Launch Activities & Milestones The summer of 2025 saw rocket launch activity reach unprecedented levels, marked by record-breaking cadence and new milestones across the globe. SpaceX continued to push the envelope of rapid, reusable launch operations, achieving its 500th Falcon 9 mission in early July. This overnight Starlink launch not only marked Falcon 9’s 500th…
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This Week in Space: Reusable Rockets, Interstellar Visitors, and the Future of Earth Observation The past week has seen a torrent of developments across the space sector, from Europe’s push toward reusable launchers and the detection of a new interstellar object, to the sobering loss of a major climate-monitoring satellite. As the world’s eyes turn…
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The European Space Agency’s new BIOMASS mission has started to deliver on its dramatic promise: a 12‑metre, umbrella‑shaped radar antenna that peers through dense jungle canopies has sent back its first colour‑coded maps of the Amazon, Indonesia and even the bedrock of the Sahara—offering an unprecedented view of how much carbon the world’s forests really…
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Earth Observation (EO) refers to the collection of information about Earth’s land, oceans, and atmosphere via remote sensing technologies – primarily satellites, but also drones, aircraft, and ground sensors. In the context of disaster management, EO provides a “big picture” perspective of events as they unfold. This real-time, wide-area view is transforming how we prepare…
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Imagine a satellite that not only takes pictures of Earth, but can also identify what materials compose each pixel of the image. This is the promise of hyperspectral imaging – a technology giving satellites “super-vision” across hundreds of colors beyond human sight. Hyperspectral sensors capture detailed spectral fingerprints of objects by measuring reflected light in…
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Imagine peering down at Earth through thick clouds or the dead of night and still seeing clear images of the surface. Traditional optical satellites are blind in such conditions – in fact, at any given moment about 75% of the planet is obscured either by cloud cover or darkness, making it inaccessible to optical imaging…
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