Science

WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon 9 placed an Italian radar mapping satellite into orbit Jan. 31 after four days of delays caused by range and weather problems. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 6:11 p.m. Eastern. The rocket’s upper stage deployed its

Living compasses: chinook salmon have cells in their noses that contain magnetic crystals. (Courtesy: Zureks/CC BY-SA 3.0) Tiny crystals of iron-based magnetite have been found in specialized receptor cells in the noses of salmon, suggesting that the crystals are used by the fish to navigate using Earth’s magnetic field. The research was done by an

WASHINGTON — The European Commission is rolling out a new program to offer investment for European startups to keep those companies on the continent. Officials from the European Commission, European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund announced Jan. 25 they were committing at least one billion euros ($1.12 billion) over five years to Cassini, a

WASHINGTON — NASA’s safety advisers say they’re closely watching a planned reorganization of the agency’s human spaceflight directorate to ensure it doesn’t adversely affect safety. NASA announced in September that it was splitting its Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) into two organizations, the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate and Space Operations Mission Directorate.

It’s complicated: rooftop solar cells can affect the temperature of a building in several different ways. (Courtesy: iStock/MarioGuti) A systematic review of 116 papers looking at how solar panels affect the surrounding environment has found that they can significantly warm cities during the day. This heating can also affect the performance of the photovoltaic (PV)

CACI in December acquired SA Photonics in order to pursue military and commercial markets for small, lower cost optical terminals WASHINGTON — CACI over the next several months will deliver 40 optical communications terminals for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Blackjack satellites. The terminals are being produced under a $16.3 million DARPA contract awarded

WASHINGTON — Plans to host the first orbital launches from the United Kingdom this year are moving ahead despite uncertainty about when regulators will grant licenses for those launches. Virgin Orbit intends to conduct two launches of its LauncherOne air-launch system this year in flights this summer from Cornwall Airport Newquay, also known as Spaceport

Magnetic shield: cutaway illustration of the Earth showing its solid iron core, which helps sustain a magnetic dynamo. (Courtesy: iStock/Anotherhood) The extreme pressures and temperatures found in the cores of Earth-like planets have been recreated using an ultrahigh-power laser at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The research was led by Richard Kraus and suggests

If we are to compete with China in space then Congress must be unified and bipartisan in giving direction, guidance and support Military space isn’t the only domain where China is catching up, if not passing us by. While we are having discussions about the future of the International Space Station, China launched, deployed and

SAN FRANCISCO —  NASA intends to continue buying data gathered by commercial Earth-observation satellites. “The Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program is now a sustainable program,” Kevin Murphy, NASA Earth Science Division chief science data officer, said Jan. 27 at the American Meteorological Society annual meeting. “These commercial capabilities offer some cost-effective means to advance and

[embedded content] Playmobil’s “robotic genius” figure, also known as ROBert, paid a visit to the International Space Station (ISS) this week. The toy blasted off to the ISS on Wednesday and was soon greeted by European Space Station astronaut Matthias Maurer. ROBert had a guided tour of the ISS and in a video report (above),

HELSINKI — China has released a new white paper outlining the centrality of space to the country’s “overall national strategy” as well as major plans for the years ahead. Over the next five years China will seek to develop its space transportation capabilities, test new technologies, embark on exploration missions, modernize space governance, enhance innovation

Col. Rhet Turbull: ‘Unfortunately, like so many DoD software programs, JMS failed to deliver after 10 years and a lot of money’ WASHINGTON — The Space Force has closed down the last remaining piece of the Joint Mission System (JMS), a troubled software platform conceived more than a decade ago to help track satellites and

Physics research is rarely a solo activity and physicists will often work in collaborations that can stretch around the world and across disciplines. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, Annette Bramley of the UK’s N8 Research Partnership talks about how to build successful research collaborations. Bramley has over 20 years’ experience fostering

The rapidly evolving space industry is fast outpacing regulatory regimes, which did not anticipate unprecedented demand for building businesses in non-geostationary orbit (NGSO). Roughly 17,000 satellites will launch to mainly NGSO between 2021 and 2030, according to the latest research from analysts at Euroconsult, compared with around 3,800 spacecraft across all orbits over the previous

WASHINGTON — A Russian cosmonaut has received a visa to come to the United States for routine space station training after initially having his application rejected, an incident that’s raised questions about how increased tensions over Ukraine might affect space. Roscosmos officials, including its head, Dmitry Rogozin, complained Jan. 22 that the United States had

High fidelity: the silicon quantum computer chip created by the Riken–QuTech team. (Courtesy: RIKEN) An important threshold in quantum error correction has been reached using silicon-based qubits. The feat was performed by three independent research groups, who used the spins of individual electrons or nuclei to create quantum logic gates, which carried out operations with

The environment was a little different outside the Paris hotel that hosted Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week in December. The Tuileries Gardens across the street, tranquil when the conference is normally held in September, was instead the site of a raucous Christmas carnival. From the middle of the day until late in the evening, crowds