Science

Catalyst Campus for Technology and Innovation, in partnership with the BMC3I TAP Lab, has selected the Focus Area Cohort Teams (FACTs) participating in Cohort 26.A. The selected teams represent innovative companies collaborating to address mission-focused challenges aligned with identified government priorities. Following a competitive application and evaluation process, 6 FACTs have been selected to participate

September 21, 2026— Washington, D.C.—The Commercial Space Federation (CSF) is pleased to welcome ORBITInsure and Renaissance Strategic Advisors (RSA) as its newest members. ORBITInsure joins CSF as a Space Supply Chain member, while RSA joins CSF as an Associate Member and as a member of both the Space Supply Chain Council and State and Local

In space exploration, efficiency is key. And NASA has become so efficient that even its discarded hardware is performing valuable science.  As the NASA Mars 2020 mission delivered the Perseverance rover to our planetary next-door neighbor, it also punched a number of holes into its dusty red skin.  When Percy’s spacecraft was projected to be

The Fermi paradox asks: If there are other civilizations in the Universe besides ours, why haven’t we yet made contact?  Researchers who study this paradox – also called the Great Silence – generally point to two explanations. First, maybe it’s that intelligence is “intrinsically rare”, writes Celia Blanco, who authored new research into this question.

PARIS — Icarus Robotics, the New York startup developing dexterous mobile robots for space missions, conducted tests of its free-flying platform ahead of a 2027 demonstration on the International Space Station. “We had to work with [Canadian astronaut] Chris Hadfield to get a capability to do testing,” Ethan Barajas, Icarus CEO and co-founder, told SpaceNews

In this episode of the podcast, SpaceNews’ Mike Gruss interviews Josef Aschbacher, the director-general of the European Space Agency, at the World Space Business Week conference in Paris. They discuss Europe’s growing push for stronger sovereignty in space and other domains. Aschbacher also shares his views on where Europe is leading in space, where he

Simera Sense and IDOM will develop and produce the optical system for Simera Sense’s next-generation MultiScape350 imager. The partnership brings together Simera Sense’s extensive expertise in spaceborne imaging payloads with IDOM’s world-renowned proficiency in advanced optical design, opto-mechanical engineering, manufacturing, and qualification. IDOM will lead the development and production of the Optical Front End for

IRVINE, Calif. and TORINO, Italy – Sept. 17, 2026 – Terran Orbital, a Lockheed Martin company and a global leader in satellite-based solutions primarily serving the aerospace and defense industries, today announced the promotion of Margherita Cardi to Vice President of European Operations & Head of Strategic Programs. In her expanded role, Cardi will serve

Our beautiful big round ball of a planet is not, in fact, a perfect sphere. As it spins about on its axis, whirling around the Sun, rotation causes it to bulge at the equator and flatten at the poles. This deformation is subtle – looking at a picture of Earth from space, it’s not even

PARIS — South Korean company Satrec Initiative is working with parent company Hanwha Systems to provide high-resolution Earth imagery for the synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) constellation announced in July. Satrec Initiative, acquires 25-centimeter optical imagery with SpaceEye-T, launched in 2025. To complement Hanwha’s 64-satellite SAR constellation, designed to provide 30-minute revisit by 2031, Satrec Initiative plans to manufacture and

A German WW1 submarine known as SM UC-30 was returning home in April 1917 when it hit a British mine and sank. Twenty-seven men were lost in the wreck, along with the 18 mines and six torpedoes the submarine was loaded with. For decades, nobody knew where the boat ended up. Then, in 2016, Danish

Since raising more than $1 billion in a Series F funding round, Iceye has moved rapidly to address growing demand for sovereign space capabilities. In quick succession, the Finnish synthetic aperture radar satellite manufacturer and constellation operator established Iceye Germany, Iceye Portugal, Iceye India, an Iceye technology hub in the Netherlands, a strategic partnership with

When we look at the night sky, darkness seems to fill the spaces between the stars. But what if some of the most powerful objects in nearby galaxies are hiding inside that darkness – not because they are distant or faint, but because they shine in light we can barely detect? Astronomers have now found

