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Archive for the ‘satellites’ category: Page 88

Aug 29, 2021

SpaceX ends launch hiatus with cargo Dragon mission

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

WASHINGTON — SpaceX performed its first Falcon 9 launch in two months Aug. 29 sending a cargo Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station.

The Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center at 3:14 a.m. Eastern after a one-day delay because of weather. The Dragon spacecraft separated from the rocket’s upper stage about 12 minutes after liftoff and is scheduled to dock with the station at about 11 a.m. Eastern Aug. 30 for an approximately one-month stay.

The launch was the first for a Falcon 9 since the June 30 launch of the Transporter-2 rideshare mission, the longest pause since a three-month gap between launches from August to November 2019. One reason for the hiatus was a delay in Starlink launches to equip those satellites with laser inter-satellite links; the majority of the Falcon 9 launches this year have been Starlink missions.

Aug 28, 2021

SpaceX Starlink will get cheaper after one change that’s coming soon

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite-powered internet service, is about to reduce its costs for a key component.


Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, is about to reduce its costs for a key component, president Gwynne Shotwell revealed at the Space Symposium.

Aug 28, 2021

Space Junk Reportedly Smashed a Chinese Military Satellite

Posted by in categories: military, satellites

A Chinese military satellite appears to have gotten smashed by a disintegrating Russian rocket, Space.com reports, in what’s likely the worst orbital collision since 2009.

The collision illustrates the growing danger of derelict spacecraft parts and other jetsam in Earth’s orbit, where they can smash functional equipment — as well as the extraordinary difficulty in figuring out what’s going on in Earth’s orbit.

According to an investigation by Harvard astrophysicist and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, Chinese satellite Yunhai 1–02 likely crashed into a piece of space junk earlier this year.

Aug 27, 2021

Elon Musk: ‘Bezos retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX’

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, government, internet, satellites

Can this be true?


Elon Musk has criticized fellow centibillionaire and space cowboy Jeff Bezos for filing lawsuits against the former’s aerospace company SpaceX.

Earlier this month, Bezos’ space firm Blue Origin sued NASA after it lost a critical government contract to put astronauts on the Moon to SpaceX. This has had the effect of delaying SpaceX’s own work on the project. And now, this week, Amazon has urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to dismiss newly-submitted plans by SpaceX to launch another cluster of satellites to power its satellite internet service Starlink.

Continue reading “Elon Musk: ‘Bezos retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX’” »

Aug 25, 2021

Can the World’s First Space Sweeper Make a Dent in Orbiting Debris?

Posted by in category: satellites

Maybe.


To combat this issue, Astroscale Inc., a private Japan-headquartered company, has devised several commercial spacecrafts tasked with decluttering space. The company is on track to deliver the world’s first garbage truck for removing defunct satellites in 2,024 and today announced its prototype completed its first demonstration in space. Although experts say that one active debris remover isn’t enough to solve the problem, it is an important move toward protecting valuable equipment in space, including satellites that aid with everything from weather forecasts to GPS navigation.

Continue reading “Can the World’s First Space Sweeper Make a Dent in Orbiting Debris?” »

Aug 24, 2021

Rocket Lab’s Mars mission gets green light from NASA

Posted by in category: satellites

Rocket Lab is one step closer to going to Mars with NASA’s approval of the company’s Photon spacecraft for an upcoming science mission. If all continues according to plan the two craft will launch in2024and arrive on the red planet 11 months later to study its magnetosphere.

The mission is known as the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, or ESCAPADE (hats off to whoever worked that one out), and was proposed for a small satellite science program back in 2,019 eventually being chosen as a finalist. UC Berkeley researchers are the main force behind the science part. (You can read much more about the project here.)

These satellites have to be less than 180 kilograms (about 400 pounds) and must perform standalone science missions, part of a new program aiming at more lightweight, shorter lead missions that can be performed with strong commercial industry collaboration. A few concepts have been baking since the original announcement of the program, and ESCAPADE just passed Key Decision Point C, meaning it’s ready to go from concept to reality.

Aug 24, 2021

SpaceX Starship to Take Civilians Where Civilians Never Went Before: to the dearMoon

Posted by in category: satellites

In 2,024 NASA is scheduled to return humans to the surface of the Moon with the Artemis III mission. One year before that, Artemis II should circle the satellite without touching down. Both missions are to be crewed by experienced astronauts. But not the dearMoon mission, which will carry civilians to the Moon and back on SpaceX hardware.

Aug 23, 2021

New Vistas in Astronomy: The Great Dimming of Betelgeuse

Posted by in category: satellites

Harvard & Smithsonian, where she directs the Solar, Stellar and Planetary Sciences Division. She is a past President of the American Astronomical Society and holds degrees from Wellesley College and Harvard University. Her interest in the star Betelgeuse began in the mid-80’s with measurements from satellites that documented the 420-day pulsation period of Betelgeuse. She also led the extraordinary team that captured the first image of a star other than the Sun – an image of Betelgeuse taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in ultraviolet light – revealing its brightly varying surface.

Aug 22, 2021

Starbase Live Plex — SpaceX Starship Launch Facility

Posted by in categories: food, military, satellites, sustainability

SUNDAY 08/22/2021 Welcome to the LabPadre 24/7 Livestream! || Onsite weather provided by INITWeather.com || BOCA CHICA NEWS: NEW Heat tile replacement continues. B3 scrapping on hold. Catch arm fabrication proceeding. New Raptors arrive at shipyard GSE tank lifted into orbital tank farm. || ROAD CLOSURES: Intermittent Aug 23rd 9:30–11:30a CDT (1430−1630 UTC) and Aug 24th 5p-11p CDT (2200−0400 UTC), also Aug 25th, 26th. || LAUNCHES: Starsem, Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat, OneWeb #9 satellite constellation launched and deployed succesfully. Next: Blue Origin/New Shepard-NS 17 Wed Aug 25 2021 at 9:35a EDT, (13:35 UTC) from Launch Site One, West Texas, Texas, USA
Thank you for watching LabPadre’s live stream from Boca Chica and South Padre Island in Texas. Subscribe for more SpaceX live coverage.
Special thanks to Greg Scott and Gator’s Dockside in Port Canaveral, Florida.
https://twitter.com/GregScott_photo.
https://www.scottphotomedia.com.
https://gatorsdockside.com/
Live Nerdle Cam Link: https://youtu.be/sTA0GTgFn5E
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Live Starbase Rover Cam Link: https://youtu.be/w_pjKEIozdk.
Live Port Canaveral Cam Link: https://youtu.be/BELcufzEOZ0
Live Raptor Roost Cam Link: https://youtu.be/62_WX_YWooA
Live Plex Stream Link: https://youtu.be/sMC5KonXCfg.
Live SPI Pearl Beach Cam https://youtu.be/S09IablLc7Q
Onsite Weather — http://weather.labpadre.com.
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FAA Notices To Airmen — https://tfr.faa.gov/tfr2/list.html.

This 24/7 stream is powered by LabPadre, in cooperation with Sapphire Condominiums and Isla Grand Beach Resort.

Continue reading “Starbase Live Plex — SpaceX Starship Launch Facility” »

Aug 22, 2021

Astronauts and satellites watch Hurricane Henri from space as US Northeast braces for storm

Posted by in categories: climatology, satellites

“Stay safe friends,” astronaut Megan McArthur says.


As parts of the U.S. northeast brace for Hurricane Henri to make landfall in New York today (Aug. 22), astronauts and satellites are tracking the historic storm from space.

Continue reading “Astronauts and satellites watch Hurricane Henri from space as US Northeast braces for storm” »

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