EU spacecraft production 2010 - 2022 Exports and imports pretty much flat, unfortunately the stats stop at 2022. It's the coming years that should be interesting. source: ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/...

Frohe Weihnachten @ everyone! 🎄 ☃️

'Sh*it happens', but somewhat concerning it took 3 months and a Reuters investigation for the public to even hear about this incident... www.reuters.com/technology/s...

Change of guard at #Arianespace Stéphane Israël out, David Cavaillolès new CEO from 2025. Cavaillolès' been moving up through 🇫🇷 elite leadership pipeline, with an engineering focus: École polytechnique followed by ENSAE & a position as ministerial adviser on space policy.

New pet peeve: I photograph a really nice sunrise, but then the camera app turns it into Mordor. 😐 At least let me turn off whatever filter/processing is going on here.

Good news. 🇦🇹 Austrian OMV (30% state owned) is terminating it's delivery contract with 🇷🇺 Gazprom with immediate effect.

ICYMI: #VegaC return-to-flight #VV25 with Sentinel 1C Launch on 5th Dec from Kourou. Due to Bluesky restrictions this is a short 50 sec clip showing lift-off from four different viewpoints. Full highlight video can be found here: www.esa.int/ESA_Multimed...

Newly added to the feed: Matteo Emanuelli @matteoinspace.bsky.social Manager Radar Prog @Airbus Melissa Hobson @melissa-hobson.bsky.social Exoplanet astrophysicist Andrew Higgins @a-j-higgins.bsky.social Prof. Mechanical Eng. Laura Driessen @astrolaura.bsky.social Radio astronomer @Uni Sydney

A brief depart from my "space-lane" to recommend this excellent piece of writing by @alxluck.bsky.social. 👇

Permalink for my manually curated Space & Space Flight & Astronomy feed: bsky.app/profile/did:... Suggestions for new contributors always welcome!

🇪🇺 Galileo accuracy compared to: 🇺🇸 GPS 🇷🇺Glonass 🇨🇳Beidou (smaller values better) Not bad at all...

🚀 #Ariane6 #VA263 - 🛰️CSO-3 - Update The LLPM arrived at ELA-4 BAL (Bâtiment d'Assemblage Lanceur). 📆NET flight date: 25.2.2025

"Joel Shulman, Contributor, Dr. Shulman provides expertise on entrepreneurial wealth creation." Obviously the expertise does not include space, to put it mildly.

Please welcome to the feed: Paavo Heiskanen @paavoh.bsky.social Head of Section @ ESA Bethany Downer @bethanydowner.bsky.social Communications Officer @ ESA Anatoly Zak @anatolyzak.bsky.social RussianSpaceWeb.com Mark McCaughrean @markmccaughrean.bsky.social Fmr Snr Advisor Science & Exp @ ESA

🚀 #VegaC #VV25 scrubed. The mobile gantry sadly being not all that mobile tonight. According to Arianespace a "mechanical issue [is] preventing withdrawal" Next launch attempt in 24 hours.

Good counterpoint to what I said posted below. 👇 (As with everything it depends on the details. Extreme example, launch customers A and B: A) LEO constellation, many 🛰️s, steady replacement need. B) 1x 350m$ GEO telcom-sat, 15-year design life $/kg a lot more relevant for one than the other.)

Can confirm. Of course not seeing such extreme numbers like Garner, because I am small fry. But: People here actually leave comments on posts, answer questions & tend to follow back. Don't know if Bluesky will succeed, however the 'it's like Twitter ca. 2014' vibe is definitely feelable.

Space economy revenue by segment: Note that 'Launch' is the smallest slice. For an aspiring space venture, manufacturing & ground segment on the cost, or service on the revenue side, can easily overpower price-to-orbit as a deciding factor for success. Free launch ≠ Free lunch

"2024: 100$/kg to space" 1️⃣ Are we just making stuff up now? 2️⃣ Price-to-orbit is important, but often over-emphasized for the viability of a space project. Often it's boring stuff, like user segment cost (terminals) or competition from terrestrial services, that makes or breaks the business case.

#VV25 good news The mission, which is the launch of #Sentinel1C & simultaneously the return-to-flight for Vega-C, is going ahead on the 4th. The delay, due to additional pre-launch checks, is only 24 hours. Was: 3rd Dec 2024, 21:20 UTC, ELV Now: 4th Dec 2024, same time, same place (hopefully😉)

Big solids are hard. Ask the Russsian. Conceptually simple but the inner temperature and pressure are very high, and every margin taken is less payload mass. The devil is in the details, and it's expensive to test at full scale.

Please welcome to the feed: Chris Radcliff @chrisradcliff.bsky.social Software Engineer Blue Origin Tim Fernholz @timfernholz.bsky.social Writer payloadspace.com Theodore Courtois @astrotheo.space L’SPACE Coordinator NASA Sascha Trippe @saschatrippe.bsky.social Astronomer, Prof Seoul Nat. Uni.

JAXA Epsilon - "The E stands for explosion" The launcher exploded yesterday 49 secs into a 2nd stage hot-fire. This attempt followed the June 2023 test that ended in an explosion at sec 55. And all this on top of a 2022 launch failure which resulted to payload loss. www.space.com/space-explor...

