Science

TAMPA, Fla. — Inmarsat says it is still considering deploying a low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation of its own despite comments to the contrary by one of its executives this week. Speaking Feb. 8 at the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, California, Inmarsat vice president of corporate development, Larry Paul, said the British satellite operator

Worms in space: the University of Warwick’s Seb Fieldhouse holds the extra terrestrial wormery. (Courtesy: University of Warwick) This week I interviewed two physicists in Germany about sending quantum technologies into space (stay tuned for that on an upcoming episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast), so I was amused to find out that six

WASHINGTON — Blue Origin has won its first NASA award for its New Glenn rocket, with the agency selecting the large rocket to launch a pair of Martian smallsats. NASA announced Feb. 9 it selected New Glenn for the launch of the two Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) spacecraft. The rocket will

TAMPA, Fla. — Large defense companies are itching to buy space assets as part of the market is on the verge of a shake-out, executives discussing deal-making in the industry said Feb. 8. Phillip Ingle, a managing director in Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division, highlighted large “appetite for the big primes to get their hands

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features Steven Prohira, who is co-leader of the Radar Echo Telescope collaboration, which aims to detect high energy cosmic neutrinos by sending radar waves through an Antarctic ice sheet. Based at the University of Kansas, Prohira explains the physics behind the project and talks about the fascinating

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Gaining access to AWS Ground Stations is enabling Atlas Space Operations to dramatically expand its network, Brad Bode Atlas chief technology officer and co-founder told SpaceNews. Atlas, a ground software as a service company based in Michigan, is gaining access to 11 ground antennas sites through the AWS Solution Provider Program.

TAMPA, Fla. — Viasat is exploring hybrid narrowband direct-to-smartphone services using satellites in geostationary and non-geostationary orbits, CEO Mark Dankberg said Feb. 8. There is “plenty that can be done both at GEO as well as at non-GEO,” Dankberg said while addressing the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, California, and “what we’re really looking at

New role: the UK government has created a department for science, innovation and technology, which will be led by Michelle Donelan (courtesy: gov.uk) Science has been elevated to a cabinet-level position in the UK government for the first time in decades. The move occurred yesterday after Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak announced the creation of

WASHINGTON — Virgin Orbit’s chief executive said Feb. 7 that a problem with a relatively inexpensive part may be linked to the failure of the company’s latest launch last month. Speaking on a panel at the SmallSat Symposium in Mountain View, California, Dan Hart said it was still premature to formally declare the root cause

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force will use funds that Congress added to the 2023 defense budget to buy a wideband communications satellite made by Boeing, a spokesperson confirmed Feb. 7. The new geostationary satellite, to be named WGS-12, will be the 12th of the Wideband Global Satcom constellation that provides communications services to the

Using the full spectrum of sunlight contributes to the higher efficiency of the new system. (Courtesy: Z Mi) Two independent teams have taken inspiration from nature to develop better ways of producing hydrogen with solar cells. The first team, from the University of Michigan in the US, achieved a record-breaking solar-energy-to-hydrogen efficiency of more than

TAMPA, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched the Amazonas Nexus telecoms satellite Feb. 6, which will fuel Spanish operator Hispasat’s Americas expansion while carrying a payload for the U.S. Space Force. Amazonas Nexus lifted off on a Falcon 9 at 8:32 p.m. Eastern from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, after being delayed a day because

TAMPA, Fla. — EchoStar Corporation, a U.S. operator with around $1.6 billion in cash, is preparing to disrupt the market for connecting Internet of Things (IoT) devices after ordering satellites it needs for global services next year. The company said last week it had placed an order with California-based Astro Digital for 28 satellites, which

Starring roles: members of the STAR collaboration Daniel Brandenburg and Zhangbu Xu photographed at the detector on the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. (Courtesy: Brookhaven National Laboratory) Using quantum entanglement, physicists in the US have mapped out distributions of gluons within atomic nuclei at higher precision than previously possible. Physicists working on the STAR experiment at

WASHINGTON — World View, the stratospheric ballooning company that announced plans to go public last month, is emphasizing remote sensing, and not tourism, as its primary market for the next several years. The company, which said Jan. 13 it would go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Leo Holdings

WASHINGTON — Space transportation services provider Spaceflight Inc. has hired the former president of International Launch Services as its new chief executive. Spaceflight announced Feb. 2 that Tiphaine Louradour has joined the company as chief executive to help the company expand its business providing rideshare launch services for smallsats, including through its Sherpa line of

Cash converter: The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) has been backed with an £800m investment (Courtesy: Shutterstock/Linda-Bestwick) A new “high-risk, high-reward” science and technology funding body in the UK has been formally established following a commencement order in parliament. The Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), which has been backed with £800m, has been

TAMPA, Fla. — Sidus Space said Feb. 2 it has raised $5.2 million from the stock market to support LizzieSat, a multipurpose constellation it expects to start deploying in low Earth orbit this year. The company sold shares on NASDAQ for $0.30 each, a steep discount to their $5 initial offering price in December 2021