Science

WASHINGTON — The top Republican members of two oversight committees have asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review a major new weather satellite program. In a June 1 letter, Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), the chairman of the House Science Committee, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, requested the

Join the audience for a live webinar at 4 p.m. BST/11 a.m. EDT on 5 September 2023 exploring a contemporary benchmarking study of SRS delivery technology Want to take part in this webinar? There have been an increasing number of platform comparison studies in recent years, with most comparisons limited to single-centre studies. Study bias

WASHINGTON — Hyperspectral imaging startup Pixxel raised $36 million in a Series B funding round led by Google. Pixxel announced June 1 the Series B round, which included Google as well as existing investors Radical Ventures, Lightspeed, Blume Ventures, growx, Sparta and Athera. The company, which did not disclose the valuation of the round, has

In brief: The four-year contract is part of the DEUCSI (Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet) program run by the Air Force Research Laboratory. It’s a project to demonstrate the integration of commercial space internet services with military platforms and weapon systems. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory awarded Northrop Grumman a contract

Researchers developed a LIDAR system that uses quantum detection technology that can capture 3D images while submerged underwater. They demonstrated the system by using it to capture a 3D image (left) of a pipe (right). The scan was obtained with the single-photon system submerged in a tank. Courtesy: A Maccarone, Heriot-Watt University A new LIDAR

WASHINGTON — The United Arab Emirates has released new details about its planned mission to the main asteroid belt, one that is similar to an ongoing NASA mission. The UAE Space Agency said its Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA) is scheduled to launch in March 2028, flying by six asteroids in the main

WASHINGTON — Military satellites acquired under fixed-price contracts get high praise in a report submitted to Congress by the Department of the Air Force. Two Space Force satellite programs — the Global Positioning System Follow-on (GPS 3F) and the Weather System Follow-on (WSF) — were identified in the report as “high performing,” in part because

[embedded content] On 10 October 2024, NASA plans to launch the Europa Clipper mission, which will study Jupiter’s moon Europa in a series of flybys. In anticipation of the launch, the US poet laureate Ada Limón has written an ode to the mission. Called “In praise of mystery: a poem for Europa”, the 21-line poem

Experts and innovators from across the space sector supply chain are convening at Space-Comm Expo, taking place 7-8 June 2023 at Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre. Brought to the industry by leading organisers Hub Exhibitions, in partnership with the aerospace events experts at Farnborough International, Space-Comm Expo is the largest UK-based exhibition dedicated to

WASHINGTON — NASA and Boeing will further delay the first crewed launch of the company’s CST-100 Starliner, which had been scheduled for July, to address two newly discovered issues with the spacecraft. At a briefing June 1 announced on little more than an hour’s notice, officials said they were standing down from preparations for the

KAUST postdoctoral fellow Esma Ugur displays the perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell that she and colleagues in the KAUST Photovoltaics Laboratory developed. It is currently the world’s most efficient silicon/perovskite tandem solar cell, with a power conversion efficiency of 33.2%. (Courtesy: KAUST) It’s been a good couple of months for perovskite solar cells, with a trio

WASHINGTON — A ground station developed by Northrop Grumman for missile warning satellites has passed a preliminary design review, the company announced June 1.  The terminal, known as Relay Ground Station-Asia (RGS-A), was funded by the U.S. Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Pacific under a five-year $99.6 million contract. Northrop Grumman is developing the ground

WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Command has officially been assigned responsibilities for protecting the United States from missile attacks, a job previously held by U.S. Strategic Command. “The President of the United States approved and directed the implementation of the 2022 Unified Command Plan Apr. 25, 2023,” Space Command said May 31.   The plan directs the

In the lab: the tip-enhanced nano-spectroscopy setup used to image the surface plasmon polaritons. (Courtesy: Deep Jariwala/University of Pennsylvania) Light emitters made from 2D and quasi-2D materials are currently of great interest in nano-optoelectronics because their lack of dielectric screening means that their electron-hole pairs (excitons) are incredibly sensitive to their environment. This is advantageous

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Air Force announced May 31 it selected Patrick Space Force Base, Florida, as the preferred location for the headquarters of the Space Training and Readiness Command and Space Delta 10.  Space Delta 10 is the unit responsible for doctrine and wargaming. The Space Training and Readiness Command, known as

WASHINGTON — Spain is the latest European nation to sign the Artemis Accords, a central element of a new American strategic framework for space diplomacy. In a May 30 ceremony in Madrid, Spanish government officials signed the Accords, which outline principles for safe and responsible space exploration. Spain is the 25th country to sign the

Queensgate is betting its portfolio of nanopositioning stages – core building blocks for cutting-edge scientific instrumentation used in applied optics, microscopy and metrology – will yield game-changing performance gains from a relentless strategy of incremental innovation Industrial metrology: an ongoing R&D collaboration with NPL scientists is helping UK nanopositioning specialist Queensgate to enhance end-to-end QA

WASHINGTON — Greg Kuperman, program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Strategic Technology Office, worries that innovations emerging from the commercial space industry will never reach potential customers in the U.S. military.  A key reason for that, Kuperman told SpaceNews, is that discussions about next-generation technologies, particularly in the space sector, quickly veer