Science

“We’ve been doing space operations for years under the Air Force. But as a service we now have to advocate for new resources,” said Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman. WASHINGTON — The Space Force is by far the smallest branch of the U.S. military and will have to “punch above its weight” to get its

Demonstrating optical crosslinks is a top priority for SDA and DARPA as any future military network has to be able to move huge amounts of data. WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s space agency this year will launch a series of experiments — including satellites with laser links and missile-tracking sensors — as is prepares to begin

HawkEye 360 CEO John Serafini: Government contracts help startups raise private funds needed to pay for the space and ground infrastructure. WASHINGTON — About 270 of the 620 remote sensing satellites in orbit are privately owned with about 200 of these belong to U.S. companies, according to the Aerospace Corp. Only about 50 are owned

In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast we meet physicist Jennifer Rieser who has just moved from the Georgia Institute of Technology to Emory University, where she studies how snakes use tiny structures on their undersides to help propel themselves. Rieser talks about her recent research that suggests that microscopic pits on the

SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett Packard Enterprise is preparing to send a second-generation Spaceborne Computer to the International Space Station later this month. The Spaceborne Computer-2 will be linked to Microsoft’s Azure cloud through NASA and HPE ground stations, meaning the space station will have far more data processing power and better connections with Earth than

WASHINGTON — NASA is no longer considering launching the Europa Clipper mission on the Space Launch System, deciding instead to launch the spacecraft on a commercial rocket it will procure in the next year. During a Feb. 10 presentation at a meeting of NASA’s Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG), leaders of the Europa Clipper project

Sandy slitherer One of the three sidewinding snakes studied in this work, the sidewinder rattlesnake (Crotalus cerastes) lives in the deserts of the southwestern US and northern Mexico. (Courtesy: Wolfgang Wuster)”> Sandy slitherer The sidewinder rattlesnake. (Courtesy: Wolfgang Wuster) Snakes that specialize in “sidewinding” – that is, travelling at an angle relative to the direction

SAN FRANCISCO – Satellite communications startup Analytical Space Inc. won a $26.4 million contract to develop and launch six cubesats and two hosted payloads to begin establishing the Fast Pixel Network for optical communications. The three-year contract was awarded by AF Ventures, the service’s venture arm, with funding from the U.S. Space Force Space and

By: Hannah Pell Being homebound during winter often means higher electricity bills for those of us north of the Sun Belt. And for many currently working remotely or attending school virtually, there may be added strain on top (although hopefully not to the same extent as the Griswold family’s infamous holiday lights). When so many

SAN FRANCISCO – Money will continue flowing into the space industry from government agencies, private equity firms and public markets, according to panelists at the 2021 SmallSat Symposium. “It has never been a better time to raise money for ventures in and around space,” said James Murray, a partner at investment bank PJT Partners. While

Exotic hint: the PandaX-II detector being assembled. (Courtesy: PandaX collaboration) New data from the PandaX-II particle detector in China leave open the possibility that the XENON1T experiment in Italy has found evidence of new physics. In June 2020 researchers working on XENON1T announced the detection of around 50 events above background levels and concluded that

On Oct. 21, 2020, the Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow (PROSWIFT) Act was signed into law. This act culminates a multiyear bipartisan effort championed by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), and Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) and Mo Brooks (R-Ala.). It directs government agencies (including

SAN FRANCISCO – Shay Har-Noy, former Tomnod founder and CEO, has joined Spire Global as the company’s general manager of the aviation systems business unit. Har-Noy has been acutely aware of aviation’s need for satellite data since 2014 when Tomnod enlisted the help of more than 10 million people to tag oil slicks, wreckage and

Nuclear PPE: Leticia Arnedo-Sanchez (from left), Katherine Shield, Korey Carter, and Jennifer Wacker take precautions against radioactivity as well as coronavirus to conduct experiments in Rebecca Abergel’s lab. (Courtesy: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab) New insights into the physical and chemical properties of the rare heavy element einsteinium have been gained by researchers working at several labs

Steve Blank’s op-ed of Feb. 5, “The FAA and SpaceX,” demands an informed rebuttal. Public debate over the appropriate level of regulation within any industry is appropriate in our democracy. However, Mr. Blank’s arguments lack grounding in the history and nature of private space activity regulation and he erroneously conflates that mission with the FAA’s

WASHINGTON — ABL Space Systems will conduct a launch for Lockheed Martin from a new spaceport in the Shetland Islands, fulfilling an agreement with the British government announced in 2018. Lockheed said Feb. 7 that ABL will perform a launch of its RS1 rocket from the Shetland Space Centre, a spaceport to be developed on