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--- transportation:satellites [2026/01/02 22:23] – [Orbit] timb
+++ transportation:satellites [2026/03/17 21:22] (current) – [DRACO] timb
@@ Line 3086: / Line 3086: @@
 ====== ESA ======
+===== CryoSat =====
+== A Clever Software Patch Gave This Ice Satellite a Wild New Trick ==
+A software upgrade allowed CryoSat to monitor disturbances caused by a geomagnetic storm.
+Passant Rabie - March 17, 2026
+On January 18, the Sun released a powerful eruption of high-energy particles that reached Earth in a jiff. The eruption caused some of the most intense radiation storms on record, resulting in disturbances to Earth’s magnetic field. Meanwhile, an ice-monitoring satellite had just received a software update to its navigation system, allowing it to observe the impact of the solar storm while also keeping a steady watch on the ice sheets.
+For nearly 16 years, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) CryoSat has been measuring the thickness of polar sea ice and monitoring changes in Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. At the end of last year, ESA engineers remotely upgraded the software for one of the satellite’s instruments. The new software allowed CryoSat to measure changes in Earth’s magnetosphere, just in time to observe the aftermath of an intense geomagnetic storm.
+CryoSat’s measurements of Earth’s magnetic field are detailed in a study published in Geophysical Research Letters.
+https://gizmodo.com/a-clever-software-patch-gave-this-ice-satellite-a-wild-new-trick-2000734135
 ===== DRACO =====
@@ Line 3933: / Line 3952: @@
 https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/12/gps-is-vulnerable-to-jamming-heres-how-we-might-fix-it/
+== Military GPS Jamming is Interfering with the Navigation Systems of Commercial Ships ==
+Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday March 07, 2026 10:34AM
+"Within 24 hours of the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran, ships in the region's waters found their navigation systems had gone haywire," reports CNN, "erroneously indicating that the vessels were at airports, a nuclear power plant and on Iranian land.
+"The location confusion was a result of widespread jamming and spoofing of signals from global positioning satellite systems."
+<blockquote>
+Used by all sides in conflict zones to disrupt the paths of drones and missiles, the process involves militaries and affiliated groups intentionally broadcasting high-intensity radio signals in the same frequency bands used by navigation tools. Jamming results in the disruption of a vehicle's satellite-based positioning while spoofing leads to navigation systems reporting a false location. Though commercial vessels are not the target, the electronic interference disrupted the navigation systems of more than 1,100 commercial ships in UAE, Qatari, Omani and Iranian waters on February 28, according to a report from Windward, a shipping intelligence firm. Jamming and spoofing also slowed marine traffic moving through the Strait of Hormuz, a congested shipping lane that handles roughly 20% of the world's oil and gas exports and where precise navigation is essential, Windward's data showed.... Daily incidents have more than doubled, rising from 350 when the conflict began to 672 by March 2, the firm reported.
+As use of this warfare tactic grows, experts worry the impacts could reach far beyond battlespaces.... In June 2025, electronic interference with navigation systems was thought to be a factor in the collision between two oil tankers, Adalynn and Front Eagle, off the coast of the UAE... The number of global positioning system signal loss events affecting aircraft increased by 220% between 2021 and 2024, according to data from the International Air Transport Association. Last year, IATA said that the aviation industry must act to stay ahead of the threat.
+</blockquote>
+https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/03/07/0521211/military-gps-jamming-is-interfering-with-the-navigation-systems-of-commercial-ships
@@ Line 3959: / Line 3994: @@
 https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/10/gps_modernization_us_gao/
+== ULA isn’t making the Space Force’s GPS interference problem any easier ==
+Officials expect the investigation into a booster anomaly on ULA’s Vulcan rocket to last multiple months.
+Stephen Clark – Feb 26, 2026 5:31 AM
+DENVER—The Global Positioning System is one of the few space programs that touches nearly every human life, and the stewards of the satellite navigation network are eager to populate the fleet with the latest and greatest spacecraft.
+The US Space Force owns and operates the GPS constellation, providing civilian and military-grade positioning, navigation, and timing signals to cell phones, airliners, naval ships, precision munitions, and a whole lot more.
+One reason for routinely launching GPS satellites is simply “constellation replenishment,” said Col. Andrew Menschner, deputy commander of the Space Force’s Space Systems Command. Old satellites degrade and die, and new ones need to go up and replace them. At least 24 GPS satellites are needed for global coverage, and having additional satellites in the fleet can improve navigation precision. Today, there are 31 GPS satellites in operational service, flying more than 12,000 miles (20,000 kilometers) above the Earth.
