satellite

Sateliot is the great Spanish hope to have its own voice in the new satellite space race

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There is a new space race and no one wants to miss it. Rivaling with Starlink seems like a utopia, but a Spanish company has managed to get ahead to the American giant on a specific point: 5G. While Elon Musk’s satellite company remains anchored in 4G, Sateliot boasts of being a pioneer in offering 5G connectivity from space, not only to IoT devices, but also to conventional mobile phones. This milestone has not gone unnoticed by the governments of Spain and Europe. Sateliot brings together all the ingredients to become an option for technological sovereignty in the satellite race. A race where Starlink dominates with more than 90% of global launches, but where any advance of its own is seen as a great victory. Now Sateliot inaugurates the Europe’s first 5G satellite development center. A pioneering center located in Barcelona that has more than 100 employees, two laboratories, a control room and a clean room of more than 100 square meters. From Xataka we have visited the center of the Catalan satellite company and learned about its ambitious plans. Triton, the new generation of satellites moves to full 5G Since 2018, Sateliot has launched six satellites, the last four in orbit since August 2024. They plan to launch five more next year. However, beyond getting ahead with 5Git will be with their second generation of satellites when they will begin to have a more competitive service. Triton, in homage to the Montseny amphibian, is the name chosen for its new satellites, about four meters long and 150 kilograms in weight. These new satellites represent a radical advance compared to those already sent by Sateliot, because in addition to having a capacity up to 16 times greater, they also change their concept. Tritón not only offers connectivity to IoT devices, but will offer 5G connectivity for data, voice and video to conventional 5G mobiles. Without the need to add any antenna or modifications to these phones and compatible with all operators (3GPP). The satellite, with a cost 10 times higher than the first generation, will allow Sateliot to offer a service that will range from critical security applications to civil protection and defense. The company explains that its satellite connection service will not focus on providing specific coverage to specific consumersbut serve for industrial, maritime, energy or location applications. Jaume Sanpera, CEO of Sateliot, together with the monitoring of its four satellites in orbit The first Triton satellite is scheduled to launch during the first quarter of 2027from Vandenberg (California), one of SpaceX’s two launch bases. The future goal is to be able to use European launchers, such as the Vega and Ariane of the European Space Agency. In this space race, the dates given are no coincidence. 2027 is the date on which it is also planned that Starlink begins upgrading its satellites to 5G. Barcelona bets on aerospace technology Jaume SanperaCEO of Sateliot, is proud that his satellites are “100% manufactured in Barcelona.” Now they have inaugurated the development center, but in the future they plan for the industrial phase to also have a factory in Barcelona. A phase that is still far away. “Next year we will exceed 200 employees. Being more than 80% engineers and having doubled the staff in the last year,” Sanpera explains to Xataka. “We have agreed to expand to the ground floor,” he points out in reference to the recently inaugurated offices. An inauguration that was also attended by multiple public authorities, including the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Salvador Illa. “You have to lose your shyness. Everything outside is better and seems to come from the US or China. Well no: Here we also do very powerful things that no one else has“Illa defended. Salvador Illa, president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, visits the clean room of the new 5G satellite development center | Satellite Sateliot is a startup that currently brings together much of what Europe is looking for: cutting-edge technology companies and local development. The new development center wants to become the base of a cluster of aerospace companies in Barcelona. And investors are taking note. Sanpera assures that at this time Sateliot is not looking for a new round, although defines it as a company “that requires a lot of capital”. Last March, the The Spanish government announced an investment of around 14 million euros in Sateliotfor a total of a round of about 70 million euros. In addition to the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETT), Global Portfolio Investments, Indra, Cellnex and SEPIDES have also invested and 30 million euros have been loaned from the European Investment Bank (EIB). For the moment, since his birth They have invested about 50 million euros in R&D. According to Sateliot, they already have signed contracts worth 285 million euros annually and offer coverage in 58 different countries. In total 734 different contracts to connect a total of 10 million devices that cannot have good coverage and where the satellite service opens a whole field of possibilities. The new development center in Barcelona employs 110 employees (80% engineers), with plans to exceed 200 in 2026. “We have 30 different patent applications“, they explain to us. During the explanation of how satellite monitoring works, the CEO of Sateliot hints that not all of its advances have been patented, in order to “not give clues to the competition”, pointing out that there is a high level of industrial espionage in the sector. “The difficulty is in the radio, in the antenna,” says Sanpera. Sateliot cannot compete against Starlink in quantity, but unlike the American company, they are betting on satellites whose connectivity is more modern and, above all, widely compatible. The Triton satellites have a 7 year shelf lifecompared to four or five years for the first generation. The main limiting factor is the radio and software. The company points out that this information is important, because “space debris is a problem for everyone and can prevent us from launching more … Read more

