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Archive for the ‘satellites’ category: Page 142

Nov 20, 2019

Nanoracks Books SpaceX Rocket to Launch Space Habitat Demo in 2020 (Cubesats, Too!)

Posted by in categories: habitats, satellites

Nanoracks wants to expand from hosting experiments on board the International Space Station to running their own mini stations built from used rockets, with a first launch scheduled for a SpaceX Falcon 9 next year.

Nov 20, 2019

Scientists detected the brightest light in the universe for the first time, following a mysterious explosion in space

Posted by in categories: particle physics, satellites

Gamma-ray bursts appear without warning and only last a few seconds, so astronomers had to move quickly. Just 50 seconds after satellites spotted the January explosion, telescopes on Earth swiveled to catch a flood of thousands of particles of light.

“These are by far the highest-energy photons ever discovered from a gamma-ray burst,” Elisa Bernardini, a gamma-ray scientist, said in a press release.

Over 300 scientists around the world studied the results; their work was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Nov 18, 2019

NASA Picks SpaceX, Blue Origin and More to Join Private Moon Lander Project

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, satellites

NASA has recruited SpaceX’s Starship, Blue Origin’s Blue Moon and three other commercial lunar lander ideas to join its Artemis moon program.

Today (Nov. 18), NASA announced the selection of SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada Corp., Ceres Robotics and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. to join its Commercial Lunar Payload Services program (CLPS). The five companies can now vie to deliver robotic payloads to the lunar surface for NASA, helping to pave the way for the return of astronauts to the moon by 2024.

Nov 18, 2019

U.S. Space Command eager to hand over space traffic duties to Commerce Department

Posted by in categories: military, satellites

WASHINGTON — Military space operators at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, are working with the Department of Commerce to help ease the transfer of space traffic management responsibilities, Maj. Gen. Stephen Whiting said Nov. 15.

“We’re eager for that to happen,” Whiting said at a Mitchell Institute event on Capitol Hill.

Whiting is the commander of the 14th Air Force and the Combined Force Space Component Command under U.S. Space Command. He oversees the two major organizations — the Combined Space Operations Center and the 18th Space Control Squadron — that help to maintain a catalog of space objects and notify satellite operators around the world when other satellites or debris threaten to collide with spacecraft.

Nov 17, 2019

Broadband satellite to serve Pacific islands delivered to Florida launch base

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

A powerful commercial communications satellite to broadcast Internet signals over the Asia-Pacific region has arrived at Cape Canaveral for final launch preparations ahead of a planned Dec. 15 liftoff on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The JCSAT 18/Kacific 1 communications satellite, based on Boeing’s 702MP satellite design, is a shared spacecraft between Sky Perfect JSAT Corp. of Japan and Kacific, a startup telecom company headquartered in Singapore.

Kacific announced the satellites’s arrival at Cape Canaveral on Thursday. Ground crews will complete final testing on the spacecraft and load it with maneuvering propellant ahead of its launch next month.

Nov 16, 2019

A Family-Owned German Satellite Company Wants to Launch Rockets as Well

Posted by in categories: business, satellites

OHB, which started as a ship-maintenance business, doesn’t want to rely on the aerospace giants anymore.

Nov 13, 2019

Morgan Stanley: Don’t underestimate the economic importance of launching people into space

Posted by in categories: economics, satellites

Investors shouldn’t underestimate the importance of launching people into space, Morgan Stanley said in a research report released Tuesday.

The Wall Street investment bank expects communication satellites, Earth observation technology and transportation to be the economic drivers of a space economy, but investors should not underestimate human space exploration as a “critical enabler of public will.”

Nov 12, 2019

How to Spot SpaceX’s 60 New Starlink Satellites in the Night Sky

Posted by in category: satellites

X launched 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on its most flown Falcon 9 rocket yet, which made a historic fourth launch and landing on Monday (Nov. 11).

Nov 11, 2019

SpaceX launch highlights threat to astronomy from ‘megaconstellations’

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

Spaceflight company SpaceX is set to launch 60 communications satellites into orbit today as the basis for a web of spacecraft designed to provide global Internet access. But many astronomers worry that such ‘megaconstellations’ — which are also planned by other companies that could launch tens of thousands of satellites in the coming years — might interfere with crucial observations of the Universe. They fear that megaconstellations could disrupt radio frequencies used for astronomical observation, create bright streaks in the night sky and increase congestion in orbit, raising the risk of collisions.


Researchers fear that plans to send tens of thousands of communications satellites into orbit will disrupt scientific observations of the Universe.

Nov 11, 2019

A Satellite That Fires Fake Shooting Stars Is Ready to Launch

Posted by in category: satellites

Burning Garbage

The satellite will launch centimeter-long pellets that will incinerate upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. From the ground, they’re expected to look similar to slow-moving shooting stars and will take anywhere from three to ten seconds to burn away, Space.com reports.

“With this launch, we are a step closer to realiz[ing] the man-made shooting star,” Astro Live Experiences CEO Lena Okajima said, per Space.com. “Please look forward to the world’s first demonstration we are aiming [for] in 2020, which will be a major milestone for ALE.”