Science

WASHINGTON — Boeing expects to get a contract in the coming months to build a new communications satellite for the U.S. military, funded by a $442 million congressional earmark.  The satellite, to be named WGS-12, will be the 12th of the Wideband Global Satcom geostationary constellation that provides communications services to the United States and

Worrying trend: the percentage of people with a disability in UK physics is lower when compared to the chemical and biological sciences (courtesy: iStock/gmast3r) The percentage of people with a disability in UK physics has halved in recent years, according to an analysis by the Lightyear Foundation – a charity that helps children with disabilities to

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force for the second time has taken ownership of a retired National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellite to fill gaps in coverage for the U.S. military.  NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite known as GOES-15, originally activated in 2011, was transferred to the Space Force to extend weather coverage of

WAIMEA, Hawaii — After a slow start, the Commerce Department says it is making progress on establishing a civil space traffic coordination system that will rely on both commercial and government data. During a panel discussion at the AMOS Conference here Sept. 21, Richard DalBello, director of the Office of Space Commerce, emphasized the progress

[embedded content] Although it seems like a mundane material, the rich and varied behaviour of sand has long fascinated physicists – from the creation and motion of mighty dunes to the patterns of tiny ripples that appear on beaches. Now, researchers at Lehigh University in the US have put a new magnetic twist on the

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Satellogic is relocating from Uruguay to the United States in a bid for more government business as revenues continue falling short of expectations, the publicly traded Earth observation operator announced Sept. 21. Satellogic is currently registered in the British Virgin Islands and headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay, meaning it is not subject

KIHEI, Hawaii — Sierra Space conducted another test of its inflatable habitat technology, demonstrating that the module exceeds its requirements even with the addition of a window in its fabric structure. The company announced Sept. 20 that it performed the fifth in a series of tests of subscale versions of its Large Integrated Flexible Environment

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features a wide-ranging conversation with the astrophysicist Victoria Grinberg, who is a liaison scientist at the European Space Agency (ESA). Based at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands, Grinberg explains how X-ray observatories are being used to study some of the most violent

Senjuti Mallick is a space law expert promoting space sustainability and responsible space exploration. She leads legal and compliance operations at COMSPOC Corp. Space exploration has always been an endeavor that transcends borders, uniting the world in a shared pursuit of knowledge and discovery. In this era of renewed interest in lunar and interplanetary exploration,

WASHINGTON — Maxar Technologies, a space technology firm that operates imaging satellites and manufactures spacecraft, has reorganized and eliminated executive positions, the company confirmed Sept. 20 The restructuring comes less than five months after Maxar, previously a publicly traded company, was acquired by the private equity firm Advent International in a $6.4 billion deal. Maxar

Mirror image: artistic illustration of an Alice ring, which researchers have just observed for the first time in nature. (Courtesy: Heikka Valja/Aalto University) In Lewis Carroll’s novel, Through the Looking-Glass, Alice encounters a mirror-like portal to a world where rules of reality are reversed. In the 1980s, the story inspired the name for a ring-like

KIHEI, Hawaii — The Federal Communications Commission is requiring more operators of satellite constellations to work with astronomers to minimize the effects their satellites will have on ground-based astronomy. The FCC issued authorizations Aug. 31 to Iceye and Planet, updating their licenses to add new satellites. Iceye, which operates a constellation of synthetic aperture radar

TAMPA, Fla. — AST Space Mobile said Sept. 19 its Blue Walker 3 test satellite that’s been in orbit for a year recently relayed its first 5G phone call to an ordinary smartphone in a cellular dead zone. An engineer with a Samsung Galaxy S22 phone near Hana, Hawaii, successfully connected with the satellite Sept.

Transformation: neutron stars could gather dark matter that turns them into small black holes.(Courtesy: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab) A team of theoretical physicists in India has shown that gravitational waves could reveal the role that dark matter could play in transforming neutron stars into black holes. Dark matter is a hypothetical,

WASHINGTON — CACI International’s optical communication terminal passed initial ground tests required to compete for Space Development Agency satellite contracts, the company announced Sept. 18. CACI, a defense contractor based in Reston, Virginia, said its optical terminal successfully completed an interoperability test, bringing it closer to meeting technical requirements set by the Space Development Agency

WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron failed during a launch of Capella Space radar imaging satellite Sept. 19. The Electron lifted off at 2:55 a.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand after a delay of about 20 minutes because of space weather conditions. The liftoff and ascent of the first stage appeared to