China had been testing a mysterious satellite in orbit for years. A counterespionage company has finally revealed what it was

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On October 16, the starry skies of the Canary Islands were illuminated by a spectacular fireball that crossed the sky from south to north. It was not a meteorite, it was a Chinese satellite that until a few days ago had been a complete mystery. A mystery called XJY-7. Since its launch in December 2020, as part of the maiden flight of the Long March 8 rocket, the Xinjishu Yanzheng-7 had been an unknown. China officially described it as a “new technology verification satellite.” Aside from a blurry render, the world knew almost nothing about its configuration, purpose, or capabilities. And although its re-entry was news in itself, the real news is that, just before it disintegrated, an Australian company managed to photograph it in orbit, finally solving the mystery of what it was and what it was doing up there. Counterespionage in orbit. Using its network of satellites to photograph other objects in orbit, the Australian company HEO achieved what ground-based radars could not: take photos of the XJY-7 up close. The images and the 3D model that HEO built from them revealed features that China had neglected to mention. According to the company has declared to SpaceNewsthe satellite was not a simple test platform; It was equipped with “a large radar antenna” and, most tellingly, a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) antenna. It was a spy satellite. SAR is an advanced remote sensing technology that allows high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface to be obtained in any weather conditions, day or night. The “mysterious” test satellite was, in reality, an advanced surveillance and remote sensing satellite. The HEO observations also revealed a fascinating detail about its design: the satellite had fixed solar panels. This forced it to “rotate its entire body” to maintain power generation, a behavior that the Australian company was able to verify through multiple simultaneous observations from different angles. Satellites that monitor satellites. Traditional monitoring methods (ground-based radars and telescopes) are no longer sufficient to monitor the activity of other nations in orbit. HEO uses a network of more than 40 sensors in flight to take satellite-to-satellite images for your clients. When one of its associated satellites passes near a target, it takes a photo of it. It is a “non-invasive flyby method” that offers real photographs where you can see antennas, panels, thrusters and payloads. With this technique, HEO has managed to identify more than 80 space objects before they appeared in any public catalogue. In an environment where satellite constellations are deployed by the dozens, knowing whether an object is an operational satellite, a piece of space junk, or what type of antenna it carries is crucial for intelligence and defense. Mysterious until his re-entry. Ironically, the mystery that surrounded XJY-7 in its useful life also accompanied it in its death, as the United States Space Command never issued a reentry alert. This is “strange” for an object of this size, says expert Marco Langbroek. It is estimated that XJY-7 had a mass of between 3,000 and 5,000 kg. That an object weighing more than three tons bypassed re-entry warning systems highlights the gaps in conventional space tracking. Even worse when it comes to a satellite with secret capabilities. Image | H.E.O.

