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🛰 Tracking breakthroughs that inspire humanity’s next great leap in space exploration and technology.

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2026-04-11 13:44:37 UTC

Censorship is disgusting!

2026-02-06 23:46:29 UTC

The boreal forest—the world’s largest terrestrial biome—is warming faster than any other forest type. To understand the changing dynamics of boreal forests, Feng et al., 2026 analyzed the biome from 1985 to 2020, leveraging the longest and highest-resolution satellite record of calibrated tree cover to date. The study, published in February in Biogeosciences with four co-authors from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, confirms a northward shift in boreal forest cover over the past four decades.
https://blossom.primal.net/af5a4b3c55bcd7300e01f063be85c9450a9069769a20f656874a19b90465b3d4.mp4

2026-02-05 22:49:53 UTC

The French divers had been descending along the steep Indonesian reef wall for long minutes, their beams of light swallowed almost instantly by the abyss. The computers on their wrists ticked past 100 meters. Then 110. Then 120. The hum of their rebreathers and the distant crackle of the reef were the only sounds. And suddenly, out of the dark, that eye. They all knew the shape from old black‑and‑white photos in biology books. They also knew nobody had ever filmed it alive, in this place, at this depth.
Before them, in the beam of three lamps, drifted a coelacanth, the legendary “living fossil” that scientists once thought had vanished with the dinosaurs. Its lobe-finned limbs paddled like four miniature legs. Its tail undulated with a quiet, prehistoric grace. For long seconds, nobody moved. The fish turned its head, regarded the lights, then retreated slowly into a crack in the cliff, as if reversing into time itself.
https://blossom.primal.net/d976716922f9ef22f0e5fd263483c439c21f33414b31e4acdd55fa11e160a9c6.jpg

2026-02-05 22:37:34 UTC

World’s first ‘biomimetic AI robot’ Moya debuts with 92% human-like walking accuracy.
The robot, named Moya, was unveiled in Shanghai by the robotics company DroidUp, which describes it as the world’s first fully biomimetic embodied intelligent robot. Moya is built around the idea of embodied artificial intelligence, systems that can perceive, reason, and act within the physical world rather than operating purely in digital environments.
In the footage shared by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the humanoid is seen smiling, nodding, making eye contact, and walking with a gait that closely resembles human movement. The company claims Moya can replicate human micro-expressions, a feature that places it among the most humanlike robots currently under development.
Standing 1.65 metres (5.5 feet) tall and weighing around 32 kilograms (70 pounds), Moya has been designed with proportions close to those of an adult human. DroidUp also states that the robot maintains a body temperature between 32 and 36 degrees Celsius (89.6°F and 96.8°F), a detail intended to enhance its lifelike presence during interaction. The company reports that Moya’s walking posture has an accuracy of 92 percent, highlighting its focus on stable, natural locomotion.
Moya’s development appears to build on DroidUp’s earlier humanoid robotics work, though the company has disclosed limited technical details about the platform underlying the robot. According to the RoboHorizon website, Moya is built on a “Walker 3” chassis. DroidUp has not formally named or detailed this platform in its own disclosures.
RoboHorizon reports that Moya features a modular design, allowing its external appearance to be customised without altering the underlying mechanical structure.
The robot’s debut comes at a time when humanoid development is branching in multiple directions globally. Some companies deliberately design robots with cartoon-like or stylised appearances to avoid human comparison, while others emphasise clearly mechanical forms suited to industrial work. A smaller group, including DroidUp, continues to pursue highly realistic designs that aim to cross the uncanny valley rather than avoid it.
DroidUp is not presenting Moya solely as a domestic robot. According to SCMP, the company envisions the humanoid being used across healthcare, education, and other commercial environments where human-robot interaction plays a central role.
Rather than focusing on industrial tasks or high-speed athletic demonstrations, the company appears to be targeting settings that require prolonged interaction and a sense of approachability. Moya is expected to enter the market by late 2026, with a reported starting price of around 1.2 million yuan, according to figures cited in the SCMP video. Final pricing and availability details have not yet been formally announced.
https://blossom.primal.net/1a0ddee21203a1c6fb904acc9f95f51a90c26ad2b6a89209515588deb191ed9c.webp

2026-02-05 08:54:47 UTC

Mars almost certainly once held abundant water. Until now, observations have shown that most atmospheric water loss occurs during the Red Planet’s southern summer, when warmer, dustier conditions allow water vapor to rise to high altitudes without condensing and escape into space. In new research, planetary scientists identified a previously unrecognized pathway for water loss — observed, for the first time, during the opposite season. Their results show that a strong, localized and short-lived dust storm in Martian Year 37 (August 2023) drove a surge of water vapor upward during the northern summer.
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2026-02-05 05:13:21 UTC

The Juno observations showed that Jupiter has an equatorial diameter of 88,841 miles (142,976 km), which is about 5 miles (8 km) smaller than previous measurements had indicated. The observations also showed that Jupiter's diameter from north pole to south pole is 83,067 miles (133,684 km), about 15 miles (24 km) smaller than previously estimated.
The planet, like our own, is not a perfect sphere, but rather a bit flattened - and, based on the new data, slightly more so than previously known. Jupiter is about 7% larger at the equator than at the poles. For comparison, Earth's equator is only 0.33% larger than its diameter at the poles.
https://blossom.primal.net/2e518f50fcacf490227768e6d260f8d136950399dc0f353a0bd6d033cfb9fd35

2026-02-05 05:05:24 UTC

On Jan. 21, the Air Force conducted a live warhead test of a new standoff cruise missile that was developed in less than a year and a half. The Extended Range Attack Munition, or ERAM, is an air-launched cruise missile that is designed to allow the Air Force to strike high-value fixed targets from standoff range with precision guidance, at an affordable cost.
The test was conducted at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and involved the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Armament Directorate, the 96th Test Wing and industry partners, the Air Force said. The Air Force said the test met all primary objectives, including a full detonation of its warhead. The data Eglin’s engineers collected will be used to help further refine and mature the ERAM design.
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2026-02-05 05:02:36 UTC

Raytheon, a division of RTX, announced Wednesday that it would ramp up production of several key missile systems, weeks after President Donald Trump threatened to nix the company’s government contracts unless it invested more in manufacturing.
The defense giant said it reached five agreements with the Pentagon to accelerate annual deliveries of these precision munitions — by as much as four times their current rates — including more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, at least 1,900 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles and roughly 500 SM-6 missiles. Production of SM-3 IIA and SM-3 IB missile defense interceptors are also expected to rise.
RTX, during a post earnings call last week, said it plans to make a $500 million increase in investments in 2026, enhancing facilities that make munitions.
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2026-02-05 04:59:13 UTC

Viridian inks cooperative agreement with Air Force Research Laboratory. Viridian Space Corp. signed a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the Air Force Research Laboratory. Viridian Space was established in 2023 in El Segundo, California, to develop air-scooping electric thrusters.
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2026-02-05 04:57:39 UTC

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope completed final assembly in late November 2025. Light is the fastest phenomenon in the universe, clocking in at just under 300,000 kilometers per second. The telescopes that observe that light, from radio waves to gamma rays, are built at rather slower speeds.
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2026-02-05 04:56:02 UTC

Silicon as strategy: the hidden battleground of the new space race. In the consumer electronics playbook, custom silicon is the final step in the marathon: you use off-the-shelf components to prove a product, achieve mass scale and only then invest in proprietary chips to create differentiation, improve operations, and optimize margins. Photo of a 200mm silicon wafer.
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2026-02-05 04:54:07 UTC

SmallSat Alliance shifts focus from proliferation to coordination, after helping place proliferated low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations at the center of U.S. military space planning, the SmallSat Alliance is now tackling how these networks can be used together as a unified system. SmallSat Alliance chairman Chuck Beames (right) during the Miami Space Summit in 2025.
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2026-02-05 04:51:25 UTC

FireSat adds orbit-visualization software to help firefighters plan around satellite passes. Developers of wildfire-detection satellites are moving beyond raw data delivery, adding tools that show firefighters and researchers when satellites will actually pass over the areas they are watching. The FireSat project has received financial support from Google Research and other non-governmental organizations.
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2026-02-05 04:48:09 UTC

Kymeta Corporation expands the geostationary orbit (GEO) connectivity capabilities, showcasing the company’s role in delivering reliable, high-performance satellite communications for government, enterprise, mobility and remote operations.
Through the electronically steered antenna technology and GEO-compatible terminals, Kymeta enables consistent broadband connectivity over wide geographic areas, supporting mission-critical communications where terrestrial networks are unavailable, unreliable or impractical. The GEO connectivity offerings are designed to integrate seamlessly with established satellite infrastructures, providing users with stable links, predictable performance and simplified deployment across diverse operating environments.
https://blossom.primal.net/8c72e5486f6865695e7ec307fb802fee560fd50ccec046202f170cd4a8fbba23.webp