Welcome to the feed: Caleb Henry @chenryspace.bsky.social Director Research @ Quilty Space Brandon Haber @malderi.techhub.social.ap.brid.gy Flight Software Lead NASA Dragonfly Simon Proud @simonsat.bsky.social Mission scientist Sentinel-2 NG Dr. Tanya Harrison @tanyaofmars.bsky.social NASA Mars

Sentinel meeting Vampire ESA's #Sentinel1C, due to launch on Vega-C next week, being placed on the vampire (Vega Adapter for Multiple Payload Injection and Release) payload adapter. 🚀📆Launch date: 3. December 2024, 🕦21:20 UTC

#Starship booster sinking beneath the waves. ngl this looks pretty cool...🌊🚀 (via www.instagram.com/austin8barna...)

Aww...thanks! ❤️ 🔸I am rather selective when adding new contributors. (Too many and it just becomes too hard to follow, even if all the individual posts are worthwhile) 🔸Being a feed (as opposed to list) allows restricting to top-posts (no replies), which IMHO improves the signal-to-noise ratio.

#ProgressMS29 'after docking the hatch had to be closed immediately due to bad "paint-like" smell and possible contamination hazard' Yet another leak(?) issue w/ Progress/Soyuz and, worse, this time internally. QA at RKK Energija must be in total shambles. www.russianspaceweb.com/progress-ms-...

Excellent visualizations by @rykllan.bsky.social showing #SpaceX's launch patterns. Two striking points: 1️⃣ Cadence ramp up: SpaceX flew more missions in the last 2 years than in their entire previous history combined 2️⃣ Starlink dominates: 70 out of the last 100 missions were Starlink launches

Turns out we've been color-coding our faucets completely wrong all this time. 😁 (source @astropierre.com)

New Glenn just went vertical on the pad. The unpainted interstage looks interesting. (source Blue Origin)

New Glenn just gone vertical time. Unpainted interstage looks interesting.

🤭 @lionnetpierre.bsky.social is being a meanie here, but he isn't wrong. A still-in-development payload booking a flight on a still-in-development launcher...

Might be rather obvious, but, 'It takes two to tango' is also true when it comes to disrupting an industry. As much credit is due to SpaceX engineers ingenuity & Elon's drive: The magnitude of the success was enabled by the complacency of the incumbent players.

Newly added to the space feed: Thomas H Zurbuchen @drthomasz.bsky.social NASA’s head of Science 2016-22 Tory Bruno @torybruno.bsky.social CEO ULA Thomas Cheney @thomascheney.bsky.social Space Gov @ Northumbria Uni Sam Wilson @spacenukesam.bsky.social Analyst @ Center for Space Policy

Ok, here is an updated version of my space policy starter pack. Let's make #BlueSpace the best platform for space news, space econ and space law discussions. @sharestuff.bsky.social go.bsky.app/PRWt1qf

Hello! After a long hiatus: I am back, this time for good ;-) Newly included in the feed: Loren Grush @lorengrush.bsky.social Space reporter at Bloomberg Tereza Pultarova @terezapultarova.bsky.social Space journalist Tim Farrar @tmfassociates.bsky.social Space industry consultant

New auxiliary space passenger for #Ariane6: 🇫🇷 Exotrail's spacevan (small-sat space tug) will fly on A64 in H2 2026. spacenews.com/exotrails-ge...

A bit niche, but if secure Satcom & the EU are you thing: EUSPA (EU Agency for the Space Programme) is holding a webinar on: 📅Tuesday, 12. December 🕙10:00 CET Link and signup: www.euspa.europa.eu/newsroom/new...

An Arianegroup launch of a different kind: First (and successful) flight by the M51.3 version of France's M51 SLBM. M51.3 is scheduled to enter service 2025. Launch from DGA Essais de missiles site at Biscarrosse

'Baby's first space strategy' Until recently not a major player in military space matters, the EU has drafted its first "Space Strategy for Security & Defence", focusing on SDA. For what that means, I recommend Daniel Fiott's brief here: prod-b4156475194d8706-vub.paddlecms.net/in-orbit-the...

Sierra Nevada is laying of ~165 employees and a "significant" number of contractors. Reason given is the "pivot to Dreamchaser exploitation" www.cnbc.com/2023/11/16/s...

One of those life hack videos you never know when you might need it: How to win an instellar war ;-) youtu.be/tybKnGZRwcU?...

🇩🇪 Bundeswehr joins the MEO 🛰constellation bandwagon. (but not before 2032...) 🔹"up to 24 satellites" 🔹part of "multi-orbital system in GEO, LEO and MEO” 🔹BW also "aims to integrate its military requirements into 🇪🇺 IRIS²" constellation. www.janes.com/defence-news...

"Commercial Cargo: Euro-style" ESA DG Josef Aschbacher received go-ahead to invest €75m in preparatory steps for local version of NASA's COTS. The aim is for a European company to develop an uncrewed space cargo service (incl. cargo return) to the ISS. spacenews.com/esa-to-start...

Here we go. Conference 🧵: 17th #ESPI (European Space Policy Institute) Autumn Conference

ISINGLASS/RHEINBERRY "A piloted Mach 20 “boost-glide” vehicle that would have been dropped from a B-52, fired a rocket engine, and overflown the Soviet Union before returning to a safe landing site" I mean...how cool is that? ^.^

Bet you haven't heard of LANYARD PRIME, OXCART or (my favourite) RHEINBERRY. SpaceReview takes a look (pun intended) at unbuilt spy-sat concepts that had been proposed but, for one reason or another, did not get the green light. Recommended reading: www.thespacereview.com/article/4671/1