Earth observation
Triage reveals urgent military space jobs
U.S. combatant commanders urgently need to solve pressing problems in Earth observation, missile warning and position, navigation and timing, said Chuck Finley, former technical director of the Operational Responsive Space and its successor the Air Force Space Rapid Capabilities.
Bluefield adds customers for methane detection
Bluefield Technologies is signing up additional customers in the wake of a recent aerial demonstration of its optical sensors to detect methane leaks.
Hurricane satellites reveal flooding
Satellites launched in 2016 to track ocean winds offer valuable information on soil moisture and flooding.
Forecasts call for rapid growth in Earth observation market
Two consulting firms anticipate strong demand for commercial Earth observation products and services in the next decade as satellite constellations offer an increasing array of optical, radar, hyperspectral and video imagery and data.
Axelspace raises $22.8 million for remote-sensing constellation
In an interview, Axelspace Chief Business Development Officer Yasunori Yamazaki, said the funding will enable the company of 65 people to continue building a constellation called AxelGlobe, though the company hasn’t decided on a final size for the constellation.
LEO startup raises $39.5 million for constellation to watch Earth and space
The round brings NorthStar E&S’s total funding to 83 million Canadian dollars and ends a funding drought from when the company announced its plans three years ago.
Commercial EO innovation challenges snail-pace government timescales
Leaps in capabilities of commercial constellations of small Earth-observation satellites and the decreasing cost of their services were at the center of a debate about the future of publicly funded Earth-observation missions after Spire CEO Peter Platzer introduced the company’s ambition to become “the Amazon” of space.
ESA targets 2021 for Space Rider demo flight
The European Space Agency expects to carry out the qualification flight of the Space Rider spaceplane in 2021 followed by multiple demonstration missions before handing over the program to industry, according to Lucia Linares, head of ESA space transportation strategy and policy.
ESA preps Earth observation satellite with onboard AI processor
The European Space Agency plans to launch an Earth observation satellite equipped with an artificially intelligent processor that would enable the spacecraft to make decisions regarding what to image and which data to send to the ground.
Space agencies welcome new entrants developing satellites for tracking greenhouse gases
As a growing number of organizations propose satellites to monitor greenhouse gases, national space agencies who already operate such spacecraft welcome those new entrants — as long as they’re willing to share their results.
ESA’s Aeolus. A game-changer for forecasts?
The first wind data captured by the European Space Agency's Aeolus wind sensor show the sensor is working as designed, a huge relief for a program managers who struggled for more than a decade with the complex technology.
Airbus, Orbital Insight forge alliance
Airbus Defense and Space's Intelligence business announced a strategic partnership Sept. 12 with Orbital Insight, a geospatial analytics firm founded in 2013 in Palo Alto, California, to build a suite of geospatial analytics services and tools.
Descartes Labs joins DARPA geospatial initiative
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency awarded Descartes Labs, a $2.9 million contract to bring its geospatial analytics platform into DARPA’s geospatial cloud, the Santa Fe, New Mexico, startup announced Sept. 12.
What to look forward to at World Satellite Business Week 2018
Big questions that will hopefully find answers at this year’s conference include: how many satellite manufacturers and launch providers can the market support? Do markets like the Internet of Things and inflight connectivity hold as much promise as satellite operators hope? And, of course, what to satellite operators actually want?
Earth observation startup Planet trims workforce by “less than ten percent”
Earth observation startup Planet laid off dozens of employees July 13. The move affected less than ten percent of the firm's workforce, a company spokesperson said.
Long March 3A rocket launches Fengyun-2H meteorological satellite
Fengyun-2H is the eighth and final of the Fengyun-2 series of spin-stabilized weather satellites for geostationary orbit, development of which began in the 1980s under CASC.
