NanoThe Montpellier University Space Center, Van Halen Foundation, will put the finishing touches on the Robusta-3A Méditerranée nano satellite, which will be tasked with anticipating Cévennes episodes through meteorological records. The small craft, the size of three Rubik's cubes in a row, could be sent into orbit in 2023.Two nano satellites “made in Montpellier” will take off this year aboard Vega C, from the Guyanese space center in Kourou. They are called Robusta MTCube 2 and Celesta and are tasked with different analyzes on the memories for the first and the radiative environment in low orbit for the second.
Will the Force accompany Yoda? Described as a space “patroller” programmed to protect our military satellites, this new kind of high-tech soldier bears witness to a little-known war unfolding just above our heads.If this project, carried by the French army in collaboration with the Cnes, refers to the famous little green jedi from Star Wars , it is also the acronym of a more martial name: Eyes in Orbite for an Agile Demonstrator. Already under development, its full-scale test phase could be "put into orbit" as early as 2024.... How will it work?Still few technical elements have filtered about the project. However, we know that the Yoda patrol boat will operate in geostationary orbit at an altitude of 35,786 km. "It will be made up of two nanosatellites weighing 10 to 20 kg, which will operate in geostationary orbit in order to validate the technologies for approaching a satellite, size the payloads for proximity operations and train operators from the command of space to operations in space, ”thus summarizes the report by deputy Jean-Jacques Ferrara, available here .The idea will therefore be to have a machine capable of detecting a potential threat that would target one of its military satellites to come to its side and face it. But Yoda's first step would above all be to teach ground operators how to maneuver such a machine, without necessarily carrying technologies capable of countering an attack.Its service life would be 5 to 10 years in space, specifies the document which pleads for mastery of space to be a priority. And the deputy added: "on the basis of the results obtained by Yoda, a heavier patrol satellite - of around one hundred kilograms - and truly operational can then be launched around 2030".
The geostationary orbit is located exactly at an altitude of 35,786 km. It is at this altitude that the military satellites Athena Fidus, Sicral 2 and the future Syracuse 4 evolve. The parliamentary report also notes that the arrival of operational vehicles around 2028 or 2029 "corresponds to a reference year" for future satellites: Syracuse 4 C, Iris and Celeste.
Abstract:This paper presents the High-Resolution Wide-Swath (HRWS) mission as the next German civilian spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system for earth observation in X-Band. Following the successful path of the TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X missions, HRWS is designed to guarantee the X-band data and service continuity for institutional, scientific and commercial users well beyond the year 2030. HRWS is a very innovative multistatic SAR mission exploiting the formation flight of one active main satellite and three smaller passive companion satellites. With HRWS the novel MirrorSAR concept will be implemented in space for the first time. The HRWS mission has been approved for realization in December 2020 and, as for the current planning, the launch is expected in the time frame of 2026/2027. This paper presents an overview of the outstanding capabilities and new technologies of HRWS, including F-SCAN, digital beam-forming, hybrid agility, and single-pass dual-baseline interferometry, as well as the various fields of applications.Published in: EUSAR 2021; 13th European Conference on Synthetic Aperture RadarDate of Conference: 29 March-1 April 2021
Those missions will be followed by the launch of the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, mission in the first half of 2023 as the final Ariane 5 mission. “We are quite happy that we will end the brilliant life of Ariane 5 with such an ambitious mission for ESA,” he said.“The overlap between both launchers will be quite limited,” Israël said in a later interview. He projected three Ariane 6 launches in 2023, followed by an “ambitious ramp up” to eight launches in 2024 and 10 to 12 in 2025. “We are prepared for this ramp up due to the high level of demand.”...As Arianespace introduces the Ariane 6 and Vega C, the future of Soyuz launches from French Guiana is unclear. While four Soyuz launches from the pad there are scheduled for this year and two next year, Israël raised questions about the use of that facility after 2023.“We need to have the guarantee of a number of payloads, and it’s not certain because Ariane 6 and Vega C should now take over what Soyuz has delivered,” he said at the briefing. “We’ve had discussions with our Russian partners to see whether there is a business case to go beyond 2023 or not.”
Scheduled to launch in April 2023, JUICE will blast off from an Ariane 5 rocket before embarking on a 7.6-year journey to reach the gas giant.
