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OneWeb launch

expands TAMPA, Fla. — OneWeb is shifting focus to the southern hemisphere after completing coverage north of 50 degrees latitude, following the launch of its latest batch of broadband satellites July 1.

Canada–US heatwave

Thursday, 01 July 2021 13:49
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The heatwave now hitting parts of western Canada and the US has been particularly devastating. This Copernicus Sentinel-3 image shows land surface temperature. Image: The heatwave now hitting parts of western Canada and the US has been particularly devastating. This Copernicus Sentinel-3 image shows land surface temperature.
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Funk

WASHINGTON — Blue Origin announced July 1 that it will fly one of the “Mercury 13” women who underwent astronaut training in the early years of the space program on the company’s first crewed New Shepard suborbital flight.

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A Russian Soyuz rocket carrying 36 UK telecommunication and internet satellites blasted off from the Vostochny cosmodrome in Russia's Far East on Thursday, the Roscosmos space agency said.

Images released by Roscosmos showed the Soyuz rocket, launched by Europe's Arianespace, taking off against dark skies at 1248 GMT.

"We have lift-off," OneWeb, a London-headquartered company, said on Twitter.

OneWeb is working to complete the construction of a constellation of low earth orbit satellites providing enhanced broadband and other services to countries around the world.

The company is competing against billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos in the race to provide fast internet for the world's remote areas via satellites.

The UK company plans for its global commercial internet service to be operational by next year, supported by some 650 satellites.

Arianespace, which has worked with Russia for close to two decades, is under contract to make 16 Soyuz launches between December 2020 and the end of 2022.

This year launches of 36 satellites took place in March, April and May.

"Taking our constellation to a total of 254 satellites, this launch will allow us to provide complete coverage north of 50 degrees latitude by the end of the 2021," OneWeb said.

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Asteroid-hunting space telescope gets two-year mission extension
Artist’s concept of NASA’s WISE spacecraft, which was an infrared-wavelength astronomical space telescope active from December 2009 to February 2011. In September 2013 the spacecraft was assigned a new mission as NEOWISE to help find near-Earth asteroids and comets. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NEOWISE has provided an estimate of the size of over 1,850 near-Earth objects, helping us better understand our nearest solar system neighbors.

For two more years, NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) will continue its hunt for asteroids and comets—including objects that could pose a hazard to Earth. This mission extension means NASA's prolific near-Earth object (NEO) hunting space telescope will continue operations until June 2023.

Webb passes key launch clearance review

Thursday, 01 July 2021 12:00
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The international James Webb Space Telescope has passed the final mission analysis review for its launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

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Washington DC (UPI) Jun 30, 2021
Launch company Virgin Orbit sent seven satellites into space on Wednesday from a rocket carried by a jet plane over the Pacific Ocean. The Cosmic Girl jet, a modified 747, took off at 9:53 a.m. EDT from Mojave Air and Space Port about 90 miles north of Los Angeles. Just under an hour later, the LauncherOne rocket dropped from the wing of the jet. Seconds after release, the rocket
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Washington DC (UPI) Jun 30, 2021
SpaceX successfully launched 88 small satellites from Florida on Wednesday after postponing the mission Tuesday because of an airplane in the launch area. The Falcon 9 rocket on the Transporter-2 rideshare mission lifted off at 3:31 p.m. EDT from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX confirmed all satellites were deployed properly almost 90 minutes after liftoff.
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Washington DC (SPX) Jul 01, 2021
Designed to improve navigation for robotic explorers and the operation of GPS satellites, the technology demonstration reports a significant milestone. Spacecraft that venture beyond our Moon rely on communication with ground stations on Earth to figure out where they are and where they're going. NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock is working toward giving those far-flung explorers more autonom
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London, UK (SPX) Jul 01, 2021
The call for Grants for Exploratory Ideas, part of the National Space Technology Programme aims to fund short, three-month long projects that support innovative space technology activities, encourage collaboration between industry and academia, and encourage new entrants to the space sector. Projects could include knowledge transfer, skills development, market studies, and proof of concept
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London, UK (SPX) Jul 01, 2021
OneWeb, the global Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications company, has secured further fund-raising on the anniversary of the successful bid by UK Government and Bharti Global (Bharti) to purchase OneWeb from US Chapter 11 to bring its total funding to $2.4 billion. OneWeb has completed its transformation with the exercise of a Call Option by Bharti to invest an additional $500m into the
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Washington DC (SPX) Jul 01, 2021
Researchers have developed and successfully demonstrated a novel method for studying how cells repair damaged DNA in space. Sarah Stahl-Rommel of Genes in Space and colleagues present the new technique in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on June 30, 2021. Damage to an organism's DNA can occur during normal biological processes or as a result of environmental causes, such as UV light. In hu
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Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jul 01, 2021
The sky isn't falling, but scientists have found that parts of the upper atmosphere are gradually contracting in response to rising human-made greenhouse gas emissions. Combined data from three NASA satellites have produced a long-term record that reveals the mesosphere, the layer of the atmosphere 30 to 50 miles above the surface, is cooling and contracting. Scientists have long predicted this
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WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle company Astra will begin trading on the Nasdaq exchange July 1 after completing its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Astra said June 30 that shareholders of Holicity, a SPAC, had overwhelmingly approved the merger.

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