The Spainsat NG II satellite is cutting-edge technology Made in Spain

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More than one team of engineers stayed up late from Thursday to Friday to watch the launch of the Spanish Spainsat NG II satellite live. With its successful deployment, Spain is placed at the forefront of European defense from space. On board a Falcon 9. In the absence of European alternatives, the Spainsat NG II took off from Cape Canaveral, in the United States, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The launch, however, was impeccable. The rocket placed the satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit, completing a new generation constellation for the Spanish Armed Forces. The most advanced in Europe. The second launch of the Spainsat NG program, operated by Hisdesat (now part of Indra) for the Spanish Ministry of Defense, is the culmination of years of development and strategic investments to redefine Spain’s autonomy and climb positions in Europe and NATO. Composed of the twin satellites NG I (launched in January) and NG II (launched yesterday), it is designed to guarantee secure, reliable and uninterrupted communications, both for Spain and its partners. In any circumstance. The new satellites are true orbital fortresses. The Spainsat NG incorporate advanced technologies protection against interference attempts (anti-jamming) and identity theft (anti-spoofing). They are even reinforced against high altitude nuclear phenomenameeting the strictest NATO requirements. This capacity for resilience is precisely what makes Spain climb positions in the Atlantic Alliance. In a modern war scenario, the first battle would be fought in the electromagnetic spectrum, as the Ukrainian war and dependence on Starlink demonstrated. The ability of a country to maintain command and control of its operations, even under nuclear or electronic warfare attack, is a capability that very few countries possess. Made in Spain. But what really distinguishes this project is the qualitative leap for the national industry. 45% of the Spainsat NG system has been manufactured in Spain. The jewel in the crown is PACIS3, the technological heart of the satellite, which includes an active X-band antenna developed by Airbus Defense and Space in Madrid. This antenna, the most advanced in Europe, is the equivalent of 16 traditional antennas and allows the satellite adapt and change your coverage up to 1,000 times per second In practical terms, the satellite can not only resist jamming, but can geographically locate the source of the attack on Earth and nullify it. All this while redirecting its communication beams to the areas of operations that need it. For its part, Thales Alenia Space integrated the complete Communication Module of both satellites. To this end, it built a new state-of-the-art clean room at its Tres Cantos facilities. It is the largest satellite system ever assembled in Spain: a structure of more than two tons and six meters high. Image | Airbus In Xataka | Europe has done the only thing it could do to compete with SpaceX and China in space: merge its largest companies

The spectrum belongs to the operators and will have to negotiate with them to display their satellite mobile network

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In January we knew that Starlink activated the direct cellular connection for mobileregardless of whether or not they have satellite connection. So that the system, called Starlink Direct To Cell, Offer mobile internet to any mobile, you must do it through the frequencies that are in use by mobile operators. Here comes the delicate. The situation. As our partners say Xataka mobilefor a company for a company like Starlink or Project Kuiper de Amazon Give us mobile connectivity, you need to do it through the frequencies that are already used for classical mobile networks. The problem is that these bands are licensed by Movistar, Vodafone and Orange. A possible route. Taking into account that Starlink and company are competitors, it is expected that the operators will want an agreement in which they do not be harmed. A possible route would be to negotiate the use of the bands with the regulatory agencies, thus jumping to the operators, but it will not be possible. The GSMA has spoken. It is the Association of Mobile Operators and organizer of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Have published A statement in which they give a series of guidelines for coexistence between land operators and satellite operators. The document establishes that Starlink and company must negotiate directly with the operators, who are the owners of the land spectrum. Marking territory. With this statement, the GSMA does not want to stop the arrival of satellite mobile connectivity services, but to mark its territory and defend what has cost so much to achieve terrestrial operators. To put it in context, in 2021 The 700 MHz band was auctioned and Spanish operators paid more than 1,000 million euros for their hole. It has all the meaning that they are who negotiate who uses their spectrum. Starlink has already negotiated similar agreements with operators from other countries such as the United States, Australia, Canada or Switzerland, so it is not something alien to the company. Of the satellite to the mobile. To offer internet to any mobile, Starlink uses a network of satellites that operate in the Leo orbit. These satellites fly lower to facilitate connectivity, about 360 kilometers from the surface. According to Starlink herself, they already have more than 600 satellites from their Direct To Cell network that add to the more than 8,000 satellites they have in orbit. If you want to continue expanding it to more countries, they will have to reach new agreements and pay what corresponds to use the frequencies. Cover image | Wikipedia, Apple In Xataka | China increasingly dominates technology on earth. There is a place where it is still far from the West: space

It was practically impossible for a satellite to “ruin” the photo of another satellite. With Starlink already go twice