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9472672Quote Abstract:This paper presents the High-Resolution Wide-Swath (HRWS) mission as the next German civilian spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system for earth observation in X-Band. Following the successful path of the TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X missions, HRWS is designed to guarantee the X-band data and service continuity for institutional, scientific and commercial users well beyond the year 2030. HRWS is a very innovative multistatic SAR mission exploiting the formation flight of one active main satellite and three smaller passive companion satellites. With HRWS the novel MirrorSAR concept will be implemented in space for the first time. The HRWS mission has been approved for realization in December 2020 and, as for the current planning, the launch is expected in the time frame of 2026/2027. This paper presents an overview of the outstanding capabilities and new technologies of HRWS, including F-SCAN, digital beam-forming, hybrid agility, and single-pass dual-baseline interferometry, as well as the various fields of applications.Published in: EUSAR 2021; 13th European Conference on Synthetic Aperture RadarDate of Conference: 29 March-1 April 2021
Abstract:This paper provides an overview of the German spaceborne radar program starting with the X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument on board the Shuttle Imaging Radar missions (SIR-C/X-SAR) in 1994, followed by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000. The German national satellite radar program began in 2007 with the launch of the satellite TerraSAR-X, which is providing since then high-resolution X-band images for scientific, commercial and governmental applications. TanDEM-X, an almost identical twin, joined TerraSAR-X in 2010 to form the first bistatic SAR interferometer consisting of two satellites in close formation flight. The TanDEM-X mission generated a global, high-resolution digital elevation model of the Earth surface with unprecedented accuracy. The High-Resolution Wide-Swath (HRWS) mission has been approved for realization at the end of 2020. It is a very ambitious multistatic SAR mission exploiting the formation flight of one active main satellite and three smaller passive companion satellites. HRWS implements for the first time in space the novel MirrorSAR concept. As for the current planning, the launch is expected in 2027.Published in: 2021 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSSDate of Conference: 11-16 July 2021
Arianespace and Australian operator SingTel Optus signed the launch contract for the Optus-11 communications satellite. The launch, scheduled for the second half of 2023, will use the Ariane 64 version of the Ariane 6 launcher, with four solid boosters.
WASHINGTON D.C./VIENNA, October 22, 2019 – The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announced the opening of a Call For Interest (CFI) for UN Member States to provide a landing site for the Dream Chaser on its return from a mission expected to occur around 2024.
SMILE: Canada to play key role in first-ever mission to observe the chain of events behind space weatherLaunch: November 2024Mission duration: 3 to 5 yearsMission status: In development
With the mission, ESA is embracing the New Space approach. Anders Linder, head of the Electronics Product Group at RUAG Space, comments: “What makes AWS distinctive as an ESA project is that it embraces the New Space way-of-working. This means that cost-effective automotive grade components will be used, and agile development methods applied. Our team is determined to showcase what can be achieved by adopting a state-of-the-art approach here. We are excited to move forward with our customer Omnisys Instrument Sweden and work together with the entire AWS consortium for a successful mission.”RUAG Space’s Power System is set to be delivered in Q4 2022. The launch of the prototype satellite weighting about 120 kilograms is planned to take place in 2024. The now ordered prototype is planned to be followed-up by a constellation of 16 AWS satellites. Subject to a follow-up decision after the prototype, the constellation would be implemented with the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites EUMETSAT according to the cooperation model established with the Meteosat and MetOp satellites.
Activities are on track for the first flight of Space Rider in the third quarter of 2023 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Space Rider’s planned debut is in 2023. Launched on a Vega-C rocket, it will provide a laboratory in space for an array of applications, orbit altitudes and inclinations. ESA has released a dedicated Announcement of Opportunity with no restriction on nationality for commercial or institutional customers.
A contract signed with Arianespace secures the joint launch for two satellites that will further knowledge of our home planet. Scheduled to lift off on a new class of rocket, ESA’s Vega-C, from Europe’s Spaceport in mid-2025, FLEX will yield new information about the health of the world’s plants and Altius will deliver profiles of ozone and other trace gases in the upper atmosphere to support services such as weather forecasting.
