NASA and the European Space Agency have demonstrated the use of an experimental interplanetary internet to communicate with a small rover based in Germany, with commands issued by a U.S. astronaut aboard the International Space Station.

Said has full confidence despite total loss of satellite last month

PARIS — Despite budget pressures at home, the U.K. plans to invest £1.2 billion ($1.9 billion) in European Space Agency (ESA) programs during the next five years, a 25% increase over current spending aimed at attracting more high-tech jobs and strengthening the U.K.’s position as a global player in satellite and telecommunications technology development.

GREENBELT, Md. — The U.S.-Japanese Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM), a complex environmental-monitoring spacecraft with the potential to improve forecasting of the trajectory and strength of hurricanes, is set to enter the thermal vacuum chamber at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center this week as it moves toward launch as early as February 2014.

$90 million system will monitor air pollutants over North America

Loral Space & Communications Inc. is cooperating with its principal Canadian ownership partner in Ottawa-based Telesat for a potential initial public offering, Loral CEO and President Michael Targoff told a Nov. 9 shareholders teleconference.

PARIS — Members of the French parliament say Europe’s Arianespace launch consortium is ill-prepared to lose any commercial Ariane 5 business to competitors in Russia, China, India or the U.S., where startup Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is making a splash with its low-cost Falcon 9 rocket.

Results were due largely to the December 2011 acquisition of mobile satellite services provider Vizada.