Lifeboat Foundation

Viasat shares plunged sharply Thursday in the wake of the announcement.

The first ViaSat-3, launched last April, was expected to provide space-based internet access to customers in the western hemisphere starting this summer. Two more satellites covering Europe, Africa, Asia and the Pacific are expected to launch over the next two years.

Capable of handling up to 1 terabyte of data per second, the satellites are equipped with the largest dish antennas ever launched on a commercial spacecraft. Each satellite’s reflector is designed to deploy atop a long boom.

New military and commercial craft aim to go far higher than jumbo jets and stay there for months, offering a more flexible alternative to satellites.

IVO Ltd. believes its new ‘Quantum Drive’ defies the laws of motion, and it aims to put it to the test by sending it to orbit on a SpaceX rocket.

US company IVO Ltd., a wireless power technology firm, is set to send an all-electric propulsion system for satellites to space for the first time in October.

Continue reading “Quantum drive that draws ‘limitless power’ from Sun will fly to orbit this year” »

The US Space Force has published a call for a new constellation of hypersonic missiles detecting and tracking satellites dubbed “FOO Fighter.”

The United States Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA) has published a draft solicitation for a “FOO Fighter” satellite constellation. The Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter program gives it its full name, F2; the constellation is intended to detect, track, and coordinate the interception of hypersonic missiles.

Continue reading “Space Force wants ‘FOO Fighters’ satellites to combat hypersonic missiles” »

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There are currently thousands of Starlink satellites that belong to SpaceX, and they are causing a lot of disputes in the science and astronomy communities. They are disrupting scientific research by causing streaks in deep space photos, and according to a new study are also dumping “unintended electromagnetic radiation” into space, which could be a major problem for Earth-bound astronauts.

The study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics states that the satellites in low Earth orbit could be muddling or even drowning out signals from deep space that radio astronomers search for.

SpaceX’s veteran Falcon 9 booster, B1058, made its 16th launch on Sunday. This was the 216th successful mission for the series and a record-breaking event for the company.

On the night of July 9, 2023, SpaceX made space history with yet another successful Falcon 9 rocket launch. Blasting off from the Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, the rocket carried a payload of Starlink satellites before landing its first stage booster on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

This is pretty much par for the course for SpaceX, but what is more incredible is that this was the 16th launch and landing of its B1058 Falcon 9 rocket booster. The company now hopes to be able to use the same booster… More.

Continue reading “SpaceX breaks record for Falcon 9 with 16th launch of booster B1058” »

China’s LandSpace is getting ready to launch its revolutionary ZQ-2 methane-powered rocket for the second time sometime this year.

Chinese space tech company LandSpace is gearing up to launch its revolutionary methane-propelled rocket, the Zhuque-2 (ZQ 2), for the second time sometime this year. Scheduled to blast off from the company’s launch facility in the Gobi Desert, the mission will deliver a satellite into space. LandSpace, widely considered China’s answer to SpaceX, the launch is hoped to cement further the utility of using methane as a reliable next generation of rocket fuel.

Continue reading “China readies for second launch of pioneering methane-propelled ZQ-2 rocket” »

The company’s rockets are ferrying astronauts, launching satellites and dominating any competition.

The joint research team of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Professor JeongHo Kwak at the DGIST and Aerospace Engineering Professor Jihwan Choi at the KAIST have proposed a novel network slicing planning and handover technique applicable to next-generation low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite network systems. Findings of the study have been published in the journal IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine.

LEO satellite networks refer to communications networks with satellites launched within 300–1,500km, established for a stable supply of Internet services. Unlike base stations on land in which radio signals are often interfered with by mountains or buildings, LEO satellites can be launched to build communications networks to places with low population density where base stations could not be set up, thereby allowing them to receive the spotlight as a next-generation satellite communications system.

Accordingly, as more and more satellites are placed in lower orbits, satellite networks are expected to be formed as an alternative to terrestrial networks using links between LEO satellites. However, LEO satellites move in predictable orbits, and their connection within the network is wireless, which is why LEO satellite networks must be considered from a different view than terrestrial networks.