In a 12 March update, Isar Aerospace announced that the Norwegian Space Agency had awarded the German rocket builder the contract to launch both AOS-D and AOS-P. The satellites will be launched aboard a Spectrum rocket from the Andøya Spaceport in Norway by 2028.

La misión #HERA (de defensa planetaria) de @esa ya está por Marte y ha pillado a Deimos en la foto. Todos los datos en el enlace https://www.esa.int/Space/_Safety/Hera/Hera/_asteroid/_mission/_spies/_Mars/_s/_Deimos/_moon

In a 28 February POLSA update, the agency confirmed that the information regarding the uncontrolled re-entry of the Falcon 9 second stage had been sent to the wrong email addresses at the Ministry of National Defence.

Further compounding the crisis, the Polish Space Agency was hacked on 2 March, forcing it to “immediately disconnect from the Internet.”

“A cybersecurity incident has occurred at POLSA. The relevant authorities and institutions have been informed,” POLSA explained in response to European Spaceflight questioning. “An analysis of the situation is currently underway. To secure the data after the breach, POLSA’s network was immediately disconnected from the Internet. We will keep you updated.”

The POLSA systems were officially restored on 5 March “in cooperation with the services and institutions responsible for cybersecurity.”

On 11 March, the Minister of Development and Technology announced that POLSA President Grzegorz Wrochna had been officially dismissed. The statement did not include any information about his replacement.

Welcome everyone! It's time for the first operational launch of Ariane 6!

This follows a previous launch attempt earlier in the week which was scrubbed due to GSE issues.

| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2025-03-06 16:24 | |

|

| | Scheduled for (local) | 2025-03-06 13:24 (GFT) | | Launch site | ELA-4, Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana | | Launch vehicle | Ariane 62 | | Payload | CSO-3 | | Mission success criteria | Successful launch and deployment of payloads into Sun-Synchronous Orbit |

Livestreams

| Stream | Link | |

|

| | ESA | https://www.youtube.com/@EuropeanSpaceAgency/streams | | Arianespace (English) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvvUCkAUqvI | | Arianespace (Français) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-45oYBZHOs | | Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAEVfzW5xWc | | The Launch Pad | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsbYwkOcy6M |

Stats

☑️ 1st Ariane 6 mission of 2025, 2nd overall

☑️ 1st Arianespace mission of 2025, 300th overall

Payload info

The French CSO (Composante Spatiale Optique) high-resolution reconnaissance satellites are the optical space component of the MUSIS program that will replace the current Hélios 2 military observation satellites.

CNES, the French space agency, has notified Astrium that the DGA (Direction Générale de l'Armement), the French arms procurement agency, has awarded the company a 795€ million contract for two satellites for the CSO program. The contract also includes an option for a third satellite.

As the prime contractor for the CSO satellites programme, Astrium will provide the agile platform and avionics, and will also be responsible for the integration work, testing, and delivery of the satellites to CNES. Thales Alenia Space will provide Astrium with very high-resolution optical instruments.

Please feel free to post updates and questions in the comments!

German rocket builder Isar Aerospace has signed a launch services agreement with Japanese in-space logistics company ElevationSpace, securing a Spectrum rocket flight for the AOBA re-entry demonstrator.

As the company prepares for Spectrum’s inaugural flight, it has secured a new customer for the rocket. On 4 March, ElevationSpace announced that it had booked a Spectrum flight scheduled for the second half of 2026. The rocket will carry the company’s AOBA re-entry demonstrator, which will serve as an initial test of the company’s ELS-R “space utilization and recovery” vehicle.

The Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lunar lander has completed a historic touchdown on the surface of the Moon, powered by an engine designed and built by Nammo UK with support from the European Space Agency.

Welcome everyone! It's time for the first operational launch of Ariane 6!

| Scheduled for (UTC) | 2025-03-03 16:24 | |

|

| | Scheduled for (local) | 2025-03-03 13:24 (GFT) | | Launch site | ELA-4, Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana | | Launch vehicle | Ariane 62 | | Payload | CSO-3 | | Mission success criteria | Successful launch and deployment of payloads into Sun-Synchronous Orbit |

Livestreams

| Stream | Link | |

|

| | Arianespace (English) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2VwcNCIX44 | | Arianespace (Français) | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2-NtVR8OiQ | | Space Affairs | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAEVfzW5xWc |

Stats

☑️ 1st Ariane 6 mission of 2025, 2nd overall

☑️ 1st Arianespace mission of 2025, 300th overall

Payload info

The French CSO (Composante Spatiale Optique) high-resolution reconnaissance satellites are the optical space component of the MUSIS program that will replace the current Hélios 2 military observation satellites.

