Author: starpathwp-production
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Kuiper Belt Exploration
The Kuiper Belt is a vast, disc-shaped region that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune, spanning distances from approximately 30 to 55 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. This region serves as a repository of ancient materials, holding countless small icy objects, comets, and dwarf planets such as Pluto, Haumea, and Makemake. This remote and…
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Sen: capturing Earth’s beauty from space in 4K
Sen is on a mission to democratize space through the use of high-quality video from above the Earth. The cameras it has launched into space so far include a free 4K video livestream from the International Space Station (ISS). NSF recently spoke with the company’s CEO, Charles Black, who hopes these views will be accessed…
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The odds of a city-killer asteroid impact in 2032 keep rising. Should we be worried?
An asteroid discovered late last year is continuing to stir public interest as its odds of striking planet Earth less than eight years from now continue to increase. Two weeks ago, when Ars first wrote about the asteroid, designated 2024 YR4, NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies estimated a 1.9 percent chance of an…
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NASA to Provide Live Coverage of SPHEREx and PUNCH Mission Launch
NASA will provide live coverage of prelaunch and launch activities for SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer), the agency’s newest space telescope. This will lift off with another NASA mission, Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, or PUNCH, which will study the Sun’s solar wind. The…
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SuperSharp Selects NanoAvionics’ Microsatellite Platform for Blue Moon Mission
UK-based SuperSharp, part of the Satlantis group, has selected Kongsberg NanoAvionics’s MP42 microsatellite platform for a first-of-its-kind Thermal InfraRed (TIR) mission called Blue Moon. The mission will embark SuperSharp’s flagship instrument HIBISCUS, an 80kg payload, onboard NanoAvionics’ flight-proven MP42 satellite bus. The launch is scheduled for the second half of 2026 onboard a SpaceX’s Transporter rideshare service.…
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Rubicon Secures NASA Contract to Develop ASCENT Thruster
Rubicon Space Systems achieves a NASA contract to develop a 110-newton ASCENT thruster prototype. ASCENT stands for Advanced Spacecraft Energetic Non-Toxic Propellant developed by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in the 1990s. It’s the most powerful ASCENT thruster built for the government. The new contract could pave the way for ASCENT thrusters to serve…
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Rocket Lab Launches BlackSky’s First Gen-3 Satellite on 60th Electron Mission
Rocket Lab successfully launched its 60th Electron, deploying the first Gen-3 satellite for BlackSky’s Earth-imaging satellite constellation. The ‘Fasten Your Space Belts’ mission lifted off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand at 12:17 p.m. local time on Feb. 19 (6:17 p.m. EST on Feb. 18). The Gen-3 satellite was deployed using…
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BlackSky Receives Contract for Subscription-Based Imagery and Analytics Services
BlackSky Technology won a six-figure contract from a new strategic international customer to provide immediate, subscription-based on-demand Gen-2 imagery and analytics services and comprehensive analyst training on the AI-powered BlackSky Spectra multi-intelligence tasking and analytics platform. Analyst training will also emphasize the use of BlackSky’s automated broad area search and discovery tools. “BlackSky’s software-first adoption…
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Rocket Lab Successfully Launches 60th Electron to Deploy BlackSky’s First Gen-3 Satellite
Rocket Lab USA, a global leader in launch services and space systems, successfully launched its 60th Electron to deploy the next satellite in the Earth-imaging satellite constellation of real-time space-based intelligence company BlackSky. The ‘Fasten Your Space Belts’ mission lifted off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand at 12:17 NZDT on…
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In a last-minute decision, White House decides not to terminate NASA employees
Unlike workers at many other federal agencies this week, probationary employees at NASA were not terminated on Tuesday. For much of the day employees at the space agency anticipated a directive from the White House Office of Personnel Management to fire these employees, but it never came. “We were on pins and needles throughout the…