Tag: Icarus
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Europe Shelves ICARUS Upper Stage Upgrade to Prioritize Ariane 6 Output
The ICARUS program was intended to improve Ariane 6 performance and competitiveness. Its suspension redirects effort toward getting more Ariane 6 rockets built and flown. The upgrade has been paused rather than cancelled, but no restart timeline was provided. The decision lands as Europe’s launch sector faces pressure from SpaceX and a shortage of domestic…
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Spacewalkers toss nanosatellites into orbit, hook up bird migration monitor
EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated at 0030 GMT on Aug. 16 (8:30 p.m. EDT on Aug. 15) after the end of the spacewalk. Cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev prepares to release a nanosatellte on Wednesday’s spacewalk. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now Clad in pressurized spacesuits, two Russian cosmonauts headed outside the International Space Station on Wednesday and hand-released four tiny…
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Russians toss satellites and install animal tracking system in marathon spacewalk
News Brief: Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev tossed four small research satellites into orbit and installed an animal-tracking sensor system known as Icarus on the International Space Station’s exterior today, during a spacewalk that ran more than an hour longer than planned. Getting the hardware installed for Icarus, which will track migrating animals…