Science

Tiny bubbles: different flavours of salt water taffy are shown on the left. On the right is a 3D model reconstructed by X-ray computed tomography that shows immiscible inclusions (oil droplets and air bubbles) in grape-flavoured taffy. These droplets and bubbles give rise to the elasticity of taffy. (Courtesy: Chan et al.) Salt water taffy

WASHINGTON — An experiment the Air Force Research Laboratory planned to launch in 2025 to monitor deep space is being delayed after program officials concluded that the original schedule was too ambitious.   The experiment, led by AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate, was previously known as the Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS) and was renamed Oracle.  A

PARIS — A top official with the U.S. Export-Import Bank says the export credit agency is considering proposals for more than $5 billion in satellite industry financing. Speaking at the World Satellite Business Week conference, Judith Pryor, first vice president and vice chair of the board of directors of Ex-Im, said the bank was interested

Andromeda, Unexpected (Courtesy: Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner and Yann Sainty) Amateur astronomers Marcel Drechsler, Xavier Strottner and Yann Sainty have beaten thousands of amateur and professional photographers from around the world to win the 2023 Astronomy Photographer of the Year. The image – Andromeda, Unexpected – was taken near Nancy, France, and captures a huge plasma

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department on Sept. 14 submitted to Congress a report explaining how it intends to keep satellites in orbit safe from aggression — and ensure that services like GPS navigation and space-based communications are always available.  The unclassified report, “Space Policy Review and Strategy on Protection of Satellites,” was mandated by law

PARIS — With a recent funding round and growing demand for its radio-frequency geolocation capabilities, HawkEye 360’s chief executive says the company has reached an “inflection point” on the path towards profitability and potentially going public. HawkEye 360 announced July 13 it raised $58 million in a Series D-1 round led by BlackRock. The company

Two cool(ing) cats: Two systems of quantum dots connected to a heat bath (represented here by cats), one with a current flowing and the other in an equilibrium state, experience a “crossing” as the quantum dot relaxes towards a steady state. (Courtesy: KyotoU/Hisao Hayakawa) When the Tanzanian schoolboy Erasto Mpemba asked a visiting lecturer why

WASHINGTON — United Launch Alliance, one of just two U.S. companies that provide national security launch services, does not have a problem with DoD’s decision to add a third competitor, a senior ULA executive said Sept. 13. Gary Wentz, ULA’s vice president of government and commercial programs, said the company is supportive of the U.S.

TAMPA, Fla. — SpaceX and SES are pooling their broadband satellites to offer cruise operators an integrated service promising up to 3 gigabits per second (Gbps) of capacity per ship. The SES Cruise mPowered + Starlink service would mostly use SpaceX’s low Earth orbit network (LEO) and satellites in medium Earth orbit (MEO) from SES.

How it works: composite image showing illustrations of the de-icing process and electron microscope images of the nanowire surface. (Courtesy: Siyan Yang, Qixun Li, Bingang Du, Yushan Ying, Yijun Zeng, Yuankai Jin, Xuezhi Qin, Shouwei Gao, Steven Wang, Zuankai Wang, Rongfu Wen and Xuehu Ma) A passive coating that is almost 100% effective at removing

PARIS – In six months, Portuguese startup NeuraSpace has gone from 25 to 250 satellites on its space traffic management platform. “For NeuraSpace, the ball is rolling,” Chiara Manfletti, NeuraSpace chief operating officer, told SpaceNews at the World Satellite Business Week conference here. The latest customer is South Africa’s Dragonfly Aerospace. Dragonfly announced plans Sept.

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said his department is comfortable working with SpaceX despite recent reports about Elon Musk restricting the use of the company’s Starlink satellite services in Ukraine. During a news conference Sept. 11 at the Air Space & Cyber conference,  Kendall said he could not comment on reports

Join the audience for a live webinar at 3 p.m. BST/10 a.m. EDT on 4 October 2023 exploring recent developments in the production of porous anodic alumina Want to take part in this webinar? Porous anodic oxide (PAA) is one of the self-organizing materials whose pore geometry can be fully controlled by variation of electrochemical

TAMPA, Fla. — Telesat has contracted 14 launches from SpaceX starting in mid-2026 to deploy its entire Lightspeed broadband constellation within a year, the Canadian satellite operator said Sept. 11. Each Falcon 9 rocket could carry up to 18 of the 750-kilogram low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites Canada’s MDA is building — or 252 in

Paige McCullough is SpaceNews vice president of business development. Tysons Corner, Virginia – September 8, 2023 – SpaceNews, the leader in space industry news coverage and analysis, is proud to announce the promotion of Paige McCullough to the position of Vice President of Business Development. Over her nearly 10-year career at SpaceNews, Paige has consistently

Most people outside physics probably have no idea what condensed-matter science even means. Physicist and popular-science author James Kakalios is on a mission to show the public just how exciting and useful this field of physics can be. One of his key pieces of advice for would-be science communicators is to connect the outcomes of

WASHINGTON — A National Reconnaissance Office mission flew to geostationary Earth orbit Sept. 10 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. The rocket lifted off at 8:47 a.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.  The launch had been originally scheduled for August 29 but was delayed due

SAN FRANCISCO — Rubicon Space Systems won a series of contracts with a combined value of about $6 million to deliver ASCENT thrusters to NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory in 2024. “Collectively, these three awards represent NASA and AFRL’s immense interest and trust in Rubicon as a champion of ASCENT-based propulsion,” Daniel Cavender,