Tag: satellites
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LeoStella’s CEO works on the next phase of evolution for the satellite revolution
Former Boeing engineer Tim Kienberger became LeoStella’s CEO in January. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) TUKWILA, Wash. — Will LeoStella go beyond LEO? It’s been four years since LeoStella, a joint venture created by BlackSky and Thales Alenia Space, opened the doors of its Tukwila factory and began building Earth observation satellites that BlackSky could…
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How power is blazing a trail for America’s space effort — and for nuclear startups
An artist’s conception shows a nuclear thermal propulsion system at work in orbit (USNC-Tech Illustration) As more and more hardware goes into Earth orbit, and eventually to the moon and Mars, where will the power to run all those machines come from? That’s one of the questions under consideration at a State of the Space…
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‘Redmond Space District’ celebrates the Northwest’s hotspot for satellite industry
SpaceX employees in Redmond, Wash., give a cheer during the countdown to a Starlink satellite launch in 2019. Thousands of Starlink satellites have been built in Redmond. (SpaceX via YouTube) REDMOND, Wash. — This Seattle-area suburb has played a role in the space industry for more than a half-century, but the city of Redmond is…
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NRO awards contracts to Xplore and five other hyperspectral imaging companies
Xplore is working on its Xcraft satellite platform at its HQ in Redmond, Wash. (Xplore Illustration) The National Reconnaissance Office awarded study contracts to six companies offering — or planning to offer — satellite images of Earth in multiple wavelengths, including Redmond, Wash.-based Xplore. Other companies receiving contracts under NRO’s multi-stage Strategic Commercial Enhancements Broad…
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‘Open for business’: Amazon shows off antennas for its Kuiper satellite network
Amazon’s Dave Limp compares the size of the smallest Kuiper antenna, at right, to a Kindle ebook, at left. (Satellite 2023 via YouTube) After years of development, Amazon is showing off the antennas it plans to use for its Project Kuiper satellite broadband network — and says it plans to begin offering beta service for…
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Starfish Space raises $14M to advance development of satellite servicing vehicles
An artist’s conception shows an Otter servicing vehicle docked to a larger satellite. (Starfish Space Illustration) Starfish Space, a Seattle-area startup founded by two veterans of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture, has raised $14 million in funding to support its plans to develop spacecraft capable of hooking up with bigger satellites to boost their…
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Study highlights concerns over satellite interference with Hubble observations
A raw Hubble image shows a satellite streak. (NASA / ESA / STScI / Kruk et al. / Nature) An analysis of more than 100,000 images from the Hubble Space Telescope, conducted with the aid of artificial intelligence and hundreds of human volunteers, confirms that satellites including SpaceX’s Starlink spacecraft are increasingly interfering with astronomical…
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Amazon’s Kuiper satellites are good to go after FCC’s approval of orbital debris plan
Artwork shows ULA’s Vulcan rocket lifting off with Amazon’s Kuiper satellites. (Amazon Illustration) The Federal Communications Commission says Amazon’s 3,236-satellite Project Kuiper constellation is fully cleared for deployment after the company filed an acceptable plan for dealing with the risks of orbital debris. This week’s order follows up on the conditional approval that the FCC…
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The cloud in orbit: Amazon Web Services demonstrates data analysis on a satellite
An artist’s conception shows D-Orbit’s ION spacecraft deploying smaller satellites. (D-Orbit Illustration) For the past 10 months, Amazon Web Services has been running data through its cloud-based software platform on what’s arguably the world’s edgiest edge: a satellite in low Earth orbit. The experiment, revealed today during AWS’ re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, is aimed…
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Amazon switches Project Kuiper prototype satellites to ULA’s first Vulcan launch
An artist’s conception shows a ULA Vulcan Centaur rocket launching Amazon’s satellites. (Amazon Illustration) The first two prototype satellites for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband internet network are now due to launch on the first-ever flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket early next year, rather than on ABL Space Systems’ rocket. Today’s announcement comes…