+Another motivation is to replace the oldest active GPS satellites, some of which have been in space since the late 1990s, with newer satellites better suited for the modern world. Beginning in 2005, the military has deployed GPS spacecraft with additional civilian signals for aviation and interoperability with Europe’s Galileo navigation satellites. At the same time, the military introduced a new military-grade signal called M-code, designed for warfare.
+M-code is more resistant to jamming, and its encryption makes it more difficult to spoof, a kind of attack that makes receivers trust fake navigation signals over real ones. The upgrade also allows the military to deny an adversary access to GPS during conflict, while maintaining the ability for US and allied forces to use M-code.
+https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/02/ula-isnt-making-the-space-forces-gps-interference-problem-any-easier/
@@ Line 4610: / Line 4662: @@
 https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/25/hubble_space_scope_35/
+== Hubble in a death spiral that could end as early as 2028 without a reboost ==
+Orbit decay accelerates as solar activity rises, with no approved mission yet to raise the telescope's altitude
+Richard Speed - Wed 25 Feb 2026 13:22 UTC
+A newly released plot of the Hubble Space Telescope's altitude shows just how quickly the observatory has descended in recent years.
+The post on Bluesky by astronomer Jonathan McDowell is a stark reminder that Hubble is heading back to Earth, possibly sooner than previously thought, as its orbit decays.
+Hubble was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, carried in the payload bay of Space Shuttle Discovery. While it remains capable of pointing its instruments and has returned breathtaking imagery over more than three decades in orbit, it cannot raise its altitude.
+The observatory was serviced by a succession of Space Shuttle crews over the years, and engineers worked around hardware failures as the observatory aged. However, no amount of ground-based cleverness will stop the spacecraft from eventually re-entering the atmosphere.
+The plot from McDowell makes the orbital decay clear. From an initial altitude of more than 600 km, Hubble is now well below 500 km. The more rapid descent in recent years is at least partly due to increased solar activity, which has caused Earth's atmosphere to expand, but it also highlights the need for a reboost in the next few years before the telescope becomes unrecoverable.
+NASA is attempting to rescue the Swift observatory and has paused most science operations after the 21-year-old spacecraft's altitude dropped below 400 km, in order to buy extra time for a reboost mission later this year.
+https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/25/hubble_orbit_decay/
@@ Line 6736: / Line 6809: @@
 https://gizmodo.com/the-space-stations-russian-segment-wont-stop-leaking-air-2000637333
+== After Half a Decade, the Russian Space Station Segment Stopped Leaking ==
+Posted by msmash on Saturday January 03, 2026 04:01AM
+A small section of the International Space Station that has experienced persistent leaks for years appears to have stopped venting atmosphere into space. ArsTechnica:
+<blockquote>
+The leaks were caused by microscopic structural cracks inside the small PrK module on the Russian segment of the space station, which lies between a Progress spacecraft airlock and the Zvezda module. The problem has been a long-running worry for Russian and US operators of the station, especially after the rate of leakage doubled in 2024. This prompted NASA officials to label the leak as a "high likelihood" and "high consequence" risk. However, recently two sources indicated that the leaks have stopped. And NASA has now confirmed this.
+"Following additional inspections and sealing activities, the pressure in the transfer tunnel attached to the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station, known as the PrK, is holding steady in a stable configuration," a space agency spokesman, Josh Finch, told Ars. "NASA and Roscosmos continue to monitor and investigate the previously observed cracks for any future changes that may occur."
+For the better part of half a decade, Russian cosmonauts have been searching for the small leaks like a proverbial needle in a haystack. They would periodically close the hatch leading to the PrK module and then, upon re-opening it, look for tiny accumulations of dust to indicate the leak sites. Then the Russian cosmonauts would apply a sealant known as Germetall-1 (which has now been patented) to the cracks. They would close the hatch again, monitor the pressure inside the PrK module, and begin the search anew for additional leaks. This process went on for years.
+</blockquote>
+https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/01/02/196256/after-half-a-decade-the-russian-space-station-segment-stopped-leaking
@@ Line 7245: / Line 7332: @@
 https://gizmodo.com/nasa-told-to-overhaul-its-plans-to-replace-the-international-space-station-2000639959
+== The ISS May Live for a Little Bit Longer for a Totally Predictable Reason ==
+Congress instructed NASA to not begin deorbiting the ISS until at least one commercial successor is in space.
+Passant Rabie - March 9, 2026
+The end may not be so near for the International Space Station (ISS), at least not until a privately owned alternative has filled its orbital shoes.
