Intelsat has a fleet of over 50 geostationary satellites and is the world’s largest commercial operator. Intelsat has spacecraft and launches from most major manufacturers and launch agencies Intelsat has several launches annually to replenish fleet spacecraft Why Now for Satellite Servicing? • Global environment has changed – Development of international capabilities – Peaceful use …
Five children with a genetic disease that wipes out their immune system have successfully been treated with gene therapy. Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) is also known as “bubble boy” disease, since people affected have to live in a sterile environment. SCID was the first condition to be treated with gene therapy more than 20 years …
GE has imagined the technological enhancements that will change the way we live and how our homes will look a dozen years from now after studying trends in advances in food science, demographic shifts, ecological issues, healthcare services, water scarcity and home delivery. “This isn’t about the Jetsons or pie in the sky ideas,” says …
State news agency Xinhua has said China will relax the one child law to allow couples to have a second child if either parent is the only child by the end of the year. Currently, both parents must be sole children to be eligible for a second child. Chinese authorities have said they are considering …
Worldcrunch has an article that makes the case China is still many years from becoming a superpower. China neither is at the heart of a multilateral regime nor does it have a single significant ally. It must permanently juggle a coalition of interests — which sometimes aligns it with developing countries, sometimes with other emerging …
The World Nuclear Association reports 58,394 tons of uranium produced for 2012. This was 4720 tons more than the previous peak production in 2010. Dittmar made a new prediction of a 58kton peak in uranium. He would be wrong if not for his error bars (plus or minus 4000 tons) to allow it to have …
In a paper titled “The Shale Oil Boom: A U.S. Phenomenon,” [64 pages] Maugeri wrote that the unique characteristics of shale oil production are ideal for the United States — and unlikely to be mirrored elsewhere in the world. These factors include the availability of drilling rigs, and the entrepreneurial nature of the American exploration …
1. Arxiv – Natural Light Cloaking for Aquatic and Terrestrial Creatures Hongsheng Chen at Zhejiang University in China and an international circle of friends have created large-scale invisibility cloaks that work over the entire optical spectrum but can cloak in several directions at once. Most animals cannot detect phase changes in light. Abandoning the requirement …
Golden Spike, the first company planning to undertake human lunar expeditions for countries and corporations around the world, announced today that legendary astronaut and Apollo 13 Commander Jim Lovell has joined its Board of Advisors. Capt. Lovell, a former Naval aviator and test pilot, is a recipient of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and …
The Carnival of Nuclear Energy 153 is up at the ANS Nuclear Cafe Nuke Power Talk – turns a spotlight on some of the issues associated with renewable energy. Although it would seem that Gail Marcus is straying from nuclear topics, she points out that the possible concerns and drawbacks associated with nuclear power–and with …
Wired – Volunteers from the Planethunters website have identified 15 new habitable planet candidates among data collected by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. One of the 15, a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting the solar-type star KIC 12735740, has been officially confirmed as a planet (with 99.9 percent certainty). Named PH2 b, it is the second confirmed planet to …