In March this year, heavy rainfall and flooding hit several municipal areas in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, causing significant damage to infrastructure. To aid in disaster response efforts, the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) utilised Earth Observation Satellite (EOS) data to map the extent of the damage in Mnquma, Mbashe, King Sabatha Dalindyebo, Nyandeni, Port St Johns, Ingquza, and Mbizana. In collaboration with the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), SANSA activated the International Charter, Space and Major Disaster on March 27. This activation allowed the owners of earth observation satellites that are part of the charter…
Author: Team Interstellar
Read More
Air pollution is a severe problem in North America, with cities such as Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Houston ranking among the most polluted cities globally. Air pollution poses severe health risks, particularly for the urban population. The World Health Organization estimates air pollution to be the cause of around seven million premature deaths annually. People in most regions of North America currently need more resources to know when their local air is clean. To address this challenge, NASA and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory have partnered to launch TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution), a first-of-its-kind satellite mission designed to…
Kenya is preparing to launch its first operational satellite, Taifa-1, on April 11, 2023. The satellite will be launched by SpaceX’s Falcon-9 launch vehicle, as a rideshare, from the Vandenberg Base, USA. Taifa-1’s launch is part of the Kenyan government’s strategy to take advantage of the opportunities presented by space science, technologies, and applications. The satellite, designed and developed by Kenyan engineers, will provide timely and regular remote sensing data for predictive analysis and data-driven decision support for agriculture and food security, natural resources management, blue economy, disaster management, and environment monitoring. The Taifa-1 satellite is an operational 3U Earth…
Mexico is extremely susceptible to hurricanes along its Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts every summer. The hurricanes and torrential rains cause tremendous damage to Mexico’s agriculture sector and public infrastructure, affecting livelihoods and the national economy. To combat this chronic climate challenge, the Mexican Space Agency (AEM) is preparing to train its youth in using satellite technology to support social tasks such as civil protection against floods. Salvador Landeros Ayala, the General Director of AEM, announced that AEM has partnered with the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEMEX), where the youth capacity building will be based on…
United Arab Emirates Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) announced on Monday that its subsidiary, Thuraya Telecommunications, has signed an agreement to invest $17.5 million in Astrocast, a low earth orbit (LEO) internet of things (IoT) network operator. It marks Thuraya’s first investment in an LEO satellite constellation. According to Yahsat’s filing with the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, the investment will be made as a convertible loan. In addition to the acquisition, both companies will extend a technical cooperation agreement signed in 2019 between Astrocast and Thuraya for another four years. Astrocast is a Switzerland-based company operating a global nanosatellite…
Lockheed Martin has been awarded the contract to build Australia’s first sovereign military satellites. The company was announced as the preferred tenderer for Joint Project 9102, which will provide the Australian Defence Force with a satellite communications system for the Indo-Pacific region. The multi-billion dollar project will include the following: New communication satellites. Multiple ground stations across Australia. A communications management system. Two new operations centres. The system will increase the resilience, agility, and flexibility of the defence’s military satellite capability. Satellite communications have become increasingly crucial for defence capabilities, with the data superhighway becoming a potential theatre of war…
United Arab Emirates Al Yah Satellite Communications Company (Yahsat) announced on Monday that its subsidiary, Thuraya Telecommunications, has signed an agreement to invest $17.5 million in Astrocast, a low earth orbit (LEO) internet of things (IoT) network operator. It marks Thuraya’s first investment in an LEO satellite constellation. According to Yahsat’s filing with the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, the investment will be made as a convertible loan. In addition to the acquisition, both companies will extend a technical cooperation agreement signed in 2019 between Astrocast and Thuraya for another four years. Vinamarine, the maritime administration of Vietnam, has recently chosen…
India’s Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project has achieved another significant milestone in producing segmented mirror components called Segment Support Assemblies (SSAs). The TMT is an enormous ground-based telescope built in partnership between astronomy institutions in the United States, India, China, Japan, and Canada. The TMT is expected to enable scientists to study the universe in unprecedented detail when it becomes operational in the mid-2020s from its location on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The SSA is an essential component of the primary mirror of the TMT, which consists of 492 hexagonal mirror segments and holds the mirror segments…
Until now, Chinese space launch startups have been regularly demonstrating launch vehicles, failures or otherwise, with solid-fueled rocket engines with a heritage in the Long March and Dong Feng series. This changed when the Chinese space startup, Beijing Tianbing Technology, also known as Space Pioneer, successfully launched its first commercial liquid-fueled carrier rocket, Tianlong-2 Y1, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China on Sunday. On 2nd April 2023, at 4:48 p.m. BJT, the 35-metre-long rocket, with a take-off mass of 150 tonnes, blasted off into the sky, carrying a satellite into a pre-set orbit. The primary objective of…
The water bear, also known as a tardigrade or moss piglet, is an eight-legged animal smaller than 1 millimetre long and the hardiest creature on Earth. Over years of scientific testing, it has shown the ability to survive -200 degrees Celsius, more than an hour in boiling water, and even enduring radiation in space. The tardigrade’s extreme toughness comes partly from a gene that generates shield-like proteins to protect its cells against radiation and other environmental damage. Taking advantage of tardigrade’s natural features, a team of scientists from the People’s Liberation Army Academy of Military Medical Sciences in Beijing has…
