Science

WASHINGTON — Amazon Web Services is increasing its effort to sell cloud services to the space industry through the formation of a dedicated business segment called “Aerospace and Satellite Solutions.”  “AWS is committed to supporting our customers’ missions, even those outside the Earth’s atmosphere,” Teresa Carlson, vice president of worldwide public sector at AWS, said

For certain fields of physics, it can be tough to explain how the research has a direct benefit to society. That is never the case with medical physics – a career where you can apply a technical skillset to directly improve people’s everyday lives. In this episode of the Physics World Stories podcast, Andrew Glester

WASHINGTON — Hughes Network Systems and Inmarsat are asking the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to amend its C-band auction rules to avoid giving Intelsat and SES an unfair competitive advantage in other spectrum bands and neighboring markets.  In a letter to the FCC released June 29, the companies warned that competitors, particularly Intelsat and SES,

SAN FRANCISCO – German launch services provider Exolaunch announced contracts June 29 to integrate NanoAvionics cubesats on SpaceX’s rideshare missions. Under the agreements, Exolaunch is procuring the launch, handling integration and deploying in orbit two six-unit cubesats built by NanoAvionics, a Lithuanian nanosatellite manufacturer. The first NanoAvionics cubesat covered by the new contract is scheduled to

SEM image of electrodes infiltrated with quantum dots. Courtesy: LANL Semiconducting nanocrystals called colloidal quantum dots (CQDs) are ideal for applications such as large-panel displays and photovoltaic cells thanks to their high efficiency and colour purity. Their main drawback is their toxicity, since they have traditionally been made from cadmium or other heavy metals, such

WASHINGTON — As revised commercial remote sensing regulations win widespread approval, the industry is turning its attention to how those new rules will be implemented. The Commerce Department published May 19 the final version of revised regulations for commercial remote sensing satellite systems, a year after releasing a draft rule. The intent of the new

The integration of ICBMs and space operations creates synergy and also signals a commitment by the U.S. to deterrence in and out of the space domain. The Air Force personnel who control land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and the Army personnel who operate national missile defense systems will not be part of the U.S. Space

Ocean Insight’s Liquid Transmission Measurement System (LTMS) provides real-time, in-line monitoring of liquid colouring and coating applications used across the consumer electronics and food processing industries Optical know-how: an LTMS test assembly at Ocean Insight’s Rochester, NY, development facility. When deployed into an industry setting, the LTMS can generate high-precision colour and concentration measurements on

SpaceX on June 30 is scheduled to make its first attempt to recover the Falcon 9 booster after launching a military satellite. WASHINGTON — SpaceX’s Falcon 9 to date has performed 86 launches, in 47 of which the rocket’s first stage landed back on earth. While rocket landings have become the norm for SpaceX launches,

WASHINGTON — The Canadian Space Agency announced June 26 it plans to award a contract to MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) to build a robotic arm that will be Canada’s contribution to the lunar Gateway. The deal covers development of what the agency calls Canadarm3, which is an overarching robotic system for the Gateway rather

Ringing in the new: microscope image of a ring laser used by the Harvard group. (Courtesy: Capasso Lab/Harvard SEAS) Frequency combs are one of the most important developments in metrology in the 21st century, but conventional combs are bulky and highly sensitive to external perturbations. Now two independent groups present key developments in solid state

The contract would keep the Defense Support Program early-warning satellites in service until 2030. WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman has been awarded a $222.5 million contract for technology upgrades to the Defense Support Program, a constellation of early warning satellites that has been in operation since the 1970s. The contract announced on June 26 by the

SAN FRANCISCO – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to acquire commercial radio occultation data for operational use, according to a detailed report released June 26 on the agency’s Commercial Weather Data Pilot. “Based on the results of the technical evaluation of the data provided by two vendors in the CWDP Round 2 Pilot,

Interstellar umbrella: artist’s impression of ‘’Oumuamua, which some astronomers claim could be an alien light-sail. (Courtesy: ESO/M Kornmesser) Breakthrough Listen is an organization that searches for evidence of technological life by surveying one million nearby stars in the Milky Way as well as 100 nearby galaxies. The search has been going for five years and

WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency formally started the search for its next leader June 25, with the current head of the agency recommending it select a “dynamic young successor.” ESA formally posted the job opening for director general a day after the conclusion of a meeting of the ESA Council, featuring representatives of its

SAN FRANCISCO – Ball Aerospace won a $96.9 million contract June 25 to build, integrate and operate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Follow On (SWFO) satellite destined for Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 1. Under the firm fixed-price contract awarded by NASA on behalf of NOAA, Ball Aerospace will design and manufacture the satellite

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features three physicists at McMaster University in Canada. They responded to COVID-19 restrictions on in-person learning by mailing-out simple equipment so their students could do undergraduate lab experiments at home. Instead of just getting by with the new arrangements, Sara Cormier, Adam Fortais and Kari Dalnoki-Veress were

WASHINGTON — Space tourism company Space Adventures has signed a contract with RSC Energia for a Soyuz flight to the International Space Station that will include an opportunity for one customer to perform a spacewalk. Under the contract announced June 25, a Soyuz spacecraft will fly a “short duration” mission, which Space Adventures described in