Satellite

A small satellite developed by MIT engineers has set a new record for data transmission between a satellite and Earth. The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) system used a laser to beam huge amounts of data at up to 100 gigabits per second.

After three years circling the Earth, the Planetary Society’s LightSail 2 mission has come to an end following a fiery reentry. The satellite was an important tech demo for solar sailing, which could eventually propel spacecraft to other stars.

The Soviet Union launched the Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957. Fast forward to 2022, and we are now launching more than a thousand satellites each year, propelling the field of Earth science into unprecedented terrain.

Stars are hot balls of plasma, but astronomers have now spotted a super strange one that may have a solid surface. Its intense magnetic field is strong enough to overcome its blistering temperatures and “freeze” its outer layers into a solid crust.

New analysis of a volcanic eruption off the coast of Tonga earlier this year has revealed the true extent of the massive explosion, and established its plume as the highest on record and the first recorded entering the mesosphere.

One of the shortcomings of SpaceX's Starlink RV service is that it can only be used while parked. SpaceX has solved that issue with a mobile internet option for use on the go, a potential game changer for those who want to work from the passenger seat.

Caltech's wildly ambitious space solar project, buoyed by a massive hundred-million-dollar donation, is preparing to launch its first prototypes into orbit. These cutting-edge ultralight structures will collect, convert and wirelessly send energy.

New evidence has emerged in the debate about whether there’s liquid water on Mars. In a study led by the University of Cambridge, scientists examined the topology of Martian ice sheets and found signatures that match subglacial lakes here on Earth.

Virgin Orbit has ticked off another milestone in its fledgling launch business, successfully carrying out its first night-time mission over the weekend and deploying satellites into low-Earth orbit for the US Space Force.

SpinLaunch has released on-board footage from its eighth suborbital flight test, giving us a unique opportunity to imagine what it'd be like to be hurled skyward out of a centrifugal accelerator at more than a thousand miles per hour.

Green Launch says it can fire a space vehicle skywards three times faster than SpinLaunch's kinetic launch system. Its huge hydrogen gas cannon can produce hypersonic launch velocities upwards of Mach 17, enabling orbital altitudes up to 1,000 km.

NASA has signed up to test SpinLaunch's extraordinary whirl 'n' hurl space launch technology, which accelerates a launch vehicle to hypersonic speeds using an electric centrifuge arm instead of a rocket, hurling it skyward like a space discus.