News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
Make it three in a row for Virgin Orbit. Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket lofted seven small satellites for three different customers today (Jan. 13), marking the third straight successful mission for the California-based company. Cosmic Girl, Virgin Orbit’s modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft, lifted off from Mojave Air and Space Port in Southern California today … Read more
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched its second rocket of the year Thursday morning (Jan. 13) as one of its veteran boosters carried 105 small satellites into orbit before landing back on Earth. The two-stage Falcon 9 rocket lifted off into a clear blue sky at 10:25 a.m. EST (1525 GMT) from Space Launch … Read more
Virgin Orbit will launch its fourth-ever space mission today (Jan. 13), and you can watch the action live. The flight, named “Above the Clouds” after a 1998 song by Gang Starr, is scheduled to lift off from California’s Mojave Air and Space Port today between 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. EST (2100 to 2330 GMT). … Read more
Concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere continued to rise in 2021 in spite of climate pledges and the economic slowdown brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, satellite data reveal. Methane concentrations in particular showed a worrying trend, rising to a new maximum of nearly 1,900 parts per billion (ppb), according to the European Earth … Read more
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched its first Falcon 9 rocket of the year Thursday (Jan. 6), sending a new stack of Starlink satellites into orbit from Florida, before nailing a landing at sea. The previously flown Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 4:49 p.m. EST (2149 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 at … Read more
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX is gearing up to launch its first rocket of 2022 on Thursday evening (Jan. 6) and you can watch the action live online. The private spaceflight company will launch a stack of 49 Starlink satellites on one of its previously flown Falcon 9 rockets. (The company is expected to confirm … Read more
China moved its Tianhe space station module twice this year to avoid SpaceX Starlink internet satellites, and the nation apparently isn’t too happy about it. Chinese officials filed a note with the United Nations (UN) earlier this month explaining that Starlink spacecraft had two “close encounters” with Tianhe this year, both of them occurring when … Read more
China launched the Ziyuan 1 (02E) Earth resources observation satellite and a small amateur radio satellite on Saturday, marking the country’s 53rd orbital launch of the year. The China National Space Administration mission’s Long March 4C rocket lifted off from Taiyuan, north China, at 10:11 p.m. Dec. 25 (0311 GMT, 11:11 a.m. local time Dec. … Read more
An Arianespace Soyuz rocket launched dozens of new internet satellites into orbit Monday (Dec. 27) to boost a growing megaconstellation by service provider OneWeb. The Russian-built Soyuz rocket launched 36 OneWeb satellites from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8:10 a.m. EST (1310 GMT). The flight comes just two days after an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket … Read more
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket for a record 11th time Saturday (Dec. 18), sending a new stack of Starlink satellites into orbit from California in a predawn liftoff. The previously flown Falcon 9 rocket blasted off at 7:41 a.m. EST (1241 GMT, 04:41 a.m. local time) from Space Launch … Read more