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--- transportation:satellites [2026/07/17 00:01] – [Alternative] timb
+++ transportation:satellites [2026/09/09 20:09] (current) – [Reflect Orbital] timb
@@ Line 607: / Line 607: @@
 https://gizmodo.com/eso-study-finds-that-no-more-than-100000-satellites-should-orbit-earth-2000780091
+== Astronomers Found a Hidden Swarm of Space Junk Threatening Earth’s Most Valuable Orbit ==
+"The debris in geosynchronous orbit is a potential minefield."
+Passant Rabie - July 14, 2026, 9:25 am ET
+Earth’s geosynchronous orbit (GEO) holds some of the most valuable satellites that carry out tasks for phones, television, and radio, as well as weather and environmental monitoring. As new research points out, these precious devices may be under threat from tiny pieces of space junk that have gone previously undetected until now.
+A team of astronomers from the University of Warwick found faint fragments of space debris in geosynchronous orbit, which are at risk of colliding with satellites flying over Earth’s equator. The tiny fragments, measuring at only 2 inches (5 centimeters) big, have never been observed before.
+https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-found-a-hidden-swarm-of-space-junk-threatening-earths-most-valuable-orbit-2000785323
@@ Line 2741: / Line 2752: @@
 https://science.slashdot.org/story/24/06/23/0148239/launch-of-chinese-french-satellite-scattered-debris-over-populated-area
+===== Ludi Tance 4-01 =====
+== The Secret Behind China’s Unique Spy Satellite Is a Rare Metal It Controls ==
+Ludi Tance 4-01 is powered by gallium nitride semiconductors, enabling constant surveillance over one-third of the Earth’s surface.
+Passant Rabie - July 22, 2026, 1:05 pm ET
+Nearly three years ago, China launched a radar satellite capable of monitoring nearly a third of Earth’s surface around the clock. The satellite’s unique capability has left many researchers in the U.S. stumped, unable to recreate the groundbreaking technology. Now, a new study disclosed that the satellite’s secret sauce is China’s near-total dominance over the supply of a high-performance semiconductor material.
+The Ludi Tance 4-01 radar satellite is powered by gallium nitride semiconductors, allowing it to operate at a high altitude of 22,370 miles (36,000 kilometers) while being fixed over the same geographic position at all times, the South China Morning Post reported.
+It just so happens that China has a global monopoly over the supply of gallium, and it’s making sure that no one else can get it. China has restricted gallium exports since the satellite launched in 2023.
+https://gizmodo.com/the-secret-behind-chinas-unique-spy-satellite-is-a-rare-metal-it-controls-2000789117
@@ Line 2881: / Line 2911: @@
+===== Yaogan-50 =====
+== Chinese Satellite Breaks Apart in Rare Orbit That Could Hold Debris for Centuries ==
+Yaogan-50 generated a large filed of debris in a highly retrograde orbit.
+Passant Rabie - September 8, 2026, 2:20 pm ET
+A reconnaissance satellite suffered an unidentified anomaly and broke apart into pieces. Now, those fragments are trapped in a high altitude above Earth, where they risk a head-on collision with another object.
+China’s Yaogan-50 (02) satellite launched on March 15, 2026, on board a Long March 6A rocket. The satellite successfully reached its operational orbit—a highly retrograde orbit, meaning that it travels in the opposite direction of Earth’s rotation at an altitude of approximately 590 miles (952 kilometers).
+A few months into its mission, however, the satellite appears to have malfunctioned. On September 4, the U.S. Space Force cataloged 43 debris objects from the breakup of Yaogan-50 (02), according to Jonathan McDowell, a former astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who tracks space activity.
+https://gizmodo.com/chinese-satellite-breaks-apart-in-rare-orbit-that-could-hold-debris-for-centuries-2000808645
@@ Line 3274: / Line 3322: @@
 ====== ESA ======
+===== Copernicus =====
+== Europe’s free satellite service just made it easier to track wildfires ==
+Copernicus Browser adds wildfire visualization amid record wildfire season.
+Jeremy Hsu – Aug 7, 2026 2:48 PM
+The wildfires afflicting communities across the world can now be tracked more easily by anyone using Europe’s free and open satellite imagery service—all thanks to a wildfire visualization script originating from nearly a decade ago.
+The Copernicus Browser provides free access to the latest satellite imagery taken by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel satellites for the European Union’s Earth observation program. The three satellites of the Sentinel-2 mission have proven especially useful for wildfire monitoring by providing multi-spectral imaging at resolutions as granular as 10 meters in visible light and near-infrared bands—and the Copernicus Browser previously offered 10 default visualization layers using different combinations of spectral bands.
+Now Copernicus Browser has also added a straightforward “wildfires” visualization layer for Sentinel-2 imagery that went live on August 4. Anyone clicking on this layer while looking at a wildfire location can see active fires in white or yellow, burning vegetation in red, and burned landscapes in dark brown or black.
