Josef Aschbacher: Last News

The first-ever European micro-launcher rocket tests are set to begin in Scotland.

Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion has halted the hunt for aliens. The European Space Agency has ended cooperation with Russia on a series of missions that could unearth extraterrestrial life.

Russia and Ukraine means that mankind will probably not go to Mars this year, space agencies have warned.Both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have confirmed that co-operation will continue with their Russian counterpart Roscosmos, with which they work on projects including the International Space Station.But a project that has suffered as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian conflict is the ExoMars mission that is meant to see a European lander carried to Mars on board a Russian spacecraft. But a statement from the ESA made it clear that this is now unlikely to happen, with the statement saying: “Regarding the ExoMars programme continuation, the sanctions and the wider context make a launch in 2022 very unlikely.” The arrival of the lander – named Rosalind Franklin – on the red planet had been scheduled for 2020 but the Covid-19 pandemic caused it to be delayed.

Express.co.uk: "All this incredible growth we're seeing right now like broadband internet being delivered or soon to be delivered around the world, these safety services, these tracking services and the like, it starts to limit what we can actually do from space."In the extreme that this continues for a while, it starts to make, you know, big portions of space unusable."He also warned that in the future industry leaders will have to think carefully about the things they are putting into space, as this could have massive detrimental impacts in the future.Mr Ceperley also emphasised that the space race is now very different from its previous iteration during the Cold War contest between the world's superpowers.Now, instead of competing for milestones like getting into orbit or going to the Moon, the new space race is about "building infrastructure" in orbit.To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.This could include the launching infrastructure, or communications, or safety, with Mr Ceperley claiming that these form the basis of how space is used in the future.Problems with trash and overcrowding in space came to light recently when billionaire Elon Musk drew the ire of the Chinese government after one of his private space projects had a close call with Chinese satellites.Josef Aschbacher, boss of the European Space Agency, subsequently accused the billionaire of "making the rules" for the growing commercial space industry.