Satellite

SpaceX launches classified spy satellite for US military, lands rocket

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SpaceX sent a U.S. spy satellite to orbit today (Feb. 2) in the second of three planned launches over a four-day stretch. A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) NROL-87 payload lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California today at 3:27 p.m. EST (2027 GMT; 12:27 p.m. local … Read more

SpaceX will launch a classified spy satellite on a new Falcon 9 rocket today and you can watch it live

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A new SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch a classified spy satellite for the United States today (Feb. 2) and you’ll be able to watch it all live online.  The Falcon 9 rocket will launch the secret NROL-87 payload for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office from Space Launch Complex 4E at California’s Vandenberg Space Force … Read more

SpaceX delays launch of Italian satellite again, this time because of wayward ship

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SpaceX has had to delay the launch of an Italian Earth-observation satellite yet again, but this time Mother Nature was not to blame. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was all set to loft the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 (CSG-2) satellite from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Sunday (Jan. 30) at 6:11 p.m. EST … Read more

SpaceX delays rocket launch carrying Italian satellite due to bad weather

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Mother Nature has foiled a planned SpaceX launch for the second day in a row. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was originally supposed to launch the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 (CSG-2) satellite from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday evening (Jan. 27), but thick clouds and strong winds forced a 24-hour delay. That … Read more

News at a glance: Welcoming STEM students, a silent radar satellite, and China’s gene-edited crops | Science

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GEOSCIENCE Orbiting radar mapper goes dark The head of the European Space Agency said last week the agency may accelerate the launch of its next Earth-observing radar satellite, after a power supply anomaly caused one of its two orbiting radar satellites, Sentinel-1B, to go dark for more than 1 month. Since its launch in 2016, … Read more

SpaceX launching Italian Earth-observation satellite Thursday: Watch live

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SpaceX will launch an Italian Earth-observation satellite to orbit Thursday (Jan. 27), and you can watch it live. A two-stage SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket topped with the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation FM2 (CSG-2) satellite is scheduled to lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Thursday at 6:11 p.m. EST (2311 GMT). The rocket’s first … Read more

Space Force satellite launch could create a luminous cloud in tonight’s evening sky

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If you are outside doing some stargazing in the Western Hemisphere this evening and are looking up at just the right time, you might catch sight of something that will appear quite strange: a small circular cloud of light that will rapidly expand to roughly the apparent size of a full moon, before finally fading … Read more

China sends classified satellite into space during first launch of 2022

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China executed its first launch of 2022 with a classified mission, the Shiyan 13 test satellite. The Long March 2D rocket carrying Shiyan 13 launched from the China National Space Administration‘s (CNSA) northern Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center Tuesday (Jan. 17) at 10:35 a.m. local time (0235 GMT, or 9:35 p.m. EST on Jan. 16) The … Read more

Lasting devastation from Tonga volcano eruption revealed in satellite images

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Tonga’s volcanic eruption has left behind damage so severe that satellites can see it from space. On Saturday (Jan. 15), the volcano erupted on the island Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai in the South Pacific kingdom of Tonga after it began brewing a couple of days earlier. It was the volcano’s second explosive event in two months, … Read more