The modern rise of commercial satellite imagery and free public resources such as Europe’s Copernicus satellite imagery has also enabled news agencies and open source intelligence researchers to provide additional transparency on conflicts around the world. But US satellite firms such as Planet Labs and Vantor have largely restricted imagery related to the ongoing Iran ..
Tag : space
The Space Force originally estimated the Lane 1 launch providers would compete for at least 30 task orders over a five-year period. Officials put a ceiling of $5.6 billion on the Lane 1 contract to cover these 30 missions. The Space Force capped the Lane 2 contract at $13.7 billion last year, a number officials ..
This view of the payload deck of the Vikram-1 rocket’s upper stage was captured moments after orbital insertion Saturday. The rocket deployed two small CubeSats and hosted several more payloads that remained attached to the upper stage. Credit: Skyroot Aerospace This view of the payload deck of the Vikram-1 rocket’s upper stage was captured moments ..
How many launches to build a data center megaconstellation? In a new feature, Ars looks into the technical challenges of building orbital data centers and assesses what it might take to build SpaceX’s proposed 1 million satellite megaconstellation. The key to all of this is not radiation or the need to cool data centers in ..
SpaceX called off a test flight of its powerful Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster as the countdown clock reached zero Thursday at the company’s spaceport in South Texas. The launch team at Starbase, Texas, just north of the US-Mexico border, aimed to launch the more than 400-foot-tall rocket at 5:45 pm local time (6:45 pm ..
Anil Menon, a NASA flight surgeon, felt crushed nine years ago as his hopes and aspirations collapsed around him. For the fourth time, he had diligently applied to become an astronaut at the US space agency, seeking to fulfill a lifelong dream. Although he made it to the final round, NASA had once again rejected ..
Editor’s note: This is the second of three feature articles Ars is publishing to explore the financial, technical, and competitive dimensions of orbital data centers. Although the idea of putting data centers into space has long been discussed on a theoretical basis, the technology has rapidly become a red-hot topic. This series attempts to ground-truth ..
But flat-packed, stackable satellites allow operators to deliver more capability to orbit faster. Starship will take this to the next level with its capacity to launch SpaceX’s more powerful Starlink V3s. “On a Falcon 9, they can only launch 27 of these V2s,” Jones said. “The Starship can launch 60 of these larger V3s. What ..
The proliferation of nuclear power in space got a little more real Tuesday with the launch of a small satellite developed by a Florida-based company specializing in nuclear micro-power technology. It’s a long way from launching a bona fide nuclear reactor, a breakthrough that could help power a permanent Moon base and efficiently drive rockets ..
Written by Thomas Jefferson in 1801 while he was serving as vice president (and therefore the head of the Senate), the manual influenced both houses of Congress as to how to approach order and decorum. Glenn also took with him a 13-star flag that was used to identify General George Washington on the battlefield. Believed ..
