Associated Press
• Marcia Dunn
ESA’s BepiColombo mission has entered its arrival phase at Mercury, separating its transfer module from two scientific orbiters after an eight-year, 10-billion-kilometer voyage. The spacecraft now faces a high-risk final approach before beginning orbital operations to study one of the least-explored planets in the inner solar system.
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ESA’s BepiColombo mission has entered its arrival phase at Mercury, separating its transfer module from two scientific orbiters after an eight-year, 10-billion-kilometer voyage. The spacecraft now faces a high-risk final approach before beginning orbital operations to study one of the least-explored planets in the inner solar system.
The European-Japanese BepiColombo mission is set to begin its extended arrival phase at Mercury on Sept. 3, marking a major milestone in the spacecraft’s journey to the innermost planet. The event will be broadcast live, offering visibility into the mission’s next critical stage.
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Astroscale Japan has signed Isar Aerospace to launch ADRAS-J2 aboard a Spectrum rocket, targeting the capture and removal of a spent upper stage from orbit. Separately, NorthStar is leading FALCON, a new ESA-backed project focused on improving predictions of uncontrolled re-entries after recent debris incidents in Europe.
Polish space technology company Creotech Instruments has signed a €13.9 million ($16 million) contract with the European Space Agency to comprehensively implement SAWA, Poland’s second space-weather nanosatellite mission. The project is also described as the country’s first “mission-as-a-service” initiative, expanding Poland’s role in European space programs.
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OHB has won a contract worth more than $1 billion to build the MEO satellite layer of Europe’s IRIS² constellation. Separate agreements cover Italy’s PRISMA Second Generation, constellr’s HiVE thermal-imaging platforms and ESA’s FALCON consortium for tracking uncontrolled atmospheric reentries.
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The European Space Agency has awarded the first contracts under its European Launcher Challenge, committing €543.6 million to three European rocket startups. The initiative is intended to broaden Europe’s launch options beyond Ariane 6 and Vega-C, expanding the region’s commercial launch ecosystem.
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The European Space Agency has awarded €543.6 million in three-year European Launcher Challenge contracts to Isar Aerospace, PLD Space and Rocket Factory Augsburg, with a MaiaSpace agreement expected to follow. All three selected providers had previously targeted inaugural orbital flights in 2026.
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NASA astronaut Anil Menon and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot completed a follow-up spacewalk on Aug. 25, successfully installing a replacement Space-to-Ground Antenna that had failed aboard the International Space Station. The operation followed their earlier removal of the faulty unit and was intended to restore communications capability.
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