Space

When stars die, they tend to take everything around them with them. But new evidence appears to show a planet orbiting a white dwarf, and we’re not sure how it survived! Plus, experiments designed to detect dark matter might be capable of detecting dark energy, too! Hosted By: Reid Reimers Bundle your Patreon support and

TAMPA, Fla. — German launch services provider Exolaunch is expanding to the U.S. in search of a greater share of the rapidly growing market, stepping up competition against Seattle-based rideshare broker Spaceflight. About half the nearly 100 satellites Exolaunch has already booked for launches next year are for U.S. customers, newly appointed Exolaunch USA CEO

Under the recently launched Polish Imaging Satellites (PIAST) project, a consortium formed by local space industry players will develop three nanosatellites to be operated by the country’s armed forces and placed into orbit in 2024. WARSAW, Poland — Under the recently launched Polish Imaging Satellites (PIAST) project, a consortium formed by local space industry players

SpaceNews spoke with Samer Halawi, Intelsat’s executive vice president and chief commercial officer, to learn more about the satellite giant’s post-restructuring growth strategy. Intelsat is devising a transformational business plan for after it emerges from bankruptcy restructuring later this year, including a big bet on software-defined satellites and potentially its own low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation. The

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — As NASA prepares to install the Orion spacecraft on the first Space Launch System rocket, agency officials played down any effect coronavirus vaccine mandates will have on final preparations for the launch. In sessions of the American Astronautical Society’s Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium last week, Artemis program leaders said the next

WASHINGTON — Engineers are investigating why one of the two solar arrays on NASA’s Lucy spacecraft may have failed to lock into place when deployed after launch Oct. 16. In an Oct. 17 statement, NASA said that while the spacecraft is healthy, one of the two circular solar panels “may not be fully latched” after

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Rocket Lab’s acquisition of an aerospace software company is one of a series of deals it is considering, enabled in part by going public. Rocket Lab announced Oct. 12 it has completed the purchase of Advanced Solutions, Inc. (ASI), a Colorado-based engineering company that develops flight software, simulation systems and guidance, navigation

Pulsars are more than just cool blinking lights shining across the universe. The discovery of the first binary pulsar paved the way for gravitational wave astronomy astronomy today. Hosted by: Reid Reimers SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It’s called SciShow Tangents. Check it out at http://www.scishowtangents.org ———- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon:

WASHINGTON — A Soyuz spacecraft carrying a cosmonaut and two spaceflight participants landed in Kazakhstan Oct. 17, nearly two days after that spacecraft caused the station to briefly lose attitude control. The Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft undocked from the station’sNauka module at 9:14 p.m. Eastern Oct. 16. It reentered and landed southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at

WASHINGTON — An agreement just announced between the U.S. Space Force and a venture capital firm is a pilot project intended to help government buyers understand how investors assess space industry startups.  The Space Force would like better insight into how venture investors gauge the potential of technologies developed by commercial businesses, said Gabe Mounce,

HELSINKI — A second crew of three astronauts are heading for China’s Tianhe space station module after the successful launch of the Shenzhou-13 mission Friday. A Long March 2F lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert at 12:23 Eastern Oct. 15. The rocket, with four side boosters, two stages and

This video was sponsored by DataCamp. Sign up to DataCamp and support SciShow using this link: https://bit.ly/3h4ZsGz It’s virtually impossible to tell where a meteorite comes from, but in 2018, scientists were able to pull a feat of forensic astronomy and do just that. Host: Reid Reimers SciShow has a spinoff podcast! It’s called SciShow

WASHINGTON — An Atlas 5 successfully a launched NASA spacecraft Oct. 16 on a mission to study distant asteroids that may hold clues to the early history of the solar system. The United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 401 rocket lifted off on schedule from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 5:34 a.m.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner was within hours of launch on its second uncrewed test flight in early August when stuck valves in the spacecraft’s propulsion system forced a launch scrub that has turned into a delay that will extend well into next year. “It was a tough pill to swallow,” John Vollmer, vice

The race for a place in space is one of the many things people love about the spirit of the United States — a country that dreams big, sets goals to make those dreams a reality, and then moves full speed ahead to achieve those goals. America blasts off toward those dreams with stars in

Two years ago we were very excited about the announcement of water on Mars, but some new research challenges that idea. And one of our most successful exoplanet finding tools has discovered another one, this time pretty close to home! SciShow Finds: https://scishowfinds.com ———- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow ———- Dooblydoo

Kendall is asking Congress to amend the 2022 NDAA so a new assistant secretary for space acquisitions can be nominated and, if confirmed by the Senate, take office sooner than next October WASHINGTON — Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall is asking Congress to authorize a new assistant secretary for space acquisitions before the Oct. 1,