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Until recently, the idea that a terrestrial observation satellite accidentally captured another satellite in the flight was as an unlikely coincidence as finding a needle in a haystack. Space is an immense emptiness and The satellites move very quickly. But in the last year we have witnessed this phenomenon twice. And on both occasions, the protagonist has been a Spacex Starlink satellite. In a secret military base in China. On August 21, one of the new Satellites WorldView Legion of Maxar It passed over the Gobi desert, in China, with the aim of photographing the Dingxin Air Base: a high secret installation where China proves its most advanced fighters. The satellite achieved the image, but an unexpected intruder appears in it. A silver ship with two large solar panels and three spectra of colors cross Maxar’s photo, creating what an executive of the company described on LinkedIn as “accidental art.” What we see is actually a single satellite, the Starlink 33828immortalized in different wavelengths on one of the most sensitive places of the Chinese army. The trick is in the camera. The curious multicolored image is explained by how observation satellites and the incredible speed at orbit move. These satellites do not take a single image, but a series of images in different spectral bands almost simultaneously: a high resolution (panchromatic) and several in different colors (red, green, blue …) of lower quality. Then, an algorithm merges all this information to create the final photo, already clearly color. The problem of that “almost simultaneously” is almost. When the objective is the earth, which is relatively still with respect to the satellite, the system works perfectly. But when another satellite crosses in the field of vision at a relative speed of almost 1,400 meters per second (about 5,000 km/h), the camera captures it in a slightly different position in each of the color layers. The result is that spectral effect with several colored shadows. The Google Maps Starlink. This is the second time that a Starlink satellite accidentally sneaks into an alien photo. As We count in April 2025a Reddit user discovered a very similar effect on a Google Maps image on a rural Texas area. On that occasion, the photo was taken by a Pleaiades European satellite, and the result was even clearer: five silhouettes of the same object, corresponding to the close, red, blue, green and pancromatic infrared bands. The enormous amount of satellites in low orbit is turning an astronomically unlikely event into a new normality. Why are Starlink satellites. Because they are a majority. Spacex already has More than 8,300 Starlink in orbitmore than all other satellite constellations together. With its plans to expand the network to more than 30,000, the probability that one of them is crossed in the viewfinder of another satellite is growing. But also, they fly low. To offer a low latency internet connection, the Starlink operate about 500 km altitude in the low terrestrial orbit. This is the same orbital “highway” that most use the earth’s observation satellites, such as the Worldview Legion of Maxar (which are 518 km). His paths are destined to cross. Beyond the visual anecdote, these images are the symptom that the low orbit is increasingly congested, which forces perform constant evasion maneuvers To prevent collisions. Image | Maxar In Xataka | What types of satellites exist: guide not to get lost in a gigantic network of which we are increasingly dependent

The satellite that disintegrated about Spain already has a name and surname

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We already have an explanation for the phenomenon that crossed the sky of Media Spain on Sunday near midnight. And as Okham’s razor dictates, it was the simplest explanation. Context. Full summer, full heat wave. Around 23:50 on Sunday, with the streets still full and many people on the beach or the pool looking at the sky with the Hope to see some perseipera handful of metal fragments began to shine in the sky. They soon appear videos from different points of the Peninsula and Balearic Islands. Those flashes had slowly traveled the sky of Media Spain. From the south of Andalusia they saw him on his heads. From as far as Barcelona saw him very low on the horizon. A Starlink satellite. Specifically, Starlink 30199, launched on July 10, 2023 from California, according to the Astrophysic calculations Jonathan McDowellfamous for documenting all space releases. The Spacex satellite resent the atmosphere at 23:45 on August 10 and disintegrated over Spain through the provinces of Cádiz, Malaga, Granada and Murcia. According to the CSIC BOLIDS RESEARCH NETWORKcould be seen from Andalusia, Aragon, Castilla-La Mancha, Community of Madrid, Euskadi, La Rioja, Navarra and Region of Murcia. Mess with the Chinese rocket. At first, McDowell himself had predicted that the remains burned in the atmosphere were those of the fourth stage of the Chinese Jielong-3 rocket, launched by the state-owned state company China Rocket on August 8. This caused a small stir because Europe and the United States They have stricter regulations so that companies actively extend the rockets in areas far from the population. While it is true that the Chinese rocket stage was orbiting the earth with a low perigee, resent an hour after the Starlink and with another trajectory. Three resentments a day. Starlink, the SPACEX Satellite Internet Serviceis the most numerous satellite constellation with more than 8,000 satellites, designed with a useful life of five years. Seeing these objects burning in the heavens will be increasingly normal. According to Spacex, they disintegrate completely when they fall on earth, although Effects of vaporized metal on the atmosphere They are still debate. Other objects, such as pressurized deposits, stages of larger and older and old satellites, do not disintegrate completely. It is estimated that every day they fall on earth three large pieces of space garbage. Some have done it in populated cities, such as the pieces of the Falcon 9 launch They fell in Poland. Image | SPMN CSIC In Xataka | The atmosphere is shrinking and that is a problem: they will not fit the 60,000 satellites that plan Spacex and company

