NASA completes heart of Roman Space Telescope's primary instrument
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 23:59The heart of NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was recently delivered to Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, for integration into the WFI (Wide Field Instrument). Called the FPS (Focal Plane System), it serves as the core of Roman's camera. When the mission launches by May 2027, astronomers will use this system to gather exquisite images to help unravel the secrets of dark energy and dar
BlackGEM telescopes begin hunt for gravitational-wave sources at La Silla
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 23:59The BlackGEM array, consisting of three new telescopes located at ESO's La Silla Observatory, has begun operations. The telescopes will scan the southern sky to hunt down the cosmic events that produce gravitational waves, such as the mergers of neutron stars and black holes. Some cataclysmic events in the Universe, such as the collision of black holes or neutron stars, create gravitationa
Gogo LEO broadband service powers ahead
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 23:59Gogo Business Aviation's (NASDAQ: GOGO) global Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband service has gained momentum with significant program achievements by Gogo and strategic partners, OneWeb and Hughes Network Systems, LLC, an EchoStar (NASDAQ: SATS) Company. Gogo's LEO satellite network provider, OneWeb, completed the launch of its LEO constellation with more than 588 satellites in orbit at the
What if all telecommunication satellites stopped?
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 23:59Let's take a walk down memory lane and take a look at the birth of satellites, why they are so critical to life on Earth today and what things would look like in a world without such connectivity enablers. Even those who weren't born at the time, have all heard of Sputnik, the first satellite launched in October 1957. A small sphere of steel sent into space by the USSR during the cold war,
Political fight escalates over Space National Guard
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 20:14NASA's Lunar Flashlight to fly by Earth
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 19:44NASA's Lunar Flashlight mission to the moon has ended, but the briefcase-size spacecraft will soon fly past Earth before heading into deep space. On Tuesday, May 16, at 9:44 p.m. PDT (Wednesday, May 17, at 12:44 a.m. EDT), the CubeSat will pass about 40,000 miles (65,000 kilometers) from our planet's surface.
NASA's Eyes on the Solar System 3D visualization tool will track the tiny spacecraft in real time, giving users a front-row seat to the flyby.
Arqit launches sale of satellite division
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 19:13British cybersecurity software developer Arqit has hired financial adviser Silverpeak to sell its space division following interest from potential buyers, according to a source close to the process.
Just 1 in 5 employees in the space industry are women—this lack of diversity is holding us back, say researchers
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 16:56This week, the Australian Space Summit is celebrating some of our nation's strengths and achievements in the space sector. But it's taking place under the shadow of significant cuts to space technology investment announced in last week's federal budget.
Space technologies play a critical role in responding to many national priorities, such as climate and disaster resilience, connecting regional Australians, contributing to regional security and driving economic growth. Yet, the sector suffers from a branding issue—most people think of rockets and astronauts, rather than the satellites we depend on globally.
This leads to a misunderstanding in government of the importance of space technologies to the issues we are seeking to solve. It also makes it harder to recruit talented people to the field.
So, how do we find enough people with the skills necessary to grow this critical technology sector?
Why diversity and inclusivity matter
The answer is placing a new priority on talent recruitment and expanding diversity and inclusivity in the space sector.
The space sector needs workers from all different backgrounds and disciplines, but is struggling to attract a diverse talent pool.
Enter outer space at your own risk?
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 13:42If you pay a company like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, or Boeing to go into space, perhaps even perform your own spacewalk, should those companies be bound by safety regulations issued by the FAA? Currently, the answer is “no,” thanks to a law that bans federal regulation of commercial space enterprises.
Space test shows magnolia may be best for wooden artificial satellite LignoSat
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 13:09An international project led by Kyoto University tested and confirmed the high durability of space wood at the International Space Station—the ISS. The experiment results showed minimal deterioration and good stability of the samples selected for the wooden artificial satellite LignoSat.
The research group conducted a preliminary inspection involving strength tests and elemental and crystal structural analyses of the wood samples, retrieved from space by Astronaut Koichi Wakata and returned to Earth from the ISS on SpaceX CRS-26—a Commercial Resupply Service mission.
Despite the extreme environment of outer space involving significant temperature changes and exposure to intense cosmic rays and dangerous solar particles for ten months, tests confirmed no decomposition or deformations, such as cracking, warping, peeling, or surface damage.
Three wood specimens were tested and showed no deformation after space exposure. The experiment results also confirmed no mass change in each wood specimen before and after space exposure.
China calls for space station commercial cargo proposals
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:56China’s human spaceflight agency is seeking to foster a commercial, low-cost transportation system to deliver cargo to and from its Tiangong space station.
Sales rocket for Zenno's fuel-free satellite pointing system
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12Zenno Astronautics (Zenno) reports has surpassed $75M in product sales (USD 48M) for its world-first superconducting magnetorquer for spacecraft attitude control, the Z01. Built on Zenno's proprietary superconducting magnet technology, Z01 is a fuel-free satellite pointing system designed to significantly increases the range of capabilities for attitude control in space, including fully au
Space Forge enables reusable satellites with new way of returning from space to Earth
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12Space Forge reveals their patent protected design of a planet-friendly reusable re-entry system, which will enable the low cost and reliable return of satellites to Earth. Although the cost of launching satellites into space has become lower through the use of reusability, all current commercial space return vehicles use ablative heat shields which require replacement after every flight. S
Terran Orbital PTD-3 enables 200Gbits space-to-ground optical link
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) announced a significant achievement in space-to-ground communication, successfully enabling a 200 gigabits per second optical link through the Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3 (PTD-3) satellite. The NASA satellite hosts the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload, funded by NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) and developed by MIT Linco
LiveEO and Capella Space offer fast, high-res SAR imaging to asset managers
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12LiveEO, a market leader in Earth observation analytics and solutions for high-value infrastructure and energy asset monitoring, has announced a partnership with Capella Space, the world's leading provider of high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. As the first certified Capella Analytics Partner, LiveEO will integrate all-weather, 24/7 SAR imagery from Capella Space into its adva