Satellite

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Boeing and the US Space Force have completed the first major engineering design review of a new generation of military communication satellites.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.