Kuiper

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has uncovered an intriguing development. Having spent months speeding through the outer edges of the Kuiper Belt, the New Horizons has learned a good deal about the belt of debris that thrives on the edges of our solar system, including the fact it may extend billions of miles further than we thought.The Kuiper Belt, which lies around Pluto, is a massive component of our solar system. It’s home to several small planets, including Makemake, Eros, and, of course, Pluto. Scientists…

There may be a lot more than we thought to the belt of icy debris that circles the outer Solar System.Data from the New Horizons probe as it sails serenely through the Kuiper Belt hints at unexpected levels of particles where dust ought to be thinning out, suggesting the donut-shaped field extends significantly farther from the Sun than previous estimates suggest.It's the most recent in a growing body of evidence that our understanding of the outer Solar System is lacking – but could help us better understand our…

Peggy Hollinger / Financial Times: A look at the battle brewing between satellite operators over the use of orbit spectrum, as SpaceX's Starlink, Project Kuiper, and others push for looser rules — A contest between legacy and new operators is brewing over the use of spectrum — There is a battle brewing in space. Peggy Hollinger / Financial Times: A look at the battle brewing between satellite operators over the use of orbit spectrum, as SpaceX's Starlink, Project Kuiper, and…

For a harrowing hour or two after Amazon.com Inc. launched its first satellites, it appeared the company might have lost one of them. The two prototypes had entered orbit over the Atlantic Ocean at 2:24 p.m. Eastern on Oct. 6. An Amazon antenna on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius made contact with both, but during a subsequent handoff to another station, only one vehicle checked in. Amazon scanned the sky behind the first satellite for a signal from the second one but heard silence. The incident threatened to kill the…

For a harrowing hour or two after Amazon.com Inc. launched its first satellites, it appeared the company might have lost one of them. The two prototypes had entered orbit over the Atlantic Ocean at 2:24 p.m. Eastern on Oct. 6. An Amazon antenna on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius made contact with both, but during a subsequent handoff to another station, only one vehicle checked in. Amazon scanned the sky behind the first satellite for a signal from the second one but heard silence. The incident threatened to kill…

 Europe is seeking final offers for a 6 billion euro ($6.55 billion) EU satellite constellation which is designed to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink and Jeff Bezos' Kuiper.But authorities have been warned that the IRIS² system, initiated by the European Commission, risks missing out on the latest wave of artificial intelligence and becoming outdated before it is even launched due to bureaucracy. The European Space Agency said on Friday it would seek final offers to develop the secure communications system, a flagship…

A visualization of laser links connecting Kuiper satellites in orbit around the Earth.AmazonAmazon will include a key speed-boosting technology in its coming Project Kuiper internet satellites, the company announced Thursday.Amazon says it tested the laser link tech successfully during its recent Protoflight mission. Traditionally, satellites are limited to sending data between an individual spacecraft and the ground. Laser links connect satellites to each other.The Kuiper satellites' "optical inter-satellite links," also…

Amazon asked a Delaware court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by shareholders over the company's Kuiper satellite launch contracts, arguing in a filing that the plaintiffs failed to prove that directors acted in bad faith in approving one of the ecommerce giant's biggest capital expenditures.The Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund, a multi-employer fund, in August sued Amazon in the Delaware Court of Chancery alleging Amazon's board awarded contracts to Jeff Bezos' space company Blue Origin without proper diligence…

Hello and welcome back to Max Q! In this issue: Why space parachutes are so hard A new lawsuit alleging safety issues at Blue Origin News from Loft Orbital, Relativity Space and more SpaceX is known for its vertical integration, but one component it’s been outsourcing is parachutes — until earlier this month, when the company quietly acquired parachute vendor Pioneer Aerospace after its parent company went bankrupt. The Information first reported the news. Saving a vendor from dissolution — which would’ve likely…

Amazon on Friday said it booked three Falcon 9 launches with Elon Musk's SpaceX to help deploy the ecommerce giant's Project Kuiper satellite network, tapping a rival in the satellite internet business for its multi-billion dollar launch campaign.Amazon aims to build Kuiper as a constellation of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit to beam broadband internet globally and compete with SpaceX's Starlink network, which already has some 5,000 satellites providing nearly global coverage.Elevate Your Tech Prowess with High-Value…