by David Todd | Mar 19, 2015 | ESA, Launches, Satellites, SpaceX
Arianespace has received a launch order for the European Data Relay Service-C (EDRS-C) communications satellite from Airbus Defence and Space (Airbus DS). A formal contract was signed on 18 March 2015. The flight on an Ariane 5 ECA will take place in early 2017. It...
by David Todd | Mar 18, 2015 | commercial launch services, ESA, Launches, Satellites, Seradata News
Skybox Imaging, the satellite firm recently acquired by Google, has signed with Arianespace to fly four of its satellites on a Vega launch in 2016. The first launch to take place in July 2016 from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, will be shared with...
by David Todd | Feb 26, 2015 | ESA, International Space Station, JAXA, Russia
In a similar way to arranging a semi-amicable divorce, Russia has formally given notice to its spacefaring partner nations, NASA, ESA and JAXA, that it will remain part of the International Space Station (ISS) until 2024, the year that NASA itself wants to end the...
by David Todd | Feb 17, 2015 | ESA, International Space Station, Satellites
After a longer than usual stay lasting over half a year, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) cargo ship ATV-05 (Georges Lemaitre) undocked from the International Space Station’s Zvezda module at 1342 GMT on 14 February 2015. The ATV-5 craft carried some 2.5...
by David Todd | Jan 16, 2015 | ESA, exploration, Science, Technology
While there were recriminations and bitterness following the “landing failure” of the UK’s first space probe to Mars on Christmas day in December 2003, Beagle 2’s originator and planetary scientist, the late Professor Colin Pillinger, who died...
by David Todd | Jan 6, 2015 | ESA, SpaceX, Technology
Noting the progress that SpaceX is making with its Falcon 9 reusable first stage technology (its first landing attempt is to take place in January), and that India is planning tests of a winged reusable first stage, Europe is, at last, re-examining the case for...
