European Space Agency

The European Union has reached an agreement with the United States that will allow for the launch of four Galileo navigation satellites on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.

Due to the extra overhead related to the national security mission, the European Union agreed to pay 180 million euros for the two launches, or about $196 million. This represents about a 30 percent premium over the standard launch price of $67 million for a Falcon 9 launch.

Somewhat to the ESA's embarrassment, the continent has had to purchase several launches from its direct competitor in launch, SpaceX, during the last two years. In 2023, Europe launched its Euclid space telescope on a Falcon 9 rocket, and later this year, an ESA Earth observation satellite and an ESA asteroid probe will launch on Falcon 9 missions.

However, this lack of access to space should come to an end soon. The ESA has shipped stages of the first flight hardware for the Ariane 6 rocket to its French Guiana spaceport. While the ESA has not set a specific launch date, it is working toward a window that extends from June 15 through July 31.

The European Space Agency has revealed that a few layers of ice approximately the width of a strand of DNA have begun to impact its Euclid telescope’s optics.

The problem was discovered after operators noticed a small but progressive decrease in the amount of light coming from stars that were repeatedly observed by the telescope’s VISible instrument.

According to the agency, small amounts of water absorbed from the air during assembly on Earth were gradually “teased out by the vacuum of space.” The water then stuck to the first surface it landed on and froze in place. Unfortunately for Euclid, some of this water has frozen on highly sensitive mission-critical components. The ice build-up is likely just a few tens of nanometres thick, which is equivalent to the width of a strand of DNA. The extreme sensitivity of the telescope’s optics means that even this tiny amount of ice is affecting the data collected by Euclid.

According to ESA, teams have been working on the issue for several months and are currently in the process of testing a newly designed procedure to de-ice the telescope’s optics. The solution devised will see operators utilizing onboard heaters to independently warn individual mirrors. After each mirror is warmed, operators will examine if there has been any change. The hope is to isolate the affected areas without having too great an impact on the telescope’s delicate thermo-optical stability.

The European Space Agency has published a call to begin work on a demonstrator of a reusable launch vehicle upper stage.

Published on 13 March, the call outlines a project in its very earliest stages of development. Its primary aim is the “identification of the technology maturation needs for the reusable upper stage demonstration.” This will include identifying critical and enabling technologies required for the project, consolidating high-level requirements that would be used to initiate phase 1 development, and the exploration of commercial applications for the technology.

In addition to the reusable upper stage initiative, ESA is also pursuing the development of reusable rocket boosters and a high-thrust reusable staged combustion engine.

Glad to see Europe finally making moves toward reusability.