Satellite
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It was the second time's a charm as Virgin Orbit's airdropped LauncherOne rocket put 10 NASA payloads into orbit on the second attempt in less than eight months, sending 10 NASA CubeSat payloads into low-Earth orbit under the Launch Services Program.
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Howe Industries has submitted the design for a solar-powered steam rocket engine for propelling CubeSats to the National Science Foundation. With only two moving parts, ThermaSat uses a thermal condenser to flash boil water into superheated steam.
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This year has been quite a ride for OneWeb and its globe-connecting constellation of low-Earth-orbiting broadband satellites, with Chapter 11 bankruptcy, followed by a cash injection from two major new investors. Now it's back launching satellites.
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SpaceX has been able to cut its satellite’s apparent brightness in half by using a dark coating on one of its satellites. Applying the coating to future satellites would help reduce their impact on delicate telescope observations of the night sky.
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ESA has published a colossal data release from the agency’s Gaia observatory, which is currently engaged in a mission to survey 1 billion stars orbiting in the Milky Way. The data has already shed light on the motion of our galaxy and solar system.
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Scientists have condensed decades of footage taken of our Sun’s atmosphere into a 47-minute video showcasing solar activity on a grand scale. The video was released to mark the 25th anniversary of the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric observatory.
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Boeing and the US Space Force have completed the first major engineering design review of a new generation of military communication satellites.
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Britain has sent two satellites smaller than a microwave into space that are the smartest produced by the UK. Four Glasgow-built Spire nanosatellites lifted off atop a Soyuz launcher, two of which are equipped with supercomputers for tracking shipping.
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Debris orbiting in high Earth orbit is not being tracked closely enough, according to the results of a new survey, and could pose an unexpected threat to important satellites that provide communication, weather observation and navigation services.
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The US Air Force has announced that it is introducing a new "eSeries" classification for military air and space hardware, indicated by an "e" prefix", that has been digitally engineered and virtually tested before a physical example is ever built.
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Rocket Lab made a successful return to service by launching a customer’s satellite into orbit earlier this week, but that wasn’t the only cause for celebration, with the team also deploying its own Photon satellite as part of the same flight.
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Given how many satellites and bits of orbital debris are now orbiting the Earth, it's becoming increasingly important to keep track of where they all are. A new telescope system allows space agencies and other clients to do so – even in broad daylight.