June 2014
Achilles’ heel
..., advances in materials science and satellite design have meant that the operational lifetime of a satellite in geostationary orbit, assuming no extraordinary solar activity, is determined more by its ability to remain correctly pointed, than by its...
March 2015
A boom and a (possible) bust in small spacecraft production
... of spacecraft to operators, as is the case with big spacecraft (for instance, heavy communications spacecraft in geostationary orbit). As a result, vertical integration occurs in these SSC developing companies. Previously, space companies did almost...
March 2016
From Sanctuary to Battlefield
...satellites to observe what other countries are doing in geostationary orbit. While these steps represent encouraging progress, the ...as unmanned aerial vehicles, for a range of missions than orbital assets. Along these lines, last year the US Secretary...
July 2019
Settling the final frontier
.... This GOES weather satellite, one of many, continuously transmits information about weather patterns over the US from a geostationary orbit. Even if we can solve all our resource issues, the threat of calamity – man-made or natural – still looms...
August 2019
Lessons from the Sun
... after, a spectacular aurora, bright enough to cast shadows, appeared along the southern coast of Britain. Spacecraft in geostationary orbit effectively became solar wind detectors as Earth’s magnetic shield buckled under the extreme solar wind...
January 2020
Commercialising space exploration and development
...NASA announcement on commercial platforms. Today, Nanoracks is creating the stepping stones in LEO (low Earth orbit) and GEO (geostationary orbit) that will allow us to populate the solar system with commercial laboratories. We are beginning to focus...
