Enlarge / A SpaceX rocket ready for launch. (credit: Trevor Mahlmann) Elon Musk has hit back at criticism that his company’s Starlink satellites are hogging too much room in space, and has instead argued there could be room for “tens of billions” of spacecraft in orbits close to Earth. “Space is just extremely enormous, and […]
Enlarge (credit: Trevor Mahlmann) The head of the European Space Agency has urged the continent’s leaders to stop facilitating Elon Musk’s ambition to dominate the new space economy, warning that the lack of co-ordinated action meant the US billionaire was “making the rules” himself. Josef Aschbacher, the new director-general of ESA, said that Europe’s readiness […]
Enlarge / An experimental satellite, not made of wood, that was used to test ideas for orbital junk removal. (credit: NASA) We here at Ars were somewhat surprised to stumble across a BBC headline indicating that a university-industry partnership in Japan was working on developing wooden satellites. The plan is less insane than it sounds—wood […]