Archive for the 'Space' Category
Trails Made by Starlink Satellites
June 7th, 2019“Please note that the density of these satellites is significantly higher in the days after launch (as seen here) and also that the satellites will diminish in brightness as they reach their final orbital altitude.” I would have added: Please note that this is from 25 of the first batch of 60 satellites of a […]
NASA to Let Tourists, Film Crews Into International Space Station
June 7th, 2019Via: Independent: Nasa will allow tourists to live inside the International Space Station. The space agency plans to open the floating lab up to private astronauts as well as commercial companies, it said. That could include film crews, for instance, who could be allowed to make ads or whole films in space. The first space […]
Astronomers Concerned About Starlink Light Pollution
May 27th, 2019Well, it’s not just me. Via: Forbes: SpaceX had kept the logistics of each satellite under wraps prior to the launch, but following the launch it was revealed that each satellite had a relatively large solar panel, perfect for not only gathering but reflecting sunlight back to Earth. This means anyone looking up at the […]
Starlink: Say Goodbye to the Night Sky As You Knew It
May 25th, 2019My children and I like to look at the stars on most clear nights. There is no ambient light pollution where we are so the views are breathtaking. I’ll have to tell them to try to remember the sky as it is now, because it will soon be crisscrossed by thousands of satellites. Ironically, we’ve […]
SpaceX Deploys 60 Starlink Satellites
May 24th, 2019Via: Reuters: SpaceX, the private rocket company of high-tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, launched the first batch of 60 small satellites into low-Earth orbit on Thursday for Musk’s new Starlink internet service. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the satellites blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at about 10:30 p.m. local time (0230 GMT Friday), […]
Jeff Bezos Planning Blue Origin Moon Missions
May 9th, 2019Via: Reuters: Billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, the founder of rocket company Blue Origin, will unveil plans on Thursday for missions to the moon tailored to the U.S. government’s renewed push to establish a lunar outpost in just five years, people familiar with the matter said.
Virgin Orbit
May 1st, 2019Via: The Verge: Right now, hundreds of space startups are racing to develop newer, smaller rockets, in order to take advantage of the proliferation of smaller satellites within the aerospace industry. Many of these companies want to get to space the old-fashioned way, by making a rocket that takes off vertically from the ground. But […]
FCC Approves SpaceX’s Plans to Fly Internet-Beaming Satellites in Lower Orbit
April 30th, 2019In case you’re not being hit with enough EM smog already… Via: The Verge: The Federal Communications Commission has approved SpaceX’s request to fly a large swath of its future internet-beaming satellites at a lower orbit than originally planned. The approval was a major regulatory hurdle the company needed to clear in order to start […]
SpaceX’s Unnerving Silence on an Explosive Incident
April 30th, 2019Via: The Atlantic: The smoke was visible for miles. The day, April 20, was sunny on the Florida coast, with few clouds. The plumes, thick and glowing orange, rose over the horizon and crawled across the sky. Beachgoers stopped to stare. A photographer for Florida Today, on assignment to cover a surf festival, turned the […]
The Pentagon Is Investing in Space Robots to Repair Satellites
April 24th, 2019Via: Nextgov: The Pentagon’s research office wants to send robots into space to inspect and repair the nation’s satellites. Today the U.S. has more than 400 military, government and commercial satellites circling the globe in geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO, a celestial path about 22,000 miles above the ground. These high-altitude satellites are ideal for […]