A satellite would have replaced 36,000 km to the US pasmo

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In October 2021, China launched the Shijian-21. It was a Multipurpose satellite that destined to test technologies of Space waste mitigation In geostationary orbit. In a nutshell: a space garbage. In January of this year, another of these mysterious Shijian was launched, the SJ-25. Your purpose? Extend the useful life of other satellites. Now both have been found in the geostationary orbit and has unleashed madness. Of the United States, of course. Chinese wall-e. The SJ-21 was launched in Secret relative. China is one of the nations that More interest has lately in taking over boxes in space, and his first mission was to be coupled to the satellite -also Chinese – Beidou-2 G2 that it was already out of service and towed it successfully outside the active geostation orbit (geo). The SJ-21 dragged Beidou to the space cemetery, but from the Pentagon they saw this as a direct threat. Cold Space War. We have been immersed in a New Cold War. Not as the lived a few decades -although at times nuclear fear is also on the table -, but we are witnessing the rapid technological development of several nations with something in mind: space. American military authorities already speak openly about Dangers represented by a space China For Western interests, and the SJ-21 movement was seen as something dangerous. And lor saw like a threat due both to the precision that the satellite showed and because they claim that It has robotic arms (There are no images and China has not confirmed it) that they could put satellites from other nations in check. Apart from the “physical” attack between satellites, they went further, noting that the SJ-21 could have technologies capable of blocking transmissions and blinding the sensors of other space vehicles. In fact, the US has a Wrestling Manual between Satellites that we met a few months ago. The “space gas station”. To revive the controversy, we have the aforementioned Shijian-25. This SJ-25 is a satellite designed to verify fuel refueling technologies and extend the useful life of satellites in Geo. In a nutshell: it is a kind of space gas station. It has the ability to perform very precise approaches to other bodies, such as the SJ-21, but also coupling work with which it can fill in that fuel. The logic of this operation is simple: to provide a longer life to the satellites that work and are already in orbit instead of launching new equivalent satellites and generating more Space garbage. Money is also saved because it is cheaper “throwing gas” than putting one of these satellites into orbit. The two satellites moments before making contact Contact. And the results have not taken to arrive. As we see in Ars Technica, a few days ago it was observed not only that both satellites were operating to extremely short distances The one of the other, but reached a point, already more than 36,000 kilometers of us, joined. Can be seen in This Timelapse in which the two satellites merge into a bright ball to subsequently separate. But of course, this is not confirmed and who is raising the voice is the United States. Americans are attentive. USA, when he realized that the two satellites were approaching, two positioned GSSAP Vigías Satellites near the SJ-21 and the SJ-25 to observe more closely. Because the United States plans to carry out the first refueling of a military satellite in orbit in some moment next year they call “dynamic spatial operations”, But it is confirmed that the SH-21 and the SJ-25 have joined, China would have advanced them on the right. John Shaw is a retired general lieutenant from United States Space Force And, as we read in Ars Technica, a firm defender of these dynamic space operations. He states that “they were an operational need a few years ago, but now it is something much more important, especially given the activities of potential adversaries.” Forms that satellites have to attack each other Focus change. In the same article, Shaw comments that GSSAP satellites have operated on other occasions to approach Chinese satellites that “simply move away quickly.” When we talk about a new cold war, we do it by statements such as those of this military: “We tend to operate the GSSAP as airships, using slow and minimal energy approaches. The Chinese know it, so they find it relatively easy to maneuver to avoid such approaches.” Caution. And Shaw sees this alleged refueling in Geo by Chinese satellites as a threat: “If tomorrow they can reproduce freely and operate even more dynamically, then the cost of maneuvers will be marginal for them and the challenge for the GSSAP will be even greater.” What is clear is that there is a world of possibilities here. The SJ-21 and SJ-25 may have been successfully coupled, but it may also not. Similarly, it is possible that it was only a maneuver to distract the GSSAP. There are those who point out that the SJ-21 had run out of energy after several operations, so it will be interesting to see if, after that approach, it begins to move more freedom, indicating the alleged replacement. But well, at the end of the day, China is not the only objective. US authorities have been warning that Russia has ways to manipulate enemy satellitesand now they have another concern if the refueling between Chinese satellites is confirmed. Images | United States Space ForceS2A-Systems

