The European Space Agency says it is ceasing efforts to try to contact Russia’s wayward Mars probe, Phobos-Grunt, after a week-and-a-half of silence.

See the article here:
Europe ends calls to Mars probe

MOSCOW — The European Space Agency has received the first signal from an unmanned Russian spacecraft bound for a moon of Mars since it got stuck in Earth’s orbit two weeks ago, officials said Wednesday, raising hope the mission might be saved. Russia’s space agency said an ESA tracking facility in Australia got the signal from the Phobos-Ground probe early Wednesday in the western city of Perth. Read full article > >

Continue reading here:
Europe Space Agency receives 1st signal from Russia’s Mars moon probe stuck in Earth orbit

Russia, which currently has the fourth-largest space budget in the world (it follows NASA, the European Space Agency and France) and partnerships with many influential agencies (it is on Russian Soyuz spacecrafts that NASA astronauts will visit the International Space Station [ISS] in coming years, post-Space Shuttle), may be planning on building a permanent base on the moon. “Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday that his country’s plans go well beyond transporting crews to the International Space Station,” according to the Huffington Post , which wrote about the issue after pulling together several different news reports from recent days. “Russia should not limit itself to the role of an international space ferryman,” Putin reportedly said outside of his Moscow residence at a meeting recognizing the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight. “We need to increase our presence on the global space market.” Various records and reports suggest that Putin hopes to both build a base near the moon’s north pole and travel to Mars by 2030. “Russian scientists are … said to have touted the moon as a potential source of energy, saying it contains large reserves of helium 3, a sought-after isotope that may be the key to a new way of generating power,” according to the Huffington Post.

Read the original:
Is Russia Planning to Build a Permanent Moon Base?

Member states of the European Space Agency formally agree to the extension of operations at the International Space Station until 2020.

View post:
Europe agrees 2020 space station

Member states of the European Space Agency formally agree to the extension of operations at the International Space Station until 2020.

More here:
Europe agrees 2020 space station

Italian Luca Parmitano will be the first of the European Space Agency’s new astronauts to go into orbit, in 2013.

More here:
Astronaut rookie gets his chance

Italian Luca Parmitano will be the first of the European Space Agency’s new astronauts to go into orbit, in 2013.

See more here:
Astronaut rookie gets his chance

Italian Luca Parmitano will be the first of the European Space Agency’s new astronauts to go into orbit, in 2013.

Go here to see the original:
Astronaut rookie gets his chance

Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons, is a fascinating place. The moon, discovered back in 1877, is small — only about 17 miles long — and orbits incredibly close to the surface of its host planet. Phobos, in fact, is so close to Mars that it moves around the planet faster than the planet itself rotates. If you were standing on the surface of Mars, you would see Phobos rise in the west and move across the sky in only a little more than four hours before disappearing to the east. And it’s speeding up. As the orbital radius decreases, Phobos moves closer to the planet’s surface and will one day either smash into Mars or break up into a planetary ring. “[Its] origins are still something of a mystery, and the surface featured on Phobos are not totally understood either,” Phil Plait wrote at Discover last week after these new photographs were taken. “Specifically, all those parallel grooves are pretty weird! The current thinking is that they were actually caused by impacts on Mars! It works like this: some giant rock hits Mars and blasts vast quantities of material up and out, some of which reaches up into space. Phobos plows into this material, and the direct impacts with big chunks can form craters.” These new images were taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) aboard the European Space Agency’s Mars Express probe after it passed within 66 miles of Mars’ surface. View more Pictures of the Day . Image: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum).

Follow this link:
Picture of the Day: Phobos, Mars’ Large and Incredibly Close Moon

Twenty-eleven will be the “year of launchers”, says the European Space Agency’s director-general, as three different rockets start operating out of Europe’s French Guiana spaceport.

See original here:
2011 ‘year of rockets’ for Europe

European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli speaks to BBC News from on board the International Space Station.

View original post here:
Astronaut on board Space Station

The European Space Agency’s (Esa) new intake of astronauts complete their basic training.

Read the original:
Europe’s new astronauts graduate

The European Space Agency is battling to recover its Goce gravity satellite which has been struck by a second computer glitch, blocking data delivery to Earth.

Visit link:
Computer blow to gravity satellite