Defence Online

ESA recieves first measurements sent from Solar Orbiter instrument

Air February 20, 2020

The first measurements have been received from the ESA Solar Orbiter instrument which was launched earlier this month. The Solar Orbiter instrument has sent data to ground control at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. The instrument recorded data before, during and after the boom’s deployment, allowing the scientists ...

UK-built communications system to be sent to the International Space Station

Air February 20, 2020

COLKa, a UK-designed communications system, will launch from Virginia and travel to the ISS. The communications system, COLKa (Columbus Ka-band Terminal), is designed to provide astronauts with direct links to Europe at the speed of home broadband. The fridge-sized device is due to launch aboard a Cygnus supply ship from Wallops ...

ESA launches Solar Orbiter mission

Air February 14, 2020

The ESA has launched its Solar Orbiter mission which will take images of previously unseen regions of the Sun. The ESA (European Space Agency), in collaboration with NASA, launched the Solar Orbiter spacecraft from Cape Canaveral on 10 February. It will also investigate how intense radiation and energetic particles being blasted ...

UK and Australia join forces on deep space situational awareness

Air February 5, 2020

Dstl is teaming up with British and Australian astronomers to study deep space situational awareness by tracking satellites. For the Argus 2 exercise, satellites orbiting more than 36,000km above the Earth will be tracked to study deep space situational awareness in the latest ‘citizen science’ project. The experiment is designed to ...