2026-02-05 04:46:11 UTC

Blue Origin advances the growing portfolio of space robotics technologies that support lunar exploration, in-space operations and future deep-space missions. As part of the broader exploration systems roadmap, Blue Origin’s robotics efforts focus on enabling autonomous operations, precision handling and reliable surface and orbital activities in environments where human presence is limited or not immediately feasible. These robotic systems are already integral to the company’s exploration architecture and are designed to support sustained operations beyond Earth orbit.
Robotic systems developed by Blue Origin are intended to support cargo logistics and early infrastructure deployment on the Moon. These capabilities are relevant for handling scientific payloads, power systems, habitats and other surface elements required for long-term exploration. By using robotic solutions for these tasks and missions can reduce dependency on crewed operations during initial phases, improving safety and operational flexibility while laying the groundwork for future human activity.
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2026-02-05 04:41:45 UTC

The first images from Europe’s pioneering meteorological infrared sounder were unveiled at the EU Space Conference in Brussels, marking a major advance in the ability to monitor how the atmosphere evolves before and during severe weather. The images were captured by the Infrared Sounder (IRS) flying aboard Meteosat Third Generation Sounder-1 (MTG-S1), the first ever European satellite in geostationary orbit to carry a hyperspectral atmospheric sounder.
https://blossom.primal.net/e8b2e53f8fc3347a1545cceddd55ab1c89b72d90a51577fc796c71040e20f0f8.webp

2026-02-05 04:39:47 UTC

Voyager Technologies announced a strategic lunar initiative aligned with the White House’s Securing American Space Superiority executive order, launching a new era of American space achievement, reinforcing U.S. leadership in exploration, national security and commercial activity beyond low Earth orbit.
Voyager’s lunar strategy will focus on delivering the foundational infrastructure required for sustained human and robotic operations and advancing enduring human space exploration. The company is applying its mission-ready portfolio across human support systems, power distribution, communications backbones, on-orbit and surface compute and automated logistics to support continuous space operation.
https://blossom.primal.net/2b8ca16d0bac1cb7d41d177d550f0d6c6f3758890160e640b0e89cd63b6cb941.webp

2026-02-05 04:38:07 UTC

Tomorrow.io announced a $175M equity financing led by Stonecourt Capital and HarbourVest to accelerate the deployment of DeepSky, the world's first AI-native weather satellite constellation. The funding is intended to support the rapid expansion of Tomorrow.io's space infrastructure and intelligence platform, enabling unprecedented global atmospheric sensing and decision-making capabilities.
Tomorrow.io has completed the full deployment of its first satellite constellation, having launched 13 satellites to space, achieving 60-minute global revisit, while scaling an AI-driven intelligence platform now embedded across critical industries. DeepSky extends this foundation into the next phase of the company's roadmap, supporting continued commercial growth, expanding data coverage, and unlocking new high-frequency sensing capabilities.
https://blossom.primal.net/7f36c0410da0cdd301976f2d650451f8340a24cfaa4f48d3614991d1b68e1fee.webp

2026-02-05 04:33:40 UTC

BlackSky Technology was awarded multiple Gen-3 Assured services contracts totaling seven figures with a new international defense customer following the early access period. The expansion deals mark a rapid customer shift toward adopting advanced space-based dynamic monitoring capabilities as the customer quickly scales to support time-sensitive tactical ISR operational needs.
Gen-3 imagery enables the automated detection, identification, and classification of a wide collection of aircraft, vehicles, vessels, and other objects of tactical interest at machine speed. Dedicated access to BlackSky’s Gen-3 leverages the power of a fully automated, end-to-end commercial architecture to deliver real-time situational awareness at mission speed and scale.
https://blossom.primal.net/fe9cb31db7a87170d8523c5d0b0cd80c9d1eb9dec962434e11e5cb8a89394388.webp

2026-02-05 04:29:26 UTC

Muon Space, the Mission Foundry for high-performance satellite constellations, is entering a new phase of operational scale, driven by a growing portfolio of government and commercial customers, an accelerating launch cadence, and increasing demand for its end-to-end, mission-optimised systems.
The company has also secured several new commercial awards for 2026 spanning hyperspectral imaging, high-resolution thermal infrared sensing, BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) detection, and high-quality weather data, with initial announcements expected in the near term and additional commercial milestones planned in the months ahead. Together, these programs reflect Muon's transition to repeatable, operational deployment at a constellation scale.
https://blossom.primal.net/21cc09bd96fd568e57b0a0c4c56c323963fb20110cb68ff9bfb3cc768eeb17be.webp

2026-02-04 10:18:40 UTC

Italian Space Agency and Telespazio Partners to Enhance SATCOM
The Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Telespazio, a Leonardo Group company, have signed an agreement to launch the RESPONSE programme, aimed at modernising Telespazio’s FOC-1A antenna, installed and operational since 1967 at the “Piero Fanti” Fucino Space Centre in Abruzzo.
The objective of the project is to make the facility - a 27-metre-diameter parabolic antenna -compatible with Near-Earth and Deep Space communication requirements. In addition, the antenna will be able to support, among other things, future missions related to ESA’s global tracking network for missions and satellites (ESTRACK) and communications with the Moon. This will be achieved both through Italy’s direct contribution to NASA’s ARTEMIS programme and through ESA’s MOONLIGHT programme for lunar communications and navigation, for which Telespazio is Prime Contractor.
"Thanks to the RESPONSE project, the FOC-1A antenna will support ASI’s lunar missions and those of international partners, enhancing data exchange also with deep space missions. Its geographical location will further enable the antenna to operate within a network of other European and international ground stations, ensuring continuous and reliable communications for the next ambitious exploration missions,” said Roberto Formaro, Head of ASI’s Engineering and Technology Directorate.
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2026-02-04 01:42:15 UTC

In 2023, a subatomic particle called a neutrino crashed into Earth with such a high amount of energy that it should have been impossible. In fact, there are no known sources anywhere in the universe capable of producing such energy—100,000 times more than the highest-energy particle ever produced by the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle accelerator. However, a team of physicists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently hypothesized that something like this could happen when a special kind of black hole, called a "quasi-extremal primordial black hole," explodes.
In new research published in Physical Review Letters, the team not only accounts for the otherwise impossible neutrino but shows that the elementary particle could reveal the fundamental nature of the universe.
https://blossom.primal.net/3d1b9a96feeb532995fb67979382c0cc8eef158606970202e2b55d9f44148ddd.webp

2026-02-03 16:45:18 UTC

"With the conclusion of the wet dress rehearsal today, we are moving off the February launch window and targeting March for the earliest possible launch of Artemis II," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement on X. During the simulated launch, "teams worked through a liquid hydrogen leak at a core stage interface during tanking, which required pauses to warm hardware and adjust propellant flow," the statement went on. All tanks were filled and the countdown reached about T-5 minutes before the leak worsened and operations were stopped, according to Isaacman. The official added, "We will only launch when we believe we are as ready to undertake this historic mission."
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2026-02-03 16:28:28 UTC

The Taiwan-based company Tron Future has unveiled an AI-assisted system that guides anti-armor rockets, which could help to accelerate the training of civilians and soldiers during a war, according to the chief executive.
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2026-02-03 16:26:41 UTC

ispace, a global lunar exploration company, announced that it has signed an agreement with Dymon, a robotics and space technology development venture, regarding the development of a lunar payload transportation box to deliver diverse payloads to the surface of the Moon.
Based on this agreement, ispace and Dymon will jointly explore the potential for lunar transportation for a broad customer base. This involves transporting Dymon’s deployment system to the lunar surface via ispace’s lunar lander, with the goal of developing a universal transport box capable of safely delivering small yet diverse payloads to the Moon and deploying them on the lunar surface.
The design of the transportation box is expected to protect small payloads from vibrations during rocket launch and the harsh space environment during navigation after separation from the launcher. The box will allow for easy loading of small payloads onto the lander and their release onto the lunar surface while providing temperature control and radiation protection, tailored to customer requirements. The agreement calls for Dymon to develop the new universal transport box for mounting payloads on the lander being developed by ispace. ispace will conduct compatibility studies for the interfaces with the lander to ensure the safe transport of these payloads to the Moon.
https://blossom.primal.net/b98bf083a234f25081031cc1396efb2c94a50ada81a5612364b504a2cc311b65.webp