CNES, the French space agency, has notified Astrium that the DGA (Direction Générale de l'Armement), the French arms procurement agency, has awarded the company a 795€ million contract for two satellites for the CSO program. The contract also includes an option for a third satellite.

As the prime contractor for the CSO satellites programme, Astrium will provide the agile platform and avionics, and will also be responsible for the integration work, testing, and delivery of the satellites to CNES. Thales Alenia Space will provide Astrium with very high-resolution optical instruments.

Please feel free to post updates and questions in the comments!

Sentinel-2C was launched in September 2024 aboard the final Vega rocket and was intended to replace Sentinel-2A. However, ESA has now granted Sentinel-2A a one-year exceptional and temporary extension, which will begin in March.

“Sentinel-2A will not retire yet,” said Christoph Kautz, Director for Satellite Navigation and Earth Observation at DG DEFIS.

Preparations for Sentinel-2A’s mission extension began in January 2025, with manoeuvres initiated to reposition the satellite by early March 2025. With this new orbital configuration, the average revisit time of the Sentinel-2 constellation will be drastically reduced.

POLARIS Spaceplanes is developing AURORA, a multipurpose spaceplane and hypersonic transport system. Before beginning work directly on AURORA, the company has focused on developing and testing progressively larger demonstrators, the latest being a pair of identical five-metre-long vehicles, MIRA II and MIRA III.

In a 27 February update, POLARIS revealed that it had received a BAAINBw contract to design a fully reusable hypersonic research vehicle. The contract describes the vehicle as a hypersonic testbed and experimental platform for defence-related applications, as well as scientific and institutional research. A secondary role of the vehicle will be to serve as a small satellite launch system when equipped with an expendable upper stage.

SpaceForest was founded in 2011 and is developing an 11.5-metre suborbital rocket capable of carrying up to 50 kilograms to an altitude of 150 kilometres. The company conducted two initial PERUN test flights in 2023, but both suffered anomalies that forced mission aborts before the rockets reached the 50-kilometre target.

Toward the end of 2024, the company completed an initial test firing of an SF-1000 engine with its upgraded combustion chamber, which lasted 25 seconds. In a 26 February update, SpaceForest revealed that it had followed the initial test with a full-duration hot fire test lasting 39 seconds. This marks a key milestone, as 39 seconds is the required burn time to launch the PERUN rocket into space. The test was conducted at the Central Air Force Test Range in Ustka, Poland.

The next and final SF-1000 rocket engine hot fire test will validate the company’s Thrust Vector Control system. Once completed, SpaceForest will move forward with an initial test flight of PERUN, equipped with its upgraded propulsion system. According to the company, the flight is expected to take place “in a few months” and will carry the rocket’s first research payloads.

Space Rider’s Re-entry Module is designed to be reused for up to six missions with minimal refurbishment between flights. A key component of the thermal protection system that will enable this capability is the vehicle’s Body Flaps, a pair of movable aerodynamic surfaces located at the rear of the Re-entry Module. These flaps play a crucial role in controlling the vehicle’s attitude and stability during atmospheric re-entry. By adjusting these flaps, the spacecraft can maintain its pitch and roll, ensuring a controlled descent through various stages of re-entry and recovery.

In a 20 February update, CIRA announced that it had completed all qualification tests for the Space Rider Body Flaps, allowing it to move forward with the manufacture of the first flight-ready iterations.

The inaugural flight of Space Rider is currently expected to launch aboard a Vega C rocket in 2027.

The Łukasiewicz Research Network’s Institute of Aviation has successfully completed its second hot-fire test campaign for the Throttleable Liquid Propulsion Demonstrator rocket engine.

Development of the Throttleable Liquid Propulsion Demonstrator (TLPD) is led by a consortium of Polish companies under ESA’s Future Launchers Preparatory Programme. The engine uses high-test peroxide and ethanol and is capable of producing 5 kN of thrust.

The next phase of the engine’s development will involve upgrading it to a “flight-like” engine. According to a 25 February ESA update, this phase of the project has a budget of €5 million and will last two years.

Once completed, the upgraded variant of the Throttleable Liquid Propulsion Demonstrator engine will be designed for integration into a lander for Moon or Mars missions or for spacecraft focused on space debris removal or in-orbit servicing.

Founded in 2019, Magdrive is developing a range of high-thrust electric propulsion systems for satellites and spacecraft. The company is currently working toward an initial test flight of its Rouge thruster aboard a D-Orbit mission in June. Rouge is the smallest of the three propulsion systems under development.

The company states that its propulsion systems use “solid metal as propellant,” which can be “sourced and refueled from recycled ‘space junk’ or other in-space sources.” This capability is a key element of its broader ambition to scale up its propulsion system for use in in-space servicing spacecraft, large-scale constellation management, and interplanetary travel.