Historic Liftoff! Poland’s “Star Scientist” Launches on SpaceX Dragon—All the Inside Details on the Ax-4 Mission, Crew and Experiments

SpaceX’s ‘Grace’ Roars to Orbit: Axiom Mission 4 Sends India, Poland & Hungary Back to Space — and Signals the Dawn of a Truly Global Commercial ISS Era

Liftoff occurred at 2:31 a.m. EDT (06:31 UTC) on 25 June 2025 from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, and the Falcon 9 booster landed at LZ-1 eight minutes later. Dragon C213, the fifth and final production Crew Dragon, was named Grace by Commander Peggy Whitson moments after orbital insertion. The two‑week Ax‑4 mission carried about 60 experiments for 31 nations, the largest research manifest of any Axiom flight. The multinational crew included Peggy Whitson (USA), Shubhanshu Shukla (India’s first ISS astronaut), Sławosz Uznański‑Wiśniewski (Poland’s first ISS visitor), and Tibor Kapu (Hungary’s first spacefarer in 45 years). Ax‑4 marked
25 June 2025
Historic Liftoff! Poland’s “Star Scientist” Launches on SpaceX Dragon—All the Inside Details on the Ax-4 Mission, Crew and Experiments

Historic Liftoff! Poland’s “Star Scientist” Launches on SpaceX Dragon—All the Inside Details on the Ax-4 Mission, Crew and Experiments

On June 25 at 08:31 CEST, SpaceX Crew Dragon “Grace” launched from Pad 39A with four astronauts on Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4). Peggy Whitson (USA) commands Ax-4 and is on her fifth spaceflight, with a U.S. orbital record of 675 days. Shubhanshu Shukla (India) is Pilot for Ax-4, becoming the first Indian in space since 1984. Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski (Poland) is the first Polish national on the ISS and the second Pole in space. Tibor Kapu (Hungary) is Ax-4’s Mission Specialist, marking Hungary’s first visitor to the ISS. Poland’s 47-year space drought ends with Ax-4, following Mirosław Hermaszewski’s 1978 Soyuz 30
25 June 2025
Fiber-Optic Odyssey: How Greece’s Internet Is Evolving from DSL to Starlink

Fiber-Optic Odyssey: How Greece’s Internet Is Evolving from DSL to Starlink

By mid-2023 FTTP availability was 38.4% of Greek households, with 0% rural fiber and over 60% of homes lacking fiber. By mid-2023 5G coverage reached 98.1% of the population, with about 59% of households having access to ultra-fast 5G mid-band (3.5 GHz) and just 6% of rural households covered by mid-band 5G. Starlink arrived in Greece in early 2022 and was fully available nationwide by March 2023, delivering typical speeds of 150–300 Mbps down and 20–40 Mbps up with latency about 30–50 ms. Starlink pricing fell from about €99/month to €60, then €40/month in late 2023, while hardware costs run
Cosmic IoT Revolution: How Optimized Satellite Constellations Are Connecting Every Corner of Earth

Cosmic IoT Revolution: How Optimized Satellite Constellations Are Connecting Every Corner of Earth

Starlink has over 7,500 active LEO satellites as of 2025 at about 550 km altitude, with plans to up to 42,000, uses Ku/Ka bands and laser inter-satellite links, and is piloting Direct-to-Cell IoT connectivity with latency around 20–50 ms. OneWeb has approximately 600 active satellites out of 648 in its first-generation network in near-polar orbits at about 1,200 km, delivering ~70 ms latency and enterprise backhaul IoT capability, with global coverage achieved in early 2023 and a merger with Eutelsat. Iridium operates 66 active cross‑linked LEO satellites at around 780 km, uses Ka-band inter-satellite links, provides truly global 100% coverage,
The High-Speed Secret: How Finland Quietly Built One of the World’s Best Internet Networks

The High-Speed Secret: How Finland Quietly Built One of the World’s Best Internet Networks

