CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX has cleared the final hurdle for launching its new giant Starship from Texas as early as next week on a first test flight.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued the long-awaited license on Friday. SpaceX announced that Starship — the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket — could soar as soon as Monday.
No people or satellites will be aboard the 394-foot (120-meter) rocket. SpaceX will attempt to send the spacecraft atop the colossal booster around the world, from the southern tip of Texas all the way to Hawaii. The first stage will be discarded in the Gulf of Mexico and the spacecraft into the Pacific. No landings will be attempted for this debut.
The Spanish company Sateliot plans to send its first base station into orbit, which will enable satellite communications directly from smartphones. SpaceX will help it do so. A SpaceX rocket will naturally be used to launch the telecom satellite into orbit.
Here’s What We Know
The company from Spain wants to launch five satellites into orbit by the end of this year. According to representatives of the startup, this first phase of the project will be completed. Sateliot wants to have 64 satellites in orbit next year, and the company plans to increase the number to 256 in 2025.
LISA will consist of a trio of satellites orbiting the sun that will constantly monitor the distances among them. When a gravitational wave comes by, the satellites will detect the telltale signature, like buoys in the ocean recognizing a passing tidal wave.
To search for IMBHs, the astronomers have to hope for a lucky break. If an IMBH in the galactic center happens to capture a wandering dense remnant (like a smaller black hole, a neutron star, or a white dwarf), the process will emit gravitational waves that LISA can potentially detect. Because the IMBH itself will be orbiting around the central supermassive black hole, these gravitational waves will undergo a Doppler shift (like the shifting in frequencies from a passing ambulance) due to the IMBH’s motion.
Incubating The UAE National Space Program — H.E. Salem Humaid Al Marri — Director General, Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center
H.E. Salem Humaid Al Marri, is Director General, Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC), in Dubai, UAE, which is an advanced scientific and technological hub, responsible for making the UAE a world leader in space services and exploration.
Established in 2006, MBRSC started out with five engineers but since then, the center has significantly expanded on a journey to be the incubator of the UAE National Space Program, building, developing, and operating a number of Earth observation satellites, providing imaging services and analysis, as well as producing relevant data to scientific communities and research centers around the world. Among the satellites that the center operates are DubaiSat-1 & DubaiSat-2. The MBRSC is also responsible for KhalifaSat, celebrated as the first satellite that was fully built by Emiratis in 2018. Recently, the center revealed its plan to develop the new satellite MBZ-SAT, which is expected to be launched at the end of 2023 and to be the latest in the field of high-resolution imaging from outer space.
Mr. Al Marri’s role is centered on ensuring that the vision and mission of MBRSC are achieved through the different technical and scientific programs being run at the Center and has previously held the same position at the Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) before it was integrated into the Center. He is currently overseeing the expansion of the Center in different scientific and technical fields along with the center’s continued development in the space field, and working towards ensuring all initiatives at MBRSC serve the stakeholders with useful value added services, with one of his major goals ensuring the achievement of domestic satellite development through Emirati engineers.
Mr. Al Marri’s has over 10 years experience in the Space Field, was part of the team which setup EIAST and MBRSC, was formally the Director of the Space Program Department at (EIAST), and he was the Project Manager for MBRSC’s earlier satellite projects DubaiSat-1 and DubaiSat-2.
Both SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and Starship could take to the skies next week in an action-packed few days for Elon Musk’s space firm.
SpaceX showed off its Falcon Heavy rocket ahead of its next launch, scheduled for April 18.
SpaceX prepares for the next Falcon Heavy launch.
SpaceX / Twitter.
The private space firm, which is also gearing up for the first orbital launch of its massive Starship rocket, will launch a ViaSat-3 broadband communications satellite to orbit aboard Falcon Heavy next week. The mission will take off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
WASHINGTON — The ground terminals used to operate U.S. military and intelligence satellites are running out of capacity and in dire need of upgrades, warns a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
GAO auditors spent more than a year investigating the state of the Satellite Control Network, operated by the U.S. Space Force. The network of 19 parabolic antennas, first established in 1959, is distributed across seven locations around the world.
The SCN is facing “obsolescence challenges and potential capacity gaps as DoD and other agencies launch more satellite systems that will rely on the network,” says GAO in the report released April 10.
Remark: This article is from The Conversation “En Anglais” written by Victor DOS SANTOS PAULINO & Nonthapat PULSIRI (V&N) — Experts from Toulouse Business School and The SIRIUS Chair (France)
When talking about space, one might think about the stars one sees at night or a good sci-fi film. But space is also crowded with satellites, spacecrafts and astronauts, whose missions can last anywhere from several days to months. Meanwhile, 8,216 unmanned satellites revolve around Earth’s orbits to improve our daily lives. Communication satellites contribute to enhancing Internet access in regions deprived of infrastructure (so-called “white areas”); meteorology satellites have become essential for weather forecasts, while navigation satellites (including GPS) are crucial for current and future transportation needs such as automatic driving vehicles.
Technological advances in the sector have unlocked many new business opportunities. The industry can now launch constellations of thousand satellites to reach corners of the earth as it had never before (e.g., Starlink), while new markets such as space mining and space tourism are steadily growing. National champions (including the United States and France) have also framed the space sector as a top economic priority. It is thought the technological benefits accrued by companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin or OneWeb, launched by billionaires such as Elon Musk, will also be able to trickle down to non-space sectors such as the energy or freight industries.
In case you have not heard of them, Dawn Aerospace is one of the fastest-growing private space companies in the world, with clients from Europe, Asia, and the United States. They call themselves a “green” in-space propulsion supplier, and they also, to date, have around 11 operational satellites currently in orbit.
There’s enough trouble on this planet already that we don’t need new problems coming here from the sun. Unfortunately, we can’t yet destroy this pitiless star, so we are at its mercy. But NASA at least may soon be able to let us know when one of its murderous flares is going to send our terrestrial systems into disarray.
Understanding and predicting space weather is a big part of NASA’s job. There’s no air up there, so no one can hear you scream, “Wow, how about this radiation!” Consequently, we rely on a set of satellites to detect and relay this important data to us.
One such measurement is of solar wind, “an unrelenting stream of material from the sun.” Even NASA can’t find anything nice to say about it! Normally this stream is absorbed or dissipated by our magnetosphere, but if there’s a solar storm, it may be intense enough that it overwhelms the local defenses.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. after an eleventh-hour scramble to secure further funding failed, the satellite company announced on Tuesday, marking the end of a sudden spiral that followed a botched high-profile launch attempt out of Britain in January.
Virgin Orbit has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, documents show.
Virgin Orbit said it had failed to secure sufficient funding to stay in business and the decision comes less than a week after it laid off most of its staff and ceased operations.
Virgin Orbit, which laid off most of its staff last week, struggled to secure funding after a failed satellite launch from the U.K. in January.
