Skybox: Youtube videos from space?

Skybox launched their satellite (with a few others) November 22. But they are beginning to get sample videos in from their SkySat-1 satellite out to the public. SkySat-1 is a sun-synchronous Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) polar satellite going around the Earth around 450 Km (280 miles) from Earth’s surface. Skybox notes this satellite’s expected orbital […]

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. […]

Why Space Matters: GEO Satellite operations, Part 1–Going GEO

One of these things is just like the other… In an earlier post regarding the United States Air Force replacement of their Defense Support Program satellites with Space Based Infrared ones, there was a question posed to you: What do both the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) and Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites have in common, […]

Cubesats galore

I’m sure everyone has read, seen, or heard about the latest feat regarding cubesats this November: 29 cubesats were deployed from one rocket launched in the US; and another 33 cubesats were deployed from a rocket launched by the Russians. The US launch was done courtesy of Orbital Sciences from Wallops Island, in Virginia using […]

NOAA’s low hanging problem–Part 5

IRT’s interim solution fixes just one NOAA problem We finally come to the problems with the Independent Review Team’s (IRT) satellite recommendations to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). If you’d like a quick overview of the overall scenario, please go to my post here—maybe you’ll come back less confused? Ultimately, the IRT is […]