European Space Agency

Recently, we got one of our best views yet of the tiny moon when a European mission named Hera, en route to the asteroid Didymos, flew through the Martian system for a gravity assist. During this transit, the spacecraft came within just 300 km of Deimos.

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French rocket builder Latitude has announced its successful completion of the first hot fire test of a flight-ready version of its Navier rocket engine’s combustion chamber.

Founded in 2019, Latitude is developing a two-stage rocket called Zephyr that will initially be capable of delivering up to 100 kilograms to low Earth orbit. The company is currently targeting 2026 for the rocket’s inaugural flight.

On 8 April, the company announced it had reached a significant milestone in the development of Zephyr with the first pressurised ignition test of the Navier engine’s combustion chamber in its flight configuration. The ten-second test was conducted at the company’s Titan testing centre in Vatry, near Reims, using its new, purpose-built test bench. According to the company, the data collected from the successful test will inform its upcoming long-duration tests.

Zephyr, which will stand 19 metres tall, will use seven Navier engines on its first stage and one vacuum-optimised Navier engine on its second.

¡Qué importante es la divulgación científica! Juan Luis Cano de @esa hoy nos ha aclarado muchas dudas sobre la defensa planetaria. Ha sido una magnífica intervención.

The European Space Agency (ESA) released the first batch of images and data for its Euclid space telescope. The images focus on Euclid’s three deep field areas, patches of sky the telescope will observe dozens of times to peer deep into the cosmos. Though the new release only contains Euclid’s first look into these areas, it has already provided astronomers with a treasure trove of data on galaxies and other cosmic phenomena.

El asteroide 2024 YR4 sigue de plena actualidad. El lunes 7 de abril a las 19 h, Juan Luís Cano de la oficina de Defensa Planetaria de la @esa nos dará todos los detalles. https://www.ual.es/vida-universitaria/cultura/aulas-culturales/actividad

As ESA’s Hera planetary defence mission flew past planet Mars it autonomously locked onto dozens of impact craters and other prominent surface features to track them over time, in a full-scale test of the self-driving technology that the spacecraft will employ to navigate around its target asteroids.

#TagderRaumfahrt in #Leipzig im #MDR bei #MDRaktuell https://www.mdr.de/mdr-aktuell-nachrichtenradio/audio/audio-2899682.html & im #MDRSachsenspiegel: https://www.mdr.de/video/mdr-videos/a/video-911586.html / @leibnizwgl @DLR #EarthCARE @esa

Airbus Defence and Space will build the landing platform for ESA’s ExoMars rover, replacing a critical component originally to be provided by Russia.

The UK Engagement with Space Committee was established by the House of Lords in January 2024. As a special inquiry committee, its primary aim is to examine how the UK can effectively engage with the rapidly evolving global space industry and ensure that national policies, regulations and investments serve the country’s long-term interests.

During its 24 March session, the committee heard from six expert witnesses across two panels. The second panel focused on the United Kingdom’s need to develop its own launch capacity and featured testimony from Scott Hammond, Deputy CEO of SaxaVord Spaceport; Alan Thompson, Head of Government Affairs at Skyrora; and Adam Baker, Co-founder of UK Launch Services.

In response to a question asking what the case was for the UK possessing a sovereign launch capability, Adam Baker explained that the country was the “only well-developed space economy in the world who not only doesn’t have it, but we did have it, and we gave it away.” This is a reference to the UK’s decision to cancel its Black Arrow launch programme in the early 1970s, despite having successfully placed a satellite into orbit.