Washington (AFP) May 25, 2024
A tiny NASA satellite was launched Saturday from New Zealand with the mission of improving climate change prediction by measuring heat escaping from Earth's poles for the first time. "This new information - and we've never had it before - will improve our ability to model what's happening in the poles, what's happening in climate," NASA's earth sciences research director Karen St. Germain

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 26, 2024
Intelsat, operator of a large integrated satellite and terrestrial network and provider of inflight connectivity, will extend broadband, video distribution, and mobile satellite service to customers across three continents using Northrop Grumman's Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV). This technology will add nine years to the Intelsat 10-02 (IS-10-02) satellite. Geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO

Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 26, 2024
SpaceX's Starlink recently announced that their high-speed internet constellation now connects over 3 million people across nearly 100 countries and territories. Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations provide real-time network services to people in remote and underdeveloped areas. As LEO satellite deployments increase globally, commercial aerospace companies are becoming significan

Sydney, Australia (SPX) May 26, 2024
Macquarie University's Huntsman Telescope has successfully demonstrated daytime astronomy using an array of Canon camera lenses and offering the potential to continuously monitor celestial objects and satellites. Astronomers at Macquarie University have pioneered a new technique for observing celestial objects during the day, potentially allowing around-the-clock visual monitoring of satellites

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 26, 2024
For the first time, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide ices have been observed in the far reaches of our solar system on trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). A research team, led by planetary scientists Mario Nascimento De Pra and Noemi Pinilla-Alonso from the University of Central Florida's Florida Space Institute (FSI), made the findings by using the infrared spectral capabilities of the Jame

Los Angeles CA (SPX) May 26, 2024
Using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, an astronomer at the University of Kansas has led a study revealing 15 new exoplanets and determining the mass of 126 others. The findings provide new insights into the composition of exoplanets and their star systems. The study, part of the TESS-Keck Survey, is published in T

Greenbelt MD (SPX) May 26, 2024
Using observations by NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and many other facilities, two international teams of astronomers have discovered a planet between the sizes of Earth and Venus only 40 light-years away. Multiple factors make it a candidate well-suited for further study using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. TESS stares at a large swath of the sky for about a month at

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) May 26, 2024
ispace, inc. (ispace), a global lunar exploration company, and the University of Leicester, have agreed to collaborate on approaches to lunar night survivability for future ispace lunar lander and rover missions. The University and ispace have entered into a strategic consulting agreement to explore lunar night survivability utilizing Radioisotope Heater Units on the Series 3 lunar lander and r

Washington DC (UPI) May 24, 2024
SpaceX continued its torrid, history-making launch space on Thursday night when it lifted 23 new Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit, making its third blastoff in two days. The launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida also happened on the fifth anniversary of SpaceX's first Starlink mission in Elon Musk's ambitious plan to provide satellite Internet service around the globe

Washington (AFP) May 24, 2024
Boeing is set to launch its first crewed space mission in June without fixing a small helium gas leak on its troubled Starliner spaceship, officials said Friday. The vessel, under development since 2010, has been plagued by technical problems and has yet to fulfill its purpose of ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station, allowing Boeing's rival SpaceX to zoom ahead with its Cre