Science

WASHINGTON — Increasing demand but decreasing budgets are putting a strain on NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN), threatening its ability to provide communications for the agency’s science missions and Artemis lunar expeditions. While pressures on the DSN, a system of antennas located in Australia, California and Spain used primarily for communications with spacecraft beyond Earth

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — The 72 data-transport satellites that the Space Development Agency plans to launch to orbit in 2026 will be the most complex yet, and will carry communications payloads that have never been deployed in low Earth orbit, a senior agency official said Aug. 29. These satellites, which make up the Tranche 2

Artificial synapse: A photo of the memristor, which is a potential candidate for a synapse in a versatile neuromorphic computing device. (Courtesy: Le Zhao) Most modern computers – from primitive room-filling behemoths like the ENIAC to the smartphone in your pocket – are built according to a set of principles laid out by the mathematician

We find ourselves amid great societal transformation, yet few are aware of what is truly driving it.  Most of the developed world lives in an unprecedented era of convenience enabled by rapid access to global goods, services and information. Our modern way of life — from the timing for ATMs, streetlights and Wall Street trading

WASHINGTON — Small satellite manufacturers Hera Systems and LeoStella are teaming up to compete for a large military contract to be awarded this fall by the U.S. Space Development Agency. The companies announced Aug. 28 they are partnering with an undisclosed prime contractor in a bid for the Space Development Agency (SDA) Tranche 2 Transport

Piling up: this image shows water flowing from left to right past a partially submerged sphere. A pile up of water is clearly seen to the immediate left of the sphere. (Courtesy: Harris Lab) Researchers in the US have made several unexpected discoveries when observing how water flows around partially submerged spheres. Their simple experiments

WASHINGTON —  Sedaro, a startup that develops digital engineering software, won a Space Force contract to demonstrate the use of digital twins to design spacecraft. The $1.5 million contract announced Aug. 22 is a Small Business Innovation Research Phase 2 award under the Orbital Prime program run by the U.S. Space Force and the Air

WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying four people representing four different space agencies docked with the International Space Station Aug. 27, almost 30 hours after its launch from Florida. The Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance docked with the zenith port of the station’s Harmony module at 9:16 a.m. Eastern. While the docking took place

Since the new “supercapacitor” concrete would retain its strength, a house with a foundation made of this material could store a day’s worth of energy produced by solar panels or windmills, and allow it to be used whenever it’s needed. (Courtesy: Franz-Josef Ulm, Admir Masic and Yang-Shao Horn) A new cost-effective and efficient supercapacitor made

WASHINGTON — SpaceX says it successfully test-fired the booster for its next Starship launch, although that liftoff may still be weeks away. SpaceX fired the Raptor engines in the Super Heavy booster designated Booster 9 in a static-fire test at its Starbase test site in Boca Chica, Texas, at approximately 1:35 p.m. Eastern Aug. 25.

WASHINGTON — A Falcon 9 launched a multinational crew to the International Space Station Aug. 26 after a one-day delay to check the spacecraft’s life support system. The SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:27 a.m. Eastern on the Crew-7 mission for NASA. The Crew Dragon

Whether it’s at a concert, play or lecture, we love to show our appreciation by clapping our hands. Laura Hiscott hears from two researchers who know how to make great applause (Courtesy: iStock/nikada) It might be hard to imagine yourself in ancient Rome, but if you were dropped into the audience of a play 2000

SAN FRANCISCO – With funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, MyRadar will develop and launch cubesats to validate technology for its future weather and environmental data constellation. MyRadar announced a NOAA Phase 2 SBIR grant Aug. 18 for a pair of Orbital Wildfire Resilience cubesats. The cubesats, measuring 10 centimeters on a side,

WASHINGTON — A new Inmarsat communications satellite has suffered an “unexpected anomaly,” the second in as many months for a Viasat-owned spacecraft that could create bigger headaches for the space insurance sector. Viasat, which completed its acquisition of Inmarsat in May, announced Aug. 24 that the Inmarsat-6 (I-6) F2 spacecraft encountered a problem with its

[embedded content] If you have seen the film Oppenheimer, you may have enjoyed the visual effects that were used in the film to illustrate esoteric physical concepts – I certainly did. There has been a bit of a debate in the movie press about whether computer-generated imagery (CGI) was used to create the effects. As

WASHINGTON — Ahead of a final meeting of a United Nations working group on reducing space threats, members states of the European Union, but not the E.U. itself, have pledged not to conduct destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite tests. In a document recently published by the U.N. Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Reducing Space Threats, a “joint

WASHINGTON — NASA is preparing for the release of a new decadal survey for space research that the agency hopes will provide guidance on research to pursue on the International Space Station and how to transition that to commercial successors. The National Academies announced Aug. 23 that it will release the decadal survey for biological