satellite

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Coming Soon: Gas Station for Satellites

It will deliver fuel, perform repairs to keep them in orbit longer

(Newser) - What's being described by Space.com as the world's first "flying satellite gas station" is expected to launch in 2015. The Space Infrastructure Servicing vehicle, as Canada's MDA Corporation calls it, will zip around and refuel satellites to extend their lives, perform repairs, and use robotic arms to nudge...

NASA's $424M Fail: Satellite Ends Up in Pacific

Glory satellite was to analyze particles in Earth's atmosphere

(Newser) - NASA's latest mission—a $424 million mission at that—has ended up in the Pacific Ocean: The protective shell on a Taurus XL rocket failed to separate from the Earth-observation satellite it was carrying like it was supposed to, reports the AP . "We failed to make orbit," said...

German Satellite May Crash Into Earth This Year

German government worried ROSAT won't burn up on re-entry

(Newser) - The German government doesn't want to alarm anyone but ... one of its decommissioned satellites is expected to fall back to Earth at some point between October and December, and there's a decent chance that the 2.4-ton contraption won't entirely burn up on re-entry, reports Der Spiegel . Which means it...

Solar Storms Could Produce 'Global Katrina'
 Solar Storms 
 Could Produce 
 'Global Katrina' 
in case you missed it
Feb 26, 2011 7:30 AM CST

Solar Storms Could Produce 'Global Katrina'

Solar flare could knock out GPS, other satellites, scientists warn

(Newser) - There’s a very good chance that sometime in the not-so-distant future, a severe solar storm could unleash an electromagnetic pulse on Earth, knocking out satellites, grounding air travel, and disrupting power grids around the world, scientists warned at an American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting. The UK’...

US Threatened to Attack China Over Space Weapons
US Threatened to Attack China Over Space Weapons
wikileaks reveal
Feb 3, 2011 8:59 AM CST

US Threatened to Attack China Over Space Weapons

Beijing 'anti-satellite' display prompted threat from US

(Newser) - The US threatened to take military action against China after Beijing conducted an "anti-satellite test" in 2007 in which it shot down one of its own weather satellites with a missile, WikiLeaks documents reveal. Fearful that the action demonstrated China's ability to destroy satellites belonging to the US, officials...

Observatory to Unveil Search for Other Earths, Life

Kepler observatory to release early findings this week

(Newser) - There's a roving eye watching deep space for signs that the truth—or at least other Earth-like planets or even life—is out there, and we're going to get a glimpse this week. The $600 million Kepler observatory is tracking a small piece of sky filled with some 4.5...

Coming Soon? Free WiFi for World's Poor

Ahumanright.org will buy, re-purpose satellite

(Newser) - One NGO has an ambitious New Year's resolution: to reconfigure a commercial satellite in order to offer free, low-speed wireless Internet to poor parts of the world. Ahumanright.org , a Berlin nonprofit, has placed a bid for TerreStar-1, a communications satellite that belongs to a bankrupt company. From TerreStar's perch...

Gravity's Rainbow Captured in HD

Satellite provides picture of planet pull

(Newser) - A mesmerizingly multi-hued map of the Earth's gravity has been created with the help of detailed measurements taken by Europe's Goce satellite. The data has been transformed into a "geoid," or map, highlighting the differences in the planet's pull, from its mountain ranges to ocean trenches, to create...

Zombie Satellite Set to Wreak Havoc

Unresponsive satellite drifting into trouble

(Newser) - Telecommunications customers who suffer service problems later this month may have an unstoppable space zombie to blame. Intelsat's Galaxy 15 satellite has become a "zombiesat"—an industry term for a failed satellite—and is slowly drifting toward the orbit of other satellites while carrying a still-functioning load of...

New Technology Nails Speeders From Space

Civil liberties group slams 'SpeedSpike'

(Newser) - Forget about trying to spot this speed trap: British authorities are testing new technology that uses satellites to catch speeders. The system combines license-plate-reading technology with a GPS system to calculate a vehicle's average speed between two points. The makers of the "SpeedSpike" system say it could reduce the...

