United Launch Alliance’s second-to-last Delta 4-Heavy rocket is scheduled to blast off from Cape Canaveral April 20 with a classified cargo for the U.S. government’s spy satellite agency, a mission that will mark ULA’s first flight of the year, officials announced this week.
ULA and the National Reconnaissance Office, the customer for the national security mission, announced the target launch date Tuesday.
The mission is known as NROL-68, and is expected to loft a large surveillance satellite into geosynchronous orbit, joining a fleet of government-owned spacecraft designed to eavesdrop on the communications of adversaries and foreign powers. But the NRO does not disclose details about its missions, and independent analysts use information about the rocket’s lift capability, trajectory, and similar past launches to predict the purpose of spy satellite missions.
It’s called the Einstein Probe and it’s meant to observe the changing universe.
China has ambitious plans to launch a new X-ray astronomical satellite called the Einstein Probe (EP) at the end of this year. This is according to a report by the ChinaDaily.
“The satellite has entered the final stage of development,” he said at the recent 35th National Symposium on Space Exploration.
EP will have many missions, including capturing the first light from supernova explosions, helping search for gravitational wave sources, and observing the transient phenomena in the universe.
Einstein Probe.
This is according to a report by the ChinaDaily published on Saturday and quoting Yuan Weimin, principal investigator of the satellite project.
This week the FCC voted 4–0 to approve a new effort to help satellite providers like SpaceX offer wireless cell phone service from space. SpaceX’s Starlink service already had a deal in place with T-Mobile to offer phone service in areas that currently does not have it.
“The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking adopted today proposes a framework through which satellite operators collaborating with terrestrial service providers would be able to obtain FCC authorization to operate space stations on certain currently licensed, flexible-use spectrum allocated to terrestrial services. The Commission is proposing to add a mobile-satellite service allocation on some terrestrial flexible-use bands.” The FCC said in a statement.
The FCC went on to say that this service could “serve a wireless provider’s customers should they need connectivity in remote areas, for example in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert, Lake Michigan, the 100-Mile Wilderness, or the Uinta Mountains.”
There’s a mystery happening in some satellites facing the sun, and scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) are on the case. The team has been trying to figure out what is clouding up and compromising the performance of tiny, thin metal membranes that filter sunlight as it enters detectors that monitor the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays.
These detectors can warn us about impending solar storms—bursts of radiation from the surface of the sun—that could reach Earth and temporarily disrupt communications or interfere with GPS readings.
Last year, the team disproved the prevailing theory: that this clouding was a buildup of carbon on the surface of the filters from organic sources stowing away on the satellite.
Compass readings that do not show the direction of true north and interference with the operations of satellites are a few of the problems caused by peculiarities of the Earth’s magnetic field.
The magnetic field radiates around the world and far into space, but it is set by processes that happen deep within the Earth’s core, where temperatures exceed 5,000 degrees Celsius.
New research from geophysicists at the University of Leeds suggests that the way this super-hot core is cooled is key to understanding the causes of the peculiarities—or anomalies, as scientists call them—of the Earth’s magnetic field.
The firm faced financial collapse during the pandemic but is now serving customers in 15 countries.
U.K.-based OneWeb is one launch away from having enough satellites in orbit to cover the entire expanse of the Earth. Once ready, Elon Musk’s Starlink won’t be the only company offering such as service, the BBC
Both OneWeb and Starlink use constellations of satellites in low Earth orbits (LEO) instead of the conventional geostationary orbits (GEO). The lower altitude of the LEO satellites helps in reducing latency or the delay that data takes to make a round trip over a network.
Exploiting the natural and energy resources of the moon and asteroids can spark a space-based industrial revolution that could be a boon to all humankind. Pure science alone will be enough reason for the people who pay the bills to finance space exploration. Accessing the wealth that exists beyond the Earth is more than enough incentive for both public and private investment. Science will benefit. Someone will have to prospect for natural and energy resources in space and to develop safe and sustainable ways to exploit it.
Conflict between scientists and commercial space is already happening. Astronomers complain that SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet constellation is ruining ground-based observation. Some critics fear that commercial exploitation of the moon’s resources will impede the operation of telescopes on the far side of the moon.
Jim Cantrell is an entrepreneur, strategist, subject matter expert in satellite systems, space system markets and road racer. Founder of StratSpace, Founder of Vintage Exotics Competition Engineering, early partner and VP at SpaceX.
PODCAST INFO: The Learning With Lowell show is a series for the everyday mammal. In this show we’ll learn about leadership, science, and people building their change into the world. The goal is to dig deeply into people who most of us wouldn’t normally ever get to hear. The Host of the show – Lowell Thompson-is a lifelong autodidact, serial problem solver, and founder of startups.
LINKS Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzri06unR-lMXbl6sqWP_-Q Youtube clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-B5x371AzTGgK-_q3U_KfA Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lowell-thompson-2227b074 Twitter: https://twitter.com/LWThompson5 Website: https://www.learningwithlowell.com/ Shownotes/ Timestamps. 00:00 Intro. 00:30 Book launch. 01:30 Miniseries. 02:15 Audiobook. 04:15 Self publishing. 05:26 Andy Weir / Conferences. 06:25 Carl Sagan simile. 15:02 SpaceX and Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. 21:17 Jeff Bezos Blue Origin True Origin story. 26:08 Jeff Bezos Accountability. 31:11 SpaceX Raptor 2 engines design compared to Phantom space engines. 34:45 Engines and ksp 2 37:25 Assets of being engineering leader. 39:37 Testing. 40:55 Duel welding SpaceX, Phantom Space. 43:25 Hiring Right. 47:10 Snap On Tools. 49:55 Tools. 51:11 American vs German Engineering. 53:58 Custom tools. 56:18 Soundtrack for book. 58:49 Childhood stories. 1:04:16 Innovation, exploration, Mars balloon. 1:06:01 Race Car’s Soul. 1:08:20 Car’s personality keyed to individual or? 1:12:45 Speeding tickets. 1:18:19 Cars as stray cats and designing his own car. 1:21:35 Train for racing. 1:23:56 Racing training machines. 1:25:02 Goals for racing. 1:25:34 AI/ML in racing. 1:26:55 Books. 1:28:55 Staying up to date with Jim Cantrell. 1:29:42 Elon Musk Twitter deal. 1:32:31: Apple and privacy. 1:33:53 Final thoughts on book.
We humans have a wonderful ability to keep developing, innovating, and engineering bigger, better, and faster contraptions. Close to Earth, we’ve been soaring through the skies in airplanes since 1903 thanks to the Wright brothers, and we’ve been launching spacecraft into space since 1957 when the Soviet Union rocketed the Sputnik satellite above our heads.
The team discovered a way of stabilizing detonation for hypersonic propulsion by creating a hypersonic reaction chamber for jet propulsions.
So low that Starlink satellites have started photobombing its images.
Starlink and other broadband satellite constellations will threaten astronomical viewing in the upcoming years. Today, a team of astronomers has demonstrated that the satellite issue can’t be solved even by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Today, a team of astronomers has demonstrated that the satellite issue can’t be solved even by the Hubble Space Telescope.
With the deployment of Starlink and other communication satellite constellations, an increasing understanding of their detrimental impact on astronomy has emerged. The expanding number of internet satellites in Earth orbit has been noted as challenging astronomical studies using ground-based observatories by the international astronomy community. These worries are currently affecting Hubble.
