WASHINGTON — Three regional satellite operators with C-band coverage over the United States have complained to U.S. telecom regulators about being left out of a group led by four of the world’s largest satellite operators to arrange a proposed spectrum transfer to the wireless industry. The three operators, Hispasat of Spain, ABS of Bermuda and
By Odile Robotti, Next Avenue Contributor Credit: Getty Royalty Free (This article was written by a member of the 2018-2019 Encore Public Voices Fellows Program.) The landmark report issued last week by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the international body for assessing climate change, warns that our planet will reach catastrophic levels of
To receive FIRST UP Satcom, a weekly SpaceNews newsletter for satellite and telecom professionals, sign up here. TOP STORIES Intelsat invested in Africa Mobile Networks (AMN), a U.K.-headquartered group of companies with telecom infrastructure in Africa, to reach “ultra-rural” parts of the sub-Saharan side of the continent. Intelsat did not disclose the size of the investment. AMN
A new exhibition opens today at the British Library in London – “Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War.” Billed as a “once in a generation exhibition,” it promises to show off not only the exceptional collection in the British Library itself but also treasures now housed elsewhere – in England or further afield in Europe. The
For the first time, geologists have confirmed that our planet’s inner core is indeed solid – although not quite as firm as previous models have suggested. Thanks to a new method for detecting soft whispers of seismic waves, analysis of an elusive type of earthquake ripple has revealed key properties of our planet’s deepest layer.
WASHINGTON — As NASA evaluates proposals for commercially developed small lunar landers, the agency is now seeking payloads that could fly on those spacecraft despite concerns from some scientists that they don’t know if their experiments are compatible with those landers. NASA released Oct. 18 a formal solicitation for “Lunar Surface Instrument and Technology Payloads”
The Jurassic seas were a formidable place – home to sharks, crocodiles, sea monsters, and, apparently, piranha-like, flesh-eating fish. A nearly-complete fossil of a ray-finned bony fish with extra sharp teeth has scientists thinking they’ve found the piranha’s Jurassic equivalent. If they’re right, this would be the oldest evidence of a flesh-eating bony fish belonging
Insects around the world are in a crisis, according to a small but growing number of long-term studies showing dramatic declines in invertebrate populations. A new report suggests that the problem is more widespread than scientists realized. Huge numbers of bugs have been lost in a pristine national forest in Puerto Rico, the study found,
Throughout early fall, Alaska has been oddly warm and pleasant. The cause of the freakishly nice weather has been massive high pressure anchored over and around the state. One of the strongest on record for fall, this sprawling dome of warm air has helped keep the usual transition to cold stunted. Since days are still
Grenoble, the big city of the French Alps. Vincent Lafforgue, recipient of the 2019 Breakthrough Prize in Mathematics, makes his professional home here at CNRS and enjoys hiking in the foothills of the Alps. Credit: Getty Royalty Free The winners of the 2019 “Oscars of Science” — the Breakthrough Prize — were announced yesterday. Nine researchers
WASHINGTON — The last mission needed to complete Iridium Communications’ second-generation satellite constellation is scheduled for Dec. 30, Iridium CEO Matt Desch said today. In a tweet announcing the launch date, Desch said the launch is set for 8:38 a.m. Pacific Standard Time from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The launch will also use
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – You can call it a prehistoric prequel. A new piranha-like fish from Jurassic seas with sharp, pointed teeth that probably fed on the fins of other fishes is seen in this artist’s reconstruction of a fossil which was discovered in southern Germany in this image released from Eichstaett, Bavaria, Germany on October
Artist’s imagining of an electron surrounding the nucleus of an atom.Nicolle R. Fuller, National Science Foundation. Electrons are interesting things. They help form the structure of atoms and molecules, they can flow through conductive materials to create electric currents, and they have a strange quantum behavior that is sometimes particle-like and sometimes wave-like. And as
The streets of Chengdu in western China could soon be lit up by an artificial satellite moon in the night-time, rather than the more conventional streetlights, if an ambitious plan by a private aerospace company gets the go-ahead. The thinking is to save a hefty sum in electricity costs, according to Wu Chunfeng, chairman of
This article originally appeared in the Oct. 8, 2018 issue of SpaceNews magazine. SMM Hamburg, the biennial international maritime conference in Germany Sept. 4-7, attracted not only shipbuilders but also satellite operators eager to offer global communications for autonomous vessels. “Without staff onboard the ships, it is important to have true visibility on where they
It’s called Pando, a forest of around 47,000 genetically identical quaking aspen trees that share an estimated 80,000-year-old root system. Pando’s home is in south-central Utah in the United States, and it’s one of the world’s largest – and oldest – living organisms. It’s also failing to regenerate. “People are at the centre of that
Hurricane Michael near landfall on October 10, 2018.NOAA Hurricane Florence was a slow-motion disaster in more ways than one. The storm physically slowed to a crawl once it hit land, producing historic rains that led to tragic flooding across the Carolinas. But we also had two full weeks to watch the storm lumber toward land.