By September 2023, 71% of Finnish households had gigabit fixed broadband (1 Gbps) and 78% had 100 Mbps+ speeds, driven by 61% fiber access by end-2023. Finland aims for every household to have at least 100 Mbps connectivity (upgradeable to 1 Gbps) by 2025, with a national plan to reach full 1 Gbps nationwide by 2030. 4G coverage exceeds 99% of the population and 5G coverage reached about 88–90% by early 2023, with Elisa reporting 90% 5G home-area coverage by end of 2023 and DNA at 86% by March 2023. Starlink became available in Finland in late 2022, with a
24 June 2025
Massive iCloud Meltdown: Why Apple’s Cloud Went Dark Today — and What It Means for Millions of Users

Massive iCloud Meltdown: Why Apple’s Cloud Went Dark Today — and What It Means for Millions of Users

On 24 June 2025, the iCloud outage began after lunchtime in the US, with Apple’s System Status dashboard flagging an outage at 2:36 p.m. ET for iCloud Web Apps and iWork for iCloud, and yellow warnings for Mail, Photos, and Storage Upgrades. Downdetector spiked around 1:00 p.m. ET, and by 4:11 p.m. ET reports reached about 900+ complaints. iCloud Web Apps, iWork for iCloud, Photos, iCloud Mail, and Storage Upgrades and backup APIs experienced outages or severe slowness. The status tiles remained red for several hours and flipped to green roughly four hours after the first alert as Apple rolled
24 June 2025
Earthquake Frenzy TODAY: Caribbean Shocker, Pacific Powerhouse & Surprise U.S. Tremor—See Where the Ground Is Shaking Right Now

Earthquake Frenzy TODAY: Caribbean Shocker, Pacific Powerhouse & Surprise U.S. Tremor—See Where the Ground Is Shaking Right Now

A M5.7–5.8 earthquake struck about 77 km NNE of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, at 02:45 UTC on 24 June 2025, depth 68 km, felt in Puerto Rico with no tsunami. A M6.3–6.5 quake east of the Philippine Islands occurred at 01:58 UTC, depth 10 km at 7.97°N, 129.83°E, with tremors felt in Bangkok and Mandalay and no tsunami. A M2.7 earthquake near Burbank in Los Angeles at 19:22 UTC, depth 8 km, described as a wake-up quake with no damage. A deep-focus M4.4 quake struck the Atacama Desert, Chile, at 07:42 UTC, depth 179 km, typically producing limited surface shaking.
24 June 2025
Latest Satellite News & Insights 25.06.2025

Latest Satellite News & Insights 25.06.2025

EarthDaily Analytics launched its first Earth observation satellite, initiating a next-generation ten-satellite constellation to deliver daily AI-ready global imagery and analytics, with the full constellation expected to be operational next year. SpaceX launched 27 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral on a Falcon 9 booster (B1080) in its 20th flight, with the first stage successfully recovered, expanding global internet coverage to over 7,800 active relays. James Webb Space Telescope captured its first direct image of exoplanet TWA 7 b about 110 light-years away using a coronagraph on the MIRI instrument. ESA’s Biomass satellite released its first radar images using P-band synthetic
24 June 2025
You Won’t Believe Why the San Fernando Valley Just Shook: Inside the 2.7‑Magnitude Sherman Oaks Quake—and What It Really Tells Us About L.A.’s Seismic Future

You Won’t Believe Why the San Fernando Valley Just Shook: Inside the 2.7‑Magnitude Sherman Oaks Quake—and What It Really Tells Us About L.A.’s Seismic Future

A shallow Ml 2.7 earthquake struck at 12:22 p.m. PDT on June 24, 2025, about 2 km northeast of Sherman Oaks, with a focal depth of ~5 km. Shaking was light (MMI IV), and the USGS Did You Feel It? page logged about 12 responses within the first 13 minutes. No injuries or structural damage were reported by local agencies as of press time. ShakeAlert did not issue an early warning because the ground motion remained below activation thresholds. The event occurred about 3 km SSE of Van Nuys, according to SCEDC data. Dr. Lucy Jones described small quakes as
24 June 2025
Jeff Bezos vs. Elon Musk: How Amazon’s New Kuiper Satellites Could Disrupt a $100 Billion Space‑Internet Gold Rush

