Archive for the 'Space' Category
A Robotic Spacecraft Caught an Old Satellite and Extended Its Life
April 17th, 2020Via: CNBC: Intelsat’s IS-901 satellite is nearly 20 years old, and well beyond its expected lifespan, but a small spacecraft built by Northrop Grumman succeeded in docking with the satellite and giving it another five years of service, the companies announced on Friday. The feat is a space industry first, as extending the life of […]
COVID-19 Forces Earth’s Largest Telescopes to Close
April 11th, 2020Hmm. But actually pic.twitter.com/jlowaHobXO — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 10, 2020 Via: Astronomy: An Astronomy magazine tally has found that more than 100 of Earth’s biggest research telescopes have closed in recent weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. What started as a trickle of closures in February and early March has become an almost complete […]
Pentagon’s New Satellite Constellation Part of Plan to Link Everything on the Battlefield
April 7th, 2020The Pentagon is already planning to use Starlink, Air Force laying groundwork for future military use of commercial megaconstellations: The Air Force Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation office in December awarded SpaceX a $28 million contract to test over the next three years different ways in which the military might use the company’s Starlink broadband […]
Trump Signs Executive Order to Support Moon Mining, Tap Asteroid Resources
April 7th, 2020Via: Space: The water ice and other lunar resources that will help the United States establish a long-term human presence on the moon are there for the taking, the White House believes. President Donald Trump signed an executive order today (April 6) establishing U.S. policy on the exploitation of off-Earth resources. That policy stresses that […]
SpaceX Competitor OneWeb Goes Bankrupt
March 28th, 2020Via: BBC: OneWeb, the high-profile London-based satellite start-up, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US. The firm, which has been building a network to deliver broadband across the globe, blamed the Covid-19 crisis for its inability to secure new investment. OneWeb issued a statement saying it was laying off most of its staff while […]
SpaceX Has Won a Big NASA Contract to Fly Cargo to the Moon
March 28th, 2020Via: Ars Technica: Last summer, NASA put out a call for companies who would be willing to deliver cargo to a proposed station in orbit around the Moon, called the Lunar Gateway. On Friday, NASA announced that the first award under this “Gateway Logistics” contract would go to SpaceX. The company has proposed using its […]
The U.S. Space Force’s New Mission? Protecting 5G
March 23rd, 2020Via: Popular Mechanics: Space-based internet traffic will fall under the nation’s newest armed service. Related: Tonight’s Successful Starlink Mission Makes SpaceX the World’s Largest Satellite Operator, Was First U.S. Space Force Launch FCC Approves SpaceX to Deploy up to 1 Million Small Antennas for Starlink Internet Network
SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket Launches 60 More Starlink Satellites
March 18th, 2020Via: CBS: Three days after a dramatic launch abort, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket suffered a premature engine shutdown during the climb to space Wednesday but was still able to place another batch of 60 Starlink internet satellites into the planned orbit. The first stage, however, was unable to pull off what would have been […]
Did ISS Live-Feed Accidentally Capture “Top Secret” Hypersonic Vehicle Test?
March 5th, 2020Via: ZeroHedge: Scott C. Waring, the founder of UFO Sightings Daily, claims he has come across a strange video recorded from the International Space Station’s (ISS) NASA Space Cam that shows the moment an unidentified flying object rockets into orbit.
SpaceX Aims to Launch 70 Missions a Year from Florida’s Space Coast by 2023
March 4th, 2020Via: Space.com: SpaceX is planning a huge boost to the number of rocket launches from its Florida launch sites in the next few years as the company builds its Starlink satellite megaconstellation while meeting flight demands from its customers, according to a federal environmental report. The missions for SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets […]