In the darkest depths of Earth’s oceans, surprises are expected. For humans, it’s one of the most inhospitable environments our planet has to offer, and we’ve seen very little of what’s down there, and how life survives. What we don’t always expect is for those surprises to be startlingly familiar – but on a series

Under the ocean, things aren’t quite so bright. Much of the Sun’s rays bounce right off the ocean’s surface, and the ones that do penetrate the water are absorbed and scattered over much shorter distances than they are in air. That’s why, the deeper you get, the darker it is. As such, 32 feet (10

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — President Donald Trump has repeatedly pointed to the Space Force’s ability to monitor Iran from orbit. “We see everything … because of Space Force,” Trump said in remarks earlier this month. In July, discussing activity at Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site, he said the United States had “the greatest cameras in

Cultural warning: This article discusses the deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including through disease and frontier violence, and features images of deceased people. It’s difficult to comprehend the scale of what happened to Australia’s Indigenous population when Britain’s First Fleet invaded in 1788. One reason for that, in the simplest terms, is

Already, spacecraft are demonstrating autonomous rendezvous, on-orbit servicing, orbital transfer, debris removal and robotic operations. But which markets will mature first? What technical standards are needed for vehicles built by different companies to work together? How should governments encourage commercial investment? This event will explore what comes next for the technologies, policies and business models

The world’s ‘doomsday’ seed banks could be a way to replant our planet after disaster, but only if their contents survive the years. Even when they are carefully frozen, they may not last as long as we thought they would. Scientists have now investigated which of our tropical crops last the longest in our seed

It’s difficult to avoid the discussions around AI at the moment – and how useful or otherwise it can be. Science and healthcare are two of the areas where the tech promises to be transformative. We’re already seeing AI used extensively in terms of analyzing scans, designing drugs, and predicting the future, but researchers led

The search is on for natural sources of hydrogen that could potentially fast-track humanity to a low-carbon energy future. As a fuel, it’s incredibly clean – but most hydrogen today is still produced using fossil fuels. Being able to tap into abundant natural reserves of hydrogen would solve that problem, and there are several geological

On 12 December 2022, an orbiter traveling 251 kilometers (156 miles) above the southern highlands of Mars photographed a hill. It should have been an unremarkable shot – one of tens of thousands NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera has captured of the Martian surface since 2006. Instead, something seemed to be looking back. Two

Our relatively stable global climate is governed by an incredibly complex set of factors, all interacting with each other in dynamic and changeable ways – but there are a couple of really big, key players in that system. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is one of them.  This system of ocean currents redistributes heat

There are people who say they can leave their own bodies. Not “I was beside myself!” or “I jumped out of my skin!” but literally peeling their consciousness from their flesh and bones to observe the world from entirely different places. You’ve probably heard of it – the out-of-body experience, a strange phenomenon steeped in

For many people around the world, putting food on the table isn’t an easy thing. But as populations grow and pressure on the world’s resources intensifies, that burden is expected to only grow heavier. New projections suggest that by 2050, millions of the world’s poorest people could be spending around half their income on food

Australian Earth observation satellite company LatConnect 60 (LC60) has strengthened its position in India with two strategic agreements announced at the Bengaluru Space Expo 2026 on September 7th, spanning satellite mission infrastructure and access to India’s defence and geospatial intelligence market. The agreements with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) and GeoSyze EO Solutions LLP establish complementary

There are more than 12,000 abandoned coal mines across China, offering vast amounts of underground space and sophisticated infrastructure that could potentially be repurposed – and researchers have an idea about how to do just that. The idea, from a team at the Shanxi Province Coal-based Resources Green and High-efficiency Development Engineering Center, is to

Changing people’s behavior can often feel nearly impossible. Especially when it comes to something with indirect benefits, like helping people far away or reducing environmental impacts.  But new research published in JAMA Network Open suggests that a small bit of information about a meal’s environmental impact could be enough to nudge people toward lower-carbon choices