The European Commission and European Space Agency signed, on Wednesday 10 June in Berlin, a joint declaration in support of pilot mission ISOS (In-Space Operations and Services), a step towards the establishment of a European in-orbit services infrastructure. The declaration was also signed by Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. Germany, France, Luxembourg, Portugal and Spain had already signed it last year.
According to European Commission, the EU and ESA’s shared ambition is to support the commercialisation and industrialisation of space activities by enabling the development of new in-orbit services and exploiting European technologies. ISOS aims to develop capabilities enabling tasks to be carried out in orbit, such as satellite capture and repositioning, inspection and repair, space logistics, manufacturing in space and removal of space debris.
Following the signature of the declarations, a ceremony marked the start of the pilot mission ISOS, with the launch of six projects under the Horizon Europe programme, coordinated by Thales Alenia Space, Planetek, Leonardo, The Exploration Company, ArianeGroup and RWTH Aachen University.
Copernicus. On Wednesday, ESA announced the award to Thales Alenia Space of the contract to develop and build two next-generation Sentinel-1 satellites for Copernicus. Thales Alenia Space will lead development of the two identical satellites, while Airbus Defence and Space will be responsible for their main instruments: C-band synthetic aperture radars. The new satellites will provide significantly wider coverage and geometric resolution four times higher than current satellites, reaching 5 m × 5 m, compared with 5 m × 20 m at present. Coverage will also be extended to polar regions.
Artemis. In addition, NASA announced on Tuesday 9 June that ESA Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano will join the mission Artemis III as pilot. NASA astronaut and commander Randy Bresnik and NASA astronauts Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas will complete the team, and Bob Hines will be reserve member. ESA is also providing a European Service Module (ESM) for this crewed test flight in Earth orbit to demonstrate systems and operations required for future Moon landing missions planned from Artemis IV. Mission Artemis III is scheduled for 2027. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)