Science

TAMPA, Fla. — U.K.-based Avanti Communications is seeking more partnerships to grow its footprint after securing its first major deal to use another regional satellite operator’s capacity. Avanti announced a five-year partnership with Turkey’s Turksat Sept. 13 that pools more than 100 gigabits-per-second (Gbps) of Ka-band capacity between them across Africa and the Middle East.

After completing the NROL-91 mission, ULA will start vacating SLC-6 and consolidate operations at SLC-3 WASHINGTON — A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket is scheduled to launch a National Reconnaissance Office mission Sept. 24 from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. This will be Delta 4’s final launch from the

TAMPA, Fla. — The European Space Agency has tasked an SES-led consortium to develop a satellite and begin operating it in 2024 to validate quantum key distribution (QKD) technology. The group of more than 20 European companies secured a contract for the Eagle-1 satellite that includes three years of missions in low Earth orbit, where

PARIS — One part of an instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope is out of service temporarily, although project officials are confident it will not be a long-term problem. NASA announced Sept. 20 that it had stopped using one of four observing modes on the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on JWST after a mechanism that

Proof-of-principle study: Researchers have demonstrated that smartphones are capable of detecting blood-oxygen saturation levels down to 70%. Subjects place their finger over the camera and flash of a smartphone, which uses a deep-learning algorithm to decipher blood-oxygen levels from the resulting video. (Courtesy: Dennis Wise/University of Washington) Blood-oxygen saturation (SpO2), the percentage of haemoglobin in

PARIS — NASA said it completed all the objectives of a Space Launch System tanking test Sept. 21 despite the reoccurrence of liquid hydrogen leaks. The day-long test at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B involved filling the SLS core stage and upper stage with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellants, carrying out the “kickstart

PARIS — Arkisys, a Southern California startup developing robotic infrastructure for on-orbit commerce, announced plans Sept. 21 for a spaceflight demonstration of a key technology. In 2023, Arkisys plans to launch Applique, a universal interface adapter designed to connect any spacecraft payload, using a variety of common interface standards and protocols. Funding for the mission comes

Ships may be the lifeblood of the global economy, but they’re dirty and polluting. James McKenzie wonders if a new generation of wind-powered vessels could be the answer Blown away The Oceanbird wind-powered sailing vessel could transform the shipping industry. (Courtesy: Oceanbird) I came across a meme the other day about wind-powered ships, where people

PARIS — SpinLaunch, a company developing a launch system that uses a centrifuge as a first stage, raised $71 million to continue work on that system and a line of satellites. SpinLaunch, based in Long Beach, California, announced Sept. 20 it raised the funding in a Series B round led by ATW Partners, with the

PARIS — NASA officials say they’re ready to try a new approach to fueling the Space Launch System to prevent the return of leaks that scrubbed an earlier launch attempt even though they are not certain what caused that leak. Preparations are underway for the Sept. 21 tanking test of the SLS at Launch Complex

Intelligent control: The fluorescence microscope at EPFL’s Laboratory of Experimental Biophysics. (Courtesy: Hillary Sanctuary/EPFL/CC BY-SA) Fluorescence microscopy of live cells provides an indispensable tool for studying the dynamics of biological systems. But many biological processes – such as bacterial cell division and mitochondrial division, for example – occur sporadically, making them challenging to capture. Continually

Maj. Gen. Schiess: ‘We are preparing and posturing for the fight’ NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The U.S. Space Operations Command is assigning cybersecurity and intelligence specialists to work side-by-side with satellite operators so they’re better prepared to protect U.S. systems from electronic and physical threats, said Maj. Gen. Douglas Schiess. “We are preparing and posturing

PARIS – Planet released additional information about the hyperspectral constellation the Earth-observation company is developing through the Carbon Mapper public-private partnership. San Francisco-based Planet remains on schedule to launch the first two hyperspectral satellites in 2023 to gather data in 400 spectral bands with a resolution of 30 meters per pixel. While data to pinpoint methane

Slimmed down: the new quantum sensor could reduce battery weights by 10%. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/Chesky) A new quantum sensor can measure the energy stored in electric vehicle batteries much more accurately than existing devices – according to its inventors Mutsuko Hatano at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and her colleagues in Japan. Their sensor uses nitrogen–vacancy

PARIS — A major arm of China’s state-owned space contractor is looking at developing a series of partially and fully-reusable launch vehicles apparently in response to SpaceX’s Starship. A paper published in the journal Aerospace Technology outlines plans under consideration by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) for a number of launch vehicles with

Nearly 300 space executives from 195 companies filled a University of Colorado auditorium in late July to hear the U.S. Space Force talk about its needs for space domain awareness. Known as SDA, space domain awareness is the military term for space situational awareness, which means knowledge of the space environment. The Air Force Space

Functional ULM: Maps of blood velocity (left) and microbubble count (right) in the rat brain vasculature at 6.5 µm resolution. (Courtesy: CC BY 4.0/N Renaudin et al Nat. Methods 10.1038/s41592-022-01549-5) Neuroimaging has increased our understanding of brain function. Such techniques often involve measuring blood flow variations to detect brain activation, exploiting the fundamental interaction between

PARIS — Intuitive Machines, a company developing lunar landers and related capabilities for NASA and other customers, will go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), it announced Sept. 16. Houston-based Intuitive Machines said it will merge with Inflection Point Acquisition Corp., a SPAC trading on the Nasdaq exchange. The merged