SpaceX flew its 700th Falcon mission. It finished a satellite network that needed two extra satellites after a fault.

The rest of the day

7 more stories on this beat.

Each with its own sources. None of these is a link to the story above.

1. 02

   Two satellites watch a big El Nino

   Sentinel-6B, a sea-measuring satellite launched last November by NASA and its European partners, flies 30 seconds behind the older satellite it will replace. [5] Both are measuring sea height during what ocean scientists expect to be a historic El Nino, a warming of the Pacific that shifts weather worldwide. [5] A scientist at JPL, a NASA laboratory in California, says this one started late and is only now as strong as those of 1997 and 2015. [5] Warm water takes up more room, so a higher sea shows where the ocean holds heat. [5]

   Why it matters — Ocean heat helps forecasters judge how fast a hurricane will grow. [5] A hurricane can strengthen fast in its last 48 hours before reaching land. [5] A scientist at NOAA, the US weather agency, plans to start adding Sentinel-6 sea-height data to its hurricane tool by the end of the year. [5]

2. 03

   A junk-removal company explains its risky rocket

   Astroscale, a Japanese company that builds spacecraft to grab dead satellites and old rocket parts, has two missions booked on Spectrum, a rocket from the German company Isar Aerospace. [3] It signed both before Spectrum had ever reached orbit. [3] One will pull a OneWeb internet satellite down at the end of its life, and the other will grab a dead Japanese rocket stage. [3] Its chief operating officer, Chris Blackerby, told Ars Technica each mission weighs 500 to 700 kilograms and needs a rocket to itself. [3] He said few reliable rockets of that size exist. [3]

   Why it matters — Rocket makers are building bigger rockets, so companies with medium-sized missions have fewer rides to choose from. [3] Blackerby also said Astroscale's mission to show refuelling in orbit for the US Space Force is launching soon. [3]

3. 04

   Eutelsat buys extra years for an old satellite

   Eutelsat, a French satellite operator, signed a deal last week with Infinite Orbits, a French company that builds robot spacecraft. [6] Its spacecraft, called Endurance, will dock with one of Eutelsat's satellites in high orbit, even though that satellite was never built to be docked with. [6] Each mission adds about five years to a satellite that would normally work for about 15. [6] It is Infinite Orbits' third order of this kind, after SES and Hispasat, and it just opened a 1,000 square metre factory in Toulouse. [6]

   Why it matters — An old satellite that keeps working keeps earning, and the company says the extra years are worth more than the mission costs. [6] Its first such mission, for SES, is planned for 2027, with Eutelsat's after it. [6]

4. 05

   A 40-satellite rival to GPS is ordered

   TrustPoint, a startup building a paid satellite navigation service like GPS, ordered 40 satellites from the satellite maker EnduroSat last week. [7] They will be built in three batches, and the first cannot launch before 2027. [7] TrustPoint's chief executive, Patrick Shannon, says the whole network could work within 24 to 30 months, depending on parts and rockets. [7] It uses a different band of radio waves from public GPS, one that the upper atmosphere disturbs less. [7]

   Why it matters — Solar storms can knock out GPS signals across whole regions, according to Shannon. [7] Each satellite weighs about 10 kilograms and costs a few hundred thousand dollars including launch, he says. [7]

5. 06

   NASA pays for a study of braking in air

   NASA gave Inversion Space, an American company, a contract to study aerocapture last week. [8] Aerocapture means using a planet's air to slow a spacecraft down so it can drop into orbit around that planet. [8] Today, probes carry a lot of extra fuel to fire their engines and slow down on arrival, which leaves less room for what they were sent to carry. [8] The study looks at whether Inversion's Arc spacecraft could show aerocapture for the first time, in Earth's own air. [8] Inversion plans Arc's first flight in space no earlier than 2027. [8]

   Why it matters — Inversion's chief executive, Justin Fiaschetti, says braking in air would skip months of firing engines to slow down, so trips to other planets would be faster. [8]

6. 07

   A space data-centre startup picks a German builder

   Orbital, a startup in Los Angeles, chose Reflex Aerospace, a German satellite maker, to build the body of Orbital-1. [9] It is meant to be the first of up to 100,000 satellites, each carrying a rack of Nvidia computer chips as a data centre in orbit. [9] Orbital-1 is due to launch in 2028. [9] Orbital also more than doubled its power goal for each satellite, to about 250 kilowatts, the same as a rival SpaceX design. [9]

   Why it matters — The deal makes Orbital the first American customer for Reflex. [9] Like most companies in this field, Orbital is counting on SpaceX's Starship for cheap rides to orbit. [9]

7. 08

   A Canadian satellite maker raises money

   Galaxia, a company in Halifax, Nova Scotia, raised 4.5 million Canadian dollars, about 3.25 million US dollars, last week. [10] It builds satellites that photograph Earth and process the pictures on board, so answers come back faster. [10] It was founded in 2020 by Arad Gharagozli while he was a student at Dalhousie University. [10] The week before, it teamed up with Simera Sense, a Belgian company, to add cameras that see many colours of light. [10]

   Why it matters — Canada wants space tools it controls itself, and in February Galaxia received about 219,000 Canadian dollars of government defence money. [10] Galaxia says the new money will pay for more satellites and for Canada's own space capabilities. [10]