2026-02-03 16:24:59 UTC

At the center of Rivada Space Networks’ technology is an optical inter-satellite link architecture that enables satellites within the constellation to communicate directly with one another using laser-based links. By routing data through space, the network is designed to minimize latency and reduce exposure to terrestrial network congestion or interference. Optical links also provide high data-throughput potential and narrow beam characteristics, supporting secure point-to-point communications between satellites across the constellation. Rivada’s constellation is engineered as a space-based mesh network in which each satellite acts as a node capable of dynamically routing traffic. This architecture allows data paths to be optimized in real time based on network conditions, mission priorities and destination requirements. By operating as a self-routing network in orbit, the system is designed to provide consistent performance across global regions, including remote or underserved areas where ground infrastructure may be limited or unavailable.
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2026-02-03 16:22:30 UTC

PlaneWave, a US-based manufacturer known for precision-engineered space and scientific systems, is highlighting the portfolio of space-qualified antennas and amplifiers designed to support satellite communications, space missions and advanced ground-segment applications. These products are already in operational use and reflect PlaneWave’s focus on delivering reliable RF hardware engineered for the environmental and performance demands of space and mission-critical systems.
PlaneWave’s space antenna portfolio is designed to support satellite communications, telemetry, tracking, and command (TT&C), as well as space research and experimental missions. The antennas are engineered with precision mechanical structures and RF designs that ensure stable gain, accurate pointing and consistent performance across demanding operational environments. The space antennas are suitable for integration into spacecraft, high-performance ground stations and space test facilities, where mechanical stability and RF accuracy are critical. The designs emphasize structural rigidity, thermal stability and compatibility with standard RF interfaces, allowing system integrators to deploy them within existing satellite communication architectures. By focusing on predictable radiation patterns and long-term reliability, PlaneWave’s space antennas support continuous operations across commercial, institutional and research-oriented space missions.
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2026-02-03 16:18:27 UTC

CesiumAstro announced it secured $470 million in growth capital, cementing its position as a mission-critical provider of next-generation space and defense communications. The funding includes $270 million in equity, led by Trousdale Ventures, with participation from Woven Capital, Janus Henderson Investors, Airbus Ventures, the Development Bank of Japan Inc., MESH, EDBI, NewSpace Capital, and other global investors, alongside a $200 million financing package from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) and J.P. Morgan, a first of its kind public-private partnership under the “Make More In America” Initiative.
The capital will fuel CesiumAstro’s rapid scale-up, including the build-out of a new 270,000-square-foot headquarters, expanded manufacturing capacity, and accelerated deployment of its software-defined, AI-enabled space communications platforms worldwide.
Proceeds will support expanded manufacturing, accelerated AI-enabled communications development, scaled production of Element, the company’s fully integrated LEO satellite, and growth of global technical and program teams. “This raise reflects broad confidence in our execution across commercial and defense markets,” said Ken Smith, CFO of CesiumAstro. “With the addition of significant non-dilutive EXIM financing, this funding both validates our progress and accelerates our next phase of growth.”
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2026-02-03 16:16:19 UTC

Vodafone IoT has announced a new partnership with Skylo Technologies to bring customers Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) satellite connectivity services. In the initial phase, the two companies will work together to trial the technology with a view to offering a full commercial service in the near future. Skylo runs a global Non-Terrestrial Network spanning 36 countries across 70 million square kilometres of coverage.
Skylo and Vodafone IoT’s network cores will integrate – enabling customers to seamlessly switch between cellular and NTN connectivity from a single Vodafone SIM. With sectors such as asset tracking and energy services to environmental monitoring and fleet management set to benefit, this new hybrid connectivity model will supply industries with seamless multi-national connectivity.
Furthermore, customers will be able to continue managing their IoT estates using Vodafone IoT’s Managed Connectivity Platform – for both their cellular and NTN connectivity needs.
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2026-02-03 16:12:10 UTC

SpaceX has acquired xAI to create what it describes as a vertically integrated innovation engine spanning artificial intelligence, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile communications, and real-time information platforms. The company said the move represents a new phase in the shared mission of SpaceX and xAI, aimed at scaling advanced intelligence systems and extending human presence beyond Earth.
To address this, SpaceX outlined a long-term shift toward space-based AI. By leveraging near-constant solar energy in orbit and reducing operating and maintenance costs, satellites functioning as orbital data centers could dramatically scale computing capacity. The company described the deployment of a constellation of one million satellites as an initial step toward a Kardashev Type II civilization, capable of harnessing the Sun’s energy while supporting AI applications for billions of people and enabling a multi-planetary future.
Beyond Earth orbit, SpaceX said Starship’s capabilities, including in-space propellant transfer, would allow large cargo deliveries to the Moon. This could support permanent scientific and manufacturing operations, with lunar resources used to build satellites for further deployment into space. Using electromagnetic mass drivers and lunar manufacturing, the company said it could be possible to deploy 500 to 1,000 terawatts per year of AI satellites into deep space.
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2026-02-03 16:08:07 UTC

Gilmour Space Technologies and Transcelestial have entered a long-term strategic partnership to bring laser communications capabilities to advance how data moves on satellites. As part of an upcoming mission, Gilmour Space will fly a Transcelestial terminal and support an in-orbit demonstration designed to validate the performance of wireless laser communications in real operating conditions.
Transcelestial’s laser communications technology unlocks a new infrastructure layer for data to move from satellite-to-satellite and satellite-to-ground, also delivering unmatched security in the point-to-point communication, which is impervious to jamming and has baked-in Post Quantum Cryptography enabled for Quantum-safe communications.
They will also explore opportunities to strengthen the enabling infrastructure around optical communications, including the potential to co-host an Optical Ground Station in Queensland and jointly pursue Australian R&D grants for future demonstrator missions and super-advanced network capabilities.
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2026-02-03 08:13:41 UTC

NASA’s Space Launch System rocket stands atop pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. After working around a hydrogen leak at the base of the rocket, engineers spent the day Monday pumping more than 750,000 gallons of supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel into the 32-story-tall launcher in a dress rehearsal countdown. How the leak might play into plans to launch four astronauts on a moon mission as early as Sunday is not yet clear.
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2026-02-03 07:43:38 UTC

Researchers used ALMA to image the magnetic fields of the galactic disk and dusty and molecular outflow of the merging galaxy Arp220. They found that a magnetic superhighway funnels material between galaxy cores, and that powerful winds move material along the fields into the circumgalactic medium.
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2026-02-03 07:21:57 UTC

NASAs IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) began its two-year primary science mission on Feb. 1 to explore and map the boundaries of our heliosphere - the protective bubble created by the solar wind that encapsulates our solar system.
The mission, which launched on Sept. 24, 2025, relies on 10 scientific instruments to chart a comprehensive picture of what is roiling in space, from high-energy particles originating at the Sun, to magnetic fields in interplanetary space, to dust left from exploded stars in interstellar space.
NASAs IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) is mapping the boundaries of our heliosphere - a giant protective bubble created by the Sun that encapsulates our solar system. The spacecraft studies the Suns activity and how the heliospheres boundary interacts with the local galactic neighborhood beyond.
Through studying this vast range of particles and the magnetic fields that guide them, IMAP will investigate two of the most important overarching issues in heliophysics, namely the energization of charged particles from the Sun and the interaction of the solar wind at its boundary with interstellar space.
With the start of its primary science mission, some of IMAPs data is now being fed into the IMAP Active Link for Real-Time (I-ALiRT) system, which broadcasts near-real-time observations of the space weather conditions, such as the solar wind and energetic particles, headed toward Earth. This data can be used to inform forecasters, who issue advanced warnings and alerts of potential adverse space weather effects on the health and safety of spacecraft and astronauts.
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2026-02-03 00:15:23 UTC

Exoterra Resources, a US-based space technology company specializing in in-space mobility and sustainable space systems, is providing the propulsion solutions designed to support modern small satellite missions and advanced orbital operations. Exoterra’s propulsion portfolio addresses the growing demand for efficient, scalable and space-qualified propulsion systems that enable precise maneuvering, extended mission lifetimes and flexible orbital operations.
Exoterra Resources’ propulsion solutions are engineered to support a wide range of spacecraft platforms from small satellites to more complex mission architectures. The company’s approach focuses on delivering propulsion systems that balance performance, integration simplicity and operational reliability. By combining electric propulsion technologies with system-level integration, Exoterra enables satellite operators to execute orbit raising, station keeping, collision avoidance and end-of-life disposal.
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2026-02-02 23:53:19 UTC

SpaceX has acquired xAI, an artificial intelligence company also run by Elon Musk, as part of his effort to develop orbital data centers. Starship/Super Heavy on the launch pad before the Flight 11 launch.
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2026-02-02 16:48:57 UTC

