TAMPA, Fla. — Verizon is launching satellite-enabled emergency text and location services this fall for compatible Android smartphones in the United States at no extra cost for customers.
The telecoms giant announced a partnership Aug. 28 to deliver the service with Skylo, which has developed ground infrastructure enabling L-band geostationary satellites to reach devices using the latest standards-based chipsets.
Google’s family of Pixel Pro devices and the Samsung Galaxy S25 are set to be among the first to get access to Skylo’s partner satellites, enabling emergency narrowband connectivity when cell towers are out of reach.
The summer holidays are ending, which for many concludes with a long drive home and reliance on GPS devices to get safely home. But every now and then, GPS devices can suggest strange directions or get briefly confused about your location. But until now, no one knew for sure when the satellites were in a good enough position for the GPS system to give reliable direction.
Scientists are trying to build a new sort of satellite, and have recently tested their idea with the Starling Formation-Flying Optical Experiment, or “StarFOX.” You may be getting flashbacks to the retro Star Fox video game series — and you’d be right to imagine this experiment as a science fiction fantasy brought into reality. There are no space-faring animals here, though.
Basically, StarFOX is a quartet of small satellites that work in tandem — a satellite “swarm,” as it’s sometimes called. This concept isn’t entirely new, but there’s something that sets StarFOX apart from standard satellite swarms. Typically, these conglomerates need external help in terms of orientation — but StarFOX’s four satellites can gauge their own positions with onboard cameras, an ability that could allow them to operate autonomously well beyond Earth orbit.
Planetary Science Innovation For All Humanity — Professor Dr. Dan Blumberg Ph.D. — Vice-President for Regional and Industrial Development — Ben-Gurion University of the Negev — Chair, Israel Space Agency.
Professor Dr. Dan Blumberg, Ph.D. is the Vice-President for Regional and Industrial Development at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU — https://www.blumberg.bgu.ac.il/), an elected Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, and Chair of the Israel Space Agency (https://www.space.gov.il/en), a position he was appointed to by the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology (https://www.gov.il/en/departments/min…) in 2022.
Prior to these positions, Prof. Blumberg completed five years as Vice President and Dean for Research and Development at BGU and before that he fulfilled several positions including Deputy Vice President, Chairperson of the Department of Geography and Environmental Development and the founder of the Green Campus initiative at BGU which gained the University an international ranking of #18.
Prof. Blumberg earned a Ph.D. from Arizona State University (1993) where he studied and worked in the Planetary Geology Group and focused on aeolian processes and microwave radar remote sensing to study arid zone environments and planetary geology. He was a Co-Investigator on the SRL (Spaceborne Radar Laboratory) mission, SRTM (Spaceborne Radar Topography) mission and other space missions.
Prof. Blumberg has been working for the past 20 years on analysis of multi-parameter remote sensing data including radar, hyperspectral, multi-spectral and ground penetrating radar data. He has also published numerous papers in the areas of target and anomaly detection and combined field studies with the use of remote sensing data. He also led the development and successful launch on February 15, 2017 of a Nanosatellite, BGUsat.
Peel apart a smartphone, fitness tracker or virtual reality headset, and inside you’ll find a tiny motion sensor tracking its position and movement. Bigger, more expensive versions of the same technology, about the size of a grapefruit and a thousand times more accurate, help navigate ships, airplanes and other vehicles with GPS assistance.
Now, scientists are attempting to make a motion sensor so precise it could minimize the nation’s reliance on global positioning satellites. Until recently, such a sensor — a thousand times more sensitive than today’s navigation-grade devices — would have filled a moving truck. But advancements are dramatically shrinking the size and cost of this technology.
For the first time, researchers from Sandia National Laboratories have used silicon photonic microchip components to perform a quantum sensing technique called atom interferometry, an ultra-precise way of measuring acceleration. It is the latest milestone toward developing a kind of quantum compass for navigation when GPS signals are unavailable.
What could the anomalies in temperature, composition, location, and spread of particles mean for satellites and GPS?
A powerful geomagnetic storm on May 11 led to visible auroras in the southern U.S. and disrupted GPS technology. Researchers from Virginia Tech, utilizing NASA ’s GOLD instrument, documented unprecedented atmospheric phenomena and examined the effects on Earth’s ionosphere. The studies underscore the dynamic nature of the upper atmosphere and its susceptibility to solar activities, which are currently intensifying as we approach the peak of the solar cycle in 2025.
WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency awarded contracts to Terran Orbital and York Space Systems to build and operate 10 satellites each for the military’s low Earth orbit communications network, the agency announced Aug. 16.
The contracts, valued at $254 million for Terran Orbital and $170 million for York Space, are for the final 20 satellites of SDA’s Tranche 2 Transport Layer Gamma program. Delivery is expected in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2027.
These satellites will form part of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, a constellation of data relay and sensor satellites designed to provide global communications and missile detection capabilities.
WASHINGTON — Aerospace and defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is set to expand its radio frequency (RF) satellite constellation, aiming to capture a larger share of the market for electronic emissions data.
The company launched its first four RF sensing cubesats last year, built by Spire, marking its entry into this increasingly competitive field. SNC is now gearing up for a significant expansion, with plans to deploy a network of 20 satellites over the next five years.
Chris Morgan, SNC’s vice president, told SpaceNews the company sees a rising demand in the military sector for RF data, which can provide critical intelligence on activities like GPS jamming and enemy movements. The RF sensing market, he said, is also driven by commercial applications.
Update 3:27 p.m. EDT: SpaceX launched the Transporter-11 mission and landed the first stage booster. Payload deployment is set to begin close to 4 p.m. EDT (2000 UTC).
SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base, sending dozens of spacecraft into orbit with its latest rideshare mission launching from California. The rocket’s first stage booster touched down back near the launch site following stage separation, creating a sonic boom for those nearby.
Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) happened 11:56 a.m. PDT (2:56 p.m. EDT, 1,856 UTC). The satellites will be deployed over a more than two-hour-long period.
“This is going to be the fastest AI computer ever launched to space,” Yanni Barghouty, CSC’s cofounder and CEO, told Space.com. “The goal of this mission is simply to demonstrate the successful operation of an AI-capable Nvidia GPU on orbit with minimal to no errors while operating.”
The GPU will fly aboard a cubesat built by San Francisco-based company Aethero, a maker of high-performance, space-rated computers. The GPU’s only task during its four-month orbital mission will be to make mathematical calculations, the results of which will be beamed to Earth and carefully checked.
