Author: starpathwp-production
-
Rocket Lab Books Three More Electron Launches for Japan’s iQPS, Third Deal in Under a Year
The contract continues iQPS’ build out of its Earth-imaging constellation using synthetic aperture radar, a technology that creates images from radio wave measurements and allows data collection at any time of day and under any weather conditions. Rocket Lab has served as iQPS’ primary launch provider since 2023. The three new dedicated launches are scheduled…
-
Spent Falcon 9 Stage Set to Strike the Moon on August 5, Offering a Live Test for Impact Science
The stage is a leftover from the launch that carried Firefly’s Blue Ghost-1 lander to the moon on January 15, 2025. That same flight also carried the Hakuto-R Mission 2 lander, called Resilience, developed by the Japanese company ispace. An international team led by William Jo, a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas,…
-
Space Force-backed mission does its best impression of Top Gun in orbit
An ongoing military exercise happening hundreds of miles above Earth has—for the first time in an unclassified setting—demonstrated how future satellites might evade and pursue one another in a future conflict. That was the announcement Wednesday from True Anomaly, one of the companies involved in the exercise. True Anomaly’s Jackal satellite, also known as Panther,…
-
AST SpaceMobile Schedules Launch of BlueBird 11, 12 and 13 Satellites
AST SpaceMobile, the company developing a space-based cellular broadband network accessible directly by smartphones, designed for both commercial and government applications, had announced that the launch of BlueBird 11, 12, and 13 satellites had been scheduled for Wednesday, August 5, 2026, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff had…
-
Sophia Space and Caltech Win Patent for Modular Space-Based Data Centers
The patent covers the architecture for a modular, scalable, passively cooled computing and data storage unit designed for assembly into large computing data centers powered by solar energy. Its roots lie in Caltech’s Space-based Solar Power Project, an internal research and development campaign to collect solar energy in space and transmit it to Earth. Based…
-
Starlink’s Link Budget Comes up Short for the D2D Opportunity
SpaceX has identified a massive total addressable market (TAM) for Starlink Mobile … but many people have expressed doubts. Let’s look at the technical issues that matter. A detailed analysis of the link budget shows that the Starlink Direct-to-Cellular service will be significantly impaired for indoor services, and also for service in vehicles like cars…
-
Sophia Space and Caltech File Orbital Data Centers Patent
Sophia Space and Caltech collaboratively issued Patent No. 12,679,564, titled Space-Based Data Centers. The patent—filed in October 2024 and issued on July 14, 2026—covers architectures for the implementation of large-scale, modular data centers in space. The two companies announced the patent, July 29. The patent names seven inventors, drawing on expertise from JPL, Caltech, and…
-
Katalyst Space Encounters Attitude Control Issues With Link Spacecraft
Katalyst Space has run into technical issues with attitude control on the recently launched LINK spacecraft, on a mission to rescue NASA’s Swift Observatory. Katalyst issued an update on Tuesday, saying that two of three reaction wheels on the spacecraft are non-functional and partial reaction control system (RCS) functionality. The spacecraft has been in a…
-
SES to Connect 60+ Aircraft for LATAM Airlines
SES will connect more than 60 Airbus and Embraer aircraft with multi-orbit in-flight connectivity (IFC) for LATAM Airlines in the next few years under a new deal announced Wednesday. The deal includes A320neo, A321XLR, and E195-E2 aircraft. SES noted that LATAM will be the largest airline in the Latin America region to offer IFC service…
-
ispace Signs H3 Launch Deal with MHI for Lunar Mission 2028
ispace, a lunar exploration company, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) have announced that the two companies have signed a contract for launch and transportation services for ispace’s Mission 3 ULTRA Lunar Lander using MHI’s H3 rocket, currently scheduled for 2028. Through the agreement, ispace has secured Japan’s launch capability provided by MHI and has strengthened…