CubeSat

On June 26, ESA's OPS-SAT space lab went into Earth orbit with a computer running the European Ground System – Common Core (EGS-CC) "space brain" software that will be common to all European space missions from 2025.

As hypersonic missiles rapidly move toward becoming practical weapons, the problem of how to counter them is also on the agenda. The US Department of Defense developing a CubeSats-based system to track these missiles in all phases of their flight.

Virgin Orbit has followed on from its first trip to space back in January, with a mission that now marks the beginning of its commercial satellite launch service after successfully carrying seven CubeSats into orbit on Wednesday.

A first-of-a-kind spacecraft is set to make history later this year, but will do so using materials you could find at your local hardware store. The world's first wooden satellite is set to enter orbit as a box made largely of birch plywood.

It was the second time's a charm as Virgin Orbit's airdropped LauncherOne rocket put 10 NASA payloads into orbit on the second attempt in less than eight months, sending 10 NASA CubeSat payloads into low-Earth orbit under the Launch Services Program.

A student-built CubeSat will investigate whether satellites can be maintained in low Earth orbit without thrusters or propellant. The Miniature Tether Electrodynamics Experiment-1will test using the Earth's magnetic field to generate thrust.

Howe Industries has submitted the design for a solar-powered steam rocket engine for propelling CubeSats to the National Science Foundation. With only two moving parts, ThermaSat uses a thermal condenser to flash boil water into superheated steam.

Virgin Orbit is preparing its pilots, Cosmic Girl mothership and LauncherOne rocket for a second attempt at orbital flight, today announcing that its Launch Demo 2 mission will take place a week before Christmas.

Researchers have demonstrated quantum entanglement on a small satellite orbiting Earth. The team developed a miniaturized device that produces pairs of photons that are inextricably linked, which could help launch a fast and secure quantum internet.

NASA is planning to launch a tiny satellite aboard one of the most powerful rockets ever constructed, to hunt for ice hiding deep inside craters on the Moon’s surface that are bathed in perennial shadow.

NASA has given the green light to a new CubeSat mission to study the giant space weather storms produced by the Sun. Slated to launch after July 1, 2023, SunRISE will use six spacecraft as a single radio telescope to monitor solar particle storms.

Virgin Orbit has revealed plans for the first commercial satellite mission to Mars, where a new breed of tiny probes could help study the Red Planet.