IEEE Spectrum: Aerospace

Satellites Peer Into India's Shrinking Aquifers

Gravity maps show disastrous draining in India's breadbasket

Interplanetary Internet Tested

Using computers on the International Space Station, engineers tested the protocols for a future interplanetary Internet in May 2009.

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Delay-tolerant network will weave a different kind of web in space

Mars Satellite Spies Signs of Ancient Lakebed on Red Planet

Images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter offer glimpse into planet's watery past

Researchers Propose InterGalactic Positioning System (IGPS)

Lost in space? Use signals from four pulsars and you can determine your exact location

NASA Planet Hunter to Search Out Other Earths

The Kepler satellite, scheduled to launch this month, will spend more than three years hunting for planets that might support life

Commercial Communications Satellites for the Moon

NASA wants a for-profit network to support lunar missions

Is It Time for NASA to Join Forces With the U.S. Military?

The biggest question facing America's human space program concerns the next generation of vehicles to send people to the heavens: should the nation build new rockets following its traditional model or should it drop the barriers separating its civilian and military programs. This question confronts the United States at a time of transition in its government and conflicting ideas as to the direction of many programs, including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The current managers of NASA favor the traditional model of designing entire spaceflight systems for singular objectives. This has led to the plan now being pursued …

U.S. Satellite Shootdown: The Inside Story

SPACE COLLISION

At a press conference at the Pentagon on 21 February, General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff [left], points to a photo of an errant U.S. satellite being destroyed by an interceptor missile. The rocket had been launched from a U.S. Navy Aegis cruiser and hit the satellite 247 kilometers above the Pacific Ocean.

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While assessing the hazards of hydrazine reentry from space, a journalist discovers the hazards of media commentary as well

Snow Globe

The big picture

The Full Spectrum: COSMIC Satellites Use GPS to Forecast Weather

Episode 3: How two satellite systems combine to give meteorologists a better view of the atmosphere.

Russian Global Navigation System, GLONASS, Falling Short

The GLONASS system's accuracy, reliability, and consumer appeal are in question

Replacement for Hubble Space Telescope Will Use Copper-based Communications Systems

2013, A SPACE ODYSSEY

The James Webb Space Telescope is set to replace the Hubble Space Telescope in 2013.

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Optical fiber interconnects not yet good enough for James Webb Space Telescope, but SpaceWire standard is.

Tsunami Surveillance By Satellites

Could use of GPS provide faster alerts?

Stalked by Satellite

An alarming rise in GPS-enabled harassment

Troubled Weather Satellite Program

Delays in critically needed polar instruments could affect all of U.S. environmental monitoring

Swift Satellite Turns on a Dime

NASA craft to be launched this month must act fast to catch fleeting deep space explosions

An Eye in the Sky

An Atlanta company is testing a balloon-borne transmitter for broadband and cellular in its hometown, but to get the business off the ground, aviation regulators must be appeased

Can the Hubble Telescope Be Saved?

NASA's decision to stop servicing the Hubble Space Telescope has agitated astronomers and the general public