How low can satellites go? VLEO entrepreneurs plan to find out
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 18:14
NRO’s strategy to buy satellite imagery shaped by thriving commercial market
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 17:39
The U.S. satellite imagery industry will soon see the details of a highly anticipated procurement by the National Reconnaissance Office.
Working overtime: NASA's deep space atomic clock completes mission
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 17:12
For more than two years, NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock has been pushing the timekeeping frontiers in space. On Sept. 18, 2021, its mission came to a successful end.
The instrument is hosted on General Atomics' Orbital Test Bed spacecraft that was launched aboard the Department of Defense Space Test Program 2 mission June 25, 2019. Its goal: to test the feasibility of using an onboard atomic clock to improve spacecraft navigation in deep space.
Currently, spacecraft rely on ground-based atomic clocks. To measure a spacecraft's trajectory as it travels beyond the Moon, navigators use these timekeepers to precisely track when those signals are sent and received. Because navigators know that radio signals travel at the speed of light (about 186,000 miles per second, or 300,000 kilometers per second), they can use these time measurements to calculate the spacecraft's exact distance, speed, and direction of travel.
Thomas becomes Space Station commander
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 14:30
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On 4 October 2021 ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet became commander of the International Space Station, taking over from Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut and fellow Crew-2 member Akihiko Hoshide. Thomas will hold this role until shortly before Crew-2 return to Earth in November. Thomas officially accepted his new position during a traditional ceremony, broadcast live from the International Space Station, where a symbolic handover of a key from Aki to Thomas denoted the change of command. The full title of this role is International Space Station crew commander. While overall command of the Station lies with ground-based
New spin on space research
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 13:54
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The ESA-owned Short Arm Human Centrifuge has been upgraded, installed and inaugurated at the Olympic Sport Centre Planica facility near Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. Soon to be home to ESA bedrest studies, this recently enhanced clinical research centre will help further scientists’ knowledge of human physiology in space.
Run by the Jozef Stefan Institute on behalf of ESA, bedrest studies at the facility offer scientists a way to see how the human body adapts to weightlessness. This allows researchers to test techniques, known as “countermeasures”, to counteract the negative effects of living in space.
The Short-Arm Human Centrifuge offers an
OneWeb’s antenna supplier in South Korea inks $60 million deal with SES
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 13:44
South Korean antenna maker Intellian Technologies signed a supply deal worth 71.1 billion won ($60 million) with Luxembourg-based satellite fleet operator SES.
Intellian inks $60 million antenna deal with SES
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 13:44South Korean antenna maker Intellian Technologies signed a supply deal worth 71.1 billion won ($60 million) with Luxembourg-based satellite fleet operator SES.
It will soon be possible to make satellite phone calls with your regular phone
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 12:21
Not all who wander are lost—but sometimes their cell phone reception is. That might change soon if a plan to project basic cell phone coverage to all parts of the globe comes to fruition. Lynk has already proven it can use a typical smartphone to bound a standard SMS text message off a low-earth-orbiting satellite, and they don't plan to stop there.
Formerly known as Ubiquitilink, Lynk was founded a few years ago by Nanoracks founder Charles Miller and his partners but came out of "stealth mode" as a start-up in 2019. In 2020 they then used a satellite to send an SMS message from a typical smartphone, without requiring the fancy GPS locators and antennas needed by other, specially made satellite phones.
The company continued its success recently by demonstrating a "two-way" link this week using a newly launched satellite, its fifth, called "Shannon." They've also proved it over multiple phones in numerous areas, including the UK, America, and the Bahamas.
Eventually, two-way communication means that the signal could eventually be used for voice calls rather than just sending messages in emergencies.
Startups and universities selected for Space Force prize competition
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 12:00
A business accelerator funded by the U.S. Space Force announced it has selected 13 startups and 11 university teams to compete for $100,000 awards.
Soyuz delivers cosmonaut and film crew to ISS
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 11:26
A Soyuz spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station Oct. 5 carrying a cosmonaut as well as an actress and director who will film scenes for a Russian movie.
Sounding rocket mission to offer snapshot of sun's magnetic field
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 10:19
Measuring a magnetic field isn't so hard if you're inside of it. Measuring a magnetic field remotely—whether from across a room, across a country, or 93 million miles away—is an entirely different story. But that's exactly what a team of NASA scientists and international collaborators aim to do with the CLASP2.1 mission: measure the magnetic field in a critical slice of the sun's atmosphere called the chromosphere.
CLASP2.1, short for Chromospheric Layer Spectropolarimeter 2.1, will make these measurements from a NASA sounding rocket. Sounding rockets are small rockets that carry instruments into space for five to ten minutes before falling back down to Earth. The launch window for the CLASP2.1 sounding rocket mission opens at 11:30 a.m. MT on Oct. 5, 2021, at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The upcoming flight will be the CLASP instrument's third trip to space.
Russian crew blast off to film first movie in space
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 09:35
A Russian actress and director blasted off to the International Space Station on Tuesday in a historic bid to best the United States to film the first movie in orbit.
The Russian crew is set to beat a Hollywood project that was announced last year by "Mission Impossible" star Tom Cruise together with NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Actress Yulia Peresild, 37, and film director Klim Ship USNC-Tech team wins contract to develop nuclear thermal propulsion system for NASA
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 09:35
Idaho National Laboratory has selected USNC-Tech and its partners to develop a nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) reactor concept design for space exploration: the Power-Adjusted Demonstration Mars Engine (PADME) NTP engine.
This effort, one of three selected by the government team, is a step toward the manufacture and demonstration of safe, affordable, reliable, high-performance NTP engines Endurosat and Exolaunch announce launch agreements for Spacex Falcon 9 Rideshare Missions
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 09:35
EnduroSat and Exolaunch have signed f launch agreements for sending two EnduroSat NanoSats into orbit aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9. The 6U XL SharedSat nanosatellites, built by EnduroSat for its customers, will be launched via Exolaunch in H1 2022 as part of SpaceX's SmallSat Rideshare Program.
The SharedSats are 6U XL NanoSats with several multi-purpose payloads on a single bus. By simplifyin China's space refueling vehicle makes debut at Airshow China 2021
Tuesday, 05 October 2021 09:35
A space refueling vehicle built by China made its debut at the ongoing 13th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition (Airshow China 2021).
The refueling vehicle has been developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
Lifespans of satellites could be extended thanks to the space refueling ve