House Republicans introduce bill to create an independent NOAA
Friday, 09 June 2023 21:03A bill introduced June 9 by a group of Republican House members would turn the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration into an independent agency, but keep its commercial space responsibilities in the Commerce Department.
Ursa Major confirms layoffs: ‘Necessary workforce reductions’
Friday, 09 June 2023 20:21Rocket propulsion startup Ursa Major confirmed on June 9 that it has laid off workers as it reorganizes the company.
Iridium calls on US to follow Canada’s Ligado rejection
Friday, 09 June 2023 20:09Iridium Communications is redoubling efforts to reverse U.S. regulatory approval for Ligado’s terrestrial wireless plans after Canada rejected the network following GPS interference concerns.
NOAA is tracking smoke moving from the East Coast over the Atlantic
Friday, 09 June 2023 19:00The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s is closely tracking smoke from the Canadian wildfires moving June 9 from the Northeastern United States over the Atlantic Ocean.
First satnav receiver designed to operate in lunar orbit delivered to satellite maker
Friday, 09 June 2023 16:55The first satnav receiver designed to operate in lunar orbit has been delivered to satellite maker Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd in the UK for integration aboard the Lunar Pathfinder spacecraft.
The complete Navigation payload seen here includes a four helix antenna (left, in the glass box) developed by MDA in Canada, plus the NaviMoon satnav receiver from Swiss company SpacePNT, and the low noise amplifier developed by EECL in the UK, who also undertook the manufacturing and the environmental test campaign for both the satnav receiver and amplifier.
The payload is designed to boost and process faint terrestrial Global Navigation Satellite Signal (GNSS) signals from more than 400 000 km away, harnessing advanced processing and navigation algorithms to fix the spacecraft's position, velocity and timing in lunar orbit in real time.
It is complemented by a lunar Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) (right), developed by NASA under agreement with ESA, composed of 48 mirrored retro-reflectors that will enable centimeter-scale laser ranging of the spacecraft as it orbits the moon, to authenticate the satnav receiver position fixes during the experiment.
Due to be launched in late 2025, SSTL's Lunar Pathfinder mission will serve as a telecommunications relay satellite for future missions to the moon, to serve assets on both the nearside and farside, orbiting in an 'elliptical lunar frozen orbit' for prolonged coverage over the South Pole—a particular focus for future exploration.
China’s first stackable satellite reaches orbit on solid rocket launch
Friday, 09 June 2023 13:58A light-lift solid rocket sent an experimental “plate-like” stackable satellite into orbit late Thursday as the country looks to build its answer to Starlink.
Nicolas Bobrinsky on people management and teamwork | ESA Masterclass
Friday, 09 June 2023 13:00Imagine you are singing in a choir. You are doing your best, just like everybody else. Suddenly, somebody turns to you and points out that you are not singing the right note. If you are told off in a harsh way, you may feel bad about it, and if this happens too often you might not only feel upset about the choir but might even leave it for good. Eventually, the whole choir could end if everybody just leaves.
It is the duty of the choir conductor (the ESA team head) to be able to address every single situation in the right way,
Week in images: 05-09 June 2023
Friday, 09 June 2023 12:10Week in images: 05-09 June 2023
Discover our week through the lens
New spending caps to create challenges for NASA
Friday, 09 June 2023 11:01NASA and congressional officials are still grappling with the implications of a debt-ceiling agreement that enacts spending caps, but acknowledged it likely means the agency will get less money than it requested for 2024.
Earth from Space: Cook Strait, New Zealand
Friday, 09 June 2023 07:00Chief designer details how future lunar landing works
Friday, 09 June 2023 06:47China is working on a rocket for its moon landing mission, which will send a manned spaceship and a lander to lunar orbit in two separate flights, chief designer of the country's manned space program Zhou Jianping revealed. The spaceship will send the taikonauts to lunar orbit and dock with the lunar lander. The lander will subsequently carry the taikonauts to the moon's surface. After the
Long missions, frequent travel take a toll on astronauts' brains, study shows
Friday, 09 June 2023 06:47As we enter a new era in space travel, a study looking at how the human brain reacts to traveling outside Earth's gravity suggests frequent flyers should wait three years after longer missions to allow the physiological changes in their brains to reset. Researchers studied brain scans of 30 astronauts from before and after space travel. Their findings, reported in Scientific Reports, revea
Capella Space awarded multi-year blanket purchase agreement by NASA
Friday, 09 June 2023 06:47Capella Space, an American space tech company and the world's leading provider of commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery for a wide range of government, commercial and scientific applications, has been awarded a five year blanket purchase agreement (BPA) by NASA's Earth Science Division for the purchase of its high resolution SAR imagery and data for evaluation to determine their suit
CNES, E-Space complete next-generation low earth orbit constellation study
Friday, 09 June 2023 06:47E-Space has completed a five-month feasibility study, commissioned by the French Space Agency, Centre National D'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). The study aimed at assessing and validating the technical capabilities of the E-Space satellite system (space platform, communication payload, guidance, navigation and control (GNC) and user terminal) as well as the long-term viability of the Company's underly
LEO PNT satellite signal simulator debuts at JNC 2023 conference
Friday, 09 June 2023 06:47Spirent will demonstrate the first fully-certified Xona satellite constellation simulator, SimXona, at the 2023 Joint Navigation Conference (JNC), June 12-15, 2023, in San Diego, CA. Organized by the Institute of Navigation, JNC is the largest U.S. military positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) conference, with government, defense, and industry participation. Spirent, the leading globa