Satellite images have revealed what happened to one of Russia’s biggest arsenals. Now we understand Moscow’s silence

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On April 22 the satellites began to point out A point on the planeta change only perceptible through the images from space offered a first track of what was happening about 60 kilometers from Moscow. Despite the weather conditions of that day and the low resolution of the optical data captured by the Sentinel-2 satellite From the European Space Agency, the damages were clearly visible. An explosion had “burst” the 51st arsenal of the main missile and artillery direction of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Total devastation of Arsenal. Visual confirmation was reinforced by radar images Synthetic opening (SAR) capable of penetrating clouds and smoke, which showed significant structural alterations in the complex nucleus. The comparison between images Taken on April 14 and 23, it indicated that at least 30 buildings destined to storage of ammunition had been completely destroyed. Explosions, evacuations and blackouts. The day after the explosion, the secondary detonations They still continuedunderlining the magnitude of the stored material. The strength of the outbreak forced Evacuate eight nearby townswhile 37 settlements were left without gas supply. The most remote evacuated town was 4.5 kilometers from Arsenal. NASA fire monitoring system data also confirmed the existence of multiple igneous foci Within the perimeter, coinciding with the analysis of the intelligence expert (OSINT) MT Anderson, who used additional filters to detect heat points and Confirm destruction Massive infrastructure. A strategic arsenal. Then the magnitude of what happened began to be known. He 51st Arsenal Grau It was not simply a deposit of ammunition. As one of the Eight main arsenals that still operated in the European part of Russia, its function was key both in the distribution and in the logistics maintenance of the Moscow weapons. Three of those eight arsenals had already been destroyed for 2024, which turned this loss into a considerable strategic blow for the Kremlin military supply chain. Arsenal was designed to house Up to 264,000 tons of explosive material. Among the remains found after the explosion were identified 107 mm rockets for Multiple type 63 rocket Chinese manufacturing, many of which were recorded spread around local residents, suggesting that part of the material was stored outpatient and had recently been delivered. The catastrophe, or the attacknot only compromised Russian logistics operability in the Ukrainian conflict, but raised (once again) serious doubts about the security of its own arsenal in times of war. Images of the British report with the before and after the explosions A self -inflicted blow. Now, and after A study Of all the images and confidential information of the intelligence of the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense, it has been confirmed that the cause of the incident was not “external”, but a combination of bad practices in the management of armament and a negligent storage management by Russia. British research, in fact, is reinforced by the declaration of the Russian Defense Ministry itself, which, in silence from the incident without offering more data, there were attributed the disaster to the “violation of security requirements” in the manipulation of explosive materials. For the United Kingdom, the event is not an isolated case, but the reflection of a prolonged and documented trend of “Russian ineptitude in the treatment of its own ammunition”, although that yes, in this case it represents the greatest loss of self -inflicted arsenal since the beginning of the large -scale war in Ukraine. Strategic installation We already said it before. The affected deposit was a key installation for the war supply of the Kremlin on the Ukrainian front and, according to figures from the Ukrainian authorities cited by the United Kingdomhosted around hundreds of thousands of tons of ammunition, including ballistic missiles, projectiles thrown from air and anti -aircraft systems. Satellite images verified by the insider medium They also revealed that more than a square kilometer of the complex was affected by the detonations, which suggests that massive and prolonged destruction, with multiple fires and a chain of secondary explosions that, According to disseminated videos In social networks, they even reached nearby civil areas. Error pattern. In addition, it is not the first time that the arsenal of the 51st Grau suffers incidents of this type. Insider told That in June 2022, Russian state media reported a spontaneous explosion during loading and unloading operations that cost four people. The pattern is consistent with British complaint: A continuous chain of operational errors and insufficient security measures that make critical facilities into vulnerable points within the Russian military apparatus. The lack of technical discipline and effective prevention protocols has not only generated large material losses, but also has compromised the safety of populated areas in times of war. Consequences. If you want also, the incident gives wings to the rhetoric of the West. The impact of this catastrophe transcends the material. The destruction of one of the main deposits of Russian ammunition not only weakens the immediate logistics capabilities of Moscow in its offensive against Ukraine, but also reinforces an idea increasingly sustained Among the “alidos”: that of a corroded military power for structural failures, operational improvisation and a dangerous carefree for the most basic security standards. Seen thus, in full prolonged war and with its supply lines under pressure, losing tens of thousands of tons of armament due to internal negligence constitutes a defeat with several readings. Image | Maxar In Xataka | Russia launched its fearsome nuclear missile Satan II last week, the “Invincible Weapon” of Putin. It was regular In Xataka | The US has detected an object in space with strange behavior. The source that released it has also located: Russia