The European Space Agency is considering accelerating the launch of a new Earth science satellite after an existing one malfunctioned last month and remains out of service.Sentinel-1B, a radar imaging satellite launched in April 2016, malfunctioned Dec. 23. Shortly after the anomaly, ESA said they expected to take up to two weeks to restore the satellite to service. However, in a Jan. 7, update, officials said the malfunction was caused by a “potential serious problem related to a unit of the power system” on the spacecraft.<snip>As part of the overall Copernicus program, which is jointly run by ESA and the European Union, two new radar imaging satellites, Sentinel-1C and -1D, are in development. Sentinel-1C is scheduled to undergo a flight acceptance review in October before a launch currently scheduled for some time in 2023.Aschbacher and other ESA officials suggested that launch could be moved up if Sentinel-1B cannot be restored. “We’re now looking into launching them as soon as we can,” he said of Sentinel-1C and -1D.Simonetta Cheli, director of Earth observation at ESA, said that if the investigation into the Sentinel-1B malfunction doesn’t require any design changes to Sentinel-1C, ESA would be ready to launch Sentinel-1C at any time after the October flight acceptance review. “The current launch date is mid-’23 for -1C, so we would look for any opportunity for potentially launching earlier,” she said. “We don’t have an option yet.”Daniel Neuenschwander, director of space transportation at ESA, said the launch manifest will depend on the date and outcome of the inaugural flight of the Vega-C, currently scheduled for May. “I see an opportunity at the end of ’22,” he said, with some contract modifications required to support an earlier launch.
https://spacenews.com/arianespace-looks-to-transitions-of-vehicles-and-business-in-2022/ [dated Jan 7]
Also scheduled for 2022 is the introduction of the Vega C, the upgraded version of the Vega small launch vehicle, with its first launch planned for the second quarter. That will be followed up to two more Vega C launches later in the year.
[2022] could be even busier, with up to 17 launches on its manifest for 2022. That includes nine Soyuz launches from Baikonur and French Guiana as well as four Ariane 5 launches.<snip>Perhaps the most important launch of 2022 for Arianespace will be the inaugural launch of the Ariane 6, currently scheduled for the second half of the year.
Planned launches:Date - Satellite(s) - Rocket - Launch Site - Time (UTC)2022May April - LARES 2, ABCS (AstroBio CubeSat), CELESTA (ROBUSTA 1D), GreenCube, MTCube 2 (ROBUSTA-1E) - Vega C (VV??) [inaugural flight] - Kourou ELV (or Q2)July-August - Pleiades Neo 5, Pleiades Neo 6 (Dual SSO Launch) - Vega C - Kourou ELVQ3 September - SSMS #4: KOMPSAT-7 - Vega C - Kourou ELVTBD - PLATiNO-1 - Vega - Kourou ELVTBD - THEOS-2 HR - Vega - Kourou ELVNET May TBD - SpaceBelt (x10) - Vega C - Kourou ELV (or Q2)TBD - KOMPSAT-7 - Vega C - Kourou ZLVTBD - Pleiades Neo 5, Pleiades Neo 6 - Vega С - Kourou ZLVTBD - CryoSat FO - Vega C (TBD) - Kourou ZLVTBD - Moon’s south pole samples return mission - TBD - KourouPiggybacked: Q1 NET Q2 - ION-SVC: Astrocast (x10) - Vega / Vega C - Kourou ELVNET Q2 - GOMX-5A, GOMX-5B - Vega C / Soyuz (TBD) - KourouTBD - FORMOSAT 7R (TRITON) - Vega / Vega C - Kourou ELVTBD - PRETTY - Vega / Vega C - Kourou ELVTBD - µHETsat - Vega / Vega C - Kourou ELVTBD - NESS - Vega / Vega C / Soyuz (TBD) - Kourou ELVTBD - Nano-JASMINE - Vega / Vega C - Kourou ELVTBD - THEOS 2 LR - Vega / Vega C - Kourou ELVTBD - MTCube 2 (ROBUSTA-1E) - Vega / Vega C - Kourou ZLV Changes on January 7thChanges on January 9thChanges on January 19th
Quote from: tweetAvio@Avio_Group#InsideVegaThe journey of #VegaC towards its maiden flight continues: few days ago, its solid propellant motor P120C was activated and transferred from Regulus to @EuropeSpacePort EUP/K facilities ahead of flight #VV21 (#VVC1).
Avio@Avio_Group#InsideVegaThe journey of #VegaC towards its maiden flight continues: few days ago, its solid propellant motor P120C was activated and transferred from Regulus to @EuropeSpacePort EUP/K facilities ahead of flight #VV21 (#VVC1).
