EU-DIGEST

The Tianwen-1 mission launched atop a Long March 5 rocket from Hainan Island's Wenchang Satellite Launch Center this morning (July 23) at 12:41 a.m. EDT (0441 GMT).

Tianwen-1 consists of an orbiter and a lander/rover duo, a combination of craft that had never before launched together toward the Red Planet. The ambition of Tianwen-1 is especially striking given that it's China's first stab at a full-on Mars mission. (The nation did launch a Red Planet orbiter called Yinghuo-1 in November 2011, but the spacecraft flew piggyback with Russia's Phobos-Grunt mission. And that launch failed, leaving the probes trapped in Earth orbit.)

"Tianwen-1 is going to orbit, land and release a rover all on the very first try, and coordinate observations with an orbiter," team members wrote in a recent Nature Astronomy paper outlining the mission's main objectives. "No planetary missions have ever been implemented in this way. If successful, it would signify a major technical breakthrough."

Read more at: 
China launches ambitious Tianwen-1 Mars rover mission | Space

The world’s largest airplane took flight for the first time ever on Saturday morning. Stratolaunch, a 500,000-pound plane with a 385-foot wingspan that is built to send rockets into orbit around the Earth, lifted off shortly after 10AM ET from Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California.

The inaugural flight is expected to last a few hours. It comes just three months after Stratolaunch Systems, the company behind the effort, laid off “more than 50” employees and canceled efforts to develop its own rockets. The change in plans was reportedly sparked by the death of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who started Stratolaunch Systems in 2011.

The duel-fuselage Stratolaunch is designed to fly to an altitude of 35,000 feet, where it can drop rockets that ignite their engines and boost themselves into orbit around the planet. The company has already signed at least one customer in Orbital ATK, which plans to use Stratolaunch to send its Pegasus XL rocket into space.

Read more at: World’s biggest airplane takes flight for the first time ever

Vega lifts off from Europe's  Space port in Korou, French Guiana

ESA’s Earth Explorer Aeolus satellite has been successfully launched into polar orbit on a Vega rocket.

Using revolutionary Lidar technology, Aeolus will measure winds around the globe and play a key role in the quest to better understand the workings of the atmosphere. Importantly, this novel mission will also improve weather forecasting.

Carrying the 1,360kg Aeolus satellite, the Vega rocket lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 21:20 GMT (23:20 CEST, 18:20 local time) on 22 August. Some 55 minutes later,

Vega’s upper stage delivered Aeolus into orbit and contact was established through the Troll ground station in Antarctica at 00:30 CEST on 23 August.

Named after Aeolus, who in Greek mythology was appointed ‘keeper of the winds’ by the Gods, this novel mission is the fifth in the family of Europe's ESA’s Earth Explorers, which address the most urgent Earth-science questions of our time.

Read more: ESA Sends Aeolus Lidar-equipped Wind Satellite into Orbit

Russia : The Kremlin

 "It is time", the USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev said in a 1989 speech, "to consign to oblivion the Cold War postulates when Europe was viewed as an arena of confrontation divided into 'spheres of influence'."

In place of old rivalries, Gorbachev laid out his vision of a "common European home". Russia and Europe, he declared optimistically, should work together "to transform international relations in the spirit of humanism, equality and justice".

Fast forward to 2017, and it is clear that things have not quite gone according to plan.

Gorbachev is defending Russia's takeover of Crimea. For the first time since the Cold War, Nato is opening new command centres in Europe.

The stakes involved in the EU-Russia relationship are still high.

The EU is the most important investor in Russia, as well as its largest trading partner. Moscow, for its part, remains a crucial energy and security player for Europe.

Yet at the core of the Russia-EU confrontation lies the fundamental disagreement over values and geopolitical zones of influence. Those differences are unlikely to be bridged soon.

The EU, built on the values of interdependence and liberal norms, is willing to engage with Moscow, but with strings attached. To access the community's perks – closer economic links, visa-free travel - the Kremlin is expected to abide by international laws and embrace liberalisation at home.

