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Satellite images of our planet have become essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world. With rising seas being one of the biggest threats to society, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.

Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete, Greece, plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage. Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA’s Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders to provide the

Washington DC (UPI) Jun 7, 2021
Maine leaders have long been searching for ways to keep more of high school and college graduates from leaving the state. But lobstering and forestry, two stalwarts of the Maine economy, aren't what they used to be. Enter the new space economy. "There's something sexy about space," Terry Shehata, executive director of the Maine Space Grant Consortium, a NASA-funded nonprofit, tol

Adelaide, Australia (SPX) Jun 07, 2022
The Adelaide-based SmartSat Co-operative Research Centre has brought in Canberra-based EOS Space Systems to advance its Project CHORUS tactical satellite terminal. Now a core partner, EOS Space Systems will have priority to select and lead strategic research projects alongside leading universities and global corporations to assist in the development of breakthrough technologies in military

Alexandria VA (SPX) Jun 07, 2022
SCOUT Inc., a company developing next-generation space safety of flight and autonomous proximity operations services, and LEOcloud Inc., a company offering a scalable space-based, multi-cloud Infrastructure as a Services (IaaS) announced they have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to work jointly to enhance space operations safety. The collaboration is focused on integrating SCOUT's Space Do

Lowell MA (SPX) Jun 07, 2022
Some nights the Moon seems really close and bigger than usual. One summer evening when I was a child, I remember being mystified and then startled at a huge round shape slowly creeping up behind my friend Nancy's house, which sat on a hill on the other side of our village. At some point I suddenly realized it was the Moon, and I ran yelling through the garden to tell my dad and get h

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 07, 2022
Our drive was successful, and we ended with some lovely flat bedrock with some gorgeous veining running through it. As APXS payload uplink lead today, I saw several targets that the APXS team would have loved to analyze. Sadly, the timing didn't work in our favour today. APXS prefers temperatures below -20 C - the colder it is, the better the data quality is. But daytime temperatures in Ga

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jun 07, 2022
For the first time, researchers have created simulations that directly recreate the full life cycle of some of the largest collections of galaxies observed in the distant universe 11 billion years ago, reports a new study in Nature Astronomy. Cosmological simulations are crucial to studying how the universe became the shape it is today, but many do not typically match what astronomers obse

TorontoCanberra, Australia (SPX) Jun 07, 2022
An international team of scientists has released the largest near-infrared image ever taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, enabling astronomers to map the star-forming regions of the universe and learn how the earliest, most distant galaxies originated. Named 3D-DASH, this high-resolution survey will allow researchers to find rare objects and targets for follow-up observations with the recent

ESA’s Comet Interceptor mission to visit a pristine comet or other interstellar object just starting its journey into the inner Solar System has been ‘adopted’ this week; the study phase is complete and, following selection of the spacecraft prime contractor, work will soon begin to build the mission.