A novel sensor that simulates the measurements that would be taken by one of the proposed satellites vying to be ESA’s eleventh Earth Explorer, has endured an extraordinary journey.

Carried aboard a high-altitude balloon on a four-day voyage from Sweden to Canada, the sensor provides new data that could help to refine the CAIRT mission concept – a mission that aims to unravel the complexities of Earth's atmosphere and enhance our understanding of climate dynamics.

London, UK (SPX) Dec 10, 2024
SES Space and Defense, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SES, has secured a five-year Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) worth up to $117 million. Awarded through Space Systems Command (SSC) with support from the United States Space Force's Commercial Satellite Communications Office (CSCO), the agreement aims to enhance satellite communication capabilities for the United States European Command (USEUCO

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Dec 10, 2024
Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has finalized preparations for its Tactical Satellite (TacSat), a next-generation technology demonstration platform set for launch in 2025 aboard Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket. Designed to revolutionize intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, TacSat aims to validate cutting-edge sensing and communication capabilities in space. The satellite will suppo

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 10, 2024
Pixxel, a US-India-based leader in hyperspectral satellite technology, has raised $24 million in additional funding for its Series B round, bringing the total for this round to $60 million and its overall funding to $95 million. This positions Pixxel among the most well-funded space technology startups in India and the leading hyperspectral imaging company globally. New participants in the

Baltimore MD (SPX) Dec 10, 2024
New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that a new feature in the universe-not a flaw in telescope measurements-may be behind the decadelong mystery of why the universe is expanding faster today than it did in its infancy billions of years ago. The new data confirms Hubble Space Telescope measurements of distances between nearby stars and galaxies, offering a crucial c

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Dec 08, 2024
On December 5, the European environmental satellite Copernicus Sentinel-1C was successfully launched aboard a European Vega-C rocket from Kourou, South America. Beyond Gravity contributed critical technologies to this mission, including thermal insulation and a navigation receiver to ensure precise orbital positioning. Oliver Grassmann, Executive Vice President Satellites at Beyond Gravity

Huntsville AL (SPX) Dec 08, 2024
NASA's IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer) has helped astronomers better understand the shapes of structures essential to a black hole - specifically, the disk of material swirling around it, and the shifting plasma region called the corona. The stellar-mass black hole, part of the binary system Swift J1727.8-1613, was discovered in the summer of 2023 during an unusual brightening ev

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 08, 2024
China's next-generation Long March 10 carrier rocket will significantly boost the nation's capacity for manned lunar exploration, increasing its lunar transfer orbit payload from 8.2 tonnes to 27 tonnes, according to Long Lehao, a prominent rocket designer at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT). Long explained that the Long March 10 is specifically being designed to suppo

Maxwell AFB AL (SPX) Dec 08, 2024
Leaders of NASA sit in an awkward position. While they are the head of a widely recognized organization, they're often not the most famous individual in the agency. More people probably know the names of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the astronauts currently "stranded" on the International Space Station, than Bill Nelson, the current NASA administrator. Astronauts might be the people mo

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 08, 2024
An astronomical observatory in Yunnan Province, southwest China, has successfully documented the rare event of a near-Earth asteroid falling to Earth, according to an announcement by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The Lijiang branch of the CAS Yunnan Observatories detected asteroid 2024 XA1 at 13:55 Beijing time on December 3 using its advanced 2.4-meter telescope. Hours later, at