News
Inside the Deep Space Network: the three dishes that make every interplanetary mission possible and why they're quietly running out of capacity
56+ min ago (329+ words) The Deep Space Network is the most important space system most people have never heard of. Every image from Perseverance, every data packet from Europa Clipper, every status check on the two Voyagers drifting in interstellar space " all of it…...
A NASA Centrifuge Comes Back to Life, and With It a Rare Chance to Study Astronauts on Earth
1+ hour, 26+ min ago (1057+ words) Texas A&M University has reactivated a mothballed NASA centrifuge to create what its operators describe as one of the most capable human space research facilities in the United States, filling a gap that has forced American researchers to run…...
The specific loneliness of being the most capable person in every room you walk into
1+ hour, 56+ min ago (1492+ words) The most capable person in the room rarely feels like it, and the loneliness that follows is not a failure of confidence but a structural consequence of being trusted to carry what no one else will. The calls come late....
The Ship That Felt Like Home: Artemis 2 Crew Returns With a Vessel Ready for the Moon
3+ hour, 26+ min ago (314+ words) The mission is designed as a shakedown cruise. Artemis 2 exists to prove that Orion, its life-support systems, its manual handling characteristics and its redesigned heat shield can carry people to lunar distance and bring them home. Every system matters, but…...
The Rosalind Franklin Paradox: NASA Signs a Launch Contract for a Mission the White House Wants to Kill
5+ hour, 26+ min ago (679+ words) The decision carries a strange internal contradiction. NASA's Launch Services Program is moving forward with procurement and integration planning while the administration's budget request tells Congress the mission should not exist. Rosalind Franklin was designed as a joint European-Russian endeavor....
Taiwan's Pitch to Allies: Build a Starlink Alternative Before It's Too Late
1+ day, 1+ hour ago (413+ words) Most national space agencies justify their budgets through some mix of science, prestige, and industrial policy. Wu discarded that framing entirely. For Taiwan, space technology is fundamentally about democratic survival " and Taiwanese officials said as much from the symposium stage....
The complete story of the Cassini-Huygens mission and how a 20-year journey to Saturn rewrote our understanding of habitable worlds
1+ day, 56+ min ago (1134+ words) { "content": "On October 15, 1997, a Titan IVB rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying a spacecraft the size of a school bus on a trajectory that would take seven years to reach its destin The complete story of the Cassini-Huygens mission…...
The Direct-to-Device Dream Collides With a Fractured Satellite Reality
23+ hour, 27+ min ago (468+ words) That forces a multi-constellation approach. And here the problem sharpens. Each D2 D operator uses its own deployment and provisioning model, its own interfaces, its own commercial terms. For an MNO trying to stitch together a coherent service, the result looks…...
ESA's "18. 6 Million Bet on Kepler Communications Reveals How Europe Plans to Build the Backbone of Space-Based Internet
2+ day, 21+ hour ago (478+ words) The European Space Agency just handed a Canadian satellite operator the keys to one of Europe's most strategically important space programs. The question is why. In an industry where strategic autonomy has become a near-obsession for European policymakers, ESA's decision…...
The Sky Is No Longer Offline: How Boeing and SES Are Wiring Connectivity Into the DNA of Flight
2+ day, 23+ hour ago (253+ words) Under the agreement, Boeing will install SES's in-cabin hardware network on select aircraft during factory production. Antenna installation will continue as a separate step for now, but the system is expected to become a fully line-fit offering in the coming…...