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Virgin Galactic will postpone a SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceflight that had been scheduled for this month, electing to instead immediately begin an extended maintenance period for the spaceplane and its carrier aircraft that will further delay the start of commercial flights. The company said Oct. 14 that it decided to move directly intended

SAN FRANCISCO – Iceye won a contract to provide data from its constellation of small synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) satellites to Copernicus, the European Union program aimed at providing continuous, global Earth observation. With the announcement, Iceye becomes the first entrepreneurial SAR company to be designated a Copernicus Contributing Mission, meaning its imagery and data will

Start learning a new language today with Babbel for less than $5 per month! Get up to 65% when you sign up here: https://go.babbel.com/12m65-youtube-scishowspace-oct-2021/default When you think of a frozen object in space, you might think of Pluto, but stars themselves actually freeze. Hosted By: Hank Green SciShow is on TikTok! Check us out at

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Space Perspective, a company developing a stratospheric ballooning system intended to give people views like those from space, has raised $40 million to fund the company through the start of commercial operations. Space Perspective announced Oct. 14 the Series A round, led by Prime Movers Lab, a “deep technology” venture capital fund.

SAN FRANCISCO – SpaceLink has awarded OHB System AG a contract with an anticipated value of more than $300 million to manufacture four satellites for its commercial space data relay constellation. After reviewing proposals from multiple satellite manufacturers, SpaceLink selected OHB based on a number of factors including the German company’s experience building Galileo navigation

This is the Space Force’s first cooperative agreement with a venture capital firm WASHINGTON — Embedded Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in space startups, has signed a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Space Force, the company announced Oct. 13. Under the Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, Embedded Ventures will work with SpaceWERX, a

HELSINKI — Chinese private launch Deep Blue Aerospace completed a 100-meter level launch and landing test with its Nebula M1 VTVL test stage Wednesday. Deep Blue Aerospace conducted the Nebula M1 vertical landing and vertical takeoff test at a facility at Tongchuan, Shaanxi Province, reaching a height of 100 meters before a powered descent and

Maxar said it “wants to ensure that the government is following its own rules in connection with the procurement” of the Transport Layer Tranche 1 WASHINGTON — Maxar Technologies filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office Oct. 8 challenging a Space Development Agency solicitation seeking industry bids for 126 satellites.  SDA on Aug. 30

NRO says commercial remote sensing market is a “very important market to the United States” WASHINGTON — The National Reconnaissance Office on Oct. 12 published its first solicitation for commercial space radar imagery. The request for bids is part of a larger effort to tap commercial sources of space data announced last week by NRO

WASHINGTON — Days after acknowledging it would no longer operate its own satellite network, Dutch internet-of-things startup Hiber says it is partnering with Inmarsat to provide those services. Hiber announced Oct. 12 that it will use Inmarsat to provide the satellite connectivity for the IoT services it offers, primarily to industrial customers. Hiber will combine

WASHINGTON — Space manufacturing starting Varda Space will launch its first spacecraft on a Falcon 9 in early 2023 to demonstrate the ability to produce a wide range of materials in microgravity. Varda Space announced Oct. 11 it signed a launch services agreement with SpaceX for that smallsat, which will be part of a Falcon

The plan is to deploy the 18 satellites in a single plane 600 miles above Earth WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency on Oct. 8 issued a draft request for bids for 18 satellites that will carry experimental payloads. These 18 spacecraft will be integrated with SDA’s planned mesh network of 126 optically interconnected data

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab will launch a NASA technology demonstration satellite under an unconventional arrangement as the agency works on a more standardized approach for launching smallsats. Rocket Lab announced Oct. 6 that NASA selected the company to launch the Advanced Composite Solar Sail System (ACS3) spacecraft on an Electron rocket. The 12-unit cubesat will

HELSINKI — Markets for Earth observation data and associated services are growing and evolving. While government remains the major customer for satellite imagery, there is a trend of the market expanding into larger industries. “You have insurance, hedge funds, farming. For AIS and geospatial intelligence, it’s in everything,” Gabe Dominocielo, Umbra co-founder and president, said

Based on intelligence from SAR imagery, Lewis concluded that the Chinese are building a large wind turbine farm presumably to power missile silos ST. LOUIS — Photos taken by commercial satellites and analyzed by arms control experts earlier this year revealed that China is building 119 silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles in a desert in

LONG BEACH, Calif. — NASA and Boeing are targeting the first half of 2022 to launch the rescheduled test flight of the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle as engineers continue to investigate a valve problem that postponed the mission two months ago. In an Oct. 8 statement, NASA said engineers had managed to free all