+That helpful wildfire visualization enhancement comes from a script written in JavaScript by remote sensing expert Pierre Markuse. As explained by Geovisualization, Markuse’s script combines the red visible light band, the narrow near-infrared band to highlight the differences between healthy and burned vegetation, and the short-wave infrared 2 band to reveal burned landscape by revealing moisture levels in the soil.
+https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/08/europes-free-satellite-service-just-made-it-easier-to-track-wildfires/
 ===== CryoSat =====
@@ Line 3954: / Line 4021: @@
-==== Alternative ====
+=== Xona ===
 == Move over, GPS: Navigation satellites in low-Earth orbit are making a comeback ==
@@ Line 10617: / Line 10684: @@
 https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/07/katalysts-satellite-rescue-mission-is-now-in-pursuit-of-nasas-swift/
+== NASA calls off mission to rescue Swift gamma-ray observatory ==
+Without a rescue, NASA’s Swift Observatory is expected to reenter the atmosphere later this year.
+Stephen Clark – Aug 19, 2026 5:18 PM
+NASA and Katalyst Space Technologies announced Wednesday they are giving up on a robotic mission to rescue the Swift gamma-ray telescope before it falls out of orbit.
+The rescue satellite, named Link, launched July 3 on a journey to fly up to NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, capture it with three robotic arms, and boost its orbit high enough to escape a looming reentry. Link is about the size of a refrigerator, with two power-generating solar arrays and three xenon-fueled electric thrusters to send Swift into a safer, higher orbit.
+Katalyst, the startup leading the Swift rescue effort, said Wednesday that “ongoing attitude control issues” will prevent the Link satellite from completing its rescue mission. The spacecraft is still alive, and Katalyst said it will make the most of Link’s remaining capacity, which may still allow it to get near enough to Swift for a demonstration of the satellite’s close-in navigation system.
+“While the mission will not have the ending we originally intended, NASA and Katalyst are assessing what milestones remain ahead,” Katalyst said in a statement. “We will continue working to extract technical and operational value from the spacecraft.”
+https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/nasa-calls-off-mission-to-rescue-swift-gamma-ray-observatory/
+== NASA calls off mission to rescue the falling Swift observatory ==
+Katalyst’s LINK spacecraft will still rendezvous with the telescope but will no longer tug it to a higher orbit.
+Mariella Moon - Aug. 20, 2026 6:01 am EST
+The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory is expected to re-enter and burn up in the Earth's atmosphere later this year, after NASA has aborted the mission meant to tug it back up to a higher orbit. NASA has announced that Katalyst Space's LINK spacecraft will no longer dock with the satellite and boost it to a higher altitude as planned. The agency blamed it on LINK's ongoing attitude control issue, which started in late July.
+If you'll recall, NASA reported at the time that the spacecraft was having problems managing its orientation in orbit, causing it to spin helplessly. That led to sporadic communications with the spacecraft. There was also some loss in functionality to LINK's thruster system. NASA and Katalyst were still optimistic last month that the spacecraft could accomplish its goal, but things have clearly changed since then.
+Katalyst had less than a year to design a spacecraft for the Swift Boost mission, which launched in early July. Shawn Domagal-Goldman, the Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said it was a "high-risk, high-reward mission" mission from the start. It was a first-of-its-kind attempt, and the team had very little time to try and rescue the Swift telescope, whose orbit is rapidly decaying due to an increase in solar activity in recent years.
+Read More: https://www.engadget.com/2240611/nasa-calls-off-swift-rescue-mission/
+== Rescue Mission Is Called Off For NASA's Aging Swift Space Telescope ==
+Posted by BeauHD on Thursday August 20, 2026 12:00AM
+NASA has called off a $30 million mission to rescue its aging Swift space telescope after Katalyst Space's Link spacecraft developed persistent control and positioning problems. The Associated Press reports:
+<blockquote>
+Katalyst said Link will not attempt to capture Swift and boost it to a higher orbit because of problems with controlling the spacecraft. NASA said this means the telescope will plunge through the atmosphere after more than 20 years of tracking some of the biggest explosions in the universe like gamma ray bursts and exploding stars. Its demise is not expected before October.
+NASA paid $30 million to Katalyst in an attempt to raise the telescope to a safer, longer-lasting orbit. Intense solar activity caused it to lose altitude faster than expected. The rescue spacecraft went into an uncontrollable spin a few weeks after its liftoff in early July. While flight controllers managed to slow Link's tumble, issues continued to plague its pointing and positioning in orbit.
