Science

It is surprising how much information can be obtained from open sources WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Systems Command officials earlier this month gave an unclassified briefing to Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos on the power competition taking place in the space domain.  Executives from the space company Blue Origin heard the briefing in September at

Tom Grinyer, the new chief executive of the Institute of Physics, talks to Michael Banks about why he took the job, the challenges facing membership societies, and what excites him about physics Future outlook Tom Grinyer says it is important that the Institute of Physics increases and represents the diversity of the physics community. (Courtesy:

WASHINGTON — The Canadian government announced Oct. 18 it will fund development of a satellite and instruments for a NASA-led Earth science program. In a speech in Ottawa, François-Philippe Champagne, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, said the government had agreed to spend more than $200 million Canadian ($145 million) on High-altitude Aerosols, Water

SAN FRANCISCO – Mynaric, SA Photonics, Skyloom and Tesat are providing optical communications terminals for Space Development Agency Tranche 0 Transport and Tracking layer satellites scheduled for launch late this year. Derek Tournear, director of the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency, displayed the names of the Tranche 0 optical communications terminal providers Oct. 13

Jakob Rieser works on the experiment that showed non-reciprocal optical interactions between two optically trapped nanoparticles. (Courtesy: Iurie Coroli, University of Vienna) When two particles are levitated in the focus of a laser beam, light reflects back and forth between them to form standing waves. The interaction with these standing waves causes the particles to

Three upcoming launches and a crew handover will complete T-shaped orbital outpost HELSINKI — China is preparing to launch the final missions to complete its three-module Tiangong space station which it plans to keep constantly occupied for at least a decade. A Long March 5B is being assembled and tested at Wenchang Satellite Launch Center

Gen. Van Ovost said the U.S. Transportation Command is enthusiastic about the “rocket cargo” program WASHINGTON — U.S. Transportation Command is keeping an eye on space launch companies as they develop technology and mature concepts for point-to-point cargo delivery, said Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, head of the command.  U.S. TRANSCOM, which manages the movement of

Nanostructured diamond capsules (NDCs) with high-pressure argon nanodomains embedded in the matrix. (Courtesy: Charles Zeng) High pressures dramatically change the properties of materials, sometimes producing physical and chemical characteristics with useful applications. The problem is that these desirable properties usually disappear once the materials leave the bulky vessels that make such high pressures possible. Now,

WASHINGTON — A procurement document sheds new light on the formation of a joint venture to which NASA plans to award a long-term contract for producing the Space Launch System rocket. NASA published Oct. 12 a document formally known as the Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition for its planned Exploration Production and

TAMPA, Fla. — The U.K launched an in-depth probe Oct. 14 that will likely delay Viasat’s plan to buy Inmarsat, following concerns it could harm competition in the fledgling inflight connectivity (IFC) market. The U.K.’s competition watchdog kicked off the investigation after giving the satellite operators a chance to alter the $7.3 billion deal, which

Circular vision: NASA’s Swift’s X-Ray Telescope managed to capture the afterglow of GRB 221009A about an hour after it was first detected (Courtesy: NASA/Swift/A. Beardmore (University of Leicester)) Several orbiting space telescopes scanning the skies for powerful cosmic explosions have spotted one of the brightest gamma-ray bursts ever detected. Initial evidence suggests that the blast

Some Kuiper satellites will serve as “translators” between commercial imagery providers and DoD’s Transport Layer WASHINGTON — Amazon’s Project Kuiper will install DoD-compliant laser communications terminals on its internet satellites so they can transfer data from remote-sensing satellites directly into the military’s mesh network in low Earth orbit. Derek Tournear, director of the U.S. Space

Deputy press secretary Singh: ‘We are continuing to talk to SpaceX and other companies about satcom capabilities’ WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Friday said it is looking at options to provide satellite communications services for Ukraine’s military forces following Elon Musk’s warning that SpaceX will suspend Starlink internet services in Ukraine unless the U.S. government

Alternative source: if you don’t like broccoli, an algal mat will also emit methyl bromide. (Courtesy: CA Water Quality Monitoring Council) The discovery of life on another planet or moon would have a profound effect on how we see our place in the cosmos. Such discoveries could be forthcoming because astrobiologists are looking for signs

WASHINGTON — SpaceX completed its fourth operational commercial crew mission to the International Space Station Oct. 14 with the safe return of a Crew Dragon spacecraft with four American and European astronauts on board. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Freedom splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean east of Jacksonville, Florida, at 4:55 p.m. Eastern, less than

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – In spite of progress, different Earth observation systems cannot exchange information easily. “The way we are interoperable today is messy and time-consuming and annoying to the end user,” David Gauthier, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Source Commercial & Business Operations Group director, said Oct. 14 at the MilSat Symposium here. A decade ago,

Cosmic fingerprint (courtesy: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/JPL-CALTECH) Astronomers have explained a “baffling” image that was taken earlier this year by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The picture, taken in July, shows a distant binary star known as WR140 surrounded by concentric geometric ripples. The WR140 binary, located just over 5 000 light-years from Earth, is made up

TAMPA, Fla. — Starlink is deepening its foothold in Japan as SpaceX’s satellite broadband service looks to expand elsewhere in Asia, which will be critical for generating much-needed revenues. Japanese telco KDDI announced a deal Oct. 12 to resell Starlink to its enterprise and civil government customers this year — days after SpaceX said it