage booster engines ignited simultaneously for about 10 seconds in south Texas. The team turned off one engine before sending the firing command and another engine shut down—"but still enough engines to reach orbit!" tweeted SpaceX's Elon Musk.
Musk estimates Starship's first orbital test flight could occur as soon as March, if the test analyses and remaining preparations go well.
SES, ThinKom and Hughes enable multi-orbit resilient connectivity for critical airborne missions
SES, ThinKom and Hughes demonstrated revolutionary high-performance multi-orbit service capable of supporting multiple solutions for government airborne missions, the companies announced Wednesday. The open architecture ThinKom ThinAir Ka2517 airborne satcom terminal was successfully demonstrated over SES's Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Geostationary (GEO) satellite networks during testing at Thi 
