Category Archives: Break Through

SpaceX won a NASA contract to launch a small astrophysics spacecraft, continuing the company’s string of similar agency contracts over the last two years. NASA awarded a contract to SpaceX for the launch of the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) spacecraft on a Falcon 9 inRead More

Airbus has been awarded a CLTV (Cis-Lunar Transfer Vehicle) study for a ‘Moon Cruiser’ by the European Space Agency (ESA). According to the study concept (two parallel Phase A/B1), the CLTV is a versatile, autonomous logistics vehicle that could, for example, provide timely and efficient support to NASA and ESA in the implementation of theRead More

Chinese startup Spacety released the first images from Hisea-1, a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite, launched in December on China’s new Long March 8 medium-lift rocket. Three days after launch, Spacety began receiving data from Hisea-1’s SAR payload built by the China Electronics Technology Group. On Dec. 27, Spacety acquired its first batch ofRead More

Inmarsat has confirmed the commercial service introduction of GX5, the company’s newest, geostationary satellite to date. GX5 is the fourteenth satellite currently in service with Inmarsat and provides additional capacity to Europe and the Middle East on the industry-leading Global Xpress (GX) Ka-band high-speed satellite broadband service. The satellite, launched in November 2019, delivers approximatelyRead More

Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission delivered samples taken from a primitive asteroid to Earth Saturday, which could provide potential insights into the origin of life on Earth and evolution of the solar system. The 40-centimeter-diameter, 16-kilogram Hayabusa2 reentry capsule containing samples from asteroid Ryugu made a visibly fiery entry into the atmosphere on Dec. 5, landing inRead More

The United Arab Emirates has plans to send a lunar rover to the Moon in 2024 as part of its long-term goal for the human settlement of Mars by 2117. If successful it would become only the fourth nation on Earth to do so, following the US, Soviet Union and China. India, Japan and IsraelRead More

The United Arab Emirates has announced a new satellite project called MBZ-SAT, which will become the second Emirati satellite to be fully developed and built by a team of Emirati engineers after KhalifaSat. The satellite is being developed at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in Dubai and is expected to be launched inRead More

Strata Manufacturing (Strata), a wholly-owned by Mubadala Investment Company PJSC, has leveraged Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technology to strengthen core manufacturing capabilities, diversify product portfolio and pivot into new areas of manufacturing. Speaking at this year’s Global Aerospace Summit, Ismail Ali Abdulla, CEO of Strata, highlighted how the Al Ain-based company is embracing digital transformationRead More

Alternative-fuel innovation company ZeroAvia is claiming to have achieved the world’s first flight of a hydrogen-electric commercial passenger aircraft, with its retrofitted Piper M350. The aircraft – under previous registration N866LP – had already been used to conduct a commercial-scale battery-electric flight in June. But ZeroAvia says it also completed a “world first” hydrogen fuel-cell-poweredRead More

MySky, the AI-powered spend management platform designed for the private aviation industry, and Satcom Direct (SD), have announced a strategic alliance enabling seamless access to real-time data for private aviation. Subscribers to MySky and SD will benefit from an all-encompassing approach to aircraft management that combines operational and financial information into a single source ofRead More