SpaceX has filed an application with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking approval to deploy up to 1 million solar-powered satellites designed to function as orbital data centers for artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.
The filing, submitted late January 2025 (around January 30–31), proposes a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) at altitudes between 500 and 2,000 km, with orbits in 30-degree and sun-synchronous inclinations to maximize sunlight exposure. These satellites would harness near-constant solar power—achieving over 99% solar availability in certain configurations—eliminating much of the need for batteries and enabling highly efficient, low-maintenance operation.
Key points from SpaceX's proposal and related reporting:
Purpose: To meet the explosive growth in AI-driven data demands by providing massive, distributed computing capacity optimized for AI models, inference, and related applications.
Advantages claimed:
Transformative cost and energy efficiency compared to terrestrial data centers.
Reduced environmental impact (no land use, minimal water for cooling, lower emissions).
Inter-satellite laser links for communication, potentially integrating with the existing Starlink network for data routing to Earth.
Grand vision: SpaceX describes this as "a first step towards becoming a Kardashev II-level civilization" — one capable of harnessing a significant portion of the Sun's energy — while supporting AI for billions of users and advancing humanity's multi-planetary future.
Deployment reliance: The plan leans heavily on SpaceX's Starship rocket for launching large numbers of satellites at low cost.
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2026-02-02 16:42:17 UTC

Congress added $700 million in funding for a “Mars Telecommunications Orbiter” in the supplemental funding for NASA provided by the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed by the US Congress last year. Given the available funding, a number of people within the agency are pressing to include scientific instruments on the orbiter. Three good instruments could be added for about $200 million, a science official said. Ideas include everything from a high-resolution camera (again, badly needed since the best camera at Mars is on the 20-year-old Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter), a space weather payload, a magnetometer to understand Mars’ remnant magnetic field, or a spectrometer to look for near-surface water ice. It’s possible that some instruments from the canceled Mars Ice Mapper mission could also be repurposed or even a small lander included.
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2026-02-02 16:36:48 UTC

Space Development Agency Issues RFI for Space-to-Air Optical Communication Terminals.
The Space Development Agency (SDA), the “constructive disruptor” of Department of Defense space acquisition, has published a high-priority Request for Information (RFI) seeking industry solutions for airborne optical communication terminals. The initiative aims to integrate military aircraft directly into the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA), a resilient mesh network of hundreds of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
The SDA is specifically interested in Optical Communication Terminals (OCTs) that can be rapidly demonstrated—within a 12-month timeframe—and are compatible with the SDA’s established OCT standards.
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2026-02-02 15:07:13 UTC

SAR11 bacteria dominate the world’s oceans by being incredibly efficient, shedding genes to survive in nutrient-poor waters. But that extreme streamlining appears to backfire when conditions change. Under stress, many cells keep copying their DNA without dividing, creating abnormal cells that grow large and die. This vulnerability may explain why SAR11 populations drop during phytoplankton blooms and could become more important as oceans grow less stable.
To understand how SAR11 responds to environmental stress, researchers examined hundreds of SAR11 genomes. They found that many strains lack genes normally responsible for regulating the cell cycle, the system that controls DNA replication and cell division. In most bacteria, these genes are essential for normal growth and survival.
When environmental conditions shift, the absence of this regulation appears to create major problems. Scientists had already noticed that SAR11 populations are sensitive to changes in their surroundings. What stood out in this study was the unusual way the cells reacted under stress.
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2026-02-02 15:04:01 UTC

MACE is a next-generation experiment designed to catch muonium transforming into its antimatter twin, a process that would rewrite the rules of particle physics. The last search for this effect ended more than two decades ago, and MACE plans to leap far beyond it using cutting-edge beams, targets, and detectors. A discovery would point to entirely new forces or particles operating at extreme energy scales.
Observing such a process would break a fundamental rule of particle physics called lepton flavor conservation, which is a key part of the Standard Model, and would provide direct evidence for physics beyond existing theories.
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2026-02-02 15:00:57 UTC

NASA’s Perseverance rover has just made history by driving across Mars using routes planned by artificial intelligence instead of human operators. A vision-capable AI analyzed the same images and terrain data normally used by rover planners, identified hazards like rocks and sand ripples, and charted a safe path across the Martian surface. After extensive testing in a virtual replica of the rover, Perseverance successfully followed the AI-generated routes, traveling hundreds of feet autonomously.
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2026-02-02 14:42:04 UTC

Axiom Space and Spacebilt plan to install an optically interconnected orbital data center node on the International Space Station in 2027.
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2026-02-02 14:40:39 UTC

Transcelestial, a startup developing optical communications technologies, has signed an agreement with Gilmour Space Technologies to incorporate its technology on Gilmour Space spacecraft. Transcelestial has developed space-to-ground optical communications terminals for spacecraft, such as this one for the 6GStarLab spacecraft.
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2026-02-02 12:43:34 UTC

Amazon has purchased an additional 10 Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX as part of its efforts to accelerate deployment of its broadband satellite constellation.
The deal, which neither Amazon nor SpaceX previously announced, was disclosed in an Amazon filing with the Federal Communications Commission on Jan. 30 seeking an extension of a July deadline to deploy half of its Amazon Leo constellation.
Under the FCC authorization granted in 2020, Amazon has until July 30, 2026, to launch half of its planned 3,232 satellites, with the remainder required to be deployed three years later. As of late January, six months before the first deadline, the company had launched only 180 spacecraft.
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2026-02-02 10:36:36 UTC

Singapore will launch its own space agency on April 1 as it bids to "fully harness the value and opportunities of the growing global space economy", the country's trade ministry announced on Monday. A general view of the Space Summit at Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore February 2, 2026.
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2026-02-02 10:32:42 UTC

The chemical is known as thiepine, or 2,5-cyclohexadiene-1-thione (C₆H₆S), a ring-shaped sulfur-bearing hydrocarbon produced in biochemical reactions. When examining the molecular cloud G+0.693–0.027, a star-forming region about 27,000 light-years from Earth near the center of the Milky Way, astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) and the CSIC-INTA Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) detected this complex molecule in space for the first time. This detection represents the largest sulfur-bearing molecule ever detected beyond Earth, with significant implications for the study of the cosmic origins of life.
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2026-02-02 10:30:17 UTC

A new light-based breakthrough could help quantum computers finally scale up. Stanford researchers created miniature optical cavities that efficiently collect light from individual atoms, allowing many qubits to be read at once. The team has already demonstrated working arrays with dozens and even hundreds of cavities. The approach could eventually support massive quantum networks with millions of qubits.
In research published in Nature, the team describes a system made up of 40 optical cavities, each holding a single atom qubit, along with a larger prototype that contains more than 500 cavities. The results point to a realistic route toward building quantum computing networks that could one day include as many as a million qubits.
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2026-02-02 10:26:11 UTC

Hidden lava tunnels on the Moon and Mars could one day shelter human explorers, offering natural protection from radiation and space debris. A European research team has unveiled a bold new mission concept that uses three different robots working together to explore these extreme underground environments autonomously. Recently tested in the volcanic caves of Lanzarote, the system maps cave entrances, deploys sensors, lowers a scout rover, and creates detailed 3D maps of the interior.
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2026-02-02 10:17:10 UTC

When two neutron stars collide, they generate gravitational waves and light across the electromagnetic spectrum, from intense gamma ray flashes to faint radio signals that can persist for years.
These multi-messenger events contain rich information about the physics of compact objects, their environments and the formation of heavy elements, but extracting that information efficiently has proved challenging.
A collaboration led by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, working with Johns Hopkins University, the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has developed a new AI-powered framework to tackle this problem.
The system, called RADAR, for Radio Afterglow Detection and AI-driven Response, is designed to combine gravitational wave data with radio observations in a coordinated, resource-aware way. One of RADAR's distinctive features is its use of AI to read the human-generated messages that astronomers rely on to share results from telescopes around the globe. By automatically parsing these notices, the system can keep track of evolving observations and adjust follow-up plans dynamically.
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2026-02-02 10:11:11 UTC

Researchers are developing new ways to reprogram the cellular machinery of microbes such as yeast and bacteria so they can manufacture useful products for medicine and industry. A team at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology has now shown that they can extend the biosynthetic capabilities of microbes by harnessing light to drive new types of chemical reactions inside cells.
In work published in Nature Catalysis, the researchers demonstrate that the bacterium Escherichia coli can be engineered to produce new-to-nature molecules in vivo using light-driven enzymatic reactions. The study establishes a framework for future advances in the emerging field of photobiocatalysis, which combines light activation with enzyme catalysis to access transformations that are challenging or inaccessible with traditional chemistry or natural enzymes alone.
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2026-02-02 10:09:26 UTC

