European Space Agency

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

The Ariane 6’s second flight, mission VA263, took off at 11:24 a.m. ET March 6 from the European spaceport at French Guiana.

The launch window for the flight at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, was due to open at 1:24 p.m. local time.

The funding will add to the S$150 million fund announced by the ministry of trade and industry in 2022.

SES CEO Adel Al-Saleh says there are several contractual protections to ensure industry does not take a bath on the multi-billion-dollar project.

Scientists at one point gave the asteroid, discovered in late December, a 2.8% collision risk with Earth on Dec. 22, 2032.

The space agency is contracting the two satellites on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Next program.

The first of the new-production RS-25s was installed on the Fred Haise Test Stand at Stennis on Feb. 18.

ESA, in its latest update, puts the probably of impact at 0.16%.

New spins on NASA-developed heat shield technologies paved the way for an era of reusable space vehicles.

An alternate proposal tests the limits of the agency’s use of commercial services.

The demonstration, under project HydRON—for High-Throughput Optical Space Network—builds on studies Thales Alenia Space led and completed in 2023.

NASA’s Habitation and Logistics Outpost is set to undergo installation and testing of valves and hatches, leak checks and integration of external structures.

The Exploration Company will test a demonstrator of its Nyx capsule designed to transport cargo to low Earth orbit and back in June, DLR says.

Scheduled for launch in April, the ESA's Biomass mission features a novel a 100-watt, P-band synthetic aperture radar.

ESA, in a Feb. 10 announcement, said the study is a precursor to a potential optical time synchronization and ranging (OpSTAR) in-orbit demonstration.

ESA says a group of astronomers asked for the powerful James Webb telescope to gather more data on the asteroid and that the tasking has been accepted.

Our roundup of the main aerospace and defense stories making the news this week.

The European Space Agency says the risk of the 2024 YR4 asteroid crashing into Earth has gone up since an initial assessment it made late last month.

French space agency CNES, operator of Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, is preparing a new contractual relationship with launcher manufacturer Avio.

ESA has signed an $897 million contract with Thales Alenia Space for the manufacturer to deliver cargo to the lunar surface under ESA’s Argonaut Mission.

The European Space Agency says that as of Jan. 29 “the probability that asteroid 2024 YR4 may impact Earth on 22 December 2032 is 1.2%.”

Planet Labs says it has secured a $230 million contract to build Pelican high-resolution satellites for an unnamed customer and announced a data provision deal with the European Space Agency (ESA) to support the Copernicus program.

ESA has signed a deal with Thales Alenia Space to build the EnVision spacecraft to explore Venus from its inner core to upper atmosphere, the company said.

Shifting geopolitical realities are driving European space leaders to push defense and security up the space agenda.