The lunar map of Johannes Hevelius, the first satellite cartography published in 1647

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More and more countries achieve what until not too many decades seemed impossible: placing a satellite in The moon. To the difficult mission of sending a probe to hundreds of thousands of kilometers away we can add the double challenge of doing it in your hidden face, unlocked by China Some years ago. One side of the moon in permanent state of escapism to the naked eye. Unlike the hidden face, the one that we can always observe from our homes has been a reason for study and analysis for endless astronomers from several centuries ago. And in such special ephemeris it is worth remembering the first time in which human knowledge drew the known surface of the moon. A Polish did it from the roof of his house, and it took five years to complete the feat. We talked about Johannes Hevelius, Latinized form of Jan Heweliusz. Born in the current Gdańsk, once Danzig, Hevelius would publish in 1647 the first great Atlas of the Moon. Literally. His Selenographia, Sive Lunae Descriptionone of the most celebrated scientific books of the seventeenth century, compiled a good handful of detailed maps that disseminated among popular culture what other scientists and astronomers They suspected long ago. Color version Heweliusz undertook his work, in part, to complete the unfinished and still imperfect designs by Galileo at the beginning of the century. Son of a rich merchant Cervecer, Heweliusz had to attend family businesses first before devoting himself fully to astronomy. It was his unusual social position and his great wealth that allowed him Build telescopes precise and long -range that would install on the contiguous roofs of their homes in Gdańsk. Long night looking at the sky Of methodical procedure, Heweliusz combined in its publication a technical knowledge very high with a Artistic sense More than respectable. Our man inspected the lunar surface every night, Drawing by hand The apprehended reliefs and moving them to a copper plate later. The process of observation, drawing and printing would have almost a five years before being able to finish such a titanic task. With annotations. The result of his work is admirable today. Hevelius’s moon is a hand -drawn moon with great aesthetic sense and, at the same time, enormous astronomical value. On your maps, Heweliusz He proceeded to baptize The topographic characteristics of the satellite from the geographical accidents of the Earth. The Polish interpreted bays, deserts and meanders where there were only craters. Years later, Toponymic work of Giambattista Riccioli and Francesco Maria Grimaldi four years later, in 1615, the baptisms of Hevelius would expire. His maps, however, did survive, and served as a basis for many others elaborated by Other astronomers Europeans in later decades (such as Joanne Zahn in 1696 or Rost in 1723). Of course, the publication had A great tour and caused the usual scandal in the ecclesiastical estate. Hevelius, Polish and therefore Catholic, followed the teachings of another famous compatriot, Copernicus, and believed that the earth Orbitaba Around the sun. Another map included by Hevelius. At that time the representatives of God on earth were not in a position to accept the truth (a patent thing in their recent judgment to Galileo). So when Niccolo Zucchi, an Italian astronomer well related to the Vatican, gave Pope Innocent X a copy of the Selenographia from Hevelius his holiness He replied: “It would be a book without any comparison, of not having been written by a heretic.” Since the Church would lose that game, the Selenographia Heweliusz would mark a before and after in our knowledge of the moon. The astronomer would advance other technical aspects of the telescope and, in addition, observe To other planets of the solar system (such as Jupiter or Saturn) to those who would baptize as “fixed stars.” Despite his privileged vision to the moon, he won the planets cataloging. The astronomer would also leave sketches of his “fixed stars.” Be that as it may, Hevelius’s work marked the imagination of Europeans to the moon during the coming centuries. Already in the 19th century and in the twentieth century the new technical advances would take us from the first high definition images of the lunar surface to the moon landing of 1969. Of course, Hevelius was far from the first occasion in The one we saw The hidden face: it was in 1959 thanks to a satellite Soviet. Today we have closed a circle initiated largely by pioneers like Heweliusz, the astronomer enriched by beer. In Xataka | The land has moons that we do not know: exploring them is key to revealing the secrets of our solar system

