European Spaceflight
• Andrew Parsonson
The European Space Agency said a full-scale test model of its Space Rider reusable space vehicle was lost earlier this month after an anomaly during parafoil deployment in a drop test. The loss underscores a setback in testing the recovery system, though the available report provides no further detail on the anomaly or program schedule.
Via Satellite
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The European Space Agency said a full-scale test model of its Space Rider reusable space vehicle was lost earlier this month after an anomaly during parafoil deployment in a drop test. The loss underscores a setback in testing the recovery system, though the available report provides no further detail on the anomaly or program schedule.
OHB has won a European Space Agency contract to study infrastructure for the Moon. The award signals another step in planning the systems and services needed to support future lunar activity, though the available report provides no contract value, schedule or technical details.
The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope spotted the previously unknown comet C/2026 S1 (Euclid) in images taken Sept. 16–24, 2026, while observing the Euclid Deep Field North. The discovery came from a mission designed to survey billions of galaxies and investigate dark matter and dark energy.
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The UK Space Agency has opened a public competition to name its planned 2029 active debris-removal mission. The spacecraft is intended to capture two defunct satellites in orbit, making the mission a practical demonstration of efforts to remove debris from Earth orbit.
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Four years after NASA’s DART spacecraft deliberately struck an asteroid, Europe’s Hera probe is arriving to examine the collision site. The mission is intended to establish what the first-of-its-kind impact accomplished, providing a closer look at the consequences of the test.
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The European Space Agency has selected CryoRad as one of three finalists in its Earth Explorer program, which develops scientific satellites to test new Earth-observation techniques. A separate report says ESA selected Planet subsidiary Sinergise to develop a satellite-based disaster-response system for Slovenia, initially focused on wildfire management.
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The Martian Moons eXploration mission is scheduled to launch aboard an H3 rocket from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center at 04:41 JST on Oct. 20, 2026. MMX is designed to collect material from Mars’ moon Phobos and return it to Earth, a first for a mission to a Martian moon.
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