Science

TAMPA, Fla. — SpaceX launched a second pair of O3b mPower satellites April 28 for SES, which is now just one launch away from bringing its next-generation broadband constellation in medium Earth orbit (MEO) online. The satellites lifted off at 6:12 p.m. Eastern on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, after

HELSINKI — Chinese rocket startup Orienspace is moving towards a debut launch from a sea platform in the. The Gravity-1 rocket will launch from a mobile sea platform developed as part of sea launch facilities developed at Haiyang in Shandong province during the second half of 2023, CEO Yao Song said in a mid-April meeting

Dusty planet: the Curiosity Rover on Mars. (Courtesy: NASA) The Moon and Mars are dusty places and this has already caused astronauts some grief. When a landing module approaches the surface of an alien world, its descent is controlled by downward thrusters. These can kick up large amounts of dust, which can obscure the view

HELSINKI — China National Space Administration will soon set up an organization to oversee and coordinate the China-led International Lunar Research Station. Wu Weiren, Director General of the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), said during an exploration conference April 25 that the International Lunar Research Station Cooperation Organization (ILRSCO) would soon be established to coordinate

WASHINGTON — The Russian government has agreed to continue participation in the International Space Station to at least 2028, the last partner to agree to an extension of the station’s operations. NASA said April 27 that Russia had confirmed it will support the station through 2028. The other partners — NASA, the Canadian Space Agency,

Eric Kievit, chief executive of Qblox, talks in this video filmed at the 2023 March Meeting of the American Physical Society in Las Vegas about the firm’s approach to quantum technology . This rapidly growing Dutch company specializes in building quantum-computer control stacks. Bilal Kalyoncu, lead application scientist, explains how the Qblox control stacks support

HELSINKI — China is planning to make a fully reusable version of a rocket designed to launch infrastructure and deep space missions. Presentations at events marking China’s national space day in the city of Hefei, Anhui province this week reveal that plans for the Long March 9 rocket include developing an apparently Starship-inspired fully reusable

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department is considering ways to partner with commercial space companies so their services can be accessed during national security emergencies, DoD space policy chief John Plumb told lawmakers April 26. Plumb, who is assistant secretary of defense for space policy, testified at a House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee hearing

Steering committee: Prasad Iyer (right) and Igal Brener with some of the optical equipment they used for beam steering experiments at Sandia National Laboratory. (Courtesy: Craig Fritz/Sandia National Laboratories) Drawing from the latest advances in metasurfaces and nanophotonics, researchers in the US have designed a new light source that can steer beams of incoherent light

WASHINGTON — The United States and South Korea signed an agreement April 25 to enhance cooperation on space activities ranging from lunar exploration to Earth science, while providing few specific about those efforts. The agreement, formally called the Joint Statement of Intent for Cooperation on Space Exploration and Science, was signed during a visit by

TAMPA, Fla. — AST SpaceMobile announced April 25 it made the first voice call last week with a standard smartphone using its BlueWalker 3 test satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO). An unmodified Samsung Galaxy S22 using mobile spectrum from AT&T directly connected to the satellite April 20 from Midland, Texas, for a brief chat

Exotic photonic states Artist’s impression of photons bound together after interaction with a quantum dot. (Courtesy: The University of Basel) Researchers have succeeded in observing individual photons and a pair of bound photons interacting with a single quantum dot in a different way. The feat could pave the way to the manipulation of exotic photonic

WASHINGTON — Quantum Space is accelerating work on a transfer vehicle designed to take payloads to both geostationary orbit and cislunar space to support growing demand from commercial and government customers. The Rockville, Maryland-based company, established last year to develop spacecraft called Scouts to provide services such as space domain awareness and communications between the

WASHINGTON — Rocket propulsion startup Ursa Major announced April 24 that Astra Space selected the company’s Hadley liquid engine to power the upper stage of its new Rocket 4 launch vehicle. Ursa Major is a Colorado-based manufacturer of liquid engines for small space launchers and hypersonic vehicles. The company said it is producing about 30

Metalworks: artistic impression of a supernova. (Courtesy: NASA/ESA/G Bacon (STScI)) Machine learning has been used to characterize the heavy elements that the first stars in the universe passed on to their immediate successors after they exploded in supernovae. This cosmic inheritance of elements was studied by researchers affiliated with the Kavli Institute for the Physics

WASHINGTON — Virgin Orbit says it is moving ahead with plans to return its LauncherOne rocket to flight later this year even though there is no certainty the company will emerge from bankruptcy. The company announced April 19 that it completed an investigation into the failure of its previous LauncherOne mission Jan. 9. On that

HELSINKI — China is sharpening the details of its Tianwen-3 mission to collect samples from Mars and deliver them to Earth. New mission details and defined objectives were revealed in presentations made at the International Conference of Deep Space Sciences in Hefei, Anhui province, April 22. The mission will use a pair of Long March

Technology advances: the energy density of lithium-ion batteries has increased from 80 Wh/kg to around 300 Wh/kg since the beginning of the 1990s. (Courtesy: B Wang) Researchers have succeeded in making rechargeable pouch-type lithium batteries with a record-breaking energy density of over 700 Wh/kg. The new design comprises a high-capacity lithium-rich manganese-based cathode and a