Of the more than 6,000 extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, confirmed to date - most of them found by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) - only 14 are observed to orbit binary stars. There should be hundreds. Where are all the planets with two suns?
Astrophysicists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the American University of Beirut have now proposed a reason for this dearth of circumbinary exoplanets - and Einstein's general theory of relativity is to blame.
In most binary star systems, the stars have similar but not identical masses and orbit one another in an egg-shaped or elliptical orbit. If a planet is orbiting the pair of stars, the gravitational tugs from the stars make the planet's orbit precess, meaning the orbital axis rotates similar to the way the axis of a spinning top rotates or precesses in Earth's gravity.
The orbit of the binary stars also precesses, but mainly because of general relativity. Over time, tidal interactions between the binary pair shrink the orbit, which has two effects: The precession rate of the stars increases, but the precession rate of the planet slows. When the two precession rates match, or resonate, the planet's orbit becomes wildly elongated, taking it farther from the star but also nearer at its closest approach.
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2026-02-02 10:06:56 UTC

An international team led by researchers at the Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has completed a one year observing campaign to better classify these objects. From October 2023 to October 2024 they used the Johnson Cousins BVRI broadband photometric system on two facilities, the Purple Mountain Observatory Yaoan High Precision Telescope in China and the Kottamia Astronomical Observatory 1.88 meter telescope in Egypt, to observe dozens of near Earth asteroids.
After calibration and data reduction, the team derived multicolor photometric indices for 84 near Earth asteroids and then carried out taxonomic classification for 80 of them. The new dataset significantly expands the number of small, faint objects with secure taxonomic types, which have been difficult to classify because they are only observable for short periods after discovery.
The survey finds that nearly half of the classified objects, 46.3 percent, belong to the S complex, which is associated with stony, silicate rich compositions. Another 26.3 percent are in the darker, carbon rich C complex, 15.0 percent fall into the X complex, and 6 percent are in the D complex, with the remaining few identified as A type and V type asteroids.
By examining the distribution of types with size, the researchers show that C and X complex asteroids are more common among smaller near Earth asteroids with absolute magnitude greater than 17.0. In this size range the fraction of C and X complex objects is roughly double that found among larger bodies, suggesting different source regions or evolutionary pathways for small near Earth asteroids.
The team also notes that X complex objects tend to cluster at sub kilometer diameters, while C and S complex asteroids appear more evenly distributed across the sampled size range. These contrasting patterns point to differences in collisional evolution, surface processing, or delivery mechanisms from the main belt.
Analysis of orbital parameters highlights further structure in the population. For near Earth asteroids with Jovian Tisserand parameter less than 3.1, C and D complex objects dominate, hinting at a possible link to cometary reservoirs. This dynamical signature, combined with their dark, primitive surfaces, supports the idea that some near Earth asteroids originated as extinct or dormant comets.
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2026-02-02 10:02:48 UTC

Bacteria that thrive on Earth may not survive easily on Mars, where the soil contains toxic perchlorate salts at levels that can reach about 1 percent by weight. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science have now shown how a brick building soil bacterium responds to this chemical and discovered that although the toxin slows growth and stresses the cells, it can also yield stronger biocemented Martian bricks.
The work builds on earlier studies in which the team used the soil bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii to turn synthetic Martian or lunar soil into solid "space bricks." When the microbe is supplied with urea and calcium in a granular simulant along with the natural polymer guar gum, it precipitates calcium carbonate crystals that bind soil grains together, a process known as biocementation. In contrast to previous experiments that relied on a standard laboratory strain, the new study used a more robust, native strain of S. pasteurii that the researchers had isolated from soils in Bengaluru.
After confirming that the Bengaluru strain could efficiently generate mineral precipitates in the simulant, the team introduced perchlorate at concentrations similar to those detected in Martian regolith. In collaboration with scientists at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata, they observed that the chemical stressed the bacteria: cells divided more slowly, shifted from rod like to more circular shapes, and began to clump into multicellular like aggregates. Stressed cells also secreted greater amounts of extracellular matrix, a mixture of proteins and other molecules that formed a coating around the microbe clusters.
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2026-02-02 10:00:50 UTC

NASA is preparing for a new phase in hypersonic aviation by funding industry studies aimed at expanding flight test capabilities for reusable airbreathing vehicles that can cruise at several times the speed of sound.
The agency has awarded short term study contracts to SpaceWorks Enterprises of Atlanta, Georgia, and Stratolaunch of Mojave, California, to examine how existing platforms could be adapted to conduct frequent and affordable hypersonic flight experiments. The work is managed under NASA's Hypersonic Technology Project within the Advanced Air Vehicles Program.
The X 60 is a small rocket based flight research platform designed to be launched from an aircraft and reach relevant flight regimes for high speed experimentation. In the new study, SpaceWorks will examine how that platform could support reusable, high cadence test operations that would be useful to both NASA and commercial partners interested in hypersonic technologies.
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2026-02-02 09:53:06 UTC

CesiumAstro is highlighting the Element LEO satellite platform, a purpose-built spacecraft architecture designed to support advanced communications, networking and data transport missions in low Earth orbit. The Element reflects CesiumAstro’s system-level approach to space infrastructure combining satellite bus design, RF payloads and software-defined architectures into a tightly integrated LEO platform optimized for modern satellite networks. The Element platform is designed from the ground up to support high-performance communications payloads, particularly those requiring advanced beamforming, high data throughput and flexible networking.
To support advanced communications payloads, Element incorporates power and thermal subsystems sized for continuous or high-duty-cycle operation. The platform’s avionics architecture supports high data rates and robust onboard processing while maintaining fault tolerance suitable for sustained LEO operations. These design choices allow Element to support payloads that demand steady power delivery, thermal stability and reliable command-and-control in dynamic orbital environments. CesiumAstro positions the Element LEO satellite as a flexible platform for a range of mission types, including commercial broadband constellations, secure government communications, defense-related networking and technology demonstration missions.
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2026-02-02 09:50:07 UTC

Oxford Space Systems and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) have announced the successful launch of CarbSAR IOD, SSTL’s latest Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology demonstration satellite incorporating Oxford Space Systems’ innovative Wrapped Rib Antenna. The spacecraft was launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket operated by SpaceX from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.
This is the first mission to incorporate Oxford Space Systems’ deployable Wrapped Rib Antenna, marking the culmination of several years of development, engineering innovation and investment in advanced UK manufacturing. Built at Oxford Space Systems’ composite and metal-mesh production facilities in Oxfordshire, the Wrapped Rib Antenna introduces a novel deployable-antenna architecture designed to deliver high-performance SAR capability from a highly compact, stowage-efficient design. The Antenna has undergone extensive ground-based testing, including radio-frequency validation, and will now demonstrate its performance in orbit.
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2026-02-02 09:47:30 UTC

Rocket Lab Corporation, a global leader in launch services and space systems, successfully launched its 81st Electron rocket and second launch in eight days to deploy a satellite for an Earth-observation constellation by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea’s leading university dedicated to science and technology.
'Bridging The Swarm’ lifted off on January 30th at 2:21 p.m. NZDT (01:21 UTC) from Rocket Lab’s private orbital launch site, Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, to deploy the NEONSAT-1A satellite to a 540 km low Earth orbit. NEONSAT-1A is an advanced Earth observation satellite that will test the capabilities of the South Korean government’s future constellation of NEONSAT satellites to monitor natural disasters and national security events along the Korean Peninsula. The first satellite of this constellation, NEONSAT-1, was deployed by Rocket Lab in 2024 on a mission called ‘Beginning of The Swarm’.
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2026-02-02 09:45:50 UTC

AXA Digital Commercial Platform, a first-of-its-kind AI-powered all-in-one risk management system, has struck a landmark deal with ICEYE, the manufacturer and operator of the world's largest synthetic aperture radar (SAR) microsatellite constellation.
AXA DCP, which combines bleeding-edge technology solutions with human expertise, is a ‘one-stop shop’ for solutions to a range of rising threats, including natural disasters, cybercrime, geopolitical shifts, and more. Thanks to its partnership with ICEYE – the global leader in Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite operations and a key data supplier to several NATO members – it will be able to track floods, wildfires, hurricanes, and other extreme weather events with unprecedented precision.
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2026-02-02 09:44:42 UTC

Airbus has selected Skynopy, a French NewSpace company specialising in satellite ground station services, to support the enhancement of the ground segment for its very high-resolution optical imagery services based on its Pléiades Neo satellites.
Through this collaboration, Airbus strengthens the performance and responsiveness of its Earth observation services by leveraging Skynopy’s next-generation, fully virtualised ground station systems.
The service is designed to improve Airbus Pleiades Neo reactivity and reduce data latency over several areas of interest, meeting the growing demand from institutional and commercial customers for faster access to very high-resolution imagery.
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2026-02-02 09:33:06 UTC

