Science

WASHINGTON — A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket launched a Cygnus cargo spacecraft carrying several tons of cargo for the International Space Station Feb. 19. The Antares 230+ rocket lifted off on schedule at 12:40 p.m. Eastern from Pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, on the NG-17 mission. The two-stage rocket

TAMPA, Fla. — Luxembourg startup OQ Technology said Feb. 16 it has secured its first patent for a planned satellite constellation to connect internet of things (IoT) devices. OQ founder and CEO Omar Qaise said the patent, granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, will “give us an edge over competitors” in the increasingly

Power play: ice hockey players in action. (Courtesy: David/CC BY 2.0) With the Winter Olympics ending this weekend, I couldn’t resist this story about simulated slapshots. The slapshot is the most difficult shot in ice hockey and it is all about power and speed. Indeed, the fastest slapshot puck was clocked at a blistering 175

WASHINGTON — Debris from a Russian antisatellite weapon demonstration in November are creating surges of close approaches, in some cases tens of thousands in a week, with active satellites in low Earth orbit. Such events, dubbed “conjunction squalls” by space situational awareness company COMSPOC, were first noticed in January and stem from the unique circumstances

Terran Orbital executives told investors the company is heavily weighted toward government work and expects significant revenues from defense and intelligence contracts WASHINGTON — Terran Orbital, a manufacturer and integrator of small satellites based in Boca Raton, Florida, announced Feb. 17 it won a contract from the U.S. military’s top contractor Lockheed Martin to produce

The MYRRHA project in Belgium is seeking enthusiastic scientists, engineers and project managers with a talent for cross-disciplinary collaboration Big science, big vision: the MYRRHA project provides early-career scientists and engineers with an opportunity to shape the delivery and realization of a unique research facility. (Courtesy: SCK CEN) A first-of-its-kind, next-generation research reactor is taking

SAN FRANCISCO – Copernic Space, a Los Angeles startup, unveiled its blockchain-powered platform for selling space assets. First up on the auction block is payload on a lunar rover traveling to the moon’s south pole courtesy of Lunar Outpost. “This sets a digital commercialization standard for payload/cargo while creating a new revenue model for space

WASHINGTON — An Earth science instrument selected by NASA several years ago to fly as a hosted payload on a commercial communications satellite may instead fly on a standalone spacecraft because of a lack of hosting opportunities. NASA issued a solicitation Feb. 9 seeking information for what it called the GeoCarb Access to Space project.

Power of three: Schematic image showing ultracold triatomic molecules forming by associating diatomic molecules and atoms. (Courtesy: Bo Zhao/USTC) Researchers in China have found strong evidence of ultracold triatomic molecules forming within a mixture of ultracold atoms and diatomic molecules. The result, if confirmed, would provide an ideal pathway to studying chemical reactions on an

During the first National Space Council meeting of the Biden administration, Vice President Kamala Harris reinforced the importance of outer space for national security, economic development, and environmental security. The future security and sustainability of space hinges on dealing with the over 8,000 metric tons of dead objects already in orbit, including at least 900,000

WASHINGTON — Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has directed the Space Force to look broadly at military requirements for overhead surveillance that could be met by commercial constellations of satellites in low Earth orbit.  “We were asked that question by the secretary of the Air Force: how are we going to use commercial capabilities?” Joseph

Plastic fantastic: this perovskite-based device can be reconfigured and could play an important role in artificial intelligence systems. (Courtesy: Purdue University/Rebecca McElhoe) Researchers in the US have developed a perovskite-based device that could be used to create a high-plasticity architecture for artificial intelligence. The team, led by Shriram Ramanathan at Purdue University, has showed that

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Government Accountability Office in a new report says the Defense Department has to be better prepared to respond to China’s advances in space, cyberwarfare and artificial intelligence.  “Successful preparation for strategic competition with China will depend on continuing efforts to increase U.S. combat credibility and enhance conventional deterrence that can help

TAMPA, Fla. — The top Democrat and Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee announced a bipartisan effort Feb. 11 to update satellite licensing rules for the rapidly changing space industry. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) and the ranking member, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), released drafts of two

In the lab. Courtesy: Pennsylvania State University A new class of nanomaterials engineered to “capture” wayward chemotherapy drugs before they damage healthy tissue could reduce the side effects of cancer drugs during and after treatment. The nanomaterials are based on “hairy” cellulose nanocrystals, and members of the team that developed them say that one gram

Dunford is senior managing director of Liberty Strategic Capital, a private equity fund that invested $150 million in Satellogic WASHINGTON — Joseph Dunford, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general and senior managing director of Liberty Strategic Capital, has joined the board of directors of Satellogic, the company announced Feb. 14. Liberty Strategic Capital, a private

CEO James Taiclet: ‘We determined that in light of the FTC’s actions, terminating the transaction is in the best interest of our stakeholders’ WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin announced Feb. 13 it has decided to terminate a $4.4 billion deal to acquire rocket engine manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne. The decision comes less than three weeks after the

Quan-Hong Yang . (Courtesy: School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University) Batteries based on zinc are promising alternatives to their widely-used lithium-ion cousins, but they suffer from one of the same drawbacks: needle-like structures called dendrites that form on the surface of the electrode and grow into the electrolyte, ultimately causing the battery to