SpaceX tallies 1st of two launches over two days from Space Coast
Thursday, 18 April 2024 11:29
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SpaceX launched Wednesday evening the first of a pair of Space Coast rockets in two days, both carrying batches of the company's Starlink satellites.
A Falcon 9 rocket carrying 23 of the internet satellites for SpaceX's growing constellation lifted off at 5:26 p.m. Eastern time from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-A amid clear blue skies.
This is the 12th flight of the first-stage booster that will aim for a recovery landing downrange in the Atlantic on the droneship Just Read the Instructions.
This was the 28th launch from the Space Coast in 2024, with launch No. 29 targeting Thursday evening from neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Another Falcon 9 carrying more Starlink satellites is aiming for liftoff during four-hour window from 6:40 p.m. to 10:40 p.m. at Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40 with a backup window Friday from 6:14 p.m. to 10:14 p.m.
Space Launch Delta 45's weather squadron forecasts a 90% chance for good conditions for that launch.
These will be the 157th and 158th overall Starlink launches since the first operational deployment of the internet satellites in 2019.
Earth Observation Excellence Award 2024 winner
Thursday, 18 April 2024 11:04 Write a comment
Celebrating the outstanding efforts of scientists and researchers who have advanced the innovative application of Earth observation data, ESA proudly announces the recipient of this year's esteemed Excellence Award. Dr Iestyn Woolway, from Bangor University in the UK, wins the 2024 Earth Observation Excellence Award.
Nelson defends “very tough choices” in NASA’s budget proposal
Thursday, 18 April 2024 10:44
NASA chief warns of Chinese military presence in space
Thursday, 18 April 2024 07:28 Write a comment
China is bolstering its space capabilities and is using its civilian program to mask its military objectives, the head of the US space agency NASA said Wednesday, warning that Washington must remain vigilant.
"China has made extraordinary strides especially in the last 10 years, but they are very, very secretive," NASA administrator Bill Nelson told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
"We believe that a lot of their so-called civilian space program is a military program. And I think, in effect, we are in a race," Nelson added.
He said he hoped Beijing would "come to its senses and understand that civilian space is for peaceful uses," but added, "We have not seen that demonstrated by China."
Nelson's comment came as he testified before the House appropriations committee on NASA's budget for fiscal 2025.
He said the United States should land on the moon again before China does, as both nations pursue lunar missions, but he expressed concern that were Beijing to arrive first, it could say, "'Okay, this is our territory, you stay out.'"
The United States is planning to put astronauts back on the moon in 2026 with its Artemis 3 mission.
Φsat-2 gets two new AI apps
Thursday, 18 April 2024 06:10 Write a comment
Φsat-2, ESA’s groundbreaking cubesat scheduled for launch in June, will now include two new AI-driven apps destined to demonstrate a crucial role in future environmental monitoring from space. The apps, which focus on marine pollution and wildfires, were the winning entries in ESA’s OrbitalAI Challenge.
From Self-Employed to Self-Made: The POD Entrepreneur's Journey
Thursday, 18 April 2024 02:23 Write a comment
POD (Print on Demand) businesses have taken the entrepreneurial world by storm. With minimal investment and unlimited potential, many self-employed individuals have found success as self-made POD entrepreneurs. This article will delve into the journey of these individuals, highlighting their challenges, strategies for growth, and tips for those looking to embark on the same path.
b>1. Dis Astrobotic eyes military customers for reusable Xogdor suborbital rocket
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 20:53
NASA Mars helicopter sends last message to Earth
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 20:25 Write a comment
NASA's Ingenuity Mars helicopter has transmitted its final message to Earth and will now serve as an immobile data-gathering unit on the red planet's surface, the space agency said on Tuesday.
The tissue box-sized aircraft made history by achieving the first powered flight on another planet after hitching a ride under the belly of the Perseverance rover, which first lifted off the surface o Arka invests $85 million in Connecticut facility expansion
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 20:25 Write a comment
ARKA Group, L.P. has completed an important expansion of its 550,000 square-foot facility located in Danbury, Connecticut, which also serves as its headquarters. This expansion is focused on enhancing the production capacity for small satellite systems, payloads, and optical coating capabilities.
The expansion, encompassing 14,000 additional square feet, includes state-of-the-art cleanroom Lockheed Martin secures new C2BMC-Next contract for global defense integration
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 20:25 Write a comment
Lockheed Martin has been awarded a major contract by the Missile Defense Agency, valued at a ceiling of $4.1 billion, to innovate and lead the expansion of the Command and Control, Battle Management and Communications (C2BMC) system. The contract spans from May 2024 to April 2029, with an extension option until April 2034.
The upgrade, known as C2BMC-Next, involves implementing cutting-edg Space defense investments set to soar with projected 160% growth in satellite launches
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 20:25 Write a comment
In a significant industry forecast, Novaspace, a union of Euroconsult and SpaceTec Partners, predicts a 160% increase in global defense and dual-use satellite launches over the next decade. The firm also highlighted that government spending on space defense and security has reached a new peak at over $58 billion.
This surge is attributed to an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape, m AI-driven hyperspectral imaging breakthrough by intuition-1 satellite
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 20:25 Write a comment
KP Labs has achieved a critical milestone with the successful acquisition and AI processing of hyperspectral images on its Intuition-1 satellite. This new capability offers unprecedented detail in Earth observation, particularly across the equatorial regions, significantly enhancing the potential for scientific and commercial data analysis.
The Intuition-1 satellite, launched via a SpaceX Astronomers discover largest black hole in Milky Way: study
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 20:25 Write a comment
Astronomers identified the largest stellar black hole yet discovered in the Milky Way, with a mass 33 times that of the Sun, according to a study published on Tuesday.
The black hole, named Gaia BH3, was discovered "by chance" from data collected by the European Space Agency's Gaia mission, an astronomer from the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the Observatoire de Paris, Pa SWOT Satellite Analyzes Water Depth in Death Valley's Seasonal Lake
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 20:25 Write a comment
In a surprising development, Death Valley, North America's driest region, has sustained a temporary lake since the end of 2023. Recent studies spearheaded by NASA have leveraged the U.S.-French Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, launched in December 2022, to determine the water depths of this transient lake through early 2024.
Researchers reported that during a six-week m Massive star collapse confirmed as source of history's brightest gamma-ray burst
Wednesday, 17 April 2024 20:25 Write a comment
In a landmark observation, an international consortium of astrophysicists, led by experts at Northwestern University, documented the most intense gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever recorded in October 2022, labeled GRB 221009A. Recent investigations using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have now confirmed that this record-setting burst, nicknamed the B.O.A.T. ("brightest of all time"), originat