TAMPA, Fla. — Astranis has started building four very small geostationary orbit satellites as it gears up to produce dozens and later hundreds of them simultaneously.

“This is the beginning of a ramp-up of our production rate,” Astranis CEO John Gedmark said.

HELSINKI — China’s Zhurong rover has approached and imaged the parachute and backshell which helped the vehicle land safely on Mars.

WASHINGTON — NASA is seeking proposals for a program to support the development of commercial space stations, even as funding for that effort is in jeopardy in Congress.

NASA published a request for proposals July 12 for its Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development, or CLD, program.

The European Space Agency is currently looking for a new Director of Navigation to join its Executive Board and support the Director General, with responsibility for relevant ESA activities and overall objectives.

Video: 00:23:29

ESA’s first Earth observation mission dedicated to understanding our planet, the European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS-1), was launched into orbit on 17 July 1991. At the time, it was the most sophisticated Earth observation spacecraft developed and launched by Europe.

Thirty years ago, as the team went through the launch and early-orbit phase, the first synthetic aperture radar images were awaited in Kiruna and Fucino. Featuring video footage taken in 1991, the team involved tells the story of the anxious moments and important breakthroughs they made as the first images arrived.

Features interviews with:

Stephen Coulson, Former Earth Observation

Huntsville AL (SPX) Jul 14, 2021
NASA is leading an effort, working with the Department of Energy (DOE), to advance space nuclear technologies. The government team has selected three reactor design concept proposals for a nuclear thermal propulsion system. The reactor is a critical component of a nuclear thermal engine, which would utilize high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel. The contracts, to be awarded through the DOE'

Baltimore MD (SPX) Jul 14, 2021
Northrop Grumman has broken ground on a Hypersonics Center of Excellence to support the U.S. military and its allies in the fight against evolving threats. Through its investments in digital engineering and smart infrastructure at its Elkton, Maryland facility, Northrop Grumman will provide full lifecycle production for hypersonic weapons, from design and development to production and integratio

Ithaca NY (SPX) Jul 14, 2021
Traces of the gas phosphine point to volcanic activity on Venus, according to new research from Cornell University. Last autumn, scientists revealed that phosphine was found in trace amounts in the planet's upper atmosphere. That discovery promised the slim possibility that phosphine serves as a biological signature for the hot, toxic planet. Now Cornell

Berkeley CA (SPX) Jul 14, 2021
Magnetars are bizarre objects - massive, spinning neutron stars with magnetic fields among the most powerful known, capable of shooting off brief bursts of radio waves so bright they're visible across the universe. A team of astrophysicists has now found another peculiarity of magnetars: They can emit bursts of low energy gamma rays in a pattern never before seen in any other astronomical

Washington DC (UPI) Jul 14, 2021
China has harvested its first batch of rice grown from seeds that traveled to space on the country's Chang'e-5 lunar probe, officials said Sunday. About 40 grams of seeds made the trip to the moon last November. Some seeds can mutate and produce higher yields when planted on Earth after being exposed to cosmic radiation and zero gravity. The Chinese have been sending seeds into space