In the first four months of 2025, over 1,200 satellites were launched, roughly a 50% increase from the same period in 2024. SpaceX’s Starlink had more than 7,000 small satellites in orbit by late 2024, with 573 Starlinks launched in Q1 2025 and about 9,000 laser inter-satellite links moving some 42 petabytes of data per…
Read more
In June 2025, T-Mobile began a nationwide beta of its “T-Satellite” service built on SpaceX Starlink technology, with a July 2025 rollout and plans to include it at no extra cost on high‑end plans and about $10/month for others. On June 19, 2025, Vodafone Idea and AST SpaceMobile announced a partnership to deliver 4G/5G access…
Read more
Starlink has launched over 8,000 satellites since 2019 and serves more than 5 million users across 125+ countries as of 2025. Amazon’s Project Kuiper launched its first 27 satellites in April 2025 on an Atlas V, aiming for a 3,236-satellite constellation with Ka-band and user terminals around $400. The EU’s IRIS² plan is a €10.6…
Read more
Relay 2 was a NASA experimental communications satellite built by RCA, launched January 21, 1964, atop a Delta B rocket from Cape Canaveral, designed to relay television signals and study Earth’s radiation belts. Ground support for Relay 2 ended by September 1965, and its transmitters began failing, with the first transponder dying on November 20,…
Read more
Relay-2 launched January 21, 1964 from Cape Canaveral as part of NASA’s Relay program to relay television and telemetry signals and study the Van Allen belts. Relay-2 operated 1964–1967, with the first transponder failing on November 20, 1966 and the second on June 9, 1967, after which it was retired. After deactivation, Relay-2 drifted in…
Read more
Sentinel-1 radar imaged the aftermath of Cyclone Idai in Mozambique in 2019 and revealed approximately 2,165 km² of flooding around the coastal city of Beira. Idai’s satellite flood maps pinpointed about 400,000 people stranded and helped allocate rescue resources. NOAA’s GOES weather satellites monitored Hurricane Dorian in 2019 as it approached the Bahamas, providing real-time…
Read more
1859: British astronomer Richard Carrington observed a powerful solar flare, and within a day telegraph systems worldwide went haywire while auroras appeared near the equator—the Carrington Event, the largest geomagnetic storm on record. During the 1957–58 International Geophysical Year, Explorer-1 became the first U.S. satellite to discover the Van Allen radiation belts encircling Earth. SOHO,…
Read more
Starlink Constellation (2019–present) by SpaceX comprises about 4,500 microsatellites in ~550 km LEO with Ku/Ka-band user links and laser crosslinks, enabling global internet including disaster response. James Webb Space Telescope (2021) features a 6.5 m segmented mirror and instruments NIRCam, NIRSpec, and MIRI, delivering the deepest infrared images of the universe including SMACS 0723 and…
Read more
Google Earth offers imagery from global 15 m resolution down to sub-meter detail (30–50 cm) in many urban areas, plus 3D buildings and terrain across hundreds of cities, accessible on web, iOS/Android, and Google Earth Pro desktop. Imagery updates on Google Earth are rolling, with urban areas refreshed roughly every 1–3 years, rural areas 5+…
Read more
In 2024 the global GNSS correction and augmentation services market is estimated around $3.5 billion and is on track to double by 2030 to over $6 billion. RTK-based services accounted for $796.8 million in 2022, about 25% of the market. PPP was the largest segment in 2022, valued at $1,833.1 million (roughly 59% share). Galileo…
Read more