Solar Sail to Clean Up Space Junk

'CubeSail' designed to drag orbiting debris to fiery reentry

(Newser) - British scientists have devised a way to get rid of some of the 5,000-plus tons of space trash orbiting the earth and endangering satellites and astronauts. The team's CubeSail—a plastic sail utilizing high atmospheric gases and solar radiation—is designed to drag dead rockets and satellites out of...

NASA Mission Monitors Polar Ice

Antarctica jet filling in for dying satellite

(Newser) - NASA has begun a mission much closer to home than usual. The agency is flying a DC-8 over Antarctica to track melting glaciers and any subsequent rise in sea levels. Operation Ice Bridge is designed to buttress the work of a fading satellite, ICESat, which is just about spent after...

We'll Ride Nuke to Mars: Russia
 We'll Ride Nuke to Mars: Russia 
Oct 30, 2009 12:33 PM CDT

We'll Ride Nuke to Mars: Russia

Space program plans elusive nuclear spaceship by 2012

(Newser) - The Russians are planning to ride a $600 million nuclear-powered spaceship to Mars, and they say they may begin construction by 2012. “It’s a very serious project, and we need to find the money,” president Dmitry Medvedev says. Small nuclear reactors and batteries have long powered satellites,...

NASA to Smash Rocket Into Moon Tomorrow

New crater will be blasted into surface as NASA hunts for buried ice

(Newser) - If there's ice under the moon's surface, NASA aims to find it tomorrow. A rocket will smash into a crater near the moon's south pole, kicking up hundreds of thousands of pounds of lunar dirt. The dirt will be analyzed for traces of ice or water by a satellite following...

South Korea Launches Space Rocket
South Korea Launches
Space Rocket
Aug 25, 2009 6:44 AM CDT

South Korea Launches Space Rocket

First attempt from own soil; satellite aboard fails to reach orbit

(Newser) - South Korea's first rocket blasted off into space today following an aborted attempt last week and just months after its rival North Korea drew international ire for its own launch. A problem quickly surfaced, however, when the satellite the rocket was carrying apparently failed to enter its intended orbit. ...

South Korea Scrubs Satellite Launch

(Newser) - South Korea scrubbed a planned satellite launch minutes before liftoff today, citing an unspecified technical error, reports the BBC. Seoul has been itching to join the Asian space race and has already produced 10 satellites for other countries' rockets. But the event had threatened to strain recently improved relations with...

Colossal Chinese Dustball Circles Earth in 13 Days

(Newser) - A dust cloud weighing nearly a million tons kicked into the atmosphere by a massive storm in China's Taklamakan desert circled the world almost intact in 13 days, the Telegraph reports. Scientists, who used NASA satellites to track the path of the dustball until it fell apart over the Pacific...

Calif. Utility Aims to Buy Power From Space

Orbiting solar farm planned for 2016

(Newser) - California’s Pacific Gas and Electric is seeking approval for its commitment to buy electricity from an innovative source, the San Francisco Chronicle reports: an orbiting solar power array that would beam electricity back to Earth. Solaren Corp. plans to deploy the satellite sometime before 2016; PG&E has signaled...

Anti-Nuke Group Releases Photos of Korean Rocket

Satellite images of rocket flight released by anti-nuke group

(Newser) - An institution devoted to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons has released images believed to be of North Korea's rocket in flight on Sunday, reports CNN. The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security says the images, taken from satellite, clearly show the exhaust plume from the rocket's burning propellant...

Korea Launch Signals Troubling Progress

Experts believe 'satellite' failure was moderately successful missile test

(Newser) - North Korea's weekend rocket launch failed in the third stage, and its payload—be it friendly satellite or naked nuclear ambition—lies at the bottom of the Pacific, but the test shows alarming progress, experts tell the Los Angeles Times. Analysts dismiss North Korea's claims that a satellite made it...

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