SAN FRANCISCO – Maxar Technologies plans to launch its first two WorldView Legion satellites as early as September 2021 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. “We continue to make progress on the integration, assembly and test of all six spacecraft and instruments, and we expect to go into
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HELSINKI — The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully carried out its first launch since the COVID-19 outbreak Saturday sending the EOS-1 Earth observation satellite and nine smaller payloads into orbit. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C49 (PSLV-C49) lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the Indian island of Sriharikota at 4:42 a.m. Eastern Nov. 7
The flow of optical power in and around the seven-nanoparticle “gear” of the optical matter machine. Courtesy: N Scherer A new device that converts laser light into mechanical work could be used to manipulate nano-scale objects for applications in nanofluidics and particle sorting. The device, which is based on a self-assembled hexagonal array of nanoparticles
HELSINKI — Chinese rocket firm Galactic Energy successfully sent a small satellite into orbit Saturday with the first launch of its Ceres-1 launch vehicle. The Ceres-1 four-stage solid rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center near the Gobi Desert at 2:12 a.m. Eastern Saturday. First indications of launch came from spectators posting footage
WASHINGTON — With the successful launch of 10 satellites, Earth observation company Satellogic says it can now move ahead of its rivals in providing high-resolution imagery. A Long March 6 rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 10:19 p.m. Eastern Nov. 5 and successfully deployed 13 satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit. The
Artistic representation of OSIRIS-REx over the asteroid Bennu. NASA/GODDARD/University of Arizona. In 2016, the OSIRIS-REx probe left Earth but unlike most other probes on their journey out to space, OSIRIS-REx does intend to return home. If all goes well, OSIRIS-REx will return to its home in 2023 carrying a precious sample. As of 2018, OSIRIS-REx
Our blue sphere: a photograph of Earth, taken by the Apollo 17 mission. (Courtesy: NASA) In case you were not convinced by our immensely popular article “Fighting flat-Earth theory” by Rachel Brazil, the physicist and round-Earther Steven Wooding has created an online calculator that suggests a few fun experiments that you can do to prove
SAN FRANCISCO – EchoStar Corp. plans to launch the Jupiter 3 broadband satellite in the first quarter of 2022 but has not yet selected a launch provider, company officials said during a Nov. 5 earnings call. EchoStar originally planned to launch the 500 gigabit-per-second Ka-band satellite in 2021 to expand broadband capacity over North and
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab will try to recover the first stage of its Electron rocket on its next launch as the company continues its efforts to reuse that stage. The company announced Nov. 5 that its next Electron launch, scheduled for Nov. 15 (U.S. time) from New Zealand, will include the first attempt by the
If we are to create a colony on the Moon – perhaps as a jumping off point for the human exploration of Mars – we will need a source of water. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, planetary scientist Hannah Sargeant of the Open University explains how water could be obtained on
WASHINGTON — A new “national initiative” wants to promote the development of satellite servicing and in-space assembly technologies among U.S. government agencies that have differing views on the value of such capabilities. The On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly and Manufacturing (OSAM) National Initiative is intended to exchange information and establish partnerships among government agencies, and with industry
WASHINGTON — Former NASA astronaut Mark Kelly won his race for the U.S. Senate in Arizona Nov. 3 while two members of Congress involved in space issues lost their bids for reelection. Kelly, a Democrat, defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Martha McSally by a margin of 52.6% to 47.4%, according to results published by the Arizona
On the move: a time sequence of images showing the motion of a droplet in the liquid crystal. (Courtesy: Hend Baza) Liquid crystals can be used to direct the motion of self-propelled particles, reveals new research done in the US. In a paper published in Nature, researchers in Oleg Lavrentovich’s group at Kent State University
WASHINGTON — NASA is delaying the launch of an ocean science satellite on one Falcon 9 rocket, but says that delay will not affect another Falcon 9 launch of a commercial crew mission. The agency announced Nov. 3 it was delaying the launch of the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite on a Falcon 9 from Vandenberg
SAN FRANCISCO – Frontier Aerospace, a small Simi Valley, California, company, has completed the design of attitude control thrusters developed with NASA and Astrobotic Technologies for deep space missions. “We are well on our way to qualifying both 150 and 10 [pounds of thrust] engines for Astrobotic’s near-term Peregrine lunar lander mission,” Frontier Aerospace announced
By: Hannah Pell It’s nationwide election time yet again. As of October 30th, more than 85 million Americans have already cast their ballot, a remarkable number considering total voter turnout for the 2016 election was 138 million. By the time you’re reading this, we may or may not yet know the winners, especially given the
PTW’s modular RUBY phantom is being optimized to support daily and end-to-end quality assurance (QA) for the Elekta Unity MR-Linac treatment system Multipurpose functionality: the latest addition to PTW’s MR/RT product line is the RUBY QA phantom, shown here in the MR bore with body coil. (Courtesy: PTW) The Elekta Unity MR-guided radiotherapy (MR/RT) system
SAN FRANCISCO – Spacebit is inviting university researchers to share data the London-based company plans to obtain from two miniature rovers scheduled to travel to the moon with Astrobotic Technology and Intuitive Machines in 2021. Spacebit’s sensor-laden rovers are designed to transmit data through the Astrobotic and Intuitive Machine landers to the company’s mission control