GMV and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed a new contract for the development of a new generation of GSS stations for receiving signals from Galileo satellites. The project, called ACHILLES (Advanced Technologies Breadboarding for Low-Complexity Sensor Stations), reinforces GMV's position as a technology leader in satellite navigation systems.
GSS stations are part of the Galileo ground network and are essential to the system's operation. They receive and process the signals transmitted by the satellites, analyze their quality, identify errors, and send the measurements and navigation messages received to the system control center. The objective of ACHILLES is to design a new generation of more compact, robust, and low-cost GSS capable of ensuring high accuracy and robust operation under adverse conditions. To achieve this goal, the industrial consortium led by GMV will explore innovative technologies in various fields, such as smart antennas with spatial diversity and dual polarization, configurable and wide-spectrum radio frequency chains, hybrid beamforming techniques, and distributed architectures based on cloud computing.
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2026-02-02 09:31:42 UTC

NASA and Axiom Space have signed a mission order for the fifth private astronaut mission (PAM) to the International Space Station – its fifth consecutive PAM award granted by the agency. Axiom Mission 5 (Ax-5) is targeted to launch no earlier than January 2027 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida and is expected to spend up to 14 days docked to the space station. The crew complement is pending final agreements and agency and international approvals and will be announced at a future date.
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2026-02-02 08:51:09 UTC

Burying the dead is woven into the hominin story much deeper, perhaps as part of what made us social creatures. The first upright walkers who paused to bury a body weren't doing it because some cultural code told them to—they felt compelled, and that compulsion echoes in us still. This fits with theories linking mortuary behavior to evolving emotional cognition: grief management, reinforcing group solidarity, or expressing proto-moral obligations to kin. In small-brained species, it might have started as raw empathy—carrying a companion's body away from danger, covering it to protect from scavengers, or simply because leaving it felt wrong. Over time, that impulse got layered with meaning, places, and symbols.
This is more a pattern of cultural burial than of natural processes. The authors of the study argue that the bones could not have been deposited by carnivores or by random geological events. Instead, the evidence indicates that Homo naledi brought their dead deliberately into the cave system and buried them. Most importantly, the caves show no evidence of occupation, further supporting the argument that they were used primarily as mortuary space.
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2026-01-31 23:44:43 UTC

Deep in the frozen heart of Antarctica, the South Pole Telescope has been watching one of the most extreme neighborhoods in our galaxy, and it's just caught something extraordinary happening there. Astronomers have detected powerful stellar flares erupting from stars near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. These aren't your average stellar flares, we're talking about energy releases so intense they make our sun's most dramatic outbursts look like flickering candles.
The research team, led by scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, monitored the galactic center over multiple observing seasons. They were looking for transient events such as flashes that appear and disappear relatively quickly. The research is published in The Astrophysical Journal.
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2026-01-31 23:36:04 UTC

New 3D map of the sun's magnetic interior could improve predictions of disruptive solar flares.
For the first time, scientists have used satellite data to create a 3D map of the sun's interior magnetic field, the fundamental driver of solar activity. The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, should enable more accurate predictions of solar cycles and space weather that affects satellites and power grids.
Additionally, the scientists tested the model's predictive ability. They stopped the data flow at a certain point, then challenged the model to forecast what would happen next. It accurately predicted key features of solar cycles up to three to four years in advance.
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2026-01-31 23:33:39 UTC

In quantum physics, every object, such as an electron, is matched to a mathematical formula called the wave function. The wave function encodes all the details of an object’s quantum state, which means physicists can predict what an object might do in an experiment by combining its wave function with other equations.
But if we accept that the whole world is quantum – and many researchers do – then much larger objects ought to have wave functions, including the whole universe. This is a point of view that was previously argued by, for instance, physics luminaries like Stephen Hawking.
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2026-01-31 23:29:41 UTC

Inside electrochemical devices, strong electric fields dramatically alter how water molecules behave. New research shows that these fields speed up water dissociation not by lowering energy costs, but by increasing molecular disorder once ions form. The reaction becomes entropy-driven—exactly the opposite of what happens in ordinary water. The findings also reveal that intense fields can push water from neutral to highly acidic, with major implications for hydrogen production.
Hydrogen is widely seen as a key energy source for the future, which makes it critical to understand how water is split during electrolysis.
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2026-01-31 23:27:31 UTC

A strange, glowing form of matter called dusty plasma turns out to be incredibly sensitive to magnetic fields. Researchers found that even weak fields can change how tiny particles grow, simply by nudging electrons into new motions. In lab experiments, this caused nanoparticles to form faster and remain smaller. The discovery could influence everything from nanotechnology design to our understanding of space plasmas.
Rendering of dusty nanoparticles suspended in a glowing plasma cloud, where magnetic fields guide their motion and growth, showing how even weak magnetism can reshape matter at the nanoscale.
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2026-01-31 23:23:21 UTC

Jupiter’s swirling storms have concealed its true makeup for centuries, but a new model is finally peeling back the clouds. Researchers found the planet likely holds significantly more oxygen than the Sun, a key clue to how Jupiter—and the rest of the solar system—came together. The study also reveals that gases move through Jupiter’s atmosphere much more slowly than scientists once thought. Together, the findings reshape the understanding of the solar system’s largest planet.
From orbit, scientists can identify chemicals in the upper atmosphere, including ammonia, methane, ammonium hydrosulfide, water, and carbon monoxide. Researchers combine those measurements with known chemical reactions to infer what may be happening deeper below the clouds.
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2026-01-31 23:14:01 UTC

The Air Force said it has to ensure its command-and-control networks and communications architectures are able to securely transmit critical instructions and status updates to and from bombers and other aircraft.
The Air Force's in-development successor to the B-2 - the B-21 Raider, will play a central role in future penetrating strike missions. Northrop Grumman, the maker of the B-21, has touted it as the world’s first sixth-generation aircraft, in part because of its advanced data-sharing capabilities.
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2026-01-31 23:06:14 UTC

China launched a satellite for Algeria late Friday, as signs mount that multiple missions have been delayed amid preparations for a key human spaceflight test.
Liftoff of the Long March 2C from Jiuquan carrying the AlSat-3B remote sensing satellite for Algeria.
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2026-01-31 23:04:01 UTC

On January 12, the U.S. Treasury, a co-chair of the G7 Cyber Expert Group, announced that the group had published a roadmap designed to guide financial institutions, authorities, and technology vendors in planning a coordinated transition to quantum-resilient cryptographic systems.
The group emphasized the need for coordinated action, noting that quantum computers could soon break widely used cryptographic protocols that protect financial systems and consumer data. The roadmap outlined a flexible, risk-based approach for migration, emphasizing that organizations should prioritize critical systems and collaborate across jurisdictions to ensure interoperability and resilience. The roadmap also recommended that organizations tailor timelines and implementation approaches to their risk profiles and operations contexts.
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2026-01-31 08:41:54 UTC

Using the world's most powerful particle accelerator, CERN's Large Hadron Collider, scientists have discovered that the trillion-degree hot primordial "soup" that filled the cosmos for mere millionths of a second after the Big Bang actually behaved like a liquid, making it akin to a literal soup.
This primordial soup was composed of a plasma of particles called quarks and gluons that rapidly cooled, causing these two types of particles to fuse and create fundamental particles like protons and neutrons, which today sit at the heart of all atoms that make up the matter all around us.
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2026-01-31 08:21:26 UTC

In his new paper published in the Planetary Science Journal, Dr. Emran reports the detection of a characteristic ammonia absorption feature at 2.20 microns in near-infrared spectra of Europa’s surface. The signal was identified in observations from Galileo’s NIMS instrument, which surveyed Europa during flybys in the 1990s.
Ammonia hydrate and ammonium chloride are the most plausible materials responsible for the detected feature. Ammonia is unstable under intense space radiation, a property that makes its presence on Europa’s surface significant.
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2026-01-31 08:15:08 UTC

Using cutting-edge material licensed from NASA, a protective heat shield manufactured in-house by Varda Space Industries for the first time enabled one of its capsules to blaze through Earth's atmosphere, marking a significant milestone for the agency and America's space industry. The material, known as C-PICA (Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator), provides a stronger, less expensive, and more efficient thermal protection coating to capsules, allowing them - and their valuable contents - to return to Earth safely.
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2026-01-31 07:57:44 UTC

The Luch/Olymp satellite, launched in 2014, is one of two secretive military Russian satellites that have been used to stalk spacecraft from the US and others in the geostationary belt (GEO), around 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above the equator. Luch/Olymp (NORAD catalog number 40258) had recently been decommissioned and sent into a graveyard orbit a few hundred miles above GEO in October 2025.
Optical ground-based imagery from Swiss space situational awareness company s2A systems shows what appears to be a fragmentation event as the satellite disintegrates and begins to tumble. Additional objects have been spotted around the satellite following the fragmentation event at 06:09 GMT on Jan. 30, according to a post on social media platform X.
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2026-01-31 07:41:29 UTC

