Tag Archives: low earth orbit

Astronomers warn against colonial practices in the space industry – a philosopher of science explains how the industry can explore other planets without exploiting them

The past decade has seen rapid expansion of the commercial space industry, with rival nations jockeying for key military and economic positions beyond Earth, public and private enterprises scrambling to mine the Moon, and a growing halo of space debris littering low-Earth orbit. In a 2023 white paper, a group of concerned astronomers warned against… Read More »

US Space Command says Chinese rocket broke apart in low Earth orbit, creating a cloud of space debris

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific advances and more. One of China’s Long March 6A rockets has disintegrated in low Earth orbit, creating a debris cloud of hundreds of pieces, according to space debris monitoring organizations. The rocket launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch… Read More »

Looking ahead to the next 25 years of private space stations

When you buy through links in our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn commission. Credit: Future/All About Space Magazine,Logo_ Hannah Rose Brayshaw-Williams People have been involved in the Salyut, Skylab, Mir and Tiangong programs in the last half century, and of course International Space Station (ISS). In addition to providing Incredible landscapes of… Read More »

How can we protect satellites in Earth-moon space? This new software can help

As the space around Earth becomes increasingly littered with man-made debris, scientists are stepping up efforts to preserve satellites in real time. The latest of these efforts are new algorithms being developed at the University of Central Florida (UCF) to automatically track and protect spacecraft from crashing into satellites. asteroids inside cislunar space — The… Read More »

Space weather can make satellite orbits difficult to predict. That’s why there’s a problem

Satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) can drift hundreds of kilometers out of their expected orbits when hit by bad space weather. The problem affects the International Space Station, China’s Tiangong space station, and many Earth observation satellites that require close monitoring of our planet. This positioning uncertainty increases the risk of dangerous orbital collisions,… Read More »

A dead Russian spacecraft nearly collided with a NASA satellite. The impact would have sent 7,500 bits of debris rocketing around the Earth.

Simulated image of a satellite collision and the resulting debris.ESA / ID&Sense / ONiRiXEL, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO NASA’s TIMED satellite narrowly avoided a collision with Russia’s dead Cosmos 2221 spacecraft this week. In a worst-case scenario, the impact would launch 7,500 bits of debris into low Earth orbit. As the amount of space debris… Read More »

Mathematically perfect exoplanet system — a great place to look for alien technology

Late last year astronomers discovered a fascinating star system only 100 light years away from us. Neptune’s six subplanets orbit very close to their host star in mathematically perfect orbits, attracting the attention of scientists searching for alien technology or technosignatures, which they claim would provide convincing evidence of advanced life beyond them. Soil. To… Read More »

‘Space Rescue Service’ essential for upcoming space tourism era, report suggests

Rescuers around the world can reach many rugged environments: boaters stranded in the ocean, people injured while skiing in the mountains, and plane crash victims in rural areas. However, there is currently no emergency rescue system. space – and there might be a way to change that. The nonprofit Rand Corp. suggests that, if funded… Read More »