A simulated image of a satellite collision and the resulting debris.ESA / ID&Sense / ONiRiXEL, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO NASA’s TIMED satellite narrowly avoided a collision with the dead Russian spacecraft Cosmos 2221 this week. At its worst, the collision would have thrown 7,500 pieces of debris into low Earth orbit. Satellite collisions are becoming … Read more
To light up the deep night sky, a Falcon 9 rocket thundered away from Florida early Thursday, boosting a commercially built robotic lander on a flight to the moon. If successful, it will be the first American spacecraft to reach the moon’s surface in more than fifty years. It was SpaceX’s second flight in less … Read more
A Ukrainian soldier sets up a Starlink satellite.NurPhoto/Getty Images Russia is trying to cut off Ukraine’s access to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, analysts say. That hasn’t happened, despite the development of a growing arsenal of electronic warfare systems, they said. Satellites have proven crucial in military operations and for communications between Ukrainian forces. Russia is … Read more
Ukrainian soldier sets up a Starlink satellite.NurPhoto/Getty Images Russia is trying to cut off Ukraine’s access to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites, analysts say. That hasn’t happened, despite the development of a growing arsenal of electronic warfare systems, they said. Satellites have proven crucial in military operations and for communications between Ukrainian forces. Russia is trying … Read more
A night sky full of stars at the Isik Mountain Karagol Geosite campsite in Kizilcahamam district of Ankara, Turkey on October 14, 2023. Credit – Ahmet Okur – Anadolu/Getty Images I once met a physics student at a cosmology school (I’ll call him Max) who believed until his late twenties that you could only see … Read more
Since the beginning of the Space Age – the launch of Sputnik I in 1957 – humans have placed more than 15,000 satellites into orbit. Just over half are still functioning; the rest, after running out of fuel and ending their useful life, have either burned up in the atmosphere or are still orbiting the … Read more
Since the beginning of the Space Age – the launch of Sputnik I in 1957 – humans have placed more than 15,000 satellites into orbit. Just over half are still functioning; the rest, after running out of fuel and ending their useful life, have either burned up in the atmosphere or are still orbiting the … Read more