Tag: Satellite
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SpaceX files FCC application for internet access network with 4,425 satellites
SpaceX celebrated the announcement of a Seattle-area satellite operation by lighting up its logo at Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center. (GeekWire photo) SpaceX has laid out further details about a 4,425-satellite communications network that’s expected to provide global broadband internet access, with its Seattle-area office playing a key role in its development. The plan is…
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Spaceflight Industries unveils BlackSky satellite’s first pictures of our planet
An image from Spaceflight Industries’ BlackSky Pathfinder-1 satellite shows farms and industrial sites around Beijing. Click on the image for a larger version. (Credit: Spaceflight Industries / BlackSky) Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries is sharing some of the first pictures of Earth ever taken by its low-cost, high-resolution BlackSky Pathfinder-1 satellite – and they’re spectacular. The roughly 100-pound…
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WorldView-4 joins DigitalGlobe’s armada of satellites keeping watch on the planet
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket rises from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, sending the WorldView-4 satellite and seven CubeSats into space. (Credit: ULA) DigitalGlobe’s WorldView-4 satellite was sent into orbit today to capture high-resolution, multispectral imagery of Earth, almost two months after California’s wildfires forced a launch delay. A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5…
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Hail, Asgardia! Scientist plans to create nation in space, but details are up in the air
A stylized graphic shows Asgardia’s satellite in space. (Credit: Asgardia.space) A Russian scientist and businessman today unveiled a social-media-savvy plan to create the first-ever nation in space, named Asgardia. But many of the details of the plan, including how Asgardia’s first satellite will be launched, haven’t yet been pinned down. The mastermind behind Asgardia, which…
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Spaceflight signs up Google’s Terra Bella for satellite launch on SpaceX rocket
An artist’s conception shows Terra Bella’s SkySat satelltes in orbit. (Credit: Terra Bella) Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries says it’s made a deal with Terra Bella to have the Google subsidiary’s Earth-observing satellites launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket next year. The agreement makes Terra Bella, which was known as Skybox Imaging before Google bought it…
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Google Cloud offers a quadrillion bytes of Landsat and Sentinel-2 satellite views
An image from the Sentinel-2 satellite shows the Australian city of Brisbane and its surroundings. (Credit: ESA / Google) How do you channel a flood of almost 5 million images into useful applications? Google Cloud is doing it with more than 30 years’ worth of satellite imagery from the Landsat and Sentinel-2 missions, for free. Satellite views…
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India’s PSLV rocket sends BlackSky Global’s first Earth-watching Pathfinder satellite into orbit
India’s PSLV-C35 rocket rises from its launch pad, carrying eight satellites into space. (Credit: ISRO / Doordharshan via YouTube) A satellite that’s meant to blaze a trail for Seattle-based BlackSky Global’s Earth-imaging constellation rose into orbit tonight atop India’s four-stage PSLV-C35 rocket. BlackSky’s Pathfinder 1 was among eight satellites launched from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota at…
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SpaceX says probe into Falcon 9 launch pad blast points to helium system leak
A video stream from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida shows smoke rising from the SpaceX launch pad blast on Sept. 1. (Credit: NASA) SpaceX says an investigation into the launch pad explosion that destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket and its satellite payload has turned up evidence of a “large breach” in the supercooled helium…
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Why small satellites are big for startups
An artist’s conception shows Planetary Resources’ Arkyd 6 prototype Earth-observing satellite, which is due for its maiden launch this year. (Credit: Planetary Resources) Small satellites, and the startups that make them, are becoming a big deal – and there’s a fresh flurry of industry reports that explain why. The bottom line is that new types of…
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Techstars grad Kepler Communications raises $5M to launch mini satellites by 2017 and double its team
Kepler CEO Mina Mitry. Kepler Communications, a Techstars Seattle graduate building telecom infrastructure for space, just secured $5 million in seed funding. New York venture capital firm IA Ventures led the round. The Toronto-based startup will use the funds to grow its team and launch two tiny satellites into space in the next 15 months. Previously: Startup…