Other News A subsidiary of smallsat manufacturer AAC Clyde Space won a contract to fly a laser communications terminal on a Norwegian satellite. Hyperion Technologies will perform an in-orbit verification flight for CubeCAT, its laser communications terminal, on the NorSat-TD technology demonstration mission launching in 2022. AAC Clyde acquired Hyperion, a Dutch company, last October. [SpaceNews] Delta Air Lines will use Viasat to provide free high-speed connectivity on some of its airliners. Delta said it will install Viasat Ka-band systems on more than 300 of its narrow-body airliners as part of a program to provide free in-flight Wi-Fi for passengers. Equipment installations will begin this summer, and be compatible with both existing Viasat spacecraft and the new ViaSat-3 constellation scheduled to begin launching this year. Delta has relied for years on Gogo, acquired last year by Intelsat, to provide passenger Wi-Fi. [SpaceNews] Planetary scientists are weighing exploration of potential ice deposits at the lunar poles with the risk that they could be contaminated by such missions. That ice is the focus of a number of missions proposed and under development, and could be a resource for future human expeditions. Some researchers, though, caution that the ice could be contaminated by those spacecraft, hindering scientific analysis. One potential compromise is to allow exploration and utilization of water ice at one of the poles, while preserving ice at the other pole for scientific study. [Nature] A NASA astrophysics mission is entering its next phase of development. The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, or SPHEREx, is now moving into Phase C of development. The spacecraft, scheduled for launch between June 2024 and April 2025, will perform spectroscopic mapping of the sky at infrared wavelengths. Astronomers plan to use data from SPHEREx to study the early history of the universe, formation of galaxies, and dust disks that contain water ice and organic molecules around new stars. [NASA/JPL] SpaceX is starting a beta test of Starlink in the United Kingdom. Several people in the UK have reported receiving invites to the beta test and even Starlink hardware, although SpaceX hasn't officially announced the start of service in the country. SpaceX will be charging £89 ($120) per month for the service there, compared to the $99 per month beta testers in the United States pay. [The Sun] |
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