Science

SAN FRANCISCO — Stellar Ventures unveiled a fund July 7 with $23 million to invest in early-stage space-related startups. “The cost of launch has come down so much that any person with an innovative idea can bring it to market,” Stellar Ventures co-founder Celeste Ford told SpaceNews. “It’s like the internet in the 90s. People

WASHINGTON — Spacecraft controllers have restored communications with a lunar cubesat that went silent shortly after its deployment earlier this week. NASA and Advanced Space, the company operating the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat, said the spacecraft started transmitting again early July 6. The spacecraft stopped communicating about 11

Andriy Nevidomskyy. (Courtesy: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) For decades, quantum spin liquids were seen as largely hypothetical, with real-world examples thought to exist only in unusual systems such as quasi-one-dimensional chain-like magnets and a handful of two-dimensional materials. Then, in 2019, researchers at Rice University in the US and McMaster University in Canada found experimental evidence

WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic announced July 6 it signed an agreement with a Boeing subsidiary to build two new aircraft that will be used as launch platforms for its next-generation suborbital spaceplanes. Virgin Galactic said Aurora Flight Sciences will build two carrier aircraft, or motherships, that will succeed the original WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, called VMS Eve,

Airbus U.S. Space and Defense will produce 42 satellite buses for the Space Development Agency’s Transport Layer Tranche 1 WASHINGTON — Northrop Grumman announced July 5 it selected Airbus as its satellite bus supplier for the U.S. Space Development Agency’s low Earth orbit constellation.  Northrop Grumman in February won a $692 million contract from SDA,

Physical and logical qubits: The ion trap used in the experiment, seen through the window of an ultra-high vacuum chamber. (Courtesy: Robbie Shone) Quantum computers are a study of extremes. On the one hand, they promise to be far more powerful than classical machines in solving certain problems. On the other, their quantum nature is

WASHINGTON — A NASA lunar cubesat mission has lost contact with Earth a day after its deployment, putting into jeopardy its plans to demonstrate the orbit that will be used for later Artemis missions. In a July 5 statement, NASA said the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat “experienced communications

WASHINGTON — House appropriators eliminated most of a proposed budget increase for the Federal Aviation Administration’s commercial space transportation office while also directing the agency on spaceports and cooperation with another agency on spaceflight investigations. The House Appropriations Committee approved June 30 its version of a transportation and housing and urban development spending bill for

WASHINGTON — A NASA-funded lunar cubesat is on its way to the moon July 4 after a series of burns by a Rocket Lab transfer stage. Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon stage released the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) cubesat at 3:18 a.m. Eastern, shortly after the seventh and final burn

WASHINGTON — The government of New Zealand has formally joined a U.S.-led ban on testing of destructive direct-ascent antisatellite (ASAT) weapons in an effort to build momentum for a global prohibition on such tests. In a July 1 speech at the University of Otago, New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced that the government would

Cash generator: a new study of philanthropic funding of science has found that support for science is more fragmented and more local than federal funding, and once an award is given that partnership tends to continue. (Courtesy: iStock/kentoh) Philanthropic funding of science in the US is now on a par with federal research funding. That

WASHINGTON — OneWeb will launch some of its next-generation satellites on Relativity Space’s next-generation launch vehicle starting as soon as 2025, the companies announced June 30. Relativity Space announced that OneWeb signed a launch services agreement for multiple launches of OneWeb Gen 2 satellites on Relativity’s Terran R reusable launch vehicle under development. The companies

WASHINGTON — NASA is continuing to work with Roscosmos on a seat barter agreement despite missing a self-imposed deadline last month to complete a deal in time to allow exchanges on missions launching this fall. In April, NASA International Space Station officials said they needed to have an agreement between NASA and Roscosmos finalized by

Smartphone screening: The neoSCB app is used to screen a Ghanian newborn for neonatal jaundice. The colour card seen in the photo is not required for the app, but was used to investigate ambient lighting. (Courtesy: Christabel Enweronu-Laryea/Terence Leung) A smartphone app developed at University College London (UCL) identifies severe jaundice in newborn infants by

The $1.1 billion USSF-12 mission flew to geosynchronous Earth orbit WASHINGTON — A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket on July 1 launched the USSF-12 mission for the U.S. Space Force. The rocket lifted off at 7:15 p.m. Eastern from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The $1.1 billion USSF-12 mission

WASHINGTON — Virgin Orbit successfully placed a set of payloads for the U.S. Space Force into orbit early July 2 in the company’s first nighttime launch. Virgin Orbit’s Boeing 747 aircraft, Cosmic Girl, took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in California at 1:49 a.m. Eastern. The aircraft flew to its drop zone over