Earth observation chief Dr Josef Aschbacher takes reins at European Space Agency

Dr Josef Aschbacher will succeed Jan Wörner as director general of the European Space Agency once Wörner's term ends on 30 June 2021. Aschbacher, currently ESA director of Earth Observation Programmes and head of ESRIN, ESA's centre for Earth Observation near Rome, had been the frontrunner for the job. His appointment has …

[Neil Barnes]

NASA elects to carry on with Orion regardless

I'm sorry, but if 'Orion' doesn't refer to a single-stage-to-orbit-with-nukes-going-off-behind-it, in the finest Freeman Dyson tradition, it somehow feels *wrong*.

[Gene Cash]

KSP

In the last update, you can now have official Rocket Lab & Electron logos on your rocket!

[John Smith 19]

So th Johnson has brought Blighty it's own (unnecessary) satellite constellation.

While the UK gets stuck for the cost of the other 2/3s of the constellation that's still to be built.

What a tool.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: So th Johnson has brought Blighty it's own (unnecessary) satellite constellation.

IIRC, the UK is a secondary partner, not the biggest, primary partner.

[Gotno iShit Wantno iShit]

Re: So th Johnson has brought Blighty it's own (unnecessary) satellite constellation.

Maybe someone sees benefit in having access to orbits and frequencies that provide continuous global coverage. Maybe someone sees benefit in having sway over where the Gen2 sats are designed & built. Maybe someone has identified a way to provide a position & timing service from LEO by putting a small additional payload on the Gen2 satellites. Maybe there's people out there who know a metric fuckton more about this shit than internet armchair commentators. Maybe it is just willy waving by BoJo. My mind is open to all possibilities.

One thing that not a maybe, it's a cast iron certainty, is that haters gonna hate.

(the UK taxpayer owns 42.2%, the same as Bharti Global)

[Anonymous Coward]

Beautifully said.

[kouja]

Sercviceability?

We found a problem during testing but the replacement is too risky ?!

Better not to touch already integrated bits, sir.

There is enough redundancy.

Don't worry it will fly well with few faulty bits...

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Sercviceability?

Not to worry you, but this is how all civil aviation works.

[Bitsminer]

Re: Sercviceability?

Hopefully someone at NASA thought about "systemic problems", and properly convinced themselves that it was not the issue.

In other words, the other units won't fail the same way.

[Pascal Monett]

"The Orion capsule is designed to have a considerable amount of redundancy in its operations"

Oh, so it wasn't made by Boeing then . . .

Right, I'll just exit stage left.