NGA plans annual survey of international Earth imagery leaders
Friday, 08 October 2021 14:36
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The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency plans to conduct an annual assessment of commercial satellite imagery like the Olympic-themed evaluation the organization conducted earlier this year.
Week in images: 4 - 8 October 2021
Friday, 08 October 2021 12:05 Write a comment
Week in images: 4 - 8 October 2021
Discover our week through the lens
Newly returned moon rock samples chronicle the dying days of lunar volcanism
Friday, 08 October 2021 10:17 Write a comment
Billions of years ago, lakes of lava on the surface of the moon eventually dried to form the vast dark patches—the lunar maria—visible today on the lunar nearside. Now, thanks to rock samples recently returned to Earth by China's Chang'e 5 mission, scientists have a new estimate for when one of the last of those lava flows ran dry.
Industry skeptical about the business case for megaconstellations
Friday, 08 October 2021 10:14 Write a comment
Companies that have demonstrated the technical viability of broadband satellite megaconstellations now face a bigger challenge: closing the business case.
Chinese partnership to create Tianxian SAR satellite constellation
Friday, 08 October 2021 09:52 Write a comment
A Chinese state-owned enterprise and a private firm are partnering to establish a 96-satellite SAR constellation, with the first launch set for February 2022.
Analyst uses radar imagery to shed additional light on Chinese missile sites
Friday, 08 October 2021 07:27 Write a comment
Based on intelligence from SAR imagery, Lewis concluded that the Chinese are building a large wind turbine farm presumably to power missile silos.
Earth from Space: Budapest, Hungary
Friday, 08 October 2021 07:00 Write a comment
Budapest, the capital and most populous city in Hungary, is visible in this image captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.
Galileo satellites arrive at Europe’s Spaceport
Friday, 08 October 2021 06:20 Write a comment
The latest pair of Galileo satellites have touched down at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, ahead of their launch together next month.
Earth observation is expanding into new markets
Friday, 08 October 2021 05:00
Maxar still confident Legion constellation will be in orbit in 2022
Thursday, 07 October 2021 20:41 Write a comment
Maxar remains confident that it will launch all six of its next-generation WorldView Legion imaging satellites in 2022,
Less restrictive 'bioburden' rules would make some Mars missions simpler
Thursday, 07 October 2021 17:57
Industry has more work ahead to make data analytics less dependent on human supervision
Thursday, 07 October 2021 17:13
NRO begins journey toward commercial data program of record
Thursday, 07 October 2021 17:11 Write a comment
The National Reconnaissance Office is preparing to survey commercial capabilities to provide various geospatial datasets as part of a long-term campaign to establish a new program of record.
Samples returned by Chang'e-5 reveal key age of moon rocks
Thursday, 07 October 2021 17:00 Write a comment
A lunar probe launched by the Chinese space agency recently brought back the first fresh samples of rock and debris from the moon in more than 40 years. Now an international team of scientists—including an expert from Washington University in St. Louis—has determined the age of these moon rocks at close to 1.97 billion years old.
"It is the perfect sample to close a 2-billion-year gap," said Brad Jolliff, the Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences and director of the university's McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences. Jolliff is a U.S.-based co-author of an analysis of the new moon rocks led by the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, published Oct. 7 in the journal Science.
The age determination is among the first scientific results reported from the successful Chang'e-5 mission, which was designed to collect and return to Earth rocks from some of the youngest volcanic surfaces on the moon.
NRO to tap commercial industry for space-based radar data
Thursday, 07 October 2021 16:36 Write a comment
The director of the National Reconnaissance Office Christopher Scolese announced Oct. 7 the agency will start buying space radar imagery from commercial providers.