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Deep space smallsats face big challenges

Most of the people who converged on the Kennedy Space Center in mid-November for the third Artemis 1 launch attempt were focused on the giant Space Launch System rocket standing at Launch Complex 39B and the Orion spacecraft on top. Craig Hardgrove was thinking about something much smaller.

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First crewed Starliner mission on track for April

The Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission will send NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the station on an eight-day mission, launching from Cape Canaveral and landing at White Sands, New Mexico. The mission, following a successful uncrewed flight to the ISS last May, is intended to be the final major test of the vehicle before NASA certifies it for use on ISS crew rotation missions.

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What It’s Like to Become a NASA Astronaut: 10 Surprising Facts

Being an astronaut is a tremendous commitment. Astronaut candidates — who tend to be selected in their 30s and 40s — usually leave prestigious careers for a chance at being an astronaut, starting again at the bottom of the rung. Training means long days at work and lots of travel. There’s also no guarantee they’ll make it into space.

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Chance encounters: Mercury probe and sun spacecraft provide new info about Venus

Two probes — BepiColombo, headed to Mercury, and Solar Orbiter, en route to the sun — recently passed by Venus at nearly the same time, visiting Earth’s sister planet within a day of each other in August 2021. Their combined observations, recently published in the journal Nature Communications (opens in new tab), give astronomers a rare glimpse into the workings of Venus’ magnetic field.

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World’s first space platforms utilising H2O2 in concentration above 98% – next level of green space propulsion

With 25 projects from the European Space Agency (ESA) since Poland’s accession to ESA 10 years ago, Łukasiewicz – Institute of Aviation became a R&D hot spot in space propulsion in Central-Eastern Europe. Completed and ongoing projects with key spacecraft integrators (i.e. Airbus Defence & Space, OHB and Thales Alenia Space), as well as established players in space transportation systems (i.e. ArianeGroup, Avio, Nammo) and major new space companies – the institute have the ultimate goal of bringing new components, technologies and subsystems to the international market.

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