France partners with Vast Space for ISS mission

Emmanuel Macron announced a partnership on Monday between France and US startup Vast Space. Thomas Pesquet will command a private mission to the International Space Station scheduled for mid-2027.

The president made the announcement at the end of the Choose France summit. France thus becomes the first country to ally with a New Space actor for commercial space projects.

Vast Space, founded in 2021 by Jed McCaleb, plans to use SpaceX capsules. Two French astronauts, including Thomas Pesquet as commander and Arnaud Prost, will take part in the mission to the ISS and tests of the private Haven-1 station.

The Centre national d’études spatiales (Cnes) and French space industry will provide their expertise. This partnership marks the first collaboration of its kind between a state and a young private space sector company.

相关文章

Four NASA astronauts posing at a press conference at Johnson Space Center with a display of lunar docking mission in the background.
AI 生成的图像

NASA names crew for Artemis III test mission

由 AI 报道 AI 生成的图像

NASA unveiled the four astronauts selected for its Artemis III mission on Tuesday at Johnson Space Center in Houston. The crew will test docking procedures with lunar landers in low Earth orbit ahead of a planned launch no earlier than summer 2027.

China plans to add three modules to its Tiangong space station, doubling its size, as Nasa prepares to retire the International Space Station in early 2031. State broadcaster CCTV reports that Tiangong will first receive a fourth multifunctional module attached to the Tianhe core, forming a cross-shaped configuration. The expansion will create a six-module structure with a total mass of about 180 tonnes, though no timeline has been released.

由 AI 报道

The US space agency NASA is set to launch its Artemis II mission today, sending astronauts to orbit the moon for the first time in over 50 years. Four astronauts from the US and Canada will undertake a test flight lasting about ten days. Germany provides the key European Service Module for the Orion spacecraft via the European Space Agency.

NASA announced on Tuesday that it will pause development of the Gateway lunar space station and repurpose its Power and Propulsion Element for SR-1 Freedom, a nuclear-electric propulsion demonstration mission to Mars launching before the end of 2028. The spacecraft will carry Skyfall helicopters to scout subsurface water ice and landing sites. Officials described the move as leveraging existing hardware to prove nuclear power in deep space.

由 AI 报道

German astronauts Alexander Gerst and Matthias Maurer regret not joining the Artemis 2 mission, which will send humans around the Moon for the first time in over 50 years. Both expressed their longing for a Moon flight in Cape Canaveral. ESA chief Josef Aschbacher highlighted Germany's priority for future ESA Moon missions.

此网站使用 cookie

我们使用 cookie 进行分析以改进我们的网站。阅读我们的 隐私政策 以获取更多信息。
拒绝