Kenya launched its first operational earth observation satellite onboard a SpaceX rocket from the United States on Saturday, a live feed from Elon Musk’s rocket company showed. The satellite, developed by Kenyan engineers, will collect agricultural and environmental data on floods, drought and wildfires that authorities plan to use for disaster management and to combat food insecurity. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Taifa-1 satellite took off at about 0648 GMT without incident from the Vandenberg Base in California after three postponements due to bad weather. “We have the challenges that have been brought about by climate change, which the…
Author: Team Interstellar
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China successfully launched its first satellite dedicated to measuring precipitation on Earth, the Fengyun 3G (FY 3G), which is expected to improve the accuracy of global rainstorm early warnings on Sunday. Built by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), FY 3G is the 20th member of the Fengyun series of satellites and one of only three satellites in the world that can monitor precipitation from space. The China Meteorological Administration will build and operate FY 3G’s ground system. Previously, precipitation data were mainly collected through ground-based rain gauges and radar, which could not provide large-scale, high-precision information due…
China intends to build a lunar base from regolith, or soil, from the moon within the next five years, according to Chinese media reports. More than 100 scientists, researchers, and space contractors attended the Extraterrestrial Construction Conference in Wuhan, where they discussed ways to build infrastructure on the moon. Ding Lieyun, a scientist from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, stated that a team is building a robot named “Chinese Super Masons” to manufacture bricks from lunar soil. The Chinese plan to use the base for long-term lunar exploration and will be built with the help of robots, including the “Chinese…
The United States has established its first-ever space domain awareness (SDA) site in South America by installing an experimental telescope. The site is located at Cerro Moreno Air Force Base near Antofagasta, Chile, and was set up by a 12-member team comprising representatives from the US Space Force, U.S. Air Force, Chilean Air Force, U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, and the US Air Force Academy. The 14-inch Celestron telescope was installed alongside an all-sky camera called Panopticon and an Astrohaven dome between March 25 and April 1. The equipment will spend the next five months tracking satellites along the equator…
Space investing is a relatively new theme, but it is attracting some of the biggest names in business, including consulting giants Bain, BCG, McKinsey, and Deloitte. Deloitte has recently formed its space consulting division, which Brett Loubert leads. Loubert outlined two opportunities in space: space missions and space growth. The former represents clients that design and launch systems into orbit or have a dedicated business unit focused on space. The latter presents the more lucrative potential, according to CNBC. The $280.7 million ARK Space Exploration & Innovation ETF (ARKX) is an actively managed ETF that can respond to emerging space…
South Korea’s science ministry has announced that Danuri, which is Korea’s first lunar orbiter, has captured high-resolution images of the dark side of the moon. These images are part of ongoing research to observe the moon from approximately 100 kilometres above its surface. According to a statement from South Korea’s Ministry of Science on Wednesday, this is the first time a Korean spacecraft has photographed craters, valleys, basins, and other traces of the moon’s dark side, which are difficult to observe from Earth due to the moon being tidally locked to our planet. Built by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute…
China has announced its plans to launch a planetary defence mission to the near-Earth asteroid 2019 VL5. The target was announced by Chen Qi, who is associated with China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, during a presentation at the 8th IAA Planetary Defense Conference held in Vienna last week. If successful, this mission will be the second planetary defence test to collide with an asteroid, following NASA’s DART mission in 2021. The 2019 VL5 is a small asteroid that measures around 108 feet (33 metres) in diameter and orbits the Sun approximately once every 365 days, which means it often comes…
Industry experts are calling for China and France to join forces in space exploration and development, citing the complementary strengths of both nations. Pang Zhihao, a well-known writer on spaceflight and an expert on space exploration technology, stated that China’s strengths lie in designing and building sophisticated spacecraft and organising large-scale space programs and possessing extensive science and technology resources and engineering expertise for space exploration. On the other hand, France’s expertise lies in creating delicate scientific instruments essential for many space projects and having abundant knowledge of space science. The call for collaboration comes after a joint declaration by…
Japanese telecommunications giant NTT has partnered with satellite operator SES to provide edge-based networking services to enterprise customers. The partnership will converge NTT’s networking and enterprise-managed services competence with SES’s satellite capabilities. It will combine NTT’s fully managed private-5G and Edge-as-a-Service solution with SES’s O3b mPOWER medium earth orbit communications system. The combined solution aims to offer expanded and reliable connectivity to companies operating in regions where terrestrial networks are lacking. It is aimed at helping energy, mining, maritime and manufacturing industries that have been limited by connectivity to carry out their digital transformation plans and increase revenue streams. The…
The acting Chief Executive Officer of the Saudi Space Commission, Dr Mohammed Bin Saud Al-Tamimi, recently held a virtual meeting with Carlos de Mora, the Head of the Brazilian Space Agency, to explore possible areas of collaboration between the two entities in the space sector. During the meeting, Al-Tamimi outlined the Kingdom’s aspirations for the space sector and its strategic goals and emphasised the importance of accelerating efforts to strengthen relations between the two countries. He also called for developing future partnerships, especially in research, science, and technology, and promoting technical cooperation, innovation, and investment in the space sector to…
