Tag: Satellite
-
Inside the satellite factory: How LeoStella uses software to track spacecraft hardware
Workers check out an assembled satellite at LeoStella’s manufacturing facility. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) TUKWILA, Wash. — LeoStella’s satellite factory has tons of hardware spread out over 22,000 square feet of space, but the secret ingredient for its manufacturing process may well be the software. “What you see here is the physical layout,” Brian…
-
Microsoft and Ball Aerospace enlist the cloud to speed up Space Force’s data flow
An artist’s conception shows Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite in orbit. (Telesat Illustration) How will Pentagon planners cope with the torrents of data that are expected to rain down from a constellation of satellites monitoring hotspots from low Earth orbit? Microsoft and Ball Aerospace say they’ve demonstrated that the cloud can handle it — and…
-
BlackSky Earth-observing satellites lost due to anomaly during Rocket Lab launch
Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle rises from its pad in New Zealand. (Rocket Lab via YouTube) Two satellites for BlackSky’s Earth observation constellation were lost today when the second stage of Rocket Lab’s Electron launch vehicle suffered an anomaly, just minutes after liftoff from New Zealand. Rocket Lab said the mission failure was under investigation.…
-
Seattle’s satellite industry plays leading role in BlackSky’s Earth-observing network
The two BlackSky satellites that were launched, and lost, during a Rocket Lab mission are seen here at LeoStella’s satellite factory being prepared for shipment to New Zealand in March. (LeoStella Photo) Update for 6:30 a.m. PT May 15: Two BlackSky satellites were lost when the second stage of Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket suffered an…
-
Xplore reveals its plans to open satellite manufacturing facility in Seattle area
Xplore’s new satellite manufacturing facility is in the Redmond complex that once housed Planetary Resources. (Xplore Photo) Xplore, a Seattle-area startup that aims to build satellites for interplanetary missions, has a new address in Redmond, Wash. — in the same office complex that once housed the Planetary Resources asteroid-mining venture. “Xplore’s 22,000-square-foot facility is tailor-made…
-
Amazon sees ‘positive outcome’ after FCC puts conditions on a shift in SpaceX Starlink satellites
An artist’s conception shows the deployment of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. (SpaceX Illustration) The Federal Communications Commission has given the go-ahead for SpaceX to modify the planned orbits for future satellites in its Starlink broadband internet constellation — a move that SpaceX says will result in improved, safer operations but has faced resistance from Amazon’s Project…
-
RBC Signals raises $1.2M to get ready for the coming boom in satellite data traffic
RBC Signals acquires communication service capacity from the operators of ground stations around the world, including C-CORE’s facility in Inuvik in the Canadian Arctic. (Photo via RBC Signals) Redmond, Wash.-based RBC Signals says it’s closed on a $1.2 million funding round that’s meant to put the venture in position to meet the growing demand for…
-
Amazon picks the rocket that’ll launch the first Kuiper satellites — and it’s not from Blue Origin
An illustration shows an Atlas V rocket launching Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites. (ULA / Amazon) United Launch Alliance says it’s struck a deal for a series of nine launches of its Atlas V rocket to send satellites into low Earth orbit for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband internet constellation. Amazon emphasized that this is just the…
-
BlackSky’s latest satellite delivers first images (and AI insights) hours after launch
One of the first pictures from the BlackSky 7 satellite zeroed in on Perth, Australia, and the city’s billion-dollar Waterbank development site. Click on the image for a larger version. (BlackSky Photo) That didn’t take long: BlackSky says the latest Earth observation satellite in its growing constellation delivered its first imagery less than a day…
-
Florida space officials discuss satellite factory with ‘Project Kraken,’ but it’s not Project Kuiper
Amazon’s Project Kuiper has its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) An unnamed space company may have picked up a code name with Seattle connotations during negotiations for a satellite factory in Florida, but that doesn’t mean it’s associated with Amazon. Amazon says its Project Kuiper broadband satellite mega-constellation isn’t “Project Kraken,”…