Rocket Lab has unveiled plans for a larger rocket that can carry bigger payloads than its current reusable trooper, the Electron. It’s called the Neutron and will be capable of carrying 8 metric tons to low-Earth orbit compared to the Electron’s 660 lbs capacity. Engadget reports: The Neutron will also have a fully reusable first stage that can land on an…
Tag: small satellites
How to prevent crashes between orbiting satellites
Thousands more satellites will soon orbit Earth. We need better rules to prevent space crashes. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/satellites-prevent-space-crashes…
Thousands more satellites will soon orbit Earth—we need better rules to prevent space crashes
In recent years, satellites have become smaller, cheaper, and easier to make with commercial off the shelf parts. Some even weigh as little as one gram. This means more people can afford to send them into orbit. Now, satellite operators have started launching mega-constellations—groups of hundreds or even thousands of small satellites working together—into orbit around Earth. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-01-thousands-satellites-orbit-earthwe-space.html…
SpaceX Re-Schedules Record-Breaking Launch With 143 Satellites to Sunday
Ars Technica reported Saturday that “The Falcon 9 rocket was ready. Its payload of 143 satellites were ready. But Mother Nature was not ready.” Although SpaceX pressed ahead with fueling of the Falcon 9 booster on Saturday morning, the company scrubbed the launch attempt of the Transporter-1 mission a few minutes before the window opened due to weather. Conditions at Cape…
SpaceX Plans Record-Breaking Launch With 143 Satellites
SpaceX plans to launch the most satellites ever deployed in a single mission, 143, on Saturday morning from Florida for more than a dozen customers. UPI reports: A 2017 mission by the India Space Research Organization launched 104 spacecraft, which would be the previous record if the SpaceX launch is a success. Liftoff aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral…
Iodine thruster could help clear space junk
A commercial nanosat called SpaceTy Beihangkongshi-1 – launched November 2020 – has successfully used an iodine thruster to change its orbit around Earth. This new thruster might help clear space junk by steering small satellites, at the end of their missions, back into Earth’s atmosphere where they’d burn up. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/iodine-thruster-might-help-clear-space-junk…
NASA mission to test technology for satellite swarms
A NASA mission slated for launch on Friday will place three tiny satellites into low-Earth orbit, where they will demonstrate how satellites might track and communicate with each other, setting the stage for swarms of thousands of small satellites that can work cooperatively and autonomously. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-01-nasa-mission-technology-satellite-swarms.html…
Virgin Orbit Just Successfully Launched a 70-Foot Rocket From Its 747
CNN reports: A 70-foot rocket, riding beneath the wing of a retrofitted Boeing 747 aircraft, detached from the plane and fired itself into Earth’s orbit on Sunday — marking the first successful launch for the California-based rocket startup Virgin Orbit. Virgin Orbit’s 747, nicknamed Cosmic Girl, took off from California around 10:30 am PT with the rocket, called LauncherOne, nestled beneath…
Pioneering a way to keep very small satellites in orbit
A cubesat, largely built by undergraduate students and scheduled to launch on Sunday, will explore the feasibility of a new propulsion method that could enable very small satellites to move around Earth’s orbit without carrying fuel. This could pave the way for tiny satellites that stay in orbit for long periods and operate in swarms, monitoring storms and natural disasters, for…
Aiming for the moon with NASA’s Artemis I
Artemis I is the first in a series of NASA missions that will enable human exploration on the moon again, and ultimately Mars, scheduled to launch in 2021. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/all-about-nasa-artemis-1-mission…