Articles tagged with "satellites"

Reflect Orbital: Engineering marvel or just smoke and mirrors?

20 January 2026

I've been a little slow to pick up on this one, but there's a company in the US, Reflect Orbital, that is offering services based on having mirrors in space. Given that the company's