Apolink has partnered with ground segment provider RBC Signals to resell the startup’s proposed in-orbit relay services, aiming to fill connectivity gaps when satellites are out of view of terrestrial command-and-control links. The agreement would enable satellite operators to access an in-orbit data relay service through RBC Signals’ established commercial channels.
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2026-01-31 07:39:26 UTC

Axiom wins fifth private astronaut mission to space station. NASA has selected Axiom Space for its fifth private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, scheduled for 2027. The Ax-4 Crew Dragon spacecraft at the International Space Station in 2024.
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2026-01-31 06:54:43 UTC

Terran Orbital Corporation, a US-based manufacturer of small satellites and satellite subsystems, advances the comprehensive portfolio of spacecraft platforms designed to support a wide range of commercial, civil and defense space missions. The company’s spacecraft platforms are already in operational use and are engineered to address evolving requirements across Earth observation, communications, technology demonstration and national security applications. Through standardized and configurable designs, Terran Orbital enables customers to deploy scalable and mission-ready space systems with predictable performance and integration efficiency.
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2026-01-31 06:48:27 UTC

Terrasat Communications enhances the portfolio of Block Up Converters (BUCs), underscoring the company’s role in supporting reliable and high-performance satellite uplink operations across commercial, government, and defense SATCOM networks. Already deployed across a wide range of ground infrastructures, Terrasat’s BUC products are designed to meet the practical and technical demands of modern satellite communications, including high data rates, multi-band operation and long-term field reliability. Terrasat’s Block Up Converters are developed to translate intermediate frequency (IF) signals to the appropriate radio frequency (RF) uplink bands with high spectral purity and stable output power.
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2026-01-31 06:46:16 UTC

Arianespace announced at the European Space Conference in Brussels the signature of the launch contract with the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), under the delegation of the European Commission, to orbit the second pair of second-generation satellites of the Galileo constellation (Galileo L18) on board an Ariane 6 launcher.
The launch of Galileo L18 will represent Ariane 6's fifth mission for Europe's high-precision global navigation satellite system. On December 17th, 2025, Ariane 6 successfully orbited for the first time, and with the utmost accuracy, a pair of satellites for Galileo (Galileo L14). Two other Ariane 6 launches are scheduled to complete the first-generation of Galileo satellites with the launch of the Galileo L15 and Galileo L16 missions. The fourth Galileo Ariane 6 flight will put into orbit the first pair of second-generation Galileo satellites (Galileo L17).
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2026-01-30 12:07:33 UTC

Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope) is an X-ray space telescope integrated into a 6U CubeSat bus by Kongsberg NanoAvionics (NanoAvionics) to detect and study high-redshift Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) that happen when massive stars collapse into black holes or when neutron stars collide. BlackCAT expects to detect dozens of GRBs each year, pinpoint their locations, and transmit real-time alerts to the ground via the Iridium satellite network. These alerts will allow rapid follow-up by other observatories, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which will help scientists to:
● map cosmic reionization, a period when the universe transitioned from darkness to light.
● measure ionizing radiation escaping from early galaxies.
● study how metals formed in the early universe.
BlackCAT will also help locate electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave events, complementing research from facilities such as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Capturing the bright afterglow from X-rays to radio waves will enable “multimessenger” studies, combining signals across different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum to reveal the physics behind these rare cosmic events.
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2026-01-30 12:02:14 UTC

Two Northrop Grumman five-segment solid rocket boosters will launch the first crewed flight of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, as early as February 6, 2026, as part of the Artemis II mission.
The SLS boosters are the world’s largest and most powerful solid rocket boosters to ever be flown on a human spaceflight mission, standing 177 feet tall and producing 3.6 million pounds of thrust each. Evolved from the four-segment shuttle-era design, the boosters contributed over 75 percent of the SLS rocket’s thrust and performed as twins during Artemis I, the successful first launch of the rocket and uncrewed Orion spacecraft.
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2026-01-30 11:48:54 UTC

Lockheed Martin's ninth GPS III space vehicle (SV09) launched in orbit, adding a capability that enables people to connect, gives warfighters the ability to operate in harsh conditions, and demonstrates the power of American innovation.
The satellite launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:53 p.m. ET aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It achieved signal acquisition shortly thereafter and is now under operational control at Lockheed Martin's Denver Launch & Checkout Operations Center until its official acceptance into the GPS operational control network.
For the military, GPS III SV09 delivers advanced security and anti-jamming features, which bring uninterrupted, precise navigation and timing in contested or denied environments, safeguarding national security and defense missions. Overall, GPS III satellites deliver three-times better accuracy, eight-times improved anti-jamming capabilities, and M-code navigation signals for warfighters globally.
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2026-01-30 11:47:12 UTC

Varda Space Industries, the leader in orbital pharmaceutical processing and hypersonic reentry systems, announced the successful reentry of its W-5 capsule. This milestone marks the first time Varda has utilized its own vertically integrated satellite bus to support a full mission lifecycle, from orbital operations to atmospheric reentry.
The W-5 mission carried a payload for the U.S. Navy and landed safely within the designated recovery zone at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia, operated by Southern Launch. This is the company's first reentry of 2026 and underscores Varda's transition toward full-stack autonomy and its growing role as a critical partner for national security and defense applications.
The W-5 capsule carried a specialized payload for the U.S. Navy, focusing on data collection during reentry. Varda's ability to provide fixed-cost, routine reentry offers the Department of War a unique, cost-effective platform for iterative testing of hypersonic flight characteristics. The Varda capsules endure extreme environments when they reenter at speeds exceeding Mach 25.
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2026-01-30 11:45:00 UTC

Satellogic, a vertically integrated geospatial company delivering high-resolution Earth Observation (EO) at unprecedented scale and economics, announced an extension of its existing agreement with the Government of Albania to continue country-wide, high-frequency satellite monitoring using its NewSat constellation.
The 11-month contract extension builds on a previously signed three-year agreement that provided Albania with dedicated satellite capacity and the naming of two satellites, Albania-1 and Albania-2. Under the extended agreement, Albanian government agencies will continue to receive frequent, high-resolution (50 cm) imagery covering the country’s entire territory, enabling persistent oversight and a centralised stream of intelligence across national priorities.
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2026-01-29 13:15:04 UTC

JWST has revealed a strange early universe filled with ultra-bright “blue monster” galaxies, mysterious “little red dots,” and black holes that seem far too massive for their age. A new study proposes that dark stars—hypothetical stars powered by dark matter—could tie all these surprises together. These exotic objects may have grown huge very quickly, lighting up the early cosmos and planting the seeds of supermassive black holes. UHZ1, a record-breaking galaxy 13.2 billion light-years away, seen when the universe was only 3% of its current age.
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2026-01-29 12:58:38 UTC

SWISSto12 has secured 73 million euros in financial support from European Space Agency (ESA) member states through the HummingSat ARTES partnership project, reinforcing development and industrialization of its compact geostationary telecommunications platform. The company now has more than 100 million euros in total recent funding after combining this institutional backing with additional capital from European private investors raised in the second half of 2025.
The new ESA investment will accelerate maturation of the HummingSat product line and the associated manufacturing ramp up needed to meet growing demand for cost effective, agile and sovereign satellite communications. SWISSto12 plans to use the funding to expand its production capacity and speed up introduction of new payload and platform innovations that target both government and commercial operators.
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2026-01-29 12:54:12 UTC

Nuclear propulsion and power technologies could unlock new frontiers in missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. NASA has reached an important milestone advancing nuclear propulsion that could benefit future deep space missions by completing a cold-flow test campaign of the first flight reactor engineering development unit since the 1960s.
Teams at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, conducted more than 100 tests on the engineering development unit over several months in 2025. The 44-inch by 72-inch unit, built by BWX Technologies of Richmond, Virginia, is a full-scale, non-nuclear, flight-like development test article the size of a 100-gallon drum that simulates propellant flow throughout the reactor across a range of operational conditions.
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2026-01-29 12:52:08 UTC

Alpha Impulsion, a space startup based in Toulouse and Naples, has received a 950000 euro award from the European Union for a major innovation in space propulsion aimed at more economical, efficient, and debris free access to orbit.
The company has been recognized as the first enterprise to gain international acknowledgment for a propulsion solution that from the outset addresses sustainable use of Earth orbit, competitiveness, and European sovereignty in space activities.
In an autophage rocket, the vehicle fuselage is consumed by the engine as fuel during ascent, so the vehicle effectively burns and shortens like a candle and does not leave a discarded upper stage or large structural elements in orbit after operations. This architecture reduces deadweight throughout flight and is reported to deliver about a 40 percent reduction in liftoff mass compared with conventional launch systems, which translates directly into an estimated 40 percent reduction in launch costs.
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2026-01-29 12:50:10 UTC