+The U.S. Senate advanced a revised version of a NASA authorization bill, which would delay the retirement of the ISS from 2030 to 2032. The goal of the two-year extension is to “avoid a gap in continuous human presence and capabilities in [low-Earth orbit], thus avoiding ceding leadership to China before commercial stations are ready,” the NASA Authorization Act reads.
+Congress added a sense of urgency toward NASA’s plans of maintaining a human presence in Earth orbit by transitioning to the use of commercial space stations. Despite the ISS retirement scheduled in a few years’ time, the space agency has yet to kick off the final round of a competition among industry leaders to develop their own orbital lab. With no clear alternative in sight, U.S. lawmakers are concerned about whether private companies will be prepared to replace the ISS by 2030.
+https://gizmodo.com/the-iss-may-live-for-a-little-bit-longer-for-a-totally-predictable-reason-2000731283
@@ Line 7865: / Line 7961: @@
 ====== Japan / JAXA ======
+== Japan lost a 5-ton navigation satellite when it fell off a rocket during launch ==
+Imagine: You lost your car’s cargo rack, but didn’t notice until you reached your destination.
+Stephen Clark – Jan 28, 2026 4:15 AM
+If you’re in the space business long enough, you learn there are numerous ways a rocket can fail. I’ve written my share of stories about misbehaving rockets and the extensive investigations that usually—but not always—reveal what went wrong.
+But I never expected to write this story. Maybe this was a failure of my own imagination. I’m used to writing about engine malfunctions, staging issues, guidance glitches, or structural failures. Last April, Ars reported on the bizarre failure of Firefly Aerospace’s commercial Alpha rocket.
+Japan’s H3 rocket found a new way to fail last month, apparently eluding the imaginations of its own designers and engineers.
+The H3 is a relatively new vehicle, with last month’s launch marking the eighth flight of Japan’s flagship rocket. The launcher falls on the medium-to-heavy section of the lift spectrum. The eighth H3 rocket lifted off from Tanegashima Island in southern Japan on December 22, local time, carrying a roughly 5-ton navigation satellite into space.
+The rocket was supposed to place the Michibiki 5 satellite into an orbit ranging more than 20,000 miles above the Earth. Everything was going well until the H3 jettisoned its payload fairing, the two-piece clamshell covering the satellite during launch, nearly four minutes into the flight.
+Officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are starting to get a handle on what happened. Agency officials briefed the government ministry overseeing Japan’s space activities last week, and the presentation (in Japanese) was posted on a government website.
+https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/01/heres-the-story-of-how-japans-h3-rocket-lost-its-cargo-and-just-kept-going/
+== Japan Botched a Satellite Launch in One of the Weirdest Ways Possible ==
+Japan's H3 rocket lost its payload fairing around 4 minutes after launch, leaving a satellite exposed and hanging on for dear life.
+Passant Rabie - January 30, 2026
+New details have emerged regarding Japan’s H3 rocket failure last month, revealing the strange way its payload—a navigation satellite—was lost prior to reaching its target orbit.
+Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the seventh mission of its H3 rocket on December 21, 2025, carrying the Michibiki 5 satellite. Shortly after liftoff, the rocket’s second-stage engine suffered an anomaly that caused it to shut down prematurely. JAXA officials recently revealed the root cause of the rocket anomaly: The protective cone-shaped covering that encased the satellite, known as a payload fairing, came apart around 4 minutes after launch. As a result, the satellite was left fighting for its life before it inevitably fell back to Earth.
+https://gizmodo.com/japan-botched-a-satellite-launch-in-one-of-the-weirdest-ways-possible-2000716172
 ===== SLIM =====
@@ Line 8769: / Line 8903: @@
 https://hackaday.com/2024/05/12/ircb-s73-7-satellite-found-after-going-untracked-for-25-years/
+===== Jumpseat =====
+== US spy satellite agency declassifies high-flying Cold War listening post ==
+The JUMPSEAT satellites loitered over the North Pole to spy on the Soviet Union.
+Stephen Clark – Jan 29, 2026 3:07 PM
+The National Reconnaissance Office, the agency overseeing the US government’s fleet of spy satellites, has declassified a decades-old program used to eavesdrop on the Soviet Union’s military communication signals.
+The program was codenamed Jumpseat, and its existence was already public knowledge through leaks and contemporary media reports. What’s new is the NRO’s description of the program’s purpose, development, and pictures of the satellites themselves.
+In a statement, the NRO called Jumpseat “the United States’ first-generation, highly elliptical orbit (HEO) signals-collection satellite.”
