Growing cyber threats in space demand ongoing vigilance, innovation, and a unified approach among all those involved in spaceflight.
Space
Space is now again an area of contestation as great powers China and the United States with private space companies like Blue Origin and SpaceX entering the mix, competing for power and profits.
Nuclear weapons in space can destroy or damage satellites, hindering enemy military capabilities and communication.
JAXA’s new precision-landing technology could enable future space missions to reach potential lunar resources without incident.
A series of promising lunar, Martian, and asteroid explorations are on tap for 2024, including NASA’s search for water on the moon.
Euclid will map the “dark universe”, using a suite of scientific instruments to shed light on different aspects of dark energy and dark matter.
The Pentagon leaks suggest China is developing sophisticated cyber attacks for the purpose of disrupting military communication satellites.
Launches like the first Starship test are successful failures that will help SpaceX reach its eventual goal of sending astronauts to Mars.
Virgin Orbit’s outlook appears bleak. But space companies have proved remarkably resilient in the past and can come back from the brink.
In several key areas of space exploration, the U.S. is far ahead not only of China, but of all other spacefaring nations combined.
The ESA’s decision to not send European astronauts to China’s space station represents a symbolic blow to Beijing’s political aspirations.