An investment by a venture fund affiliated with the U.S. national security community in commercial space station developer Vast is not necessarily a sign of military interest in human spaceflight.

The post In-Q-Tel invests in Vast appeared first on SpaceNews.

A member of the Federal Communications Commission warned that declining American influence could make it harder to secure support for key satellite industry priorities at international conferences.

The post FCC commissioner warns U.S. influence on satellite spectrum debates could wane appeared first on SpaceNews.

Judge dismisses final claim against scientist’s former employer and curtails lawsuit directed at woman who accused him of sexual harassment

Researchers speak out against proposal that would bar funding for U.S. scientists working with Chinese partners or training Chinese students

Some scientists hope animal work at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre can continue despite vote by Dutch Parliament to end the studies

A model partnership between archaeologists and the Kuikuro people has helped rewrite the history of early Amazonian societies

Learn how rainy and cold weather may be linked with joint pain, impacting those with arthritis or other musculoskeletal conditions.

Detected in three drug samples during community checks, the little-known opioid cychlorphine may be as potent as fentanyl, with its true effects still unknown.

Prehistoric trees like Ginkgo and monkey-puzzles still have close relatives that go back at least to the time of the dinosaurs.

Learn how three new toad species from Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains evolved to skip the tadpole stage — revealing one of nature’s rarest reproductive strategies.

Despite the domestic headwinds, BlackSky is seeing a sharp uptick in overseas business.

The post BlackSky hit by U.S. budget cuts, but international demand lifts outlook appeared first on SpaceNews.

A company developing stratospheric platforms for telecommunications and related applications has won a NASA award to use that platform for environmental monitoring.

The post Sceye wins NASA award for stratospheric Earth observations appeared first on SpaceNews.

Entering its second decade, philanthropy with Facebook fortune has shed social causes and now focuses on ambitious science dream

Geostationary satellite operator EchoStar is selling another batch of radio frequencies to help improve SpaceX’s direct-to-cell services in the United States, in return for $2.6 billion worth of the company’s stock.

The post EchoStar sells more spectrum in $2.6 billion deal for bigger SpaceX stake appeared first on SpaceNews.

SAN FRANCISCO – Italian space logistics company D-Orbit announced the conclusion Nov. 6 of CTRL+Space, Europe’s first in-orbit Capture-the-Flag (CTF) cybersecurity competition and the first live CTF contest involving multiple satellites. Italian CFT team mhackeroni worked with D-Orbit to organize the CTRL+Space competition. The European Space Agency Security Cyber Centre of Excellence and the ESA […]

The post D-Orbit and mhackeroni conduct in-orbit cybersecurity competition appeared first on SpaceNews.

Learn more about the discovery of the electron and why J.J. Thomson often gets the credit. 

International research collaborations will be increasingly led by scientists in China over the coming decade. That is according to a new study by researchers at the University of Chicago, which finds that the power balance in international science has shifted markedly away from the US and towards China over the last 25 years (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 122 e2414893122).

To explore China’s role in global science, the team used a machine-learning model to predict the lead researchers of almost six million scientific papers that involved international collaboration listed by online bibliographic catalogue OpenAlex. The model was trained on author data from 80 000 papers published in high-profile journals that routinely detail author contributions, including team leadership.

The study found that between 2010 and 2012 there were only 4429 scientists from China who were likely to have led China-US collaborations. By 2023, this number had risen to 12714, meaning that the proportion of team leaders affiliated with Chinese institutions had risen from 30% to 45%.

Key areas

If this trend continues, China will hit “leadership parity” with the US in chemistry, materials science and computer science by 2028, with maths, physics and engineering being level by 2031. The analysis also suggests that China will achieve leadership parity with the US in eight “critical technology” areas by 2030, including AI, semiconductors, communications, energy and high-performance computing.

For China-UK partnerships, the model found that equality had already been reached in 2019, while EU and China leadership roles will be on par this year or next. The authors also found that China has been actively training scientists in nations in the “Belt and Road Initiative” which seeks to connect China closer to the world through investments and infrastructure projects.

This, the researchers warn, limits the ability to isolate science done in China. Instead, they suggest that it could inspire a different course of action, with the US and other countries expanding their engagement with the developing world to train a global workforce and accelerate scientific advancements beneficial to their economies.

The post Scientific collaborations increasingly more likely to be led by Chinese scientists, finds study appeared first on Physics World.

In this episode of Space Minds, host David Ariosto speaks with Max Haot, CEO of Vast, the ambitious aerospace company based in Long Beach, California, that’s one of a very companies few working diligently towards the first commercial space station.

The post How Vast plans to keep humanity in orbit appeared first on SpaceNews.

The future of American leadership in space will hinge on one factor: the ability to generate high power on orbit and on the surface of celestial bodies such as the moon. From a physics standpoint, nuclear energy offers the highest energy density available for spacecraft, enabling more efficient and compact power generation compared to solar. […]

The post Nuclear energy is key to American leadership in space appeared first on SpaceNews.

How precise are satellite collision-avoidance platforms? Artificial intelligence is helping space trackers get a handle on increasingly congested orbits, but physics and math are only part of the challenge in a domain where debris, satellite maneuvers and solar weather can quickly rewrite the map. Companies tend to share their performance metrics only with customers, but […]

The post Who has the best map of orbit? appeared first on SpaceNews.

This episode explores the scientific and technological significance of 2D materials such as graphene. My guest is Antonio Rossi, who is a researcher in 2D Materials Engineering at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa.

Rossi explains why 2D materials are fundamentally different than their 3D counterparts – and how these differences are driving scientific progress and the development of new and exciting technologies.

Graphene is the most famous 2D material and Rossi talks about today’s real-world applications of graphene in coatings. We also chat about the challenges facing scientists and engineers who are trying to exploit graphene’s unique electronic properties.

Rossi’s current research focuses on two other promising 2D materials – tungsten disulfide and hexagonal boron nitride. He explains why tungsten disulphide shows great technological promise because of its favourable electronic and optical properties; and why hexagonal boron nitride is emerging as an ideal substrate for creating 2D devices.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an important tool in developing new 2D materials. Rossi explains how his team is developing feedback loops that connect AI with the fabrication and characterization of new materials. Our conversation also touches on the use of 2D materials in quantum science and technology.

The post Unlocking the potential of 2D materials: graphene and much more appeared first on Physics World.

Demand has never been greater for the monitoring of objects in orbit and the coordination of their safe movement. The number of active satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) has surged from less than a thousand in 2019, when SpaceX began launching its colossal Starlink broadband constellation, to more than 10,000 today. As other megaconstellations […]

The post Managing space domain awareness data has become a greater challenge than collecting it appeared first on SpaceNews.

The renomination of Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator has been welcomed by much of the space industry, even as Isaacman defends positions he took in a policy manifesto.

The post Isaacman renomination wins support from much of the space industry appeared first on SpaceNews.

Blue Origin says the second launch of its New Glenn rocket, carrying a pair of NASA Mars spacecraft, is scheduled for Nov. 9.

The post Second New Glenn launch set for Nov. 9 appeared first on SpaceNews.