...the who's who,
and the what's what 
of the space industry

Space Careers

Products  Product List
Copernical Team

Copernical Team

Write a comment
Washington DC (UPI) Sep 18, 2024
The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday said it plans to fine SpaceX for regulatory violations. The FAA proposed to fine the company more than $630,000, saying it failed to comply with regulations during two launches in 2023. SpaceX on June 18, 2023, used an unapproved launch control room for the PSN Satria mission and did not conduct the required hour poll, the FAA said.
Write a comment
Reinventing the clock: NASA's new tech for space timekeeping
Work on the quantum clock synchronization protocol takes place in this NASA Goddard lab. Credit: NASA/Matthew Kaufman

Here on Earth, it might not matter if your wristwatch runs a few seconds slow. But crucial spacecraft functions need accuracy down to one billionth of a second or less. Navigating with GPS, for example, relies on precise timing signals from satellites to pinpoint locations. Three teams at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, are at work to push timekeeping for space exploration to new levels of precision.

  • One team develops highly precise quantum clock synchronization techniques to aid essential spacecraft communication and navigation.
  • Another Goddard team is working to employ the technique of clock synchronization in space-based platforms to enable telescopes to function as one enormous observatory.
  • The third team is developing an for spacecraft based on strontium, a metallic chemical element, to enable scientific observations not possible with current technology.
Write a comment
There are plenty of uses for powerful lasers in space. But where should we put them?
Recently, Astronomers spotted three near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) hiding in the glare of the Sun. These NEAs are part of an elusive population that lurks inside the orbits of Earth and Venus. One of the asteroids is the largest object that is potentially hazardous to Earth to be discovered in the last eight years.
Write a comment
Falcon 9 rocket
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

SpaceX pushed one of its most-used boosters to its limits with a launch Tuesday evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

A Falcon 9 rocket using a booster for the 22nd time managed a successful recovery even though it was used to fly its payload, a pair of the European Commission's Galileo L13 satellites, to a medium-Earth orbit. The last time SpaceX flew such a mission, it didn't even try to recover the booster because it required more propellant than a low-Earth orbit mission.

Liftoff came at 6:50 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40, and the booster stuck the landing on the droneship Just Read the Instructions a little more than eight minutes later.

SpaceX had to expend a booster, meaning let it fall back into the Atlantic, for the Galileo L12 mission back in April so SpaceX could provide the performance needed to get the payload to orbit.

"Data from that mission informed subtle design and operational changes, including mass reductions and trajectory adjustments, that will allow us to safely recover and reuse this booster," SpaceX posted on its website ahead of the new .

Write a comment
Falcon 9
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Tuesday it is seeking more than $600,000 in fines against SpaceX for violating licenses from its Space Coast launch sites.

In a press release, the FAA detailed its proposed civil penalties for a June 18, 2023 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Space Launch Complex 40 and a July 28, 2023 launch from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-A.

The combined fine of $633,009 is for what the FAA alleges to be SpaceX's failure to follow its requirements for those two launches, according to the release. The fines follow civil penalty guidelines that are set in federal statutes, the FAA stated.

"Safety drives everything we do at the FAA, including a legal responsibility for the safety oversight of companies with commercial transportation licenses," FAA Chief Counsel Marc Nichols said in the release. "Failure of a company to comply with the safety requirements will result in consequences."

For the Canaveral launch, the FAA said that in May 2023, SpaceX had submitted a request to revise its communication plan to its existing license that wanted to add a new launch control room at Hangar X and remove a T-2 hour readiness poll from its procedures.

Write a comment
There could be a way to fix spacecraft at L2, like Webb and Gaia
A map of the JWST spacecraft at its SEL2 orbital point in space. Currently there can be no servicing missions to this point, but NASA engineers are studying ways to make them happen. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Billions of dollars of observatory spacecraft orbit around Earth or in the same orbit as our planet. When something wears out or goes wrong, it would be good to be able to fix those missions "in situ." So far, only the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has enjoyed regular visits for servicing.

What if we could work on other telescopes "on orbit?" Such "fixit" to other facilities are the subject of a new NASA paper investigating optimal orbits and trajectories for making service calls on telescopes far beyond Earth.

Wednesday, 18 September 2024 13:00

Webb’s new view of Arp 107

Write a comment
Webb’s new view of Arp 107 Image: Webb’s new view of Arp 107
Wednesday, 18 September 2024 12:17

Hera asteroid mission launch kit

Write a comment
Hera Launch Kit

Hera asteroid mission launch kit

Everything you'd ever want to know about ESA's first planetary defence mission

Write a comment
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Sep 17, 2024
The ATLID atmospheric lidar, the final instrument aboard the EarthCARE satellite launched in May, has now been successfully activated. EarthCARE, a joint mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), aims to provide more precise measurements of clouds, aerosols, and radiation. Researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (
Write a comment
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 16, 2024
MDA (TSX: MDA), a leading partner in the fast-growing space industry, announced the construction of a new 185,000 square foot extension to its satellite manufacturing facility in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec. This expansion will make it the largest facility in its satellite class, capable of producing up to two MDA AURORATM digital satellites daily. The first project to come out of the
Page 72 of 2133

Latest News ...