Orlando FL (UPI) Mar 12, 2021
A Canadian startup plans to launch the first-ever commercial fleet of satellites designed to track dangerous space trash in 2022. Montreal-based NorthStar Earth and Space has three of its Skylark satellites under construction for the new network, which eventually will number about 52 spacecraft. The fleet would be the first of its kind to track space trash from space, rather than from gro

Orlando FL (UPI) Mar 12, 2021
SpaceX successfully launched 60 Starlink satellites early Thursday from Florida on a first-stage booster rocket that previously carried two astronauts into space. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket occurred as scheduled at 3:13 a.m. EST from Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The launch was planned as SpaceX seeks permission from the Federal Communications Commission to beam St

Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Mar 12, 2021
Umbra, a geospatial intelligence data provider, was granted a license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite with 1,200 MHz of bandwidth. This bandwidth allocation will allow them to generate images with as low as 15-centimeter (6 inch) ground sampling distance (GSD). At this resolution, Umbra's satellites will be able to detect i

London, UK (SPX) Mar 12, 2021
Five UK organisations have been awarded a total of 300,000 pounds from the UK Space Agency to speed up the development of innovative space technology. Recipients include the University of Leeds, which will develop 3D printing methods and liquid-crystal technology, similar to that in our television screens at home, to develop far-infrared sensors for studying climate change and star formati

Orlando FL (SPX) Mar 12, 2021
Using the same principles that make polarized sunglasses possible, a team of researchers at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico have developed a technique that will help better defend against asteroids on a collision course with Earth. A new study recently published in The Planetary Science Journal found a better way to interpret radar signals bounced off asteroids' surfaces. The data c

Paris (AFP) March 11, 2021
As a digital collage by US artist Beeple sells for $69.3 million, we look at the five works by living artists that have fetched the most at auction. - 'Rabbit', Jeff Koons - The stainless steel casting of an inflatable rabbit fetched a record price for a living artist of $91.1 million at Christie's in May 2019. Just over a metre tall (41 inches), the 1986 work is one of 66-year-old

Washington DC (SPX) Mar 12, 2021
NASA is working to return the Hubble Space Telescope to science operations after resolving a problem with a safeguard aboard. Hubble entered safe mode on Sunday, March 7, shortly after 4 a.m. EST, following detection of a software error within the spacecraft's main computer. The spacecraft has been moved out of safe mode into a pre-science state with the plan of returning to normal operati

Baltimore MD (SPX) Mar 12, 2021
Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that a planet orbiting a distant star may have lost its atmosphere but gained a second one through volcanic activity. The planet, GJ 1132 b, is hypothesized to have begun as a gaseous world with a thick hydrogen blanket of atmosphere. Starting out at several times the diameter of Earth, this so-called "sub-Neptune" is belie

Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 12, 2021
The first readings from the SuperCam instrument aboard NASA's Perseverance rover have arrived on Earth. SuperCam was developed jointly by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico and a consortium of French research laboratories under the auspices of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES). The instrument delivered data to the French Space Agency's operations center in Toulou

Moscow (Sputnik) Mar 12, 2021
NASA and Roscosmos diverged on information concerning the next commander of the International Space Station. NASA's press office told Sputnik that after Soyuz MS-17 dispatches from the ISS on 17 April with Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov and Rubins on board, Walker will become the 65th expedition commander. When she leaves the station on the board of the Crew Dragon spaceship in late April, Japan'