Space Race Frenzy: Satellite Triumphs, Cosmic Surprises & Billion-Dollar Bets Galvanize Space Industry
NASA & ESA – Ocean Satellite and Artemis Research: On Sept. 11, NASA and the European Space Agency spotlighted their upcoming Sentinel-6B oceanography satellite, due to launch in November. Sentinel-6B will succeed the current Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich in tracking sea-level rise and ocean conditions. Its altimeter radar will monitor sea surface height, wave heights and wind speeds – data vital for marine weather forecasts that warn ships of storms and high seas nasa.gov. “Sentinel-6B will soon take on the vital task of improving ocean and weather forecasts to help keep ships, their crews, and cargo safe,” noted Dr. Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, NASA’s lead ocean altimetry scientist nasa.gov. The satellite, a US-EU partnership, launches from California in a few weeks and will ensure continuity of the decades-long sea level record. NASA also released an in-depth Artemis update: the Artemis II lunar flyby crew will perform over a dozen biomedical experiments during their circa-10-day Moon mission. As both test subjects and operators, the crew will wear smart monitors to log sleep and cognition changes, give saliva and blood samples to track immune function, and even fly “organ-on-a-chip” microfluidic devices to study how deep-space radiation affects human cells nasa.gov nasa.gov. This research –
