News
Welcome to the UK Space Agency's News and Events pages.
Please select a news release from our latest news section or visit our events calendar relating to space activities in the UK and overseas.
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14 May 2012
UKube-1, the programme to launch the UK Space Agency’s first Cubesat mission, has reached an important milestone. Two payloads have now undergone pre-integration testing at Clyde Space’s facilities in Glasgow.
11 May 2012
The UK Space Agency has announced nine funding awards, totalling £2M, for science associated with Mars exploration. This scheme will enhance the UK’s science capabilities; help us to understand the Martian environment and to search for traces of past and present life.
11 May 2012
Angel-Lee Richardson the winner of our Wiltshire wide Holiday Card competition received a visit from UK Space Agency staff at Haydon Wick Primary School in Swindon. Angel and her classmates got to pick up and learn about moon rocks and meteorites in a special presentation.
11 May 2012
Following the unexpected loss of contact with Envisat on 08 April 2012 the European Space Agency (ESA) has spent the last month trying to re-establish communication. They have now declared the end of the mission that has been informing our understanding of the planet for a decade.
10 May 2012
Astronomers, using the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Herschel Space Observatory, have shown that the number of stars that form during the early lives of galaxies may be influenced by the massive black holes at their hearts. This helps explain the link between the size of the central bulges of galaxies and the mass of their central black holes.
9 May 2012
After more than ten years of work by more than 200 engineers, the Mid InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), a camera so sensitive it could see a candle on one of Jupiter’s moons, has been declared ready for delivery by the European Space Agency and NASA. The MIRI Optical System, an instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that will eventually take up a position four times further away from the Earth than the Moon. It will now be shipped to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where it will be integrated with the other three instruments and the telescope.
4 May 2012
The UK’s Alpha team from Bearsden Academy in Glasgow were awarded first place in the second European CanSat Competition. 14 secondary school teams participated in the competition from different ESA member states at the Andøya Rocket Range in Norway.
3 May 2012
Jupiter’s icy moons are the focus of Europe’s next large science mission, as ESA announces the next of its L-class missions.
1 May 2012
Budding astronauts from across the world landed in London last week for the closing event of Mission X: Train Like an Astronaut. The UK Space Agency hosted the international visitors for three days of space, fitness and nutrition educational activities from 26-28 April.
26 Apr 2012
UK company Astrium has been selected by the European Space Agency as the prime contractor for the Solar Orbiter mission that will perform close-up observations of the Sun. The €300 million contract was signed on the anniversary of the launch of Ariel-1 as part of the celebrations for the 50th Anniversary of the UK in Space held by the UK Space Agency at the Science Museum, London on 26 April.
