The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is planned to launch in late 2026 (latest commitment by May 2027) aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy to a halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L2, about 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Roman uses a 2.4-meter primary mirror repurposed from Hubble and a 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument that covers about 0.28…
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NASA’s Hyperion, launched in 2000 on the EO-1 satellite, collected 220 spectral bands from 400 to 2500 nm at 30 m resolution. A hyperspectral data cube stacks hundreds of narrow wavelength bands for every ground pixel, creating a two-dimensional spatial image plus a spectral dimension. Hyperspectral imaging records hundreds of narrow bands (often 10 nm…
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As of mid-2025, Starlink is available in over 110 countries and territories. In the United States, Starlink began with limited trials in August 2020 and the public beta “Better Than Nothing Beta” in November 2020, and now has nationwide commercial coverage including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with over 2.5 million subscribers as…
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About 75% of the planet is obscured by cloud cover or darkness at any moment, making optical imaging inaccessible. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites actively illuminate the ground with microwave radar and synthesize a large aperture by moving the antenna to produce high-resolution images. SAR can operate day or night and in all weather, providing…
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The United States operates the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) constellation, delivering jam-resistant, global, protected military communications including nuclear command and control links. Navstar GPS is a 31-satellite global navigation system that provides precise positioning, navigation, and timing to guide munitions such as JDAM and to synchronize encrypted networks. Defense Support Program (DSP) and the…
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As of early 2025, about 12.4 million Cameroonians were internet users, representing 41.9% of the population. As of 2024, roughly 60% of Cameroonians live in urban areas, with internet access heavily concentrated in cities and rural areas almost inaccessible. Cameroon’s fiber backbone extends over 12,000 kilometers and is connected to five landfall cables: SAT-3, WACS,…
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Satellite internet data travels from your dish to a satellite, then to a gateway and onto the internet, with traditional GEO orbits at about 35,786 km and newer systems like SpaceX Starlink using low Earth orbit swarms and inter-satellite laser links. Geostationary (GEO) latency is roughly 500–700 ms for a round trip, while Starlink’s low…
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In May 2023 the U.S. FCC sided with Starlink over proposed uses of the 12.2–12.7 GHz band, preserving it for satellite services and preventing two-way 5G interference. In August 2022 the FCC denied Starlink’s $885 million Rural Digital Opportunity Fund subsidy due to performance concerns and high equipment costs, including a roughly $600 dish. By…
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Starlink launched its first batch of 60 satellites in 2019, and by late 2024 the constellation numbered nearly 7,000 satellites in low-Earth orbit. In 2022 Starlink introduced laser inter-satellite links, enabling data to hop between satellites and extending coverage to oceans, polar regions, and remote locales. By mid-2023 Starlink declared global coverage aside from regulatory…
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In 2024, the total global drone market was about $73 billion, with forecasts to reach roughly $163–165 billion by 2030 at around a 14% CAGR. Some analyses forecast growth from about $30 billion in 2022 to $260.5 billion by 2030, implying a 27–39% annual growth rate. By 2030 the market’s major segments are projected to…
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