+https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/01/us-spy-satellite-agency-declassifies-high-flying-cold-war-listening-post/
+== US Declassifies Vintage Spy Satellite With a Wildly Lopsided Orbit ==
+JUMPSEAT launched from 1971 to 1987 to collect intelligence during the Cold War-era.
+Passant Rabie - January 30, 2026
+The U.S. government revealed details of a secret satellite program it used to spy on the Soviet Union at the height of geopolitical tension between the two nations.
+The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) recently declassified its JUMPSEAT spy satellite, eight of which launched to a highly elliptical orbit from 1971 to 1987. The Pentagon developed JUMPSEAT as part of the U.S. Air Force’s program, called Project EARPOP, to build satellites capable of intercepting or decrypting electronic emissions from Earth.
+“The historical significance of JUMPSEAT cannot be understated,” James Outzen, NRO director of the Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance, said in a statement. “Its orbit provided the U.S. a new vantage point for the collection of unique and critical signals intelligence from space.”
+https://gizmodo.com/us-declassifies-vintage-spy-satellite-with-a-wildly-lopsided-orbit-2000715963
+== Declassifying JUMPSEAT: an American pioneer in space ==
+Jan. 28, 2026
+The director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) recently declassified the existence of JUMPSEAT: the United States’ first-generation, highly elliptical orbit (HEO) signals-collection satellite.
+Launched from 1971 to 1987 under mission numbers 7701 to 7708, JUMPSEAT was the product of the United States Air Force’s (USAF) program at the NRO. Developed under a program called “Project EARPOP,” JUMPSEAT offered the U.S. a way of collecting intelligence during unprecedented geopolitical change and Cold War tensions that lasted until the early 1990s.
+“The historical significance of JUMPSEAT cannot be understated,” said Dr. James Outzen, NRO director of the Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance. “Its orbit provided the U.S. a new vantage point for the collection of unique and critical signals intelligence from space.”
+https://www.nro.gov/news-media-featured-stories/news-media-archive/News-Article/Article/4392223/declassifying-jumpseat-an-american-pioneer-in-space/
@@ Line 10202: / Line 10383: @@
 https://spectrum.ieee.org/reconnaissance-satellite
+====== Reflect Orbital ======
+==  Startup Plans April Launch for a Satellite to Reflect Sunlight to Earth at Night ==
+Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday February 28, 2026 07:34AM
+A start-up called Reflect Orbital "proposes to use large, mirrored satellites to redirect sunlight to Earth at night," reports the Washington Post, "with plans to bathe solar farms, industrial sites and even entire cities in light that could, if desired, reach the intensity of daylight...."
+Slashdot noted their idea in 2022 — but Reflect Orbital now expects to launch its first satellite in April, according to the article. "But its grand vision is largely 'aspirational,' as its young founder, Ben Nowack, told me..."
+<blockquote>
+Reflect Orbital's Nowack describes a scene right out of sci-fi: An extremely bright star appears on the northern horizon and makes its way across the sky, illuminating a 5-kilometer circle on Earth, then setting on the southern horizon about five minutes later, just as another such "star" appears in the north. To make the night even brighter, a customer could make 10 "stars" appear at once in the north by ordering them on an app. Two such artificial stars are in development in Reflect Orbital's factory. Nowack showed them to me on a Zoom call. The first to launch is 50 feet across, but he plans later to build them three times that size. If all goes according to plan, he'll have 50,000 of them circling the Earth in 2035 at an altitude of around 400 miles.
+</blockquote>
+https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/02/28/076229/startup-plans-april-launch-for-a-satellite-reflect-sunlight-to-earth-at-night
@@ Line 10497: / Line 10698: @@
 ===== Orbit =====
+== Starlink is lowering thousands of satellites' orbits to reduce risk of collisions ==
+Satellites orbiting at around 342 miles will be dropped down to about 298 miles, Starlink's VP of engineering says.
+Cheyenne MacDonald - Thu, January 1, 2026 at 7:05 PM PST
+Starlink will lower the orbits of roughly 4,400 satellites this year as a safety measure, according to engineering VP, Michael Nicolls. In a post on X, Nicolls wrote that the company is "beginning a significant reconfiguration of its satellite constellation," in which all satellites orbiting at around 550 kilometers (342 miles) will be lowered to around 480 km (298 miles). The move is intended to reduce the risk of collisions, putting the satellites in a region that's less cluttered and will allow them to deorbit more quickly should an incident occur.
+"Lowering the satellites results in condensing Starlink orbits, and will increase space safety in several ways," Nicolls wrote, also pointing to the coming solar minimum — a period in the sun's 11ish-year cycle when activity is lower — as one of the reasons for the move. The next solar minimum is expected to occur in the early 2030s. "As solar minimum approaches, atmospheric density decreases which means the ballistic decay time at any given altitude increases - lowering will mean a >80% reduction in ballistic decay time in solar minimum, or 4+ years reduced to a few months," Nicolls wrote.
