During a two-week series of movements that began on September 30th, Russian controllers steered the Kosmos 2612 spy satellite within a few hundred meters, or less, of the ICEYE X36 Earth-observation spacecraft. Experts think that Russia may have tried to intercept the satellite’s data transmissions, or worse, practice for its future destruction.
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) could profoundly change our understanding of the Universe. It is our ticket to finding other Earths and to knowing whether these worlds harbor life.
China's and the United States' mysterious spaceplanes are performing classified maneuvers in orbit right now. But despite the secrecy, observers on Earth are gleaning insights into each spaceplane’s capabilities through ground-based radars and telescopes. It’s a tight technology race without a clear winner that proves Washington and Beijing are the only peers in space right now.
During a two-week series of movements that began on September 30th, Russian controllers steered the Kosmos 2612 spy satellite within a few hundred meters, or less, of the ICEYE X36 Earth-observation spacecraft. Experts think that Russia may have tried to intercept the satellite’s data transmissions, or worse, practice for its future destruction.
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) could profoundly change our understanding of the Universe. It is our ticket to finding other Earths and to knowing whether these worlds harbor life.
China's and the United States' mysterious spaceplanes are performing classified maneuvers in orbit right now. But despite the secrecy, observers on Earth are gleaning insights into each spaceplane’s capabilities through ground-based radars and telescopes. It’s a tight technology race without a clear winner that proves Washington and Beijing are the only peers in space right now.
SpaceX has successfully achieved an orbital flight of Starship for the very first time and even deployed 26 new Starlink V3 satellites.
A batch of RASSVET satellites, Russia's version of Starlink, launched in March this year failed to reach their operational altitude of 500 miles (800 kilometers) and is reportedly lingering in a much lower orbit of around 310 miles (500 km) above the planet. On top of that, two satellites appear to be spiraling back toward Earth, and one has already deorbited.
NASA has a network of telescopes whose sole task is to seek out these potentially lethal rocky missiles. And now that Rubin, after years of heavy construction work, has finally begun its protracted survey of the cosmos, it is set to discover not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of asteroids, including plenty of those near-Earth space rocks. That means Rubin isn’t just an astronomer’s dream. It’s also a defender of the world.