Lifeboat Foundation

The new Galileo satellite model from Thales Alenia Space underwent mechanical and signal performance testing this summer at ESA’s ESTEC Test Center. Structural models resisted launch-like noise and vibrations while an electrical model proved its ability to send Galileo signals—a major milestone in the development of Galileo’s Second Generation.

Europe’s Galileo is the world’s most precise satellite navigation system, providing meter-level accuracy to more than 4 billion users worldwide. It currently comprises 28 satellites in orbit and 10 more are due to be launched, after which a new generation of satellites, the Galileo Second Generation or G2, will revolutionize the fleet with enhanced capabilities.

“G2 satellites will be much larger than those of the First Generation, use electric propulsion, host a more powerful navigation antenna, carry more and even better atomic clocks on board and have fully digital payloads,” explains ESA’s Galileo Second Generation Project Manager Miguel Manteiga Bautista. “The modular architecture will offer a high degree of flexibility to accommodate more equipment and inter-satellite links will be enabled,” he adds.

WASHINGTON — Defense contractor L3Harris announced Dec. 20 it has received approval from the Space Development Agency to move into production on 16 satellites designed to detect and monitor hypersonic missiles aimed at the U.S. or its allies.

L3Harris said its satellites cleared a critical design review and a production readiness review.

The Space Development Agency (SDA) is a U.S. Space Force organization building a layered network of satellites known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. It includes a Transport Layer of interconnected communications satellites that will transmit data collected by the Tracking Layer of sensor satellites.

For its latest Hyperspace Challenge accelerator, the U.S. Space Force selected three startups specializing in satellite propulsion, picks reflecting the military’s growing interest in nimble satellites that can maneuver to outplay adversaries.

This marks a shift for the Pentagon, which traditionally has launched satellites into orbit and restricted their movements to conserve fuel. But with rivals fielding maneuverable spacecraft, U.S. officials are calling for a shift to “dynamic space operations,” enabled by autonomous refueling and other in-orbit services.

“Having the ability to refuel would really open new possibilities,” said John Plumb, assistant secretary of defense for space policy. He said the Pentagon is encouraged to see commercial companies developing technologies for in-orbit logistics that also have significant utility for the military.

In a new breakthrough, researchers have used a novel technique to confirm a previously undetected physics phenomenon that could be used to improve data storage in the next generation of computer devices.

Spintronic memories, utilized in advanced computers and satellites, leverage the magnetic states produced by the intrinsic angular momentum of electrons for data storage and retrieval. Depending on its physical motion, an electron’s spin produces a magnetic current. Known as the “spin Hall effect,” this has key applications for magnetic materials across many different fields, ranging from low-power electronics to fundamental quantum mechanics.

More recently, scientists have found that electrons are also capable of generating electricity through a second kind of movement: orbital angular momentum, similar to how Earth revolves around the sun. This is known as the “orbital Hall effect,” said Roland Kawakami, co-author of the study and a professor in physics at The Ohio State University.

Kuiper internet satellites will form a mesh network using optical links.

Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket with 23 second-generation Starlink internet satellites. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for tonight at 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 UTC). The first-stage booster, making its third flight, will land on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ about eight and a half minutes into the flight.\

Our live coverage from Cape Canaveral, with commentary by Will Robinson-Smith, will begin about an hour before launch.\

Continue reading “Watch live: SpaceX launches Starlink satellite from Cape Canaveral on Falcon 9 rocket” »

Nature Communications published research by an international team from Wits and ICFO-The Institute of Photonic Sciences, which demonstrates the teleportation-like transport of “patterns” of light—this is the first approach that can transport images across a network without physically sending the image and a crucial step towards realizing a quantum network for high-dimensional entangled states.

Quantum communication over long distances is integral to information security and has been demonstrated with two-dimensional states (qubits) over very long distances between satellites. This may seem enough if we compare it with its classical counterpart, i.e., sending bits that can be encoded in 1s (signal) and 0s (no signal), one at a time.

However, quantum optics allow us to increase the alphabet and to securely describe more complex systems in a single shot, such as a unique fingerprint or a face.

HELSINKI — China sent the classified Yaogan-41 optical satellite towards the geostationary belt Friday using the country’s largest launch vehicle.

The sixth Long March 5 rocket lifted off from the coastal Wenchang Satellite Launch Center at 8:41 a.m. Eastern (1341 UTC) Dec. 15. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC) announced launch success around an hour later.

Continue reading “China launches large classified optical satellite towards geostationary orbit” »

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab successfully launched a Japanese radar imaging satellite on the first flight of its Electron rocket since a failure nearly three months ago.

The Electron rocket lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 11:05 p.m. Eastern Dec. 14. The vehicle deployed its payload, the QPS-SAR-5 or Tsukuyomi-1 satellite for Japanese company iQPS, nearly 57 minutes after liftoff into a 575-kilometer orbit.

The launch was the first for Electron since a Sept. 19 failure during a launch of another radar imaging satellite for Capella Space. On that mission, the first stage performed as expected but the engine of the second stage appeared to shut down immediately after ignition, preventing it from reaching orbit.