Science

Ambitions include constellations, spaceplanes, new launchers and suborbital and orbital tourism HELSINKI — Players in China’s emerging commercial space sector have outlined big plans for the coming years at a space forum hosted in Wuhan, central China. The seventh China Commercial Aerospace Forum (CCAF), held in Wuhan Nov. 25-26, saw state-owned defense and space giant

Uncertain forecast: why do weather apps disagree? (Courtesy: iStock/trendobjects) There are thousands of weather apps to choose from and perhaps surprisingly, they can sometimes give different forecasts. In this video from The Guardian, Josh Toussaint-Strauss explores why different apps can give different predictions for sunshine or rain. Apparently there are myriad reasons, including which algorithms

WASHINGTON — A node module billed as the final Russian element of the International Space Station docked with the station Nov. 26. The Prichal, or “Pier,” module, propelled by a modified Progress cargo spacecraft, docked with the nadir port of the Nauka module at 10:19 a.m. Eastern, a little more than two days after its

WASHINGTON — Astroscale announced Nov. 25 that it raised $109 million from European and Japanese investors in a round it says will allow it to accelerate plans for active debris removal and satellite servicing. The Series F round, the largest to date raised by the Tokyo-based company, was led by Japan’s THE FUND Limited Partnership

In 1545 the English warship Mary Rose sank in a battle off the south coast of England and was raised more than 400 years later. The ship and some of its contents are now on display at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, the materials scientist

WASHINGTON — Launch preparations for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will resume after testing found no damage to the spacecraft from a payload processing incident earlier this month. NASA announced late Nov. 24 that testing of JWST found no sign of damage to any of its components after a clamp band, which secures the spacecraft

TAMPA, Fla. — Intelsat and SES have beaten a key regulatory deadline for clearing C-band spectrum across the United States, unlocking more than $2 billion in combined proceeds from the Federal Communications Commission. The satellite operators, which hold the largest share of the 500 MHz C-band in the U.S., said the FCC has validated the

Positive crown: Schematic view of the experiment used to visualize the sigma-hole on a bromine (Br) atom in a molecule using a scanning microscope tip functionalized with a single xenon (Xe) atom. (Courtesy: FZU/DRAWetc) Scientists have long suspected that bonds between certain negatively charged halogen atoms are made possible by regions of positive charge called

An article of faith among cryptocurrency enthusiasts is the promise of digital currency to extend banking services to people around the world. “If you believe that there is a market for bringing internet to underserved regions of the world, then it’s hard to argue why there wouldn’t be a market for bringing financial capabilities of

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab says it’s ready to move to the next step in its efforts to recover and reuse Electron first stages by attempting to catch a booster in midair on an upcoming launch. Rocket Lab announced Nov. 23 that, after three launches where Electron boosters splashed down in the ocean and were recovered,

Super-Earth: artist’s conception of HD 3167b. (Courtesy:NASA/JPL-Caltech/T Pyle) Exoplanets have been spotted orbiting at right angles to each other by an international team of astronomers led by Vincent Bourrier at the University of Geneva. The team believes that this unusual configuration is caused by the influence of a yet-to-be-discovered companion object orbiting the exoplanets’ star.

The satellite industry is being called to sea as maritime freight volumes swell to new highs, creating more urgency for space-based solutions that can improve the sustainability of oceangoing commerce. More than 80% of all trade between countries is carried by ships, according to the United Nations, and there are growing calls for more efficient

WASHINGTON — NASA announced Nov. 22 that it is delaying the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope by at least four days to investigate an incident that took place preparing the spacecraft for launch in French Guiana. NASA said that, working in conjunction with the European Space Agency and Arianespace, it has delayed the

Alice and Bob, Dutch style: A cartoon showing two communicators (Alice in Rotterdam and Bob in Amsterdam) exchanging quantum keys to keep their messages safe from the Leiden-based eavesdropper, Eve. (Courtesy: QuTech) The event I attended on Friday caught my attention for several reasons. Billed as the Quantum Network Explorer (QNE) Launch, it took place

SAN FRANCISCO – Voyager Space Inc. is acquiring a majority stake in Space Micro Inc. as part of a deal designed to help the San Diego-based supplier of space electronics and satellite components expand operations to meet demand. Terms of the deal were not disclosed in the Nov. 22 news release. Space Micro is the

LAS VEGAS — The three private astronauts on Axiom Space’s first mission to the International Space Station next February will perform more than 100 hours of research on their flight as the company works to advance plans for its own space station. Axiom Space announced Nov. 17 that the three customers it is flying on

The experimental setup for speckle angular measurement (SAM). (Courtesy: Hongchang Wang, Simone Moriconi & Kawal Sawhney) A new X-ray imaging technique that uses sandpaper to generate “speckle” patterns makes it possible to characterize strongly curved X-ray mirrors in two dimensions with nanoscale precision. The new technique could find use in super-precision metrology while also aiding

Gen. David Thompson: ‘It’s now time to look at how we can defend against hypersonic missiles’ WASHINGTON — The United States is playing catchup in a new arms race to build advanced hypersonic missiles that travel at five times the speed of sound and can maneuver to evade defenses, the vice chief of space operations