Space Race Frenzy: Exploding Starships, Quantum‑Proof Satellites & Europe’s Billion‑Dollar Constellation Shake‑Up — Everything That Hit Orbit TODAY (24 June 2025)

SpaceX’s Transporter-14 rideshare lofted 70 payloads, including memorial capsules, ICEYE and Capella radar sats, and York Space Systems’ Dragoon Tranche-1 12-satellite demo. The first Dragoon craft launched Monday on Transporter-14 is now on orbit, with SDA citing a four-month schedule cut to accelerate capabilities. Shijian-21 rendezvoused with Shijian-25 at about 22,236 miles, rehearsing refueling and capture maneuvers that analysts warn could neutralize adversary satellites in a conflict. T-Mobile’s T-Satellite service will provide full data links on 1 Oct 2025, piggybacking on 657 Starlink satellites, with basic messaging starting 23 July and 911 texting free for all U.S. users. SpaceX targets
Lyon’s Bold Digital Revolution: 7 Reasons the City’s Break‑Up With Microsoft Will Rock Government IT

Lyon’s Bold Digital Revolution: 7 Reasons the City’s Break‑Up With Microsoft Will Rock Government IT

On 23 June 2025, Lyon announced Territoire Numérique Ouvert (TNO) and a progressive migration from Microsoft Office to OnlyOffice, Linux, and PostgreSQL across municipal workstations. Territoire Numérique Ouvert is an open-source collaborative suite developed with SITIV and the Lyon Metropole. TNO is hosted in regional datacentres. TNO received a €2 million grant from the National Agency for Territorial Cohesion (ANCT). TNO already serves several thousand agents in nine local authorities. Civil servant training for the switch began in June 2025. The initiative aims to escape American software dependency. Zimbra integration by Axess reduces maintenance costs by at least 50%. Over
Sky‑Spectacle Alert: Rare Northern Lights Could Paint U.S. Skies Tonight—Here’s the Science, the Map and the Expert Warnings You Need

Sky‑Spectacle Alert: Rare Northern Lights Could Paint U.S. Skies Tonight—Here’s the Science, the Map and the Expert Warnings You Need

A coronal-hole high-speed stream traveling at about 750 km/s is slamming Earth’s magnetosphere and has prompted NOAA to issue a G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic-storm watch for 24–25 June 2025. The storm could push aurora visibility as far south as Illinois, Ohio, and New York on the night of 24–25 June 2025. The disturbance already produced vivid green and magenta curtains seen from Texas to Alberta earlier this month. NOAA SWPC reported K-index values of 4 late Monday, indicating active conditions likely to produce auroras in the northern tier of the United States. Updated view-line maps show the aurora oval dipping into
24 June 2025
Sky‑Spectacle Tonight: 15 U.S. States Could Witness a Rare Aurora Outburst—Everything You Must Know Before Sunset

Sky‑Spectacle Tonight: 15 U.S. States Could Witness a Rare Aurora Outburst—Everything You Must Know Before Sunset

A large negative-polarity coronal-hole high-speed stream (CH HSS) has been rotating into Earth’s line of sight since 23 June, prompting NOAA SWPC to issue a G2 geomagnetic-storm outlook for 25–26 June UTC. Solar wind gusts exceeding 600 km/s are expected, with the planetary K-index (Kp) peaking near 5–6. Solar Cycle 25 is nearing its predicted maximum in mid-2025, following multiple strong flares including an X-class event captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on 17 June. Forbes identifies a 15-state ‘Aurora Alert’ zone spanning Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Idaho, South
24 June 2025
Sky‑Spectacle Alert: 15 U.S. States Could See the Northern Lights Tonight—Everything You Must Know Before You Look Up

Sky‑Spectacle Alert: 15 U.S. States Could See the Northern Lights Tonight—Everything You Must Know Before You Look Up

