Europe’s second Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), considered by some forecasters the best of its kind in the world, has gone into service on Eumetsat’s Metop-B polar-orbiting weather satellite. Developed by France’s Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and Thales Alenia Space, the IASI measures infrared wavelengths across 8,461 different spectral channels to generate high-resolution vertical profiles of the atmosphere’s temperature and humidity. The data is crucial to numerical weather prediction models.

STORM WEATHERED: An Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket stage, on its seaside launch pad at Wallops Island, Va., for an upcoming hot-fire test, “looks to be in pretty good shape” after weathering Hurricane Sandy. Wallops was evacuated for the storm, leaving the Antares first stage in position on the pad and the nearby horizontal processing facility locked down. While the processing facility had already weathered one severe storm, it was the first time for Antares flight hardware. After a quick inspection Oct.

PARIS and NAPLES, Italy — French space agency CNES is studying next-generation launch vehicle concepts for a modular Ariane 6 that would use existing technologies and production facilities to replace the cumbersome, costly and commercially reliant Ariane 5 of today.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology student believes that with enough warning — as much as 20 years — a paintball-shooting spacecraft might be the best way to divert an asteroid from an extinction-level collision with Earth.

HOUSTON — NASA says operations aboard the International Space Station should not be affected if the SpaceX CRS-2 cargo delivery mission currently slated for January slips as a result of the ongoing investigation into the first-stage engine loss that occurred on the Oct. 7 CRS-1 mission. The supply cache delivered to the station in early to mid-2011 by the now-retired space shuttle placed the six-person orbiting science lab on a firm footing well into 2013, according to Mike Suffredini, NASA’s space station program manager.

Orbital Technologies Corp. (Orbitec), a Madison, Wisc.-based space-technology company, has flight tested a version of the 30,000-lb.-thrust liquid-propellant rocket engine it is developing for the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Upper Stage Engine Program (Ausep) and other in-space applications.

SASSENAGE, France — A Franco-German accord as to how the European Space Agency (ESA) will pay its portion of common operating costs associated with the International Space Station (ISS) in 2017-20 could founder under a roughly €480 million ($650 million) shortfall in ESA’s €4 billion budget for the orbiting outpost through the end of the decade.

SASSENAGE, France — With less than a month before European Space Agency (ESA) ministers meet to set the agency’s multiyear spending plan, a Franco-German compromise is emerging in the debate over the future of European launchers.