HELSINKI — A Chinese state-owned enterprise and a private firm are partnering to establish a 96-satellite SAR constellation, with the first launch set for February 2022. The 38th institute of the giant state-owned enterprise China Electronics Technology Group (CETC) will work with private satellite manufacturer Spacety to construct a X and C-band synthetic aperture radar

ST. LOUIS – The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency plans to conduct an annual assessment of commercial satellite imagery like the Olympic-themed evaluation the organization conducted earlier this year. “Over the next four to five years, we expect to see 500 remote sensing satellites each year launching into space,” Dave Gauthier, director of NGA’s Commercial and Business

ST. LOUIS – The National Reconnaissance Office roadmap for bringing commercial satellite imagery into its hybrid space architecture, which includes government and commercial satellites, emphasizes cybersecurity and licenses that allow the agency to share data with partners inside and outside the U.S. government. The NRO already delivers approximately 50,000 commercial images per week that it

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Future Mars lander missions could adopt less stringent planetary protection requirements by landing in regions of the planet unlikely to allow any terrestrial contamination to propagate, a study concludes. The study by a National Academies committee, released Oct. 7, recommended that missions that don’t plan to go more than a meter

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Companies that have demonstrated the technical viability of broadband satellite megaconstellations now face a bigger challenge: closing the business case. In sessions at the Satellite Innovation conference here, industry executives and observers expressed continued skepticism that constellations of hundreds or thousands of low Earth orbit satellites will be able to generate

Maxar VP Tony Frazier says the $600 million constellation is a ‘complex program’ ST. LOUIS — Maxar remains confident that it will launch all six of its next-generation WorldView Legion imaging satellites in 2022,  “We anticipate all six to be on orbit next year,” Tony Frazier, Maxar’s executive vice president of global field operations, told

BlackSky’s Scot Currie: ‘The pacing item is how quickly can we get the machines to do what humans have been doing for the last 50 years?’ ST. LOUIS — The geospatial intelligence industry has come a long way in its race to turn imagery into meaningful data for decision makers. But there is still much

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Hans Koenigsmann, one of the first employees of SpaceX and who recently retired from the company, has joined the board of satellite laser communications company Mynaric. Mynaric announced Oct. 6 that Koenigsmann will join the German company’s supervisory board, the equivalent of a board of directors. He will take the place

ST. LOUIS — When analysts at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency need information about what’s going on in the world, they have to plough through large volumes of satellite imagery and other data. “That’s the old way of doing business,” said David Gauthier, director of NGA’s commercial and business operations group.  In the future the agency

NGA broke ground on the St. Louis campus in November 2019 and expects to open for business in 2025 ST. LOUIS — The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is building its future campus in the city considered the “gateway to the West.” The agency’s director, Vice Adm. Robert Sharp, said the expanding presence in St. Louis marks

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The chief executive of satellite operator SES says consolidation of the satellite industry is more likely than ever to improve its overall return on investment, but that the structure of the industry might hinder such deals. Speaking at the Satellite Innovation conference here Oct. 5, Steve Collar addressed growing perceptions that

ST. LOUIS – LatConnect 60 will feed Spire Global Automatic Identification System (AIS) vessel-tracking data into algorithms the Australian Earth-observation startup is developing with Curtin University to prevent maritime collisions, the companies announced Oct. 5. With funding from the Australian Research Council, LatConnect 60 and Curtin University’s Intelligent Sensing & Perception Laboratory are creating sensor-fusion

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean antenna maker Intellian Technologies signed a supply deal worth 71.1 billion won ($60 million) with Luxembourg-based satellite fleet operator SES. Intellian announced Oct. 5 that it will provide Ku-band antennas for SES’s next-generation medium-Earth-orbit (MEO) broadband constellation, O3b mPOWER, expected to launch later this year. Building on the success

ST. LOUIS — Hyperspectral analytics company HySpecIQ and optical communications specialist BridgeComm announced an agreement to integrate BridgeComm high-speed optical downlinks with HySpecIQ satellites destined for low Earth orbit. “We are eager to extend our satellite constellation program and hyperspectral imagery capabilities with BridgeComm’s integration,” Bill Sullivan, HySpecIQ executive chairman and founder, said in a

WASHINGTON — World View, a company founded to carry people into the stratosphere to give them space-like views of the Earth, is reviving those plans, putting it into competition with two of its co-founders. World View, based in Tucson, Ariz., announced Oct. 4 it is developing a passenger capsule that will be carried aloft by