The 24–25 June 2025 event is forecast to reach G1–G2 geomagnetic storming with a peak Kp of 5.67. NOAA SWPC’s 3‑Day Forecast issued on 24 June projects storming for 25–26 June. Up to 14–15 states could see auroras, from Alaska and Washington to New York and South Dakota. A large equatorial coronal hole rotated into the Earth-facing solar disk on 22–23 June, driving a 500 km/s solar wind. This fast solar wind is expected to reach Earth about 2–3 days later, triggering G1–G2 storming. Aurora Viewline maps place the southern visibility limit through northern Oregon, Idaho, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan,
24 June 2025
Trump’s High‑Wire Act: NATO Shockwaves, Middle‑East Firestorm, and a Congress on Edge—What the June 24, 2025 Frenzy Really Means for America and the World

Trump’s High‑Wire Act: NATO Shockwaves, Middle‑East Firestorm, and a Congress on Edge—What the June 24, 2025 Frenzy Really Means for America and the World

On June 24, 2025, President Donald Trump arrived in The Hague demanding all 32 NATO allies commit 5% of their GDP to defense. Spain and Slovakia sought carve-outs, exposing cracks despite a one-page summit communiqué praised by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. From Air Force One, Trump phoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian intermediaries via Qatar to secure a cease-fire pledge minutes before landing. Trump ordered U.S. B-2 strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. Within hours, Iran and Israel fired new missiles, prompting Trump to lash out at Israel for unloading right after agreeing. U.S. refueling tankers and the carrier
24 June 2025
Quantum Leap: Satellite QKD’s Race to Secure the Global Data Economy (2024–2031)

Quantum Leap: Satellite QKD’s Race to Secure the Global Data Economy (2024–2031)

The global QKD market (including terrestrial and satellite) is projected to grow from about $0.48 billion in 2024 to $2.63 billion by 2030, a CAGR of roughly 32.6%. Space-based QKD is forecast to reach about $1.1 billion by 2030, representing roughly 40–45% of the total QKD market. China’s Micius satellite, launched in 2016, demonstrated QKD over 1,200 km and enabled a 7,600 km intercontinental secure video call in 2017, and by 2025 its Beijing–South Africa link achieved about 12,800 km. The ESA/EC EAGLE-1 mission is planned for launch in late 2025 or early 2026 as Europe’s first satellite-based QKD system
Space Race 2.0: A Shoebox‑Sized Quantum Satellite Blasts Off—Can It Make Hackers Obsolete?

Space Race 2.0: A Shoebox‑Sized Quantum Satellite Blasts Off—Can It Make Hackers Obsolete?

QUICK³ is a 3U CubeSat weighing 4 kg, led by Germany’s Technical University of Munich, and it launched on 23 June 2025 aboard SpaceX’s Transporter‑14 from Vandenberg SFB. It carries the first true single-photon source flown, a laser-pumped hexagonal boron nitride chip on a 10 × 10 × 15 cm photonic chip. True single photons are expected to raise secret-key rates 10–100× over weak-laser systems. The pump laser is a 698 nm diode module, 45 × 80 × 20 mm, weighing 200 g. QUICK³ uses a 3U CubeSat bus with a 4 kg mass budget and rideshare compatibility, with launch
“Unhackable from Orbit!” – How a 4 kg CubeSat Just Kicked‑Off the Race for a Global Quantum‑Secure Internet

“Unhackable from Orbit!” – How a 4 kg CubeSat Just Kicked‑Off the Race for a Global Quantum‑Secure Internet

On 23 June 2025 at 07:18 UTC, the Falcon 9 lifted the QUICK³ nano-satellite into a 550 km sun-synchronous orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base during SpaceX’s Transporter-14 rideshare, with payload separation confirmed nine minutes after launch. The QUICK³ spacecraft weighs 4 kg and is a 3-U CubeSat (10 × 10 × 30 cm) with a primary experiment window of 6 minutes per 97-minute orbit. QUICK³ aims to bypass fiber-based quantum key distribution limits by sending true single photons through near-vacuum upper atmosphere to enable intercontinental quantum-secure links. A hexagonal-boron-nitride colour centre single-photon source emits at 650–700 nm, paired with
Umbrella in Orbit: ESA’s BIOMASS Satellite Lifts Earth’s Green Veil, Revealing Hidden Carbon Stores and Jaw‑Dropping First Images

