WASHINGTON — Spaceflight Industries has completed the sale of its satellite rideshare business, Spaceflight Inc., to a pair of Japanese companies following a U.S. regulatory review and the modification of an Intelsat loan. Spaceflight Industries said the sale to Mitsui & Co., in partnership with Yamasa Co., closed June 12, roughly four months after it
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The contract awarded to Raytheon is for Overhead Persistent Infrared sensor payloads. WASHINGTON — Raytheon received a $37.4 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for space-based early warning sensors for the Blackjack program, the agency announced June 12. Blackjack is a program to demonstrate the utility of a constellation of small satellites
Radar rig: Lieven Verdonck used an all-terrain vehicle to tow his ground-penetrating radar system over Falerii Novi. (Courtesy: Ghent University) Last week I was enthusing about how lidar has been used to discover a huge Mayan structure in Mexico – and this week, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) takes the spotlight in the Red Folder. The technique
SASC aide: “The acquisition piece was never formally transmitted to the Congress.” WASHINGTON — The Senate Armed Services Committee approved its version of the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 25-2 following three days of closed hearings, the committee announced June 11. The markup authorizes $740.5 billion for national defense
WASHINGTON — NASA’s inspector general found that former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden continued to use the services of an employee to manage his activities for almost two years after leaving the agency. The NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report June 11 summarizing an investigation into allegations that Bolden’s former executive assistant, or
The essence of the perfect slice of sourdough bread is in the air right now. It is even on your hands. The heart of the sourdough is the starter, a fermented culture of flour and water. The sour flavor of the dough comes from lactic acid bacteria (LAB) who live in relative harmony and competition
A route to topological superconductivity? Courtesy: Stephan Kim, Princeton University Researchers at Princeton University in the US have become the first to observe a robust supercurrent at the edge of a superconductor that is very different to the supercurrent in the material’s bulk. This “topological superconductivity” could come in useful for a host of new
WASHINGTON — A launch vehicle processing “hiccup” has pushed back next month’s launch of NASA’s Mars 2020 rover mission by three days. NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk revealed the delay in a presentation to a joint meeting of the National Academies’ Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and Space Studies Board (SSB) June 9. “We had
SAN FRANCISCO – German launch services provider Exolaunch announced an agreement to launch two Loft Orbital microsatellites on SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare missions. Under the contract, Exolaunch will handle mission management, deployment and integration services for Loft Orbital, a San Francisco startup planning to establish a constellation of standard microsatellites to fly payloads, sensors and
A day of action: The logo of the #ShutDownAcademia and #ShutDownSTEM campaign. (Courtesy: #ShutDownAcademia) Today – Wednesday 10 June – will not be a normal day in the physics calendar. That’s because, at the time of writing, more than 3000 physicists around the world have agreed to take part in a “Strike for Black Lives”.
WASHINGTON — SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is performing well enough on orbit to give NASA confidence that the mission can last until August, an agency official said June 9. Ken Bowersox, the acting associate administrator for human exploration and operations at NASA, told an online meeting of two National Academies committees that NASA had been
SAN FRANCISCO – Australian Earth observation startup LatConnect 60 announced plans June 9 to hire York Space Systems to manufacture small satellites and to operate its Earth observation constellation. LatConnect 60, a company founded in 2019, plans to launch its first satellite in 2021 and to establish an initial constellation of three satellites with multiple
Adam Fortais explains how the “At-Home Lab Kit” allows undergraduate students at McMaster University to do physics experiments while sheltering in place. This post is part of a series on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the personal and professional lives of physicists around the world. If you’d like to share your own perspective, please contact
Gen. Raymond: “These men and women “made the bold decision to volunteer to join the U.S. Space Force and defend the ultimate high ground.” WASHINGTON — More than 8,500 active-duty airmen applied to join the U.S. Space Force during the month of May, the service announced on June 9. Applicants include a mix of officers
The Space Development Agency says optical inter-satellite links are “one of the most critical technologies to be demonstrated.” WASHINGTON — Optical communications terminals that use lasers to beam data across space will be tested in upcoming experiments by the Space Development Agency and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. These terminals are important pieces of
Combatting the COVID-19 pandemic has become an international challenge and charge. It has highlighted the positive consequences of science operating on a global scale. It has shown how answers can be found quickly when scientists share results at unprecedented speed and research becomes increasingly open-access. It has shown that we must rely on scientists from
Joint effort: the new imaging method, which is called biochemical quantitative phase imaging with mid-infrared photothermal effect. (Courtesy: s-graphics.co.jp, CC BY-NC-ND) Optical imaging is widely used to image biological cells thanks to its non-destructive, label-free nature. A team of researchers in Japan has now combined two common optical techniques – quantitative phase microscopy and molecular
SAN FRANCISCO – The Techstars Starburst Space Accelerator and Techstars Allied Space Accelerator announced the names June 8 of companies selected to participate in their 2020 classes. The Techstars Allied Space Accelerator, established late last year with the support of the U.S. Air Force, Netherlands Ministry of Defence, Norwegian Ministry of Defence and Norwegian Space