Space
Coverage of advances in space exploration that have implications for state and local government. Includes stories about satellites, which are increasingly used to expand the availability of Internet access, as well as to capture images and gather data using sensors to monitor things like environmental conditions and infrastructure needs.
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The federal government’s large annual defense act steps into staffing issues within the Space Force, requiring roughly equal staffing between operational and acquisition positions.
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In collaboration with NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission, Sonoma State University students built and launched a satellite to monitor how solar wind interacts with the upper atmosphere.
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The city, home to the Texas Cyber Command at the University of Texas, will host the first-ever Texas Space Summit in September 2026. The general topic? The booming commercial space business.
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SpaceX's founder and CEO tweeted last month that the company's Starship-Super Heavy combination could be ready for its first orbital launch attempt from Boca Chica "if all goes well" and "pending regulatory approval."
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NASA’s first mission since 1972 to land people on the moon was delayed at least one year to 2025, the agency accounted Tuesday, citing funding and lawsuit complications from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin lawsuit.
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At the end of the first orbital test flight for its 164-foot Starship, SpaceX envisions a re-entry into the atmosphere at speeds approaching Mach 25, or 19,000 miles per hour, followed by 15 minutes of hypersonic flight.
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Two industry giants, Verizon and Amazon, have announced a partnership to tackle the digital divide in rural areas. Verizon will use Amazon's satellite system, Project Kuiper, to expand the reach of its data networks.
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NCX launched a pilot program in 2019 with 20 landowners in Pennsylvania and funding from Microsoft, and now it has more than 670 landowners with 2.35 million acres and has sold 270,000 carbon credits.
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The Air Force Research Laboratory is betting $750,000 on a new system that Albuquerque-based data analytics firm RS21 built to prolong satellite operations through remote monitoring and intervention.
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Upcoming new Earth-centric missions will provide a more precise look at “everything that’s happening” with the oceans, the land and the atmosphere than ever before, NASA officials have said.
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The government is expecting SpaceX to ultimately make the cost of space transportation more affordable because the private company has plans to reuse its Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy boosters.
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NASA managers said they are still “working towards December” for a planned launch despite a serious “second wave of COVID” at Kennedy Space Center that killed “key members” of the launch team during preparations.
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A SpaceX rocket sent 60 Starlink Internet satellites into space Tuesday with a launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Fla. By Wednesday evening, the long string of lights had been visible all over the country.
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The efforts have sparked the creation of an app that collects eyewitness reports and triangulates their location data, paired with an expert analysis of the data from the area’s relevant weather radars.
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SpaceX requested the permit modification so it can move ahead with the expansion and addition of pads for testing, orbital launches and landing; towers for loading payloads into rockets; and other requests.
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SpaceX has contacted officials in Texas about incorporating the unincorporated village of Boca Chica, which is next door to SpaceX's Starship production complex, potentially creating a new city with the name Starbase.
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Camden County officials say spaceport skeptics will be proven wrong in the coming weeks when the area is awarded a spaceport license after they successfully made their case to the Federal Aviation Administration.
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A battle for space Internet in Alaska is brewing as more companies jockey for the right to deliver satellite broadband to residents, in part to bridge the digital divide between villages and cities.
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In what is being called the company’s commercial satellite “rideshare” service, the Sunday launch of a Falcon 9 rocket successfully sent a record-breaking 143 satellites into space.
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As a candidate, the former vice president presented exhaustive plans on dozens of issues, yet he said relatively little about his vision for exploring the final frontier at a time Florida’s space industry is thriving.
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The first amateur radio transmission from space was in 1983 from astronaut Owen Garriott aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. He was a licensed ham who used his equipment in Houston to chat with his father in Oklahoma.