Astronomers have carried out the most extensive observational study so far of massive runaway stars in the Milky Way, combining detailed measurements of how fast these stars move, how rapidly they spin, and whether they live alone or in binary systems. Researchers from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), working with the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), focused on a large sample of O-type stars, the most massive and luminous stellar objects in our galaxy.
The study analyzed 214 O-type stars, building the largest sample of galactic O-type runaway stars with combined information on rotation and binarity. The researchers derived the stars' space velocities from Gaia data and obtained their projected rotational velocities and binarity status from the spectroscopic observations. By bringing these measurements together, they were able to link different runaway properties to specific formation pathways.
The results show that most runaway stars rotate slowly, indicating that high space velocity does not necessarily go hand in hand with rapid rotation. However, the subset of runaway stars that do rotate more quickly is more likely to be associated with the supernova scenario, in which a star is spun up and then kicked when its binary companion explodes. This connection suggests that stellar rotation carries a clear imprint of a past binary interaction and supernova event.
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2026-01-29 12:47:47 UTC

A research team has developed a method to reduce uncertainties in measurements of cosmic birefringence, a subtle rotation in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background that may hold clues to new physics beyond the standard model. The work, published January 27 in Physical Review Letters, provides the first quantitative treatment of uncertainty in the birefringence angle, a key observable that could point to unknown physics breaking the universe's left right symmetry and help clarify the nature of dark matter and dark energy.
Cosmic birefringence refers to a small rotation in the polarization direction of the cosmic microwave background, the relic radiation from the Big Bang that preserves information about the early universe. Recent observations have hinted that the polarization of this ancient light is rotated, and this rotation is thought to be associated with hypothetical elementary particles known as axions that couple to light. To probe this effect, researchers analyze a signal called the CMB EB correlation, which encodes information about the rotation angle of the polarization plane.
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2026-01-29 12:39:52 UTC

A team of astronomers has used a new artificial intelligence assisted technique to uncover rare astronomical phenomena in archived data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. They sifted through nearly 100 million small image cutouts from the Hubble Legacy Archive, each only a few dozen pixels across, and identified more than 1,300 unusually shaped objects in just two and a half days, including over 800 that had never been documented in scientific literature.
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2026-01-29 12:36:24 UTC

Scientists have produced the most detailed map yet of the dark matter that threads through the Universe, revealing how this invisible component has guided the formation of galaxies, stars and planets over cosmic time. The new map, created with observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and published in Nature Astronomy, traces dark matter in a region of sky in the constellation Sextans covering an area about 2.5 times larger than the full Moon.
The study, jointly led by Durham University in the UK, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne in Switzerland, uses Webb data to confirm earlier dark matter measurements and to add finer structure and new clumps not seen before. Astronomers think that when the Universe began, both dark matter and normal matter were sparsely distributed, but dark matter clumped together first under its own gravity and then pulled in ordinary matter, setting up the large-scale structure in which galaxies could form.
Dark matter does not emit, reflect, absorb or block light and passes through normal matter largely unnoticed, but its presence reveals itself through gravity, which curves space and deflects light from background galaxies.
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2026-01-29 11:52:09 UTC

The first images from Europe s pioneering meteorological infrared sounder were unveiled at the EU Space Conference in Brussels, marking a significant advance in observing the atmosphere in three dimensions ahead of severe weather.
The new data come from the Infrared Sounder instrument on Meteosat Third Generation Sounder 1, the first European geostationary satellite to carry a hyperspectral infrared sounding capability designed specifically for meteorology.
From its geostationary orbit, the Infrared Sounder scans the atmosphere over Europe and adjacent regions every 30 minutes across nearly 2,000 narrow infrared channels, retrieving vertical profiles of temperature, humidity and trace gases throughout the troposphere and lower stratosphere. These three dimensional measurements allow meteorologists to detect subtle changes in temperature and moisture that signal atmospheric instability, often hours before clouds develop, providing earlier insight into where thunderstorms and other hazardous weather systems may form.
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2026-01-29 11:49:14 UTC

The U.S. Space Force is positioning its Space Warfighter Operational Readiness Domain, or SWORD, as a cornerstone for maintaining space superiority in an increasingly contested domain.
SWORD, the Space Force’s primary synthetic training environment, is a cloud-enabled, digital simulation platform designed to replicate contested space operations, including orbital dynamics, electronic warfare, cyber effects and adversary tactics. It allows guardians to train in realistic scenarios without relying solely on live, on-orbit assets or centralized facilities.
The platform has been demonstrated in large-scale exercises like Space Flag, supporting hundreds of guardians in realistic training, and is being scaled for broader enterprise use.
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2026-01-29 11:40:20 UTC

NewOrbit Space, a UK-based space technology company focused on in-orbit servicing and space logistics, is highlighting the NEO-1 orbiting satellite, a mission designed to demonstrate practical on-orbit capabilities that support inspection, proximity operations and future servicing concepts. NEO-1 represents a concrete step in the company’s roadmap toward enabling more sustainable, flexible and responsive satellite operations in Earth orbit.
The satellite focuses on controlled maneuvering, rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) and on-orbit inspection tasks, which are essential building blocks for future missions involving satellite servicing, relocation and end-of-life support. By flying these capabilities on a dedicated mission, NewOrbit Space aims to mature technologies that can be adapted to a wide range of commercial and institutional use cases. The NEO-1 spacecraft architecture is built around agility, precision and operational flexibility. Its design supports accurate attitude control and orbital maneuvering, enabling the satellite to approach, observe and operate safely near other objects in orbit. The platform integrates propulsion, guidance, navigation and control subsystems optimized for proximity operations, along with avionics and power systems sized for sustained on-orbit activity. This architecture allows NEO-1 to execute complex maneuver sequences while maintaining predictable performance and safety margins.
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2026-01-29 11:37:08 UTC

Rubicon Space Systems, a US-based space technology company headquartered in Huntsville, advances the portfolio of thrusters and propulsion systems designed to support small satellite, spacecraft and in-space mission requirements. Already active in the space sector, Rubicon Space Systems continues to focus on practical, flight-ready propulsion technologies that address the increasing demand for maneuverability, reliability and mission flexibility in Earth orbit and beyond. The propulsion offerings are developed to support a wide range of spacecraft classes and mission profiles, with an emphasis on modularity and integration efficiency.
The thruster lineup is designed to provide reliable thrust performance for fine attitude adjustments and controlled orbital maneuvers. These thrusters are engineered for consistent impulse delivery, predictable performance and compatibility with common spacecraft propulsion architectures. Applications include reaction control, momentum management and small delta-v maneuvers required during commissioning and routine operations. The thrusters are developed with attention to mechanical robustness, thermal management and interface standardization, enabling straightforward integration into small satellite platforms.
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2026-01-29 11:34:52 UTC

Astroscale France, the French subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings, together with Exotrail, a French company specializing in the design, manufacturing and operation of multi-orbit and multi-mission satellites, announced a strategic partnership focused on building deorbiting capabilities in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This partnership represents a key milestone in the development of European end-of-life satellite management capabilities, while laying the foundations for structured and shared roadmap, addressing both civilian and defense-related challenges.
Philippe Blatt, Managing Director, Astroscale France, commented on the announcement: “This partnership demonstrates how specialist servicing capabilities can be effectively integrated into prime-led missions to enable complex in-orbit operations. Beyond a single mission, it reflects the emergence of new business pathways for in-orbit servicing, showing how French industry can collaborate in new ways to deliver advanced capabilities while protecting intellectual property and strengthening national sovereignty."
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2026-01-29 11:32:00 UTC

Anywaves and EmTroniX announce a strategic alliance through a merger under a unified industrial group. Brought together into a single entity, the two companies are combining their expertise to become a leading global player in Space RF & Payload Subsystem Technologies.
This merger aims to deliver integrated and competitive solutions to meet the demanding requirements of the European, US and international space market in electronic systems, antennas and advanced radio frequency technologies for Telecom, Earth and Space observation. Building on an already successful operational collaboration to deliver advanced programs, the merger between Anywaves and EmTroniX reflects a shared commitment to accelerate the technical and industrial development of advanced telecommunication solutions, from antennas and electronics to fully integrated payloads. By combining their expertise and industrial footprint, Anywaves and EmTroniX strengthen their ability to deliver advanced technologies, particularly in the complex field of active antennas, software-defined radio and advanced space radars.
https://blossom.primal.net/d94adcd82b7024a82014ec914dd40bd4a95a03e7e1f2ff80fe2d9e76f9f16713.webp