NASA’s ICON Ready To Explore The Ionosphere
Early in the morning of November 7, 2018, NASA launches the Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON, a spacecraft that will explore the dynamic region where…
Satellite
Engineers Develop a New Propulsion System for Nanosatellites
The scientists of the Inter-University Department of Space Research of Samara University presented a prototype of a propulsion system for the maneuvering nanosatellite SamSat-M. The…
Planetary Defense Has Unexpected Support From a New Satellite
NASA’s efforts to better understand asteroid impacts has found unexpected support from a new satellite sensor designed to detect lightning. New research published in the…
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Successfully Launched
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) launched on the first-of-its-kind mission to find worlds beyond our solar system, including some that could support life. TESS,…
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Science Data Pipeline
A Science Pipeline to New Planet Discoveries NASA’s ongoing search for life in the universe produces a lot of data. The agency’s new planet-hunting mission,…
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Ready to Search the Sky for New Worlds
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is undergoing final preparations in Florida for its April 16 launch to find undiscovered worlds around nearby stars, providing…
Scientists Successfully Complete World-First Firing of Air-Breathing Electric Thruster
In a world-first, an ESA-led team has built and fired an electric thruster to ingest scarce air molecules from the top of the atmosphere for…
NOAA’s GOES-S Satellite is Ready for Today’s Launch, Watch It Live
Today is launch day for NOAA’s newest weather satellite, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-S (GOES-S). A two-hour launch window will open at 5:02 p.m. EST…
A Look Back at America’s First Satellite, Explorer 1
The year 1958 held much promise for the United States space program. Both the US and the Soviet Union were preparing to orbit a satellite…
Micius Satellite Enables Intercontinental Quantum Communications
Private and secure communications are fundamental human needs. In particular, with the exponential growth of Internet use and e-commerce, it is of paramount importance to…
Miniature Satellites GomX-4B and GomX-4A Will Be Propelled By Butane
ESA’s next miniature satellite will be its first able to change orbit. Thanks to a compact thruster resembling a butane cigarette lighter, the cereal box-sized…
Parker Solar Probe Will Fly Directly Through the Sun’s Atmosphere
Next Summer NASA will launch the Parker Solar Probe, a spacecraft that will get closer to the Sun than any other in human history. Parker…
Nanosatellites Provide New Opportunities for Space Science
Miniaturized satellites, known as nanosatellites or CubeSats, are small platforms that enable the next generation of scientists and engineers to complete all phases of a…
ESA Probes the Mysterious Tumbling Death of Satellites
ESA’s Clean Space initiative is seeking to transform our understanding of how large, dead objects behave in space and is exploring why derelict satellites can…
NASA’s Fermi Dodges a Defunct Cold War Spy Satellite
NASA’s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has a close call with the 3,100-pound Cosmos 1805, a defunct Cold-War spy satellite, avoiding a near collision. NASA scientists…
Sandy Island, The Island That Wasn’t There
A New Zealand researcher thinks that he has solved the riddle of a mysterious South Pacific island shown on Google Earth and world maps, but…
The Quantum Teleportation Race Goes Into Space in 2016
Three years ago, Jian-Wei Pan and his colleagues were able to quantum teleport information across 16 kilometers. This was one of the first major steps…
Satellites Could Be Used to Detect Nuclear Tests
Underground nuclear tests can be detected in the skies and as a result, global satellite networks could become a powerful tool in order to detect…