October 22nd, 2026
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The SETI Institute has designed LaserSETI, technology to keep a constant watch on large parts of the sky, looking for very brief flashes of light. “LaserSETI was designed from the beginning as a global observatory rather than a single telescope,” said Eliot Gillum, Director of LaserSETI at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. The […]
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When it rains space debris. Two cases of suspected Chinese rocket debris have been reported, in Indonesia and in the United States. Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) reports that several bits of debris crashed into an oil palm plantation in Sampit, East Kotawaringin, Central Kalimantan. BRIN researcher, Thomas Djamaluddin, said the object found […]
Earth’s Moon is deserved of wide-spread exploration, far beyond early robotic and human exploration of the lunar south pole – extraterrestrial real estate now within the sights of NASA’s Artemis program, as well as other nations. Outside of that lunar south pole target, yes indeed, the Moon is rife with attractive and scientifically important objectives […]
It is a troublesome wait-a-minute moment in space. Satellite watcher Marco Langbroek in Leiden, the Netherlands, reports that there are worrisome approach maneuvers by Russia’s Cosmos 2612 and a US registered, radar satellite ICEYE-X36. “This RPO (Rendezvous and Proximity Operation) is completely non-consensual,” explains Langbroek. Another maneuver by the Russian spacecraft took place on October […]
Reflect Orbital continues to make progress on placing giant mirrors in Earth orbit to produce and sell sunlight after dark. On October 10, the space startup set up spotlights near Lone Pine, California to simulate the illumination its proposed satellites could provide. The plan by Reflect Orbital is to build and operate orbital mirrors that […]
Russia’s Cosmos-2612 satellite has made a series of maneuvers that have made it almost perfectly co-planar with the radar satellite ICEYE-X36. ICEYE is natively European, founded in Finland. Bart Hendrickx, a longtime observer of the Russian space program, reports that, in the past two days or so, the Russian spacecraft has made a further orbit […]
There is need to redefine the edge of the solar system. That’s the outcome of new work by two leading space scientists. They present a theory that the Milky Way’s gravity, including its dark matter, redraws the Sun’s frontier. Moreover, it allows the Solar Lagrange points L1 and L2 to form “portals” that funnel interstellar visitors […]
Work has reached an accelerated mode in readying three Ingenuity-class helicopters for deployment at Mars by NASA’s Space Reactor‑1 Freedom spacecraft. Slated for launch in 2028, SR-1 Freedom is the first fission nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft and is assigned the duty of dropping off the SkyFall entry capsule loaded with the trio of reconnoitering aerial vehicles […]
The suborbital Virgin Galactic’s next generation spaceship is on tap to evaluate sensor systems to collect space weather data during flights. Under a new Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, Virgin Galactic has joined research interests with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Space Warfare Directorate at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. Under the 24-month […]
Late last week NASA launched its request for proposals via its “Commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Destination Contract (CLDC).” The October 9 RFP’s principal purpose is for NASA to acquire services from a commercially owned and operated LEO Destination that can provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective end-to-end services to succeed the International Space Station (ISS). […]
