Browsing: Space
Space covers exploration, astronomy, and the growing commercial space industry. Articles here span rocket launches, satellites, missions to the Moon and Mars, telescopes, and the companies and agencies pushing beyond Earth. Follow this tag for the latest discoveries and milestones in space.
SpaceX has agreed to buy Grain Management’s nationwide 800MHz spectrum portfolio, up to 14MHz paired, and says it will build the world’s most advanced mobile network and become a major US carrier. The low band fills the one gap mid band cannot cover, but analysts point out that reliable indoor coverage in cities still needs a terrestrial network SpaceX has not started building.
NASA’s Goddard Instrument Field Team spent part of the summer hiking tidal cliffs in the north-west Scottish Highlands with instruments on their backs. The reason is a set of grey-green spots in Martian rock that could be the residue of ancient life, or could be ordinary chemistry. The rocks at Stoer are 1.2 billion years old and they contain the same spots, which makes them the control group.
A $30 million commercial rescue mission could not reach NASA’s Swift Observatory, so NASA switched its main instrument back on and accepted the cost. The telescope is at 200 miles and sinking, and NASA expects it to stop doing science within weeks.
On September 9, Apple quietly gave iPhone 14, 15 and 16 owners another free year of satellite features. That is the second extension of a promise that originally ran two years, and Apple has still never published a price for what happens when the free period ends. The reason is sitting on the Android side of the aisle.
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter found a 222-meter crater carved by an impact in spring 2024 that nobody on Earth detected. It is the largest fresh lunar crater ever recorded, and the ejecta math now feeds straight into planning for a crewed Moon base.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told a conference audience the Space Force has on-orbit space control weapons. It is the first time a Pentagon official has confirmed it. What he refused to say next is the part arms control analysts are worried about.
Astra is the first OpenAI model to hit the Critical cybersecurity threshold under the Preparedness Framework, finding two zero day vulnerabilities on its own during testing. Its strongest cyber capabilities stay restricted to OpenAI’s vetted Daybreak coalition.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off on a Falcon Heavy on August 30. Its 2.4 meter mirror came free from the National Reconnaissance Office, and it captures a patch of sky at least 100 times wider than Hubble in a single shot.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 briefly carried the highest impact probability ever recorded for an object its size. Webb has now ruled out both an Earth strike and a lunar one. The number worth remembering is not 3.1 percent.
Researchers at Southern Illinois University engineered yeast to turn PET bottles and corn stalks into a protein rich, vanilla scented cookie called µBites. It smells good, it was funded by NASA, and no human has been cleared to taste one.