Tag: Space
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A promising Internet satellite is rendered useless by power supply issues
Astranis, a company seeking to provide Internet connectivity from geostationary space, said in May that its “Arcturus” satellite was successfully deployed following a launch on a Falcon Heavy rocket. After taking control of the satellite, Astranis then began to send commands and update the flight software before raising Arcturus’ orbit and slotting it into a…
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A promising Internet satellite is rendered useless by power supply issues
Astranis, a company seeking to provide Internet connectivity from geostationary space, said in May that its “Arcturus” satellite was successfully deployed following a launch on a Falcon Heavy rocket. After taking control of the satellite, Astranis then began to send commands and update the flight software before raising Arcturus’ orbit and slotting it into a…
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Rocket Report: Space Force to pick three; Pythom strikes back
Welcome to Edition 6.03 of the Rocket Report! Today marks the 54th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. For decades this has meant a time to reflect on the glories of the past. But finally, with the Artemis Program, we can also look forward with hope about what is coming. That is…
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US military leans into megaconstellations after their “resiliency” in Ukraine
The leader of the United States Space Command, an Army general named James H. Dickinson, said Wednesday that megaconstellations such as SpaceX’s Starlink network have played an important role in Ukraine’s efforts to deter an invasion by Russia. “We are seeing for the first time what a megaconstellation means to the world,” Dickinson said. “That provides…
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Once again, the US public says NASA should prioritize asteroid defense
The Pew Research Center published the results of a new public survey on Thursday, the 54th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. The survey assessed Americans’ attitudes toward space exploration and space policy issues. Similarly to five years ago, the survey found that Americans broadly support the national space agency, NASA. Three-quarters…
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India takes a critical first step toward a second attempt to land on the Moon
India took the first step toward its second attempt to land on the Moon on Friday with the launch of its Chandrayaan-3 mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the southeastern part of the country. The spacecraft launched on the LVM-3 rocket, the heaviest lift vehicle in India’s fleet. Liftoff came nearly three years…
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Vulcan’s upper stage failed due to higher stress and weaker welds
United Launch Alliance has identified the root cause of a failure that destroyed the upper stage of its Vulcan rocket in late March. According to the company’s chief executive, Tory Bruno, the Centaur V upper stage failed due to higher-than-anticipated stress near the top of the liquid hydrogen propellant tank and slightly weaker welding. Bruno…
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Here come the Moon landing missions (probably)
As anyone who has been paying attention to space exploration knows, the Moon is red-hot. Up to half a dozen missions may launch to the lunar surface in the next six months, heralding a new era of Moon exploration. It has not always been so. Following the Space Race in the 1960s and early 1970s,…
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The Webb telescope just offered a revelatory view of humanity’s distant past
To commemorate the first year of scientific operations by the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA has released a stunning new image of a stellar nursery. The photo is gorgeous. It could easily hang in a museum, as if it were a large canvas painting produced by a collaboration of impressionistic and modern artists. But it…
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Astronomers solve mystery of how a mirror-like planet formed so close to its star
It has been about three decades since the first confirmed exoplanet was discovered. In the following 30 years, using a variety of telescopes and instruments on the ground and in space, astronomers have cataloged more than 5,000 planets around other stars. As part of this process of scientific discovery, astronomers have confirmed that our Milky…