Satellites

SpaceX is working with the National Reconnaissance Office to build a classified system of swarming spy satellites, according to a report published by Reuters. And while the $1.8 billion contract was reportedly signed in 2021, news of the program’s ties to NRO just leaked on Saturday—a great reminder that it’s entirely possible for some tech companies to do highly classified work for years without the public learning about it.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their View The new satellite…

Pouya Hosseinzadeh, left, a USU doctoral student in computer science, with faculty mentor Soukaina Filali Boubrahimi, right, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, published a description of a machine learning method to enhance water data collected by satellites in an AGU journal. He presents the research at USU's 2024 Spring Runoff Conference March 26–27. Credit: Mary-Ann Muffoletto Satellites encircling…

SpaceX’s Starshield unit has had a classified contract with the US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) since 2021 to build a network of “hundreds” of spy satellites for the agency, Reuters reports today, citing unnamed sources “familiar with the program.” A Wall Street Journal report in February listed a classified $1.8 billion SpaceX contract with a then-unnamed government agency. Now Reuters has attached a name, and that it’s to build a network of “hundreds of satellites bearing Earth-imaging capabilities that can…

SpaceX has been contracted by the Department of Defense’s National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to build a network of hundreds of low-orbiting spy satellites capable of operating as a swarm and tracking targets on the ground, according to . The Reuters report, which cites five sources with knowledge of the program, builds on earlier reporting by that revealed SpaceX had signed a $1.8 billion contract in 2021 with an unnamed agency.This network, called Starshield, would reportedly be able to gather continuous imagery all…

With four damaged underwater cables in the Red Sea, telecommunication providers are now looking to the skies for connectivity. Satellite operators are lending their space-based connectivity to reroute internet traffic, suggesting that a hybrid system combining underwater and orbital internet might be the best approach moving forward.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewEarlier this week, four out of 15 communication cables were cut, disrupting network traffic that flows through the…

Satellite image of smoke streaming from several fires southwest of Boa Vista (the capital of the Brazilian state of Roraima) captured on February 22, 2024, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite.Huge understory fires are spreading throughout the state in northern Brazil as drought and heat turn the rainforest into tinder.Roraima—Brazil’s northernmost state—has a wet climate, which helps rainforests thrive and suppresses the natural occurrence of forest fires, even during the dry…

For years, the main way of cleaning up space junk and retired satellites has been to let them burn up as they reenter Earth’s atmosphere. For the most part, scientists have always assumed it was relatively safe. Now, though, new research suggests burning satellites up on re-entry is leaving metal particles in the atmosphere.There are a number of reasons why metal particles being left in the atmosphere isn’t a great thing, including the fact that Business Insider reports it could lead to the development of polar…

This month marks 10 years since the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370), perhaps the best-known continued aviation vanishment since Amelia Earhart in the 1930s. That a Boeing 777—which carries up to several hundred people and, in 2014, cost in excess of a quarter-billion dollars—was able to completely drop off all satellite feeds and communications channels (and by manual settings in the cockpit) was astounding 10 years ago.  As that situation unfolded, Fast Company built a model that analyzed its most…

Elon Musk's SpaceX has announced it will dispose of 100 Starlink satellites over the next six months, after it discovered a design flaw that may cause them to fail. Rather than risk posing a threat to other spacecraft, SpaceX will "de-orbit" these satellites to burn up in the atmosphere.But atmospheric scientists are increasingly concerned that this sort of apparent fly-tipping by the space sector will cause further climate change down on Earth.One team recently, and unexpectedly, found potential ozone-depleting metals…

NASA satellites have emerged as a vital tool in the fight against malaria outbreaks in the Amazon Rainforest, where the disease poses a significant threat to people living in that region. University researchers, in collaboration with US space agency NASA and the Peruvian government, are leveraging data from Earth-observing satellites to forecast malaria outbreaks months in advance, ultimately aiming to prevent them from occurring.Using NASA Satellites to Predict Malaria Outbreaks:In the battle against malaria, which can…