SpaceX cargo Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS) ...Roll forward to approximately @1:20:23
Blue Origin is back in the news with a partnership that aims to get them NASA approval for the NASA Artemis Moon Lander. Last year NASA picked Space X to provide a lunar lander for the first missions back to the Moon. Already NASA has flown the Artemis 1 rocket with the Orion capsule as a test flight without humans onboard. The second Artemis test mission will be Artemis 2 which should be carrying some form of a cargo payload and then the 3rd flight should be a manned mission. Naturally there has to be lead time for a company to build a Lunar lander and Space X got the nod for the early lander missions. Blue Origin is positioning itself for piece of the pie as well.
The second Airbus-built Inmarsat-6 geostationary telecommunications satellite (I-6 F2) has arrived on board an Airbus Beluga at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida ready for its launch in February. The second satellite of the Inmarsat-6 generation is based on Airbus’ ultra-reliable Eurostar E3000 spacecraft and will be the 58th Eurostar E3000 built by Airbus. It will be the ninth Eurostar in orbit that is equipped with electric propulsion for orbit raising, reinforcing Airbus’ position as the world leader in electric propulsion. François Gaullier, Head of Telecommunications & Navigation Systems at Airbus, said: "I-6 F2, with its sophisticated digitally processed payload, will join Inmarsat-6 F1 (I-6 F1) in orbit giving Inmarsat even more flexibility, capability and capacity. This is the 10th geo-telecommunications satellite we have built for our long-term customer Inmarsat, a leading provider of global mobile satellite communication services, and with I-6 F1 the satellites will enable a step change in the capabilities and capacity for their ELERA services, and deliver significant additional capacity for their Global Xpress network." I-6 F1 and I-6 F2 each feature a large 9m aperture L-band antenna and six multi-beam Ka-band antennas, giving a high level of flexibility and connectivity. They also carry new generation modular digital processors to provide full routing flexibility over up to 8000 channels and dynamic power allocation to over 200 spot beams in L-band, per spacecraft. The Ka-band spot beams are steerable over the full Earth disk, with flexible channel to beam allocation.
In 1998, the International Space Station was launched, with astronauts living and working aboard. In addition to advances in medicine or helping to face the issues we have on Earth — such as water and air quality — the research conducted on the ISS is critical in our journey to the Moon and Mars and helping humanity explore the confines of the universe. However, the ISS cannot keep operating forever and has already well exceeded its original lifetime of 15 years: it is planned to be deorbited towards the end of this decade. NASA is likely to transition away from the ISS towards the next generation of continuously crewed, free flying space stations, and Airbus intends to be part of the future of human presence in space. This is why Airbus Defence and Space is teaming up with Voyager Space to help design the next space station for NASA, ESA and other customers. The space station of the future, Starlab, could be launched as early as 2028 to ensure a sustained human presence in low-Earth orbit. Designed and architected to provide 100 percent of the International Space Station’s payload capacity with the ability to conduct over 400 experiments or technical investigations per year, Starlab could provide a foundation for continued international cooperation in space, with the goal of accelerating a sustainable ecosystem in space. "The partnership with Voyager Space is the first step toward fielding the next generation space station serving international astronauts. We are excited to partner with Voyager on a project aimed at changing history," said Jean-Marc Nasr, Executive Vice President of Space Systems. "Our team is looking forward to diving in on the technology and putting our best engineers to work."
Airbus Defence and Space has signed a contract with Poland to provide a geospatial intelligence system including the development, manufacture, launch and delivery in orbit of two high-performance optical Earth observation satellites. The contract also covers the associated ground segment, including Direct Receiving Station in Poland, launch services, training for the Polish team, maintenance and technical support for the space and ground systems. Furthermore, the agreement encompasses the delivery of Very High Resolution (VHR) imagery from the Airbus Pléiades Neo constellation as early as 2023. This contract is the first export success, achieved with the support of the French government, for the Airbus S950 VHR optical satellite which stems from the development of the Pléiades Neo constellation, already operating in orbit with two satellites since 2021. This latest generation system offers a cutting-edge performance of VHR optical capabilities accompanied by a very high agility in orbit. Jean-Marc Nasr, head of Space Systems at Airbus said: "This contract will provide Poland with one of the world’s most sophisticated satellite Earth observation systems. It strengthens Europe and gives the Polish nation a truly sovereign space capability. We look forward to further developing our cooperation with Poland under the umbrella of the strategic partnership between France and Poland".