+https://www.engadget.com/science/space/starlink-is-lowering-thousands-of-satellites-orbits-to-reduce-risk-of-collisions-030509067.html
 == SpaceX begins “significant reconfiguration” of Starlink satellite constellation ==
@@ Line 10537: / Line 10750: @@
 https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/02/starlink_lower_orbits/
+==  SpaceX Lowering Orbits of 4,400 Starlink Satellites for Safety's Sake ==
+Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday January 03, 2026 12:45PM
+"Starlink is beginning a significant reconfiguration of its satellite constellation focused on increasing space safety," announced Michael Nicolls, Starlink's vice president of engineering:
+<blockquote>
+"We are lowering all Starlink satellites orbiting at ~550 km to ~480 km (~4400 satellites) over the course of 2026. The shell lowering is being tightly coordinated with other operators, regulators, and USSPACECOM. Lowering the satellites results in condensing Starlink orbits, and will increase space safety in several ways... Starlink satellites have extremely high reliability, with only 2 dead satellites in its fleet of over 9000 operational satellites. Nevertheless, if a satellite does fail on orbit, we want it to deorbit as quickly as possible. These actions will further improve the safety of the constellation, particularly with difficult to control risks such as uncoordinated maneuvers and launches by other satellite operators.
+</blockquote>
+https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/01/03/075205/spacex-lowering-orbits-of-4400-starlink-satellites-for-safetys-sake
@@ Line 10847: / Line 11072: @@
 https://gizmodo.com/pentagon-angry-about-russias-stalking-satellite-1849402444
+== Russian spy satellites have intercepted EU communications satellites ==
+Unencrypted European communications are being targeted by Moscow.
+Sam Jones, Peggy Hollinger, and Ian Bott, Financial Times – Feb 4, 2026 7:02 AM
+European security officials believe two Russian space vehicles have intercepted the communications of at least a dozen key satellites over the continent.
+Officials believe that the likely interceptions, which have not previously been reported, risk not only compromising sensitive information transmitted by the satellites but could also allow Moscow to manipulate their trajectories or even crash them.
+Russian space vehicles have shadowed European satellites more intensively over the past three years, at a time of high tension between the Kremlin and the West following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
+For several years, military and civilian space authorities in the West have been tracking the activities of Luch-1 and Luch-2—two Russian objects that have carried out repeated suspicious maneuvers in orbit.
+Both vehicles have made risky close approaches to some of Europe’s most important geostationary satellites, which operate high above the Earth and service the continent, including the UK, as well as large parts of Africa and the Middle East.
+According to orbital data and ground-based telescopic observations, they have lingered nearby for weeks at a time, particularly over the past three years. Since its launch in 2023, Luch-2 has approached 17 European satellites.
+Both satellites are suspected of “doing sigint [signals intelligence] business,” Major General Michael Traut, head of the German military’s space command, told the Financial Times, referring to the satellites’ practice of staying close to Western communications satellites.
+A senior European intelligence official said the Luch vehicles were almost certainly intended to position themselves within the narrow cone of data beams transmitted from Earth-based stations to the satellites.
+https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/02/russian-spy-satellites-have-intercepted-eu-communications-satellites/
+== Russian Spy Satellites Have Intercepted EU Communications Satellites ==
+Posted by msmash on Wednesday February 04, 2026 12:46PM
+European security officials believe two Russian space vehicles have intercepted the communications of at least a dozen key satellites over the continent. From a report:
+<blockquote>
+Officials believe that the likely interceptions, which have not previously been reported, risk not only compromising sensitive information transmitted by the satellites but could also allow Moscow to manipulate their trajectories or even crash them.
+Russian space vehicles have shadowed European satellites more intensively over the past three years, at a time of high tension between the Kremlin and the West following Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For several years, military and civilian space authorities in the West have been tracking the activities of Luch-1 and Luch-2 -- two Russian objects that have carried out repeated suspicious maneuvers in orbit.
+Both vehicles have made risky close approaches to some of Europe's most important geostationary satellites, which operate high above the Earth and service the continent, including the UK, as well as large parts of Africa and the Middle East. According to orbital data and ground-based telescopic observations, they have lingered nearby for weeks at a time, particularly over the past three years. Since its launch in 2023, Luch-2 has approached 17 European satellites.
+</blockquote>
+https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/02/04/2046202/russian-spy-satellites-have-intercepted-eu-communications-satellites