Umbrella in Orbit: ESA’s BIOMASS Satellite Lifts Earth’s Green Veil, Revealing Hidden Carbon Stores and Jaw‑Dropping First Images

BIOMASS uses a fully polarimetric P-band SAR with a 70 cm wavelength to pierce through canopies and measure woody trunks where most forest carbon is stored. The 12-meter deployable reflector, shaped like an umbrella and built by L3Harris, directs radar pulses back to the sensor. The 1.25-tonne spacecraft was launched on 29 April 2025 aboard a Vega-C rocket from Kourou into a 666 km sun-synchronous orbit (flight VV26). The gold-colored reflector unfurled in orbit on 7 May 2025, marking a key commissioning milestone. First images show colour-coded maps of the Amazon, Indonesia, and the bedrock of the Sahara. By combining
24 June 2025
The Digital Desert Awakens: Inside Tunisia’s Expanding Internet Frontier

The Digital Desert Awakens: Inside Tunisia’s Expanding Internet Frontier

As of early 2024, about 9.96 million Tunisians were internet users, roughly 79.6% of the population. In January 2024, Tunisia had 16.73 million active mobile connections, equal to 133.7% of the population. 99.9% of the population is covered by mobile signals, with 4G reaching about 94.9% of inhabitants. Tunisie Telecom’s fiber backbone spans roughly 50,000 km, and late-2024 initiatives connected 2,900 homes in Tataouine (~7,000 users) via fiber at about $160,000. International bandwidth capacity grew from 82.5 Gbps in 2012 to about 1,710 Gbps in 2023. 5G licensing occurred in September 2024, initial licenses were granted in November 2024, and

Stock Market Today

BAE Systems share price: Buyback update and Launchpad incubator set up Feb 18 results

BAE Systems share price: Buyback update and Launchpad incubator set up Feb 18 results

8 February 2026
London, Feb 8, 2026, 08:54 GMT — Market closed. BAE Systems plc (BAES.L) shares last closed up 1.2% at 1,879 pence on Friday, with about 5.6 million shares traded. The London Stock Exchange is shut on Sunday and the stock will reopen on Monday. (Investing.com) That next session lands with BAE’s full-year results due on Feb. 18, a date investors treat as the next real price setter. Traders are watching for guidance on 2026 sales and cash flow, and how much cash the group plans to send back to shareholders. (investors.baesystems.com) BAE has also put a new idea on the
Barclays share price jumps into earnings week: what to watch before Tuesday’s results

Barclays share price jumps into earnings week: what to watch before Tuesday’s results

8 February 2026
Barclays shares closed up 2.71% at 479.1 pence on Friday, ahead of full-year results and a targets update due Tuesday. Barclays and NatWest have both submitted offers for Evelyn Partners, with a deal announcement possible this week, according to Reuters. Mary Francis will retire from the Barclays board in May. Investors are watching for signals on costs, credit quality, and capital returns.
Rolls-Royce share price ends week higher on buyback update as RR.L eyes turn to results

Rolls-Royce share price ends week higher on buyback update as RR.L eyes turn to results

8 February 2026
Rolls-Royce Holdings shares closed at 1,229p on Friday, up 1.78%, as the FTSE 100 gained 0.59%. The company reported buying 742,570 shares on Feb. 5 as part of its £200 million buyback, bringing total repurchases to 12.66 million shares. Rolls-Royce will attend the World Defense Show in Riyadh, noting over 80% of its Saudi workforce are nationals.
Vodafone share price: Buyback kicks off, but Germany recovery is the next test for VOD.L

Vodafone share price: Buyback kicks off, but Germany recovery is the next test for VOD.L

8 February 2026
Vodafone (VOD.L) bought 27.1 million shares this week as its new buyback began, with the stock closing Friday up 1.47% at 110.6p after a sharp drop the day before. Investors remain focused on Germany’s service-revenue growth and the pace of buybacks ahead of Monday’s open. The company maintained full-year guidance after reporting 5.4% group service revenue growth in Q3, with Germany up 0.7%.
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