+</blockquote>
+https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/08/19/2213259/rescue-mission-is-called-off-for-nasas-aging-swift-space-telescope
 ===== SWOT =====
@@ Line 10965: / Line 11078: @@
+====== Planet Labs ======
+== Planet Labs' Open Satellite Feed ==
+Mark Litwintschik - Tue 08 September 2026
+Planet Labs is a 15-year-old, San Francisco-based satellite manufacturer and constellation operator. They operate or have operated four different constellations throughout their history and capture imagery of the entire Earth's landmasses every day. As of this writing, LinkedIn lists the firm as having 1,751 associated members.
+Their CEO, Will Marshall, is one of the firm's three co-founders. In February, he posted images alongside the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, French President Emmanuel Macron and Kaja Kallas, who was Estonia's Prime Minister between 2021 and 2024 and is now Vice-President of the European Commission.
+https://tech.marksblogg.com/planet-labs-open-satellite-feed.html
@@ Line 10983: / Line 11110: @@
 https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/02/28/076229/startup-plans-april-launch-for-a-satellite-reflect-sunlight-to-earth-at-night
+== This Satellite Is So Bright It Could Fry Your Retinas Through a Telescope ==
+Don't look up.
+Passant Rabie - Published August 12, 2026, 10:15 am ET
+A California-based startup’s wild idea to deliver sunlight after dark may pose a serious health hazard for those gazing up at the night skies, experts are warning.
+The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently gave the green light for Reflect Orbital to launch its prototype satellite, which will test its ability to reflect light down to Earth. If all goes well, the company is hoping to launch thousands more of its in-space mirrors. The proposed constellation would not only disrupt astronomers’ views of the cosmos, it could also result in permanent eye damage, The Verge reported.
+https://gizmodo.com/this-satellite-is-so-bright-it-could-fry-your-retinas-through-a-telescope-2000797578
@@ Line 11072: / Line 11212: @@
+===== Rassvet =====
+== Is Russia’s rival to Starlink failing? Here’s what we know. ==
+At least three of the first 32 Rassvet satellites likely suffered outright failures, and more may be in trouble.
+Stephen Clark – Sep 2, 2026 4:15 AM
+Russia’s attempt to replicate SpaceX’s Starlink satellite network seems to be moving as slowly as the front lines in eastern Ukraine.
+The Rassvet program, often billed as Russia’s answer to Starlink, started launching its first operational satellites earlier this year. Two launches, one in March and a second in July, have delivered 32 Rassvet satellites to low-Earth orbit, some 10 percent of the roughly 300 Rassvet spacecraft Russia aims to put into orbit by the end of next year to provide connectivity for military and civilian users. The company in charge of Rassvet, Bureau 1440, wants to deploy 924 satellites by 2035.
+But none of the 32 satellites launched so far have reached the 500-mile (800-kilometer) orbit they were designed to operate in. The rockets that launched the first two batches of Rassvets released the satellites much closer to Earth, and the satellites were expected to use their own plasma engines to raise their orbits over the next few months.
+The highest altitude achieved by the Rassvet satellites so far is a little more than 300 miles (500 kilometers). Twelve of the 16 Rassvet satellites from the first launch in March have settled into orbits at this altitude, according to an assessment released Monday by the Institute for the Study of War. A chart published by Jonathan McDowell, an independent tracker of global launch and satellite activity, indicates one more Rassvet satellite may soon climb above 300 miles.
+https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/rassvet-russias-rival-to-starlink-is-getting-off-to-a-slow-start/
@@ Line 13268: / Line 13426: @@
 https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/05/uk_budget_to_join_iris_not_there/
+== Europe finalizes plans for its 'sovereign' Starlink competitor ==
+The project is adding 66 more satellites to its planned constellation.
+Mariella Moon - Aug. 7, 2026 8:01 am EST
+The European Commission now has a solid implementation plan for the EU's sovereign IRIS² satellite broadband service, which means it's now past planning stage and is moving towards full-scale deployment. It has just signed an agreement with European manufacturers, the European Space Agency (ESA) and other partners, following negotiations that started in January. Their talks over the past few months allowed them to confirm the detailed design of the constellation, the preparation for the satellites' actual construction, as well as their plans to secure ground infrastructure and launch services. They also finalized IRIS²'s target pricing and private operators' investments.
+Partner manufacturers had agreed to make and deliver more satellites than originally planned. Under the agreement, IRIS² will now have a constellation with 348 satellites, adding 66 more than the project originally intended in low Earth orbit. The additional satellites, the ESA says, will strengthen the constellation's capabilities for defense, security and emergency services. "This reinforcement will increase secure governmental capacity by 60 percent within the EU and 54 percent globally, while significantly expanding Europe's ability to support critical missions during crises," the agency's announcement reads. The Commission and its partners are planning to launch the first satellites in the constellation in 2029 and to deploy its services progressively from that same year.
+Read More: https://www.engadget.com/2232264/europe-finalizes-plans-for-iris2-satellite-network/