Science

WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department has hired a veteran of government and industry to be the next director of the Office of Space Commerce (OSC). Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced April 27 that Richard DalBello will be the next director of the office, effective May 9. The office, located within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

WASHINGTON — Four American and European astronauts are on their way to the International Space Station after their launch on a Crew Dragon spacecraft April 27, less than two days after another spacecraft returned from the station. A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:52 a.m.

Driving force: an experiment has confirmed that an oscillating temperature gradient boosts heat flow in fluids. (Courtesy: iStock/Mervana) Physicists in the Czech Republic have shown that heat flows more efficiently through a fluid when the fluid’s temperature gradient oscillates over time. The discovery by Ladislav Skrbek at Charles University and colleagues could help climate scientists

TAMPA, Fla. — Ligado Networks faces renewed calls to block its terrestrial wireless plans over GPS interference concerns as the company prepares to turn part of its network on as early as Sept. 30. Satellite operators Iridium, PlanetiQ and GeoOptics joined a group of 90 companies, organizations and associations hoping to overturn the regulatory approval

DENVER – Since Russian forces began mobilizing to invade Ukraine, commercial satellite operators have supplied U.S. intelligence agencies with extensive electro-optical, synthetic aperture radar and radio frequency data. BlackSky, Maxar Technologies and Planet, for example, have shared “millions and millions of square kilometers of imagery” over Ukraine and Russia, specifically, Peter Muend, director of the

How it works: a HUD nanotextured silicon film surface (left) significantly improves light absorption as shown on the right. (Courtesy: CC BY 4.O/Tavakoli et al.) While solar farms offer clean and reliable energy production, they are space-consuming and remain unfeasible for use in urban centres and outer space. An alternative solar solution for the near-future

Sharp said NGA is not imposing any restrictions on the sharing of commercial satellite imagery by U.S. companies DENVER – Geospatial intelligence in the form of commercial imagery and analytical services “have been instrumental to those fighting in Ukraine, and to shaping worldviews of the crisis,” said Vice Adm. Robert Sharp, director of the National

DENVER – Kleos Space announced plans April 25 to offer customers dedicated, taskable radio frequency monitoring capabilities. It’s a new business model for Kleos, a Luxembourg based company that operates three clusters of four satellites to detect RF signals and pinpoint their location. To date, Luxembourg-based Kleos has provided RF monitoring data to government and

HELSINKI — China will aim to alter the orbit of a potentially threatening asteroid with a kinetic impactor test as part of plans for a planetary defense system. China is drafting a planetary defense plan and will conduct technical studies and research into developing systems to counter the threats posed by near Earth asteroids, Wu

WASHINGTON — A flat budget for NASA’s space technology programs is “very constraining” for the agency as it faces tough decisions about what efforts it can fund and at what amounts. NASA received $1.1 billion for space technology in the fiscal year 2022 omnibus spending bill passed in mid-March. That is the same amount that

Electron source: MARATHON runs off the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. (Courtsy: Jefferson Lab) The internal structures of nuclei containing mirrored numbers of protons and neutrons have been studied to a high degree of precision. The research has revealed that neutrons are more prone than protons to modifying

Companies pursuing emerging technologies are getting funding from venture investors but also are looking for U.S. government support WASHINGTON – The U.S. government could address supply chain problems by embracing nontraditional business models and manufacturing approaches, space entrepreneurs said April 22 at the Miami Tech Week conference.  Technologies such as highly automated production and in-space

SAN FRANCISCO — Copernic Space, the latest company to bring Kevin O’Connell onto its advisory board, is unlike other ventures the former director of the U.S. Office of Space Commerce has joined. In contrast to the space situational awareness and space traffic management startups O’Connell tends to work with, Copernic Space has the lofty ambition

[embedded content] In case you have never eaten one, an Oreo is sandwich of two round biscuits with a sweet creme filling. Many folks will separate the two biscuits and eat the filling first. Crystal Owens at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is probably one of those people, because she and her colleagues have published

TAMPA, Fla. — Japanese lunar lander developer ispace said April 21 it is negotiating the world’s first insurance coverage for a commercial mission to the moon’s surface. The startup has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MSI), a Tokyo-based firm that started working with ispace in 2019, to insure its first attempt

TAMPA, Fla. — Iridium expects to take advantage of a rideshare opportunity this year to launch up to five of the six spare satellites it has been storing in Arizona. The satellite operator expects to make a formal announcement about the potential $35 million launch deal in “the next couple weeks,” company spokesperson Jordan Hassin

In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, the space physicist Xiaojia Zhang explains how whistler waves in Earth’s radiation belts are accelerating high-energy electrons towards the North and South poles. As well as causing spectacular aurorae, these energetic particles can also disrupt modern technologies such as GPS, the UCLA-based researcher says. Also on