Someone has found a satellite for the first time on Google Maps. All tracks point to a Starlink satellite

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There are people who spend hours exploring the most remote corners of the planet in the satellite photos of Google Maps, looking for surprising findings. But this time the surprise was not on earth, but in space. It is not a plane, it is a satellite. It is easy to find airplanes on Google Maps or Google Earth. Every day they fly between 100,000 and 120,000 planes worldwide. Not even poachers, such as bomber B-2, are safe from the satellite cameras that nourish Google maps with their images. The B-2 He was hunted in full flight A few years ago. But the bet has just risen with the most recent finding of A REDDIT user In coordinates 33 ° 44’39.0 “N 96 ° 44’46.2” W.: A rural Texas area, north of the city of Dallas. It is a satellite orbiting the land more than 27,000 kilometers per hour, which leaves the military plane at the height of a snail. Five colored spectra. The photo was taken on November 30, 2024 by a Pleiades European observation satellite, developed by Airbus. It is a picture that perhaps would have gone unnoticed if it were not for the five silhouettes of different colors that seem to be ghosts of the same satellite. It is actually the same satellite seen in five spectral bands. The black silhouette, captured first, is the satellite seen in the near infrared. They are followed by the red silhouette, the blue silhouette and the green silhouette, each captured with a different color filter in an instant infinitesimally different. Finally, the most clear silhouette of all, a pancromatic image of the satellite. The five satellite spectra on Google Maps Why do you look like this? It is a visual representation of two different phenomena: how quickly the objects move in the land low orbit, and how the observation satellites take their photos. They do not take a single photo, but several catches in different spectral bands (nearby infrared, red, blue, green and a pancromatic image on gray scale). Next, these images are combine with a Pansharpening algorithm To create a full color photo. Normally from the ground, which is still with respect to the satellite. However, this satellite moved almost eight kilometers per second, which caused the camera to capture it at five different points in the very brief moment in which the capture occurred. A Starlink satellite. Both Reddit users Like astrophysic Jonathan McDowell They believe it is a Spacex Starlink satellite. Unlike the first generation Starlink (which had a single solar panel), the V2 Mini have two large lateral solar panels that give them a wingspan of about 30 meters. According to McDowell, presumably is the Starlink 31147. It is not strange that the first satellite that has been found in Google Maps is a Starlink. Most satellites travel above 500 km so as not to have the atmospheric braking compensate, friction with the air that makes them end up resenting in the atmosphere. But the Starlink are launched at this point to offer a Global Low Latency Internet coverageassuming that will have to be replaced Every five years. 7,200 and up. Today there is about 7,200 Starlink satellites Orbiting the Earth (more than all the other constellations of combined satellites), thanks to Spacex’s ability to land the propellers of their rockets. That is why the investigations pointed from the beginning to Google Maps was a Starlink. Since Spacex has plans for Grow your network to a megaconstellation of 30,000 satellitesmost likely this is not the last Starlink that appears on Google Maps and other satellite photos, in the same way that it is increasingly common to see them in the night sky when we raise the view from below. Images | Google, Airbus Defense and Space In Xataka | Spacex has launched 8,000 Starlink satellites in five years, but they are not enough. And we are beginning to understand why

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