Explorer 1, the First US Satellite

January 31st, 1958. 56 years ago, and the United States had finally succeeded in launching its own satellite, the Explorer 1. According to this Yahoo! Travel post, the launch of Explorer 1 was linked to the International Geophysical Year (IGY). The big deal about that, as explained in this wiki entry, is the IGY marked the beginning […]

The Earth’s “Love Handles”

Womencitizen is focusing on the Earth’s “Love Handles” with this 2 February post. University analysts are finding the odd shape of the Earth is keeping satellites in orbit longer than if it were a perfect sphere. If you’ll remember, the Earth isn’t shaped like a perfect sphere, but more like a squashed Halloween pumpkin. Such […]

What’s the Worst that Could Happen?

Enough about the Missileer cheaters! It’s just sad to see the organizations I once worked for go downhill so badly. On to the story… There’s always someone out there who has a great-sounding idea for how to take care of the “debris-in-space” problem. Japan is no exception. This Geek.com article talks about Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency’s […]

Why Space Matters: GEO Satellite operations, Part 3–Revolution Earth

“Endless Distance, Wildlife and Stars, Blanket the Night…” The last lesson was about Field of View (FOV) and Field of Regard (FOR). It was intended to help with understanding the next few lessons regarding satellites in geosynchronous orbit (GEO). All mentions of GEO on this blog, unless otherwise stated, refer to a particular type of […]

Why Space Matters: GEO Satellite operations, Part 2–FOV/FOR-it things

In the first lesson, you learned (if you didn’t already know) a spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit is very far away from the Earth—a little over 26,000 miles. Before going any further, an explanation of Field of Regard (FOR) versus Field of View (FOV) is in order since we will initially be talking about weather imagery satellites. […]