In January last year, a rocket carrying a tiny chip packed with rubidium-87 atoms was launched more than 200 kilometres (124 miles) above the planet’s surface. The mission was brief, affording just six minutes of microgravity at its height. But in that time the tiny chip briefly held the record for being the coldest spot
Bruno: The Air Force is “looking into the future and the flexibility they might need.” CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. — United Launch Alliance employees on Wednesday were celebrating another flawless Atlas 5 mission, placing an Air Force communications satellite into a customized geosynchronous transfer orbit after coasting for more than three hours. It
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is having trouble keeping track of its trash. For the second time in the past year, rocket debris from a SpaceX launch has washed up on shore in North Carolina. The huge chunk of metal was discovered on an Outer Banks beach in the US state. The rocket component, which was three
Do not eat a whole chicken raw. Just don’t. (Photo by: Natasha Breen/REDA&CO/UIG via Getty Images) Salmonella, here we go again. My my, how can I resist you? That’s not quite how the ABBA song goes. But, Mamma Mia, how many more Salmonella outbreaks will we have this year? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
A contender for the world’s oldest fossil may be out of the running, as recent evidence suggests it could simply be a rock and not a sign of biological life after all. Holding the record for Earth’s earliest-known remnant of life is about as tough as keeping the crown in Game of Thrones. It seems
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators have cleared the way for farmers to grow a cotton plant genetically modified to make the cottonseed edible for people, a protein-packed potential new food source that could be especially useful in cotton-growing countries beset with malnutrition. An experimental cotton plant is shown at a Texas A&M research facility in
Send those history books for a reprint, sharpen your Wikipedia editing skills, and adjust your answer for the next pub trivia night. It turns out that the destruction of Pompeii probably happened sometime after 17 October 79 CE and not, as has been previously thought, on August 24. That’s based on a newly discovered message
To connect the masses, megaconstellations will need mega antennas mega cheap. Antenna makers need mega orders to make that happen. Projects like LEOSat’s planned constellation of 84 broadband satellites in low Earth orbit are driving investments in flat panel antenna technology. Credit: Thales Alenia Space When an entrepreneur building a constellation of low Earth orbit
If radiation exposure kills people, why is it an effective cancer treatment? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Gary Larson, Medical Director, on Quora: If radiation exposure kills people, why is it an effective cancer treatment? So,
LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – A respected science journal is to withdraw a much-cited review of evidence on an illness known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) amid fierce criticism and pressure from activists and patients. The decision, described by the scientists involved as “disproportionate and poorly justified”, is being seen as a victory for activists
“It was a very clean launch,” said Brig. Gen. Douglas Schiess, commander of the 45th Space Wing CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. — A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket powered by five boosters blasted off Space Launch Complex 41 Wednesday at 12:15 AM EST. “It was a beautiful launch, a very clean launch,”
“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Say to the Israelites: ‘Of all the animals that live on land, these are the ones you may eat: You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud. There are some that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof,
There’s a lot of stuff out there in the dark, far-flung reaches of the early Universe that we’re only just starting to discover. But this one’s a real doozy – the early formation of a huge supercluster of galaxies, located 11 billion light-years away – just 2.3 billion years after the Big Bang. It’s the
The scientists liken it to ‘singing’, but to our ears the creepy dirge of Antarctic ice shelf vibrations sounds more like the sinister score of a horror movie. Researchers on Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf have recorded the slow seismic hum generated by wind forces whipping across the ice sheet’s frozen landscape. The frequency detected is
The humble wormhole is a science fiction perennial, often depicted as looping tunnels beyond gaping whirlpools of light. In reality, nobody has much of an idea what these things might really look like – but now, we have a tantalising new prospect. A Russian physicist has come up with a way to estimate the physical
WASHINGTON — A Swedish company with plans for a geostationary communications satellite announced Oct. 16 a contract with SpaceX for a Falcon Heavy launch no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2020. Ovzon of Solna, Sweden, has not yet purchased the satellite, but paid Eutelsat $1.6 million earlier this year to move one of its
Last week, NASA astronaut Air Force Colonel Nick Hague faced death as he and his commander, Alexei Ovchinin, plummeted to Earth following an aborted Soyuz launch. Outside, the world held its breath as the spacecraft returned in what NASA called a “ballistic descent mode“. Inside the tiny capsule, according to Hague, things got pretty rough.
