The Starling mission from NASA aims to explore innovative technologies for autonomous swarm navigation using four CubeSats in low-Earth orbit. The credit goes to Blue Canyon Technologies and NASA.
An array of miniature satellites is being launched into orbit…
First impressions from NASA’s latest storm-monitoring mission…
Plus, an outstanding performance in small business investment…
Just a glimpse of the stories to share from the past week at NASA!
NASA’s Starling Mission Launches a Swarm of Satellites
A Rocket Lab Electron rocket took off from New Zealand on July 18th, bearing four small satellites to low-Earth orbit for NASA’s Starling mission. The satellites, each the size of a cereal box, will operate as a swarm to assess their abilities to maneuver, communicate, and make decisions independently, without real-time inputs from ground control. This mission could potentially contribute to the development of self-coordinating robotic swarms for future scientific and exploratory missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using data supplied by the TROPICS team.
TROPICS CubeSat Mission Records First Hurricane Observations
The storm-tracking TROPICS satellites from NASA recently gathered the mission’s inaugural views of hurricanes. Late last month, these satellites obtained imagery data from the first named storms of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season. TROPICS leverages a quartet of identical small satellites to monitor tropical cyclones approximately once every hour, significantly more frequent than the majority of scientific satellites. These additional observations might assist forecasters and officials in better understanding and preparing for rapidly changing storms.
At an event hosted by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, Isabella Casillas Guzman, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator, addressed queries after revealing the 2022 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard at the Earth Information Center at Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington, on July 18, 2023. For the sixth consecutive year, NASA received an “A” grade from the SBA for its efforts with small businesses. Credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani.
NASA Sustains “A” Grade for Small Business Investments
At a July 18 event held at NASA’s headquarters, the Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that NASA had earned an “A” on the 2022 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard. This scorecard assesses how federal agencies perform in terms of their small business goals. NASA has directly invested $3.6 billion in over 1,700 small businesses across the country, creating well-paying jobs and opportunities for Americans in every state.
This artistic representation depicts a rogue planet, with the mass similar to Earth, roaming space encased in ice. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Roman Space Telescope Expected to Discover 400 Earth-Mass Rogue Planets
New research from NASA and Osaka University in Japan suggests that rogue planets – planets untethered to a star and floating freely in space – significantly outnumber planets orbiting stars. Given the high number of such rogue planets, researchers anticipate that NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could identify around 400 rogue planets of similar mass to Earth after its scheduled launch in 2027.
That concludes the weekly round-up from NASA!
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Table of Contents
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about NASA updates
What is NASA’s Starling mission?
The Starling mission from NASA is an innovative project aiming to explore autonomous swarm navigation technologies using four CubeSats in low-Earth orbit. The mission involves launching a swarm of small satellites to see if they can maneuver, communicate, and make decisions on their own, without real-time updates from ground controllers.
What is the TROPICS CubeSat Mission?
The TROPICS CubeSat Mission is NASA’s latest storm-observing project. It uses a constellation of four identical small satellites to observe tropical cyclones about once an hour, which is far more frequent than most scientific satellites. The goal of the mission is to better understand and prepare for rapidly evolving storms.
What achievement did NASA recently receive from the Small Business Administration?
The Small Business Administration awarded NASA an “A” grade on the Fiscal Year 2022 Small Business Federal Procurement Scorecard. The scorecard assesses how federal agencies perform in achieving their small business goals. This marks the sixth consecutive year NASA has earned this rating.
What is the significance of rogue planets according to recent research?
According to new research from NASA and Japan’s Osaka University, rogue planets – which are planets that drift freely through space untethered to a star – far outnumber planets that orbit stars. The study posits that NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, once launched in 2027, could potentially discover around 400 rogue planets similar in mass to Earth.
What is NASA’s investment in small businesses?
NASA has directly invested $3.6 billion in over 1,700 small businesses across the country. This investment has led to the creation of good-paying jobs and opportunities for Americans in all 50 states.
More about NASA updates
- NASA’s Starling mission
- TROPICS CubeSat Mission
- Small Business Administration’s Federal Procurement Scorecard
- Research on Rogue Planets
- NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
6 comments
who else is excited for the Roman Space Telescope’s launch? Just 4 more years to go. Can’t wait to see what it’ll discover about those rogue planets.
Good on NASA for investing in small businesses. Every little bit helps these days. And an A rating for six years straight, that’s impressive!
TROPICS CubeSat Mission sounds exciting. Forecasting hurricanes and cyclones is such crucial work, can literally save lives. Kudos to NASA!
i really love the idea of those cereal box-sized satellites working together… Feels like a glimpse of the future of space exploration. so cool!
Wow! Those Starling satellites are like something out of a sci-fi movie. Imagine them flying around up there, figuring things out by themselves! Very cool indeed.
I had no idea there were so many rogue planets. Kinda makes you feel small, huh? Looking forward to seeing what the Roman Space Telescope finds in 2027.