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Archive for the ‘satellites’ category: Page 130

Mar 4, 2020

PredaSAR raises $25 million for radar satellite constellation

Posted by in category: satellites

SAN FRANCISCO – PredaSAR, a Florida startup led by retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Roger Teague, raised $25 million in seed funding for its plan to build a constellation of at least 44 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites.

“The Defense Department has been after a space-based radar solution for many years,” Teague told SpaceNews. “There’s a need for a SAR moving-target indicator… I believe there is going to be strong market demand.”

PredaSAR was founded in 2019 by Marc Bell, an entrepreneur and investor who is the chairman and co-founder of Terran Orbital, which owns Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems. Bell now serves as PredaSAR’s chairman. Before closing the seed funding round, PredaSAR hired Tyvak to build its first two satellites, Bell said.

Mar 3, 2020

How’s this for a remote support fix? Solar storm early-warning satellite repaired with million-mile software update

Posted by in categories: climatology, particle physics, satellites

The Deep Space Climate Observatory – a satellite that warns of incoming space storms that could knacker telecommunications on Earth – is up and running again after being shut down for eight months by a technical glitch.

Launched in 2015 aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the bird, known as DSCOVR for short, was sent into orbit between the Earth and the Sun. Circling at a distance of about a million miles away from terra firma, satellite sports instruments designed to detect approaching geomagnetic storms, and alerts us before highly energetic particles from the solar wind pelt our planet.

Mar 1, 2020

Boeing Defense, Space and Security offers $30,000 bonuses for satellite engineers

Posted by in categories: satellites, security

Boeing is offering signing bonuses up to $30,000 for experienced satellite engineers and procurement specialists, saying Friday needs the staff “to help build assets for the U.S. Air Force and its allies.”

The company posted a notice about its hiring on LinkedIn, listing more than open 75 jobs for what Boeing said were its “rapidly growing” satellite program efforts.

“We have an urgent need for Security Cleared Satellite Engineers to help build assets for the U.S. Air Force and its Allies. We’re offering a potential $30k sign-on bonus,” the posting said.

Feb 27, 2020

Space docking first gives commercial satellites a new lease of life

Posted by in categories: life extension, robotics/AI, satellites

Two unmanned commercial satellites have docked in orbit for the first time. On February 25, Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle-1 (MEV-1) linked up with the Intelsat 901 (IS-901) communication satellite at an altitude of 22,416 mi (36,076 km) above the Earth as part of a project to extend the service life of satellites that are running low on propellants.

The building and launching of satellites is extremely expensive, so it’s more than just frustrating when a perfectly good spacecraft has to be disposed of or abandoned simply because it has run out of the propellants needed to keep it in its proper orbit and pointed at Earth. There have been a number of solutions proposed for this problem – in this case Northrop’s MEV-1 is designed to match orbits with aging satellites, dock, and take over the job of maintaining orbit and attitude.

Continue reading “Space docking first gives commercial satellites a new lease of life” »

Feb 26, 2020

Unmanned Solar Aircraft Aims to Compete Commercially With Satellites and Drones

Posted by in categories: business, drones, robotics/AI, satellites, solar power, sustainability

At 35 meters, the wingspan of the new BAE Systems aircraft equals that of a Boeing 737, yet the plane weighs in at just 150 kilograms, including a 15 kg payload. The unmanned plane, dubbed the PHASA-35 (Persistent High-Altitude Solar Aircraft), made its maiden voyage on 10 February at the Royal Australian Air Force Woomera Test Range in South Australia.

“It flew for just under an hour—enough time to successfully test its aerodynamics, autopilot system, and maneuverability,” says Phil Varty, business development leader of emerging products at BAE Systems. “We’d previously tested other sub-systems such as the flight control system in smaller models of the plane in the U.K. and Australia, so we’d taken much of the risk out of the craft before the test flight.”

The prototype aircraft uses gallium arsenide–based triple-junction solar cell panels manufactured by MicroLink Devices in Niles, Ill. MicroLink claims an energy conversion efficiency of 31 percent for these specialist panels.

Feb 25, 2020

2019 Was the Year of the Satellite Megaconstellation

Posted by in category: satellites

In 2019, tiny satellites found all the gaps in space regulation—and flew right on through.

Feb 24, 2020

Lockheed to obtain Vector satellite assets

Posted by in categories: law, satellites

WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin will acquire the satellite technology assets of Vector by default after a bankruptcy court received no qualified bids by a deadline last week.

In a Feb. 24 filing in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, lawyers overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings for Vector said that they received no qualifying bids for the company’s GalacticSky software-defined spacecraft technology by a Feb. 21 deadline.

As a result, Lockheed Martin, which provided debtor-in-possession financing when Vector filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, will obtain the assets with a “stalking horse” bid of $4.25 million, according to the terms of a Jan. 24 filing. That deal will be finalized at a Feb. 28 court hearing.

Feb 24, 2020

Passive space debris removal using drag sail deorbiting technology

Posted by in category: satellites

There are currently about 22,000 tracked objects in LEO, some of which are smaller than one centimeter. The focus of many current plans has been on the active removal of current debris.

But with a projected 57,000 new satellites expected to launch by 2029, the question becomes: how to prevent new debris? Currently, at Purdue University’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, David Spencer and his team are working on a passive debris removal system using drag sail deorbiting technology where these passive deorbiting systems are embedded within a spacecraft for deorbiting at the end of the spacecraft’s lifetime.

Licensed by Vestigo Aerospace and funded through a Purdue University Research Foundation grant, Spencer and his team hope to launch a drag sail prototype with Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, no earlier than this April. Right now, Spencer is the project and mission of LightSail 2, a solar sail currently in orbit.

Feb 19, 2020

Ariane 5 lifts Japanese, South Korean satellites to Geostationary Transfer Orbit

Posted by in category: satellites

The second Ariane 5 mission of the year lifted off from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, in South America on a rideshare mission that launched the GEO-KOMPSAT-2B and JCSAT-17 satellites for South Korea and Japan, respectively.

The launch occurred at the opening of a 62 minute launch window at 22:18 UTC.

Feb 17, 2020

SpaceX launches 60 Starlink satellites for new megaconstellation, misses rocket landing

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 60 new Starlink internet satellites into orbit Monday (Feb. 17), but missed a landmark booster landing at sea.