To Russia's leadership, those conditions are unacceptable. It sees its neighbourhood as the bulwark against Nato expansion and the wave of 'colour' revolutions. As for domestic liberalisation, it would destroy Vladimir Putin's regime, or, at least, seriously undermine it.

It is against this context that Russia's attempts to stoke troubles in Europe should be considered.

To deter Russia, the EU global strategy recommends, member-states, above all, must "strengthen the EU and enhance the resilience of our eastern neighbours".

The conspicuity of this observation doesn't render it any less relevant. Russian leadership values strength and preys on weakness.

Show the Kremlin that you cannot use a stick, and it will wrestle the carrot out of your hands.

Thus, the most obvious thing the EU can do is to enhance its defensive capabilities. That means protecting eastern flunk, while also improving military mobility. Boosting cyber defence, too, is crucial, given recent attacks on Europe's infrastructure.

Response to Russian meddling in European politics, though, is a more nuanced challenge. Concerns over Moscow's malignant campaign - via TV, social media and financing of populist parties - are valid.

Yet it is also crucial to keep cool when confronting Russian propaganda.

The Kremlin's aim, as the US example showed, is to sow discord within Western politics, not necessarily to achieve a concrete electoral outcome.

That is why media panic – and attaching the 'Putin's stooge' label to any anti-establishment cause – only plays into Moscow's hands.

The best way to deal with the Kremlin's meddling, therefore, is treating it more as a security issue than a political one.

Western agencies have learned about Russia's web campaign, so they can tackle it with considerable success in future. Reforms to increase transparency in party financing, likewise, is a useful step.

To bring Russia around to the idea of a common future on European terms requires demonstrating calm resolve. Moscow must understand that, despite its tricks, the EU's institutions will continue to work as normal.

But while Europe must demonstrate firmness, it is equally important to show what Moscow can gain by cooperating.

A deterrence-only approach to the Kremlin will only amplify its exuberance, leading to an endless 'action-response' cycle.

So, how can Russia be induced to cooperate?

Firstly, the EU should retain clear conditions for lifting economic sanctions on Russia. As the economist Vladislav Inozemtsev observed, wherever economic sanctions worked – like South Africa or Yugoslavia - they came with clear instructions of their relaxation or removal.

Heeding that, any comprehensive plan to resolve the Ukraine crisis should include the roadmap for sanctions relief.

The economic card is the strongest ace in the EU's deck. It must play it wisely.

Secondly, there is a need to communicate with Russia in the way that brings maximum utility. Putin's regime is here to stay. Nonetheless, it can still be affected, even if incrementally.

To facilitate change, it may be worth raising commercial and human rights concerns with Moscow on diplomatic level rather than just in the media. This approach will assure the Kremlin that Western concerns are genuine, and not an attempt to embarrass it.

Before any progress is achieved with Russia, things may get even more muddled. To succeed, Europe must demonstrate strategic patience.

Evgeny Pudovkin is a journalist writing on European politics, Russia and foreign affairs including the EUObserver

EU-Digest

As united as Asian countries may be in their attempts to keep pace with the West, they are worlds apart when it comes to catching up with its space exploration program. So far, it was clear who was winning the space race –with the US running out of steam, only Russia was left.

But it is rapidly losing its advantage as its Asian neighbors are busy looking to boldly go where no one has gone before. Beijing is especially close on Moscow's heels. Other than the Americans and the Russians, the Chinese are the only ones to have made it to the moon as yet.

China's lunar rover, Yutu – or Jade Rabbit – successfully landed on the moon last year. Even though it soon lost contact with controllers, the Chinese are pushing ahead with their ambitious space program. To be fair, they're not the only ones to have run into problems in the ether. In late October, the US witnessed the failure of two space missions.

First, the unmanned Antares rocket designed to transport supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) exploded seconds after liftoff. Two days later, Richard Branson‘s SpaceShipTwo blew up testing new fuel over the California desert.

Read more: Beijing edges ahead in the space race | Asia | DW.DE | 22.11.2014