Satellite built by N.B. students not responding a week after entering Earth’s orbit

Hundreds of post-secondary students in New Brunswick are patiently waiting for a call from Satellite Violet. The student-built project took more than five years to develop at campuses across the province and is not communicating as expected. The satellite was delivered by a rocket to the International Space Station in early March and sent into … Read more

Space Force Is Planning a Military Exercise in Orbit

The Victus Haze mission is more complicated than Victus Nox, involving two prime contractors, two spacecraft, and two rocket launches from different spaceports, all timed to occur with short timelines “to keep the demonstration as realistic as possible,” a Space Force spokesperson told Ars. “This demonstration will ultimately prepare the United States Space Force to … Read more

NASA’s New PACE Observatory Searches for Clues to Humanity’s Future

Way up in the sky and sprinkled across the seas, two of the littlest yet most influential things in the world have stubbornly guarded their secrets: aerosols and phytoplankton. Today, NASA launched its Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem mission, or PACE, to unravel their mysteries. The mission’s findings could be a key to understanding how … Read more

Two Nations, a Horrible Accident, and the Urgent Need to Understand the Laws of Space Right Now

Representing Xenovia, the Leiden team took full responsibility for the explosion but said their client repossessed Candidia’s satellite in full accordance with the Outer Space Treaty. Having given notice to the Candidian company that it was late on payments, they argued, the Xenovian creditor had satisfied the treaty’s requirement for “appropriate international consultations.” Katsande felt … Read more