WASHINGTON — A controversial Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur revealed he submitted the high bid for a seat on Blue Origin’s first crewed suborbital launch earlier this year and, after missing that flight, is buying a dedicated New Shepard flight in 2022. Justin Sun announced Dec. 22 that he submitted the winning bid of $28 million for
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WASHINGTON — With a deadline for an agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union on British involvement in, and funding for, Copernicus come and gone, the European Space Agency is pressing ahead on several missions in the hopes a deal can eventually be reached. British and European negotiators had been working toward a
Taken from the December 2021 issue of Physics World where it first appeared under the headline “Winter wonder worlds”. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. The winter holiday season comes but once a year – on Earth. Eleanor Spring takes a tour through some of
TAMPA, Fla. — Canadian startup NorthStar Earth & Space plans to set up European headquarters in Luxembourg, after getting an investment from the country’s government-backed venture capital fund. The Luxembourg Future Fund (LFF) said Dec. 17 it is joining a $45 million investment round for Montreal-based NorthStar, which is developing a constellation of commercial imaging
TAMPA, Fla. — Kepler Communications plans to use a Spire Global nanosatellite launching late next year to test a terminal it hopes to someday deploy by the thousands to create a mesh network of data-relay satellites. Kepler, a six-year-old Toronto startup, currently operates 15 cubesats that provide low-data-rate connectivity to devices on Earth that are
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is scheduled to launch on 25 December. To mark the event, Physics World is publishing a series of blog posts on the telescope’s technological innovations and scientific missions. This post is the last in the series. Read the first here. Harsh environment: The JWST will search the blue “hot
TAMPA, Fla. — Inmarsat’s first dual-band telecommunications satellite launched Dec. 22 aboard Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ H-2A rocket. The rocket lifted off from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center at 10:32 a.m. Eastern and deployed the nearly 5,500-kilogram Inmarsat-6 F1 satellite into geostationary transfer orbit about 26 minutes later. A little over two hours later, London-based Inmarsat tweeted
The Space Force wants to deploy sensors across geostationary orbit and is asking contractors for payloads that cost $10 million or less WASHINGTON — GEOST, a small company based in Tucson, Arizona, won two U.S. Space Force contracts worth $38 million to develop an optical sensor payload that could be hosted on government or commercial
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is scheduled to launch on 25 December. To mark the event, Physics World is publishing a series of blog posts on the telescope’s technological innovations and scientific missions. This post is the sixth in the series. Read the first here. Even more eXtreme: The Hubble Space Telescope’s eXtreme Deep
WASHINGTON — A $10 billion space telescope that has suffered years of delays because of technical problems will have to remain on Earth at least one more day, this time because of poor weather. Arianespace announced Dec. 21 that “adverse weather conditions” at the launch site in French Guiana led it to postpone a scheduled
WASHINGTON — The first set of green bipropellant thrusters developed by in-space propulsion company Benchmark Space Systems has been installed on a Sherpa tug by Spaceflight for launch in January. Benchmark announced Dec. 21 that the propulsion system for the Sherpa-LTC tug had been installed and fueled. That tug will fly on the SpaceX Transporter-3
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is scheduled to launch on 24 December. To mark the event, Physics World is publishing a series of blog posts on the telescope’s technological innovations and scientific missions. This post is the fifth in the series. Read the first here. Open and shut: The microshutter array for the NIRSpec
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded Boeing a $329.3 million contract to support operations of Global Positioning System satellites for the next 10 years. The contract, announced Dec. 20, is for on-orbit support of GPS 2F satellites, manufactured by Boeing. The current constellation of 31 operational GPS satellites includes 12 of the 2F model.
The Missile Defense Agency and the Space Development Agency approved separate L3Harris satellite designs WASHINGTON — A missile-tracking satellite developed by L3Harris for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency passed a critical design review, the company announced Dec. 20. The satellite is for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensor (HBTSS) program. The Missile Defense Agency
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is scheduled to launch on 24 December. To mark the event, Physics World is publishing a series of blog posts on the telescope’s technological innovations and scientific missions. This post is the fourth in the series. Read the first here. Extra cold: Engineers installing MIRI onto the JWST at
Perhaps Elon Musk decided his appearance before the National Academies needed an X factor. When it was time for the SpaceX founder and chief executive to speak at a virtual meeting of the Space Studies Board and Board on Physics and Astronomy on Nov. 17, he appeared on the screen with his youngest son, X
TAMPA, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched the Turksat 5B Turkish communications satellite Dec. 18, less than 16 hours after launching a batch of Starlink broadband spacecraft. Turksat 5B lifted off at 10:58 p.m. Eastern on a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The mission for Turkish operator Turksat
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is scheduled to launch on 24 December. To mark the event, Physics World is publishing a series of blog posts on the telescope’s technological innovations and scientific missions. This post is the third in the series. Read the first here. Layered protection: A test model of the giant sunshield