Maxar Technologies acquired by private equity firm in $6.4 billion deal
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:51
Maxar Technologies, a space company that gained global attention with its high-resolution satellite images of the Ukraine war, is being acquired by the private equity firm Advent International for $6.4 billion.
The post Maxar Technologies acquired by private equity firm in $6.4 billion deal appeared first on SpaceNews.
Falcon 9 launches ocean science mission for NASA and CNES
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:50
A Falcon 9 successfully launched an Earth science mission jointly developed by the United States and France to monitor water levels and the effects of climate change.
The post Falcon 9 launches ocean science mission for NASA and CNES appeared first on SpaceNews.
Tiny meteorite may have caused leak from Soyuz capsule
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
Washington (AFP) Dec 15, 2022
Russian and NASA engineers were assessing a coolant leak on Thursday from a Soyuz crew capsule docked with the International Space Station (ISS) that may have been caused by a micrometeorite strike.
Dramatic NASA TV images showed white particles resembling snowflakes streaming out of the rear of the vessel for hours.
The coolant leak forced the last-minute cancellation of a spacewalk by

Juno exploring Jovian moons during extended mission
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 15, 2022
NASA's Juno mission is scheduled to obtain images of the Jovian moon Io on Dec. 15 as part of its continuing exploration of Jupiter's inner moons. Now in the second year of its extended mission to investigate the interior of Jupiter, the solar-powered spacecraft performed a close flyby of Ganymede in 2021 and of Europa earlier this year.
"The team is really excited to have Juno's extended

Planet makes its geospatial data available through Amazon SageMaker
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
San Francisco CA (SPX) Dec 15, 2022
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, has announced it is making geospatial data available through Amazon SageMaker, a fully managed machine learning (ML) service from Amazon Web Services (AWS). Now, Planet data can be directly embedded into Amazon SageMaker, allowing data scientists and ML engineers to acquire and analyze global, daily satellite

Latest international water satellite packs an engineering punch
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 13, 2022
Set for a Thursday, Dec. 15 launch, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite promises to provide an extraordinary accounting of water over much of Earth's surface. Its measurements of fresh water and the ocean will help researchers address some of the most pressing climate questions of our time and help communities prepare for a warming world. Making this possible is a scientific

Radiation shielding: MAPbI3/epoxy composites exhibit superior performance
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
Changchun, China (SPX) Dec 14, 2022
As the rapid development of aerospace and nuclear industries, higher requirements are raised for the service life of detectors and the safety of staff. Gamma ray with extremely short wavelength and strong penetration would cause the serious damage to the detectors and staff. Therefore, it is important to develop gamma ray shielding materials with outstanding radiation shielding performance.

First Images Released From NOAA-21 VIIRS Instrument
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 15, 2022
Bright blue water in the Caribbean Sea and smog in Northern India appear in the first global image produced with data from NOAA-21's VIIRS instrument.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on NOAA-21 began collecting Earth science data on Dec. 5 as the satellite passed over the East Coast of the United States. Data for the global image was collected over a period

MetTel Labs deploys VMware SD-WAN over Starlink
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
New York NY (SPX) Dec 15, 2022
MetTel reports that its Customer Innovation Labs, the research and development unit of MetTel, has deployed its Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) service using the VMware SD-WAN solution over SpaceX's Starlink satellite service.
These technologies far outpace the growth of the overall IT market which Gartner predicts at 5.1% year-over-year in 2023. According to the 2022 Gartner M

Water-tracking SWOT satellite encapsulated in rocket payload fairing
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
Vandenberg CA AFB (SPX) Dec 12, 2022
The international Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission is one step closer to launching so it can track water on more than 90% of Earth's surface.
The SWOT satellite, or the Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission, is now encapsulated in its payload fairing in preparation for launch. Technicians at the SpaceX processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California complete

Precise solar observations fed millions in ancient Mexico
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
Riverside CA (SPX) Dec 13, 2022
Without clocks or modern tools, ancient Mexicans watched the sun to maintain a farming calendar that precisely tracked seasons and even adjusted for leap years.
Before the Spanish arrival in 1519, the Basin of Mexico's agricultural system fed a population that was extraordinarily large for the time. Whereas Seville, the largest urban center in Spain, had a population of fewer than 50,000,

Airbus delivers MicroCarb instrument, the first European mission to measure atmospheric CO2
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
Paris, France (SPX) Dec 12, 2022
A special passenger crossed under the Channel this week: the MicroCarb instrument, en-route to be integrated with its satellite platform at RAL Space (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) in Oxfordshire, England.
MicroCarb is a small satellite designed to map sources and sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2)-the most important greenhouse gas - on a global scale, to better understand the impact of CO2 p

Airbus delivers first Sentinel-4 air-monitoring instrument to ESA
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
Paris, France (SPX) Dec 14, 2022
Airbus Defence and Space has successfully delivered the first Sentinel-4/UVN (Ultraviolet, Visible and Near Infra-Red) multispectral instrument flight model to the European Space Agency (ESA). It will be integrated onto the Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S1) satellite next year.
The instrument will continuously monitor key air quality trace gases and aerosols from geostationary orb

ZEP-RE and Planet collaborate on drought insurance program in Africa
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
San Francisco FL (SPX) Dec 13, 2022
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, have announced a new contract with ZEP-RE, a reinsurance company based in Nairobi, Kenya, to leverage Planet's Basemaps products to enhance drought risk protection in the Horn of Africa (HOA).
ZEP-RE aims to leverage PlanetScope 3-5 meter resolution imagery through Planet's analysis-ready, Surface Reflec

Advanced Air Mobility makes travel more accessible
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32
Teresa Whiting for AFRC
Edwards AFB CA (SPX) Dec 15, 2022
Imagine requesting an air taxi by app, like you do now with Uber or Lyft, to travel to your local airport - you could be soaring above road traffic and arrive much faster than driving.
Aviation industry creatives are already designing rideshare air services between home and the airport. New remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft will make air travel mor
