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 […]

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 […]

NASA Earth Image pictures

Wired just posted these pictures to their site. These are apparently from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellites and International Space Station astronauts. So you can see images like the one below: Unlike the DigitalGlobe ones, you can only look at these pictures, not vote on which one you like. But they’re interesting […]

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. […]

SmallSat conference details August 2014

So, this is a little bittersweet: Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL) and the Utah State University Research Foundation sent a brochure to me in the mail announcing the Small Satellite conference (SmallSat) for next year. Guess someone forgot to take me off the mailing list… We parted on amicable terms and small satellites, like cubesats, are […]