News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
NASA raised concerns about SpaceX’s new Starlink satellites, including an increase of the risk of collision in orbit, in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The five-page letter was submitted to the FCC Tuesday (Feb. 8) and was first reported in SpaceNews. The letter, which includes a separate one-page letter from the National Science Foundation, … Read more
An Arianespace Soyuz rocket launched 34 new broadband satellites for the OneWeb constellation to space today (Feb. 10). In its first mission of 2022, the European launch provider Arianespace launched Soyuz Flight VS27 from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana at 1:09 p.m. EST (3:09 p.m. local time, or 1809 GMT). “There we … Read more
A Soyuz rocket will carry 34 more broadband satellites for OneWeb to space, and you can watch the launch live. Arianespace‘s first mission of the year will launch Soyuz Flight VS27 from French Guiana at 1:09 p.m. EST (3:09 p.m. local time, or 1809 GMT) on Thursday (Feb. 10). “The total duration of the mission … Read more
A powerful geomagnetic storm has doomed 40 Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX last week, the company has announced. Elon Musk‘s company launched a Falcon 9 rocket bearing the 49 satellites from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday (Feb. 3), but a geomagnetic storm that struck a day later sent the satellites plummeting back toward Earth, … Read more
Elon Musk’s SpaceX will lose 40 Starlink satellites to a geomagnetic storm as solar activity ramps up. But does this spell disaster for the future of satellites in space? On Tuesday (Feb. 8), SpaceX revealed that likely 40 of its 49 newest Starlink satellites that launched last Thursday (Feb. 3) were affected by a geomagnetic … Read more
A dramatic video serves as a memorial to a star-crossed satellite that lived fast and died very young. SpaceX launched 49 satellites to low Earth orbit on Feb. 3 to further beef up the company’s huge and growing Starlink internet megaconstellation. But most of those newly lofted spacecraft will never beam any broadband signals down, … Read more
SpaceX is in the process of losing up to 40 brand-new Starlink internet satellites due to a geomagnetic storm that struck just a day after the fleet’s launch last week. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 49 Starlink satellites from Florida on Thursday (Feb. 3) from NASA’s historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center … Read more
By Adam Vaughan Glacier in the Fitz Roy mountain range in Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina Maciej Bledowski / Alamy People living in the Andes in South America will reach “peak water” – defined as a declining availability of water – much sooner than expected because the glaciers they rely on have been found to … Read more
The number of active satellites in the night sky has more than doubled since 2019 – from around 2,200 to 5,000. That is mostly due to Starlink, a SpaceX project aimed at providing internet anywhere in the world through ‘mega-constellations’ of satellites. Since it began, Starlink has launched over 2,000 satellites. Unfortunately, the thousands of … Read more
SpaceX just added another 49 satellites to its growing Starlink internet megaconstellation. A Falcon 9 rocket launched 49 new Starlink satellites to orbit today (Feb. 3), lifting off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on the east coast of Florida at 1:13 p.m. EST (1813 GMT). About nine minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 rocket’s … Read more