Yusaku Maezawa: irreverent billionaire fascinated by space
Monday, 06 December 2021 05:42Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who blasts off for the International Space Station this week, is an irreverent space enthusiast who has made headlines for splashing the cash on modern art. The 46-year-old tycoon is the founder of Japan's largest online fashion mall and is the country's 30th-richest person, according to business magazine Forbes. But he is far from the traditional ima
Russia to send Japanese tycoon to ISS in return to space tourism
Monday, 06 December 2021 05:42Russia on Wednesday will send Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to the International Space Station in a move marking Moscow's return to the now booming space tourism business after a decade-long break. One of Japan's richest men, Maezawa, 46, will blast off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan accompanied by his assistant Yozo Hirano. On Sunday morning, their Soyuz spacecraft wi
U.S. was not blindsided by Russia’s anti-satellite test, say officials
Sunday, 05 December 2021 10:57"These advances in capabilities are concerning, they are not a surprise," Gen. David Thompson, vice chief of space operations, said Dec. 4 at the Reagan National Defense Forum
Two new satellites mark further enlargement of Galileo
Sunday, 05 December 2021 04:59Europe’s largest satellite constellation has grown even bigger, following the launch of two more Galileo navigation satellites by Soyuz launcher from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 5 December. Galileo satellites 27-28 add to an existing 26-satellite constellation in orbit, providing the world’s most precise satnav positioning to more than 2.3 billion users around the globe.
Ben Griffin explains how Oneweb's LEO Constellation will change the IFC Market
Sunday, 05 December 2021 01:06Ahead of APEX/IFSA EXPO, APEX Media spoke with Oneweb's VP Mobility Ben Griffin to find out the latest about the company's plans to disrupt commercial aviation's in-flight connectivity market with its low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite technology. "We're very well funded, and that's not just random amounts of money coming from strange places," Griffin explained. "It's from companies creating
Exploring the heart of space weather with the Geospace Dynamics Constellation
Sunday, 05 December 2021 01:06The Geospace Dynamics Constellation mission - or GDC - is a team of satellites that will study Earth's upper atmosphere and provide the first direct global measurements of our planet's dynamic and complex interface with the space environment. This boundary between Earth's atmosphere and space is called the ionosphere-thermosphere (I-T) system. This mission will change our understanding of
Space Development Agency Approves L3Harris' Missile-Tracking Satellite Design
Sunday, 05 December 2021 01:06L3Harris Technologies has completed the final design review for the Space Development Agency's missile-tracking program. The company will continue with development and integration of four satellites for Tracking Layer Tranche 0 under a $193 million firm, fixed-price contract. L3Harris completed Critical Design Review in November, and the company will proceed through build, integration, tes
Eutelsat's Konnect Africa and Vodacom Partner to Bring High-Speed Broadband to Unserved Regions of Tanzania
Sunday, 05 December 2021 01:06Eutelsat Communications and Vodacom Tanzania PLC have signed a service agreement for packaged services to bring connectivity to underserved regions of Tanzania, leveraging Eutelsat's EUTELSAT KONNECT high-throughput satellite. Following a successful Proof of Concept trial, Vodacom will commercialize services on the EUTELSAT KONNECT satellite under its own brand, building out its service of
NASA astronauts complete ISS spacewalk
Sunday, 05 December 2021 01:06Two NASA astronauts have completed the 13th spacewalk at the International Space Station (ISS) this year, the agency said, days after the event was postponed over a debris risk. Astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron headed outside the space laboratory on Thursday, replacing a faulty antenna and restoring its capability. "It was awesome!" Barron said after completing her first spac
NASA awards Artemis contract for future SLS boosters
Sunday, 05 December 2021 01:06NASA has awarded the Booster Production and Operations Contract (BPOC) to Northrop Grumman of Brigham City, Utah, to build boosters for the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket to support nine SLS flights. Northrop Grumman, the lead booster contractor, has produced booster motors for the first three Artemis missions and is casting the motors for the fourth lunar mission. This contract
Ingenuity heading north into Seitah for Flight 17
Sunday, 05 December 2021 01:06With Flight 17, Ingenuity continues its journey back to Wright Brothers Field at the Octavia E. Butler landing site. Flight 17 is the third flight of this journey and is scheduled to take place no earlier than Sunday, Dec. 5 with the data arriving back on Earth no earlier than later that same day. Flight 17 is approximately half of Flight 9 in reverse, which was one of the most challenging
High-Speed Lunar Surface Transportation
Sunday, 05 December 2021 01:06Proposed lunar surface mobility systems for human colonization appear to be severely limited in speed and payload capabilities. Roving vehicles are massive and move slowly over the rough lunar terrain, at a high cost of energy and life support supplies. Flying units, powered by chemical rockets are fast, but the price of speed is payload and range. On the other hand, a hopping transporter
Lunar radar data uncovers new clues about moon's ancient past
Sunday, 05 December 2021 01:06The dusty surface of the moon - immortalized in images of Apollo astronauts' lunar footprints - formed as the result of asteroid impacts and the harsh environment of space breaking down rock over millions of years. An ancient layer of this material, covered by periodic lava flows and now buried under the lunar surface, could provide new insight into the Moon's deep past, according to a team of s
TESS discovers a planet the size of Mars but with the makeup of Mercury
Sunday, 05 December 2021 01:06Ultra-short-period planets are small, compact worlds that whip around their stars at close range, completing an orbit - and a single, scorching year - in less than 24 hours. How these planets came to be in such extreme configurations is one of the continuing mysteries of exoplanetary science. Now, astronomers have discovered an ultra-short-period planet (USP) that is also super light. The
India’s Chandrayaan-2 maneuvered to avoid close approach to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Saturday, 04 December 2021 23:07India’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter maneuvered in October to avoid a close approach to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, a conjunction both agencies have acknowledged but have said little more about.