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Category: satellites – Page 9

WASHINGTON — SpaceX resumed launches of its Falcon 9 rocket early Aug. 31 after the Federal Aviation Administration ended a brief grounding of the vehicle.

One Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 at 3:43 a.m. Eastern, placing 21 Starlink satellites into orbit. It was followed at 4:48 a.m. Eastern by another Falcon 9 lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 4E, also delivering 21 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. The 65 minutes between launches is the shortest interval yet between Falcon 9 launches.

The launches were the first by SpaceX since the Aug. 28 launch of a Falcon 9 where the booster was lost during landing on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. While the rocket successfully placed its payload of Starlink satellites into orbit, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a halt in Falcon 9 launches later that day to investigate any public safety implications of the failed landing.

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WASHINGTON — General Dynamics Mission Systems, a unit of defense contractor General Dynamics, has been awarded a $491 million contract extension by the Space Development Agency for satellite ground systems, the Pentagon announced Aug. 30.

The modification nearly doubles the company’s existing contract with the Space Development Agency (SDA) to approximately $900 million through 2029. General Dynamics in 2022 was selected to build the ground operations and integration segment for the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a mesh network of satellites in low Earth orbit designed to support global military operations.

SDA. which is under the U.S. Space Force, is building the PWSA with a dedicated tracking layer that allows for real-time detection and monitoring of ballistic missile threats. The PWSA also is intended to provide a low-latency communication backbone for continuous data transmission, enhancing the ability to coordinate joint operations across different military branches.

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HELSINKI — Chinese researchers are calling for improved space situational awareness, following an assessment of U.S. capabilities and trends.

An article titled “A Review of Space Situational Awareness Satellites: Silentbarker,” published in the journal ACMSR, provides an in-depth review of the development, status and future trends of space situational awareness (SSA) satellites.

It focuses in particular on four significant programs developed by the United States. These are the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), the Space-Based Surveillance System (SBSS), the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) and Silentbarker.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Stunning Auroras and Technological Disruptions.

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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.

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