If you’ve managed to avoid Christmas music so far, that’s only going to get harder the closer to December we get. Prepare yourself for more stores blasting out All I Want for Christmas, and Frosty the Snowman. Christmas music is something you either love or hate. If you find the tunes pretty annoying, then spare
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) has asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to further investigate the cluster of 6 acute flaccid myelitis that have appeared in Minnesota since September 20. (Photo by: William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images) If you thought 38 cases of a “polio-like” disease in 2018 was concerning, how
Fortnite is an unprecedented, smash hit video gaming phenomenon – where the aim is to be the last person standing after a battle royale shootout on a magical island – and now scientists are tapping into its popularity to try and teach kids about climate change. The new ClimateFortnite Twitch channel features what many a
WASHINGTON — ThinKom’s recent collaborations with satellite operators Telesat and SES have the antenna builder jockeying to compete with Viasat, Isotropic Systems and others in the race to build affordable high-tech antennas that can link with satellite constellations in non-geosynchronous orbits. Hawthorne, California-based ThinKom tested a phased array antenna with SES in August, practicing links
Seven years ago, if you had told me that I would ever author an article by this title, I would have laughed. I was not a fan of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing and was an unapologetic critic. But it’s hard to ignore how the world of genetics has changed in the past seven years: the field
WASHINGTON — Paul Allen, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft who backed the winning entry in a suborbital spaceflight competition and later funded development of a massive air-launch system, passed away Oct. 15. In a statement, Vulcan Inc., Allen’s holding company, said that Allen, 65, passed away Oct. 15 in Seattle from complications of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
New graffito from PompeiParco Archeologico di Pompei Excavations ongoing at the archaeological site of Pompeii outside Naples, Italy, have revealed new graffiti that could put an end to scholars’ debate about the exact historical date of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that destroyed the city in 79 AD. The recording of Vesuvius’s destruction by the
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin shrugged off on Tuesday his emergency landing last week, saying there had been no time to worry as his capsule plunged back to earth. FILE PHOTO: The International Space Station (ISS) crew member cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Russia gestures after donning a space suit shortly before a launch
A wee baby star at the tender age of just 2 million years has revealed itself to be quite the precocious little cosmic object. Astronomers have discovered it has not one, but four planets in the protoplanetary disc of dust and gas that surrounds it – and they are all gargantuan, with the biggest coming
You’ve made it to the bank you work at, if a little bleary eyed, and it’s time for the morning staff meeting. Suddenly, a 1.5 metre (5 foot) python plops down from the ceiling literally inches from where you were standing. It sounds like a terrible dream, but that’s exactly what happened last Friday morning
Unassuming farmland in Østfold County, Norway, was hiding a secret for centuries – and now it’s been rumbled. Using high-resolution ground-penetrating radar, archaeologists have found an ancient Viking cemetery, complete with what appears to be a well-preserved ship burial. A popular mode of interment among the Norse Vikings, ship burials consisting of a longboat covered
Humans will cause so many mammal species to go extinct in the next 50 years that the planet’s evolutionary diversity won’t recover for 3 to 5 million years, a team of researchers has found. The Earth may be entering its sixth mass extinction: an era in which the planet’s environments change so much that most
Drinking alcohol is dangerous at the best of times. Intoxication in the treetops really raises the stakes. This impressive albeit risky feat is just one of the many reasons why the kererū pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) is the “absolute unit“. In 2018, this “devourer of fruit” was named Bird Of The Year in New Zealand, winning
They were teenage computer geeks, bespectacled kids from Seattle who taught themselves programming from a Teletype terminal, learned the basics of business from Fortune magazine and dreamed of “a computer in every home and on every desk.” Paul Allen was the self-described “idea man,” the shy son of librarians. Bill Gates was the business-oriented partner
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