Under crushing hypergravity, fruit flies adapt—and recover
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Week in images: 27 April - 01 May 2026
Friday, 01 May 2026 12:15
Week in images: 27 April - 01 May 2026
Discover our week through the lens
Starcloud seeks more orbital data center funding shortly after unicorn status
Friday, 01 May 2026 11:57
Starcloud is looking to raise at least $200 million in a deal that would double the two-year-old orbital data center startup’s valuation to about $2.2 billion, a source close to the situation confirmed.
Trump nominates Schiess as next Space Force chief
Friday, 01 May 2026 11:55
Career space operator would succeed Gen. Chance Saltzman atop military space branch
Amazon Leo passes 300 satellites with Atlas and Ariane launches
Friday, 01 May 2026 11:01
A pair of launches this week pushed the number of Amazon Leo satellites deployed to more than 300, but the company is still far short of a looming FCC milestone.
DARPA selects three companies for lunar orbiter studies
Friday, 01 May 2026 09:53
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded contracts to three companies to study concepts for a lunar mission to search for water ice in very low orbits.
Sentinel-1D goes live: a milestone for Europe’s radar mission
Friday, 01 May 2026 07:32
The Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite, launched last November, is now fully operational after successfully completing its critical in-orbit commissioning phase.
With all four Sentinel-1 satellites having now been deployed, this achievement marks a major milestone for this flagship radar mission – a journey that began more than a decade ago and that has helped pave the way for the future of Earth observation.
Earth from Space: Netherlands in bloom
Friday, 01 May 2026 07:00
Image:
Captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission on 21 April 2026, this image shows a double bloom in the Netherlands: an array of vibrant colours in the tulip fields as well as the blue-greenish swirls of phytoplankton in the North Sea. The Pentagon Wants to Kill a Missile-Warning Program Congress Already Saved
Friday, 01 May 2026 06:41
The Pentagon wants to kill a missile-warning satellite program just as its prime contractor finishes building the hardware. Northrop Grumman delivered a missile-warning sensor for the Next-Gen OPIR Polar program, days before the Defense Department’s fiscal year 2027 budget request proposed terminating the effort entirely. The timing captures something essential about how big defense programs […]
The post The Pentagon Wants to Kill a Missile-Warning Program Congress Already Saved appeared first on Space Daily.
York’s $355M Antenna Bet: How the Pentagon’s Single-Vendor Wishlist Is Reshaping Smallsat M&A
Friday, 01 May 2026 04:38
York Space Systems will pay roughly $355 million to acquire UK-based satellite communications terminal maker All.Space, the Denver satellite manufacturer announced April 30, marking its second acquisition since going public and its most aggressive move yet to assemble a vertically integrated satcom business spanning spacecraft, ground stations, and user terminals. The deal, structured as $155 […]
The post York’s $355M Antenna Bet: How the Pentagon’s Single-Vendor Wishlist Is Reshaping Smallsat M&A appeared first on Space Daily.
Space Force taps K2 satellites to test laser communications for missile-defense
Thursday, 30 April 2026 23:30
Experiments will attempt to establish crosslinks from medium Earth orbit satellites
SpaceComputer to conduct on-orbit test of secure computing infrastructure
Thursday, 30 April 2026 22:38
SAN FRANCISCO — SpaceComputer, a Singapore-based startup developing distributed computing infrastructure, is preparing to test its hardware and software in orbit later this year.
Northrop Grumman delivers sensor for missile-warning satellite as Pentagon cancels program
Thursday, 30 April 2026 21:37
The Next-Generation OPIR Polar satellite procurement faces ax as Pentagon cites alternatives in low and medium Earth orbit to replace coverage
U.S. investors dominate Europe’s private-led space scale-up rounds
Thursday, 30 April 2026 17:51
While European space startups are attracting more venture capital, their private-led growth rounds remain anchored by U.S.
House appropriators keep NASA funding flat
Thursday, 30 April 2026 14:06
A House appropriations subcommittee advanced a spending bill April 30 that would keep overall NASA funding at 2026 levels, rejecting a 23% cut proposed by the White House.