Tag: space

  • Planet Labs Launches Two More Earth Imaging Satellites

    Planet Labs, a geoscience and data analytics company in San Francisco, launched two more earth imaging satellites in its Dove series, designed to demonstrate the company’s technologies. The satellites, Dove 3 and Dove 4, were launched as payloads on a Russian Dnepr rocket. The company launched Dove 1 and Dove 2 into orbit in April…

  • Propulsion Systems Created for Micro Space Satellites

    A research group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed propulsion systems for miniature space satellites that can help prevent these research devices becoming harmful space clutter. Aeronautics and astronautics professor Paulo Lozano and colleagues from MIT’s Space Propulsion Lab discussed their work at the recent Joint Propulsion Conference of the American Institute of Aeronautics and…

  • NASA Awards Contracts for Commercial Human Space Flights

    NASA signed new agreements today with three American companies to design and develop the next round of U.S. human space flights, succeeding the Space Shuttle and leading to a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next five years. The agreements, which call for a base development period of 21 months, were made through…

  • SpaceX Dragon Capsule Docks at Space Station [Updated]

    Update: 31 May 2012 NASA reports that the SpaceX Dragon capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 11:42 a.m. EDT a few hundred miles west of Baja California, Mexico, marking the completion of the first mission by a commercial company to resupply the International Space Station. The capsule earlier began a 9-minute, 50-second deorbit…

  • Carbon Nanotube Material Used on NASA Jupiter Mission

    Nanocomp Technologies Inc. in Concord, New Hampshire, a developer of materials and component products from carbon nanotubes, says that its nanotube-based sheet material has been incorporated into NASA’s Juno spacecraft launched on 5 August. The material, called Emshield, is expected to provide protection against electrostatic discharge (ESD) as the spacecraft makes its way to Jupiter.…

  • Battery Developer to Power NASA Lunar Robot

    Boston-Power Inc., in Westborough, Massachusetts, a developer lithium-ion batteries, says its battery systems have been selected to be part of NASA’s Project M, a project to land a working humanoid robot on the moon in 1,000 days. The company’s batteries will be part of the pack providing power for the robot, known as Robonaut 2…