Science

WASHINGTON — In a case of celestial mistaken identity, a spent upper stage that will crash on the far side of the moon in March is now linked to a Chinese launch in 2014, not a SpaceX launch of an Earth and space science satellite in 2015, illustrating the difficulties in tracking objects beyond Earth

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Space companies that went public in the last year only to see their valuation drop precipitously may soon become targets of acquisitions. Potential acquirers, panelists said at the SmallSat Symposium Feb.9, range from other emerging space companies looking to move up the value chain to large aerospace companies that want to

Tough stuff: scientists have created a material that is even stronger than tooth enamel. (Courtesy: iStock/fizkes) Researchers in China and the US have created an artificial material that closely mimics the hierarchical structure of tooth enamel. Hewei Zhao at Beihang University and colleagues fabricated the composite structure using specially coated nanowires, which are aligned along

The open architecture data repository, or OADR, is a cloud-based system designed to track satellites and debris in space WASHINGTON — Commerce Department officials on Feb. 11 unveiled a prototype for a space catalog and traffic software platform that would provide basic situational awareness and traffic management services. Known as the open architecture data repository,

TAMPA, Fla. —  Wyvern has secured funds for deployable optics technology that the Canadian startup believes is key to creating a thriving commercial marketplace for hyperspectral imagery. Following a mix of private and Canadian government funding, Wyvern has raised a total $7.65 million to develop a folding telescope that will allow it to pack more

Lighter than a feather: aerogels are the lightest known solids and make very good thermal insulation. (Courtesy: Empa) If you put two ice cubes side-by-side in a freezer you will find that after a while they will fuse together. This effect fascinated the great 19th century physicist Michael Faraday, who proposed that ice has a

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — SpaceX is prepared to shift testing of its Starship next-generation launch vehicle from Texas to Florida if there are extended delays in an ongoing environmental review, company founder and chief executive Elon Musk said Feb. 10. In a long-awaited, and long-delayed, update about development of Starship at the company’s Boca Chica,

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – The Defense Department’s Space Development Agency is looking for ways to rapidly acquire Earth observation data, Frank Turner, SDA technical director, said at the SmallSat Symposium here. “We’ve talked to a number of commercial providers in this conference and elsewhere about how we can connect to your systems and enable the

A plasma ejection during a solar flare. (Courtesy: NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams) The centre of the Sun is incredibly hot, at 15 million degrees Celsius. Its surface is much cooler, at 6000 degrees. Then, in the outer reaches of its atmosphere, it becomes hotter again, with temperatures in the solar

Gen. David Thompson: ‘Right now the most important thing we and others can do is stop making the problem worse’ HERNDON, Va. — It’s not the job of the U.S. Space Force to clean up orbital debris. However the military wants to partner with private companies that can perform that service and help cultivate that

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Many satellite constellation developers are opting to build their own satellites. Over the last year, the number of constellations relying on in-house manufacturing jumped from 32 percent to 43 percent, Brad Grady, Northern Sky Research principal analyst, said at the SmallSat Symposium. In many cases, firms decide to build their own

Go with the flow: will these modern windows be thicker at the bottom hundreds of years in the future? (Courtesy: Ansgar Koreng/CC BY 3.0 DE) Glasses have long fascinated materials scientists because they are classed as extremely high-viscosity liquids, yet their macroscopic material properties mostly resemble solids. Now researchers in the US and China have

TAMPA, Fla. — Viasat plans to deploy an antenna in Sweden in April to give its ground station-as-a-service business polar coverage for the first time, the California-based satellite operator said Feb. 9. Arctic Space Technologies, a Swedish satellite communications provider, is hosting the ground station in a deal that also co-locates a Viasat Real-Time Earth

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Sateliot raised 10 million euros ($11.4 million) in a Series A investment round the Spanish internet-of-things startup conducted in two tranches. Sateliot raised 6.5 million euros in the first tranche of deals completed in December. At the SmallSat Symposium here, Sateliot executives said they concluded the second tranche. With the completion

Older parents: artist’s impression of a protoplanetary disc that has just formed around a binary star (left). The image on the right shows a large cavity that has been removed from the disc by a large planet. (Courtesy: N Stecki) Even as they are dying, ancient stars in some binary systems may be forming planets,

WASHINGTON — NASA has selected Lockheed Martin to build a small rocket that will transport samples collected by the Perseverance rover into orbit around Mars. The agency said Feb. 7 it awarded a contract valued at up to $194 million to Lockheed to develop the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), an essential element of the overall

TAMPA, Fla. — E-Space, the Greg Wyler-led startup behind Rwanda’s September filing for a constellation of 300,000 satellites, said Feb. 7 it has raised $50 million to fund the launch of two sets of test satellites this year. While E-Space’s “Beta 1” launch is planned for March and serial satellite production is slated for 2023,

Frequency difference: time-varying magnetic field helps place new limits on axion-like particles (Courtesy: iStock/piranka) Physicists in Israel have extended the search for dark matter by using a new kind of quantum sensor to place stricter limits on so-called axion-like particles. They did so by monitoring the precession of xenon atoms and exploiting what are known