Satellites show Arctic sea ice is melting even faster than scientists realized

A new study based on NASA and ESA satellite data shows that Arctic sea ice is thinning at a “frightening rate.” Measuring the ice via satellites each month from 2018 to 2021, polar scientists Sahra Kacimi of the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Ron Kwok of the University of Washington’s Applied Physics … Read more

Astra aces return-to-flight mission, deploys satellites for 1st time

Astra bounced back from last month’s launch failure with a groundbreaking success, deploying satellites in Earth orbit for the first time ever. The California company’s two-stage Launch Vehicle 0009 (LV0009) lifted off from the Pacific Spaceport Complex on Alaska’s Kodiak Island today (March 15) at 12:22 p.m. EDT (1622 GMT; 8:22 a.m. local time on … Read more

Arctic Ice Already Thinning at a ‘Frightening Rate’, Satellites Reveal

New satellite data has revealed the Arctic is melting at a “frightening rate” due to the excess heat caused by human greenhouse gas emissions.  End-of-season Arctic multiyear sea ice – the ice that persists over several years – was roughly 50 centimeters (1.6 feet) thinner in 2021 than it was in 2019, the figures show, … Read more

Canadian radar satellites to help Ukraine fight off Russian invasion

A Canadian aerospace company is doing its part to help Ukraine fight off the Russian invasion. The Canadian government has granted MDA permission to collect satellite imagery of restricted areas of Ukraine using synthetic aperture radar (SAR), the Ontario-based company announced on Tuesday (March 8). “Images captured by MDA’s SAR technology, which is unique for … Read more

SpaceX to launch 48 Starlink satellites, land rocket Wednesday morning: Watch live

SpaceX will launch four dozen Starlink internet satellites and land the returning rocket on Wednesday (March 9), and you can watch the action live. A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with 48 Starlink spacecraft is scheduled to lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Wednesday at 8:45 a.m. EST (13:45 GMT). If all … Read more

An Expert Explains How Solar Storms Can So Easily Destroy Satellites

On Feb. 4, 2022, SpaceX launched 49 satellites as part of Elon Musk‘s Starlink internet project, most of which burned up in the atmosphere days later. The cause of this more than US$50 million failure was a geomagnetic storm caused by the Sun.   Geomagnetic storms occur when space weather hits and interacts with the … Read more

Russia removes Soyuz rocket with 36 OneWeb satellites from launch pad (photos)

The outcome was expected, but the visuals are still dramatic. On Friday (March 4), Russia removed a Soyuz rocket topped with 36 OneWeb internet satellites from its launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which is managed jointly by the Russian Aerospace Forces and Roscosmos, Russia’s federal space agency.  The Soyuz was originally supposed to … Read more

Satellites are critical to fighting the climate crisis, scientists say

Space remains a vital resource in studying climate change on our own planet. On Monday (Feb. 28), the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the second piece of its latest climate report. (The first piece was published in August 2021August and the third will be released in April). The report details how … Read more

Russia Just Ceased Joint Experiments on The International Space Station

Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, will no longer cooperate with Germany on science experiments aboard the Russian side of the International Space Station (ISS), it said in a tweet Thursday.    “The Russian space program will be adjusted against the backdrop of sanctions, the priority will be the creation of satellites in the interests of defense,” Roscosmos … Read more

SpaceX to launch 47 Starlink satellites, land rocket Thursday morning: Watch it live

SpaceX will launch 47 satellites and land the returning rocket on Thursday morning (March 3), and you can watch the action live. A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket carrying 47 Starlink internet satellites is scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida Thursday at 9:35 a.m. EST (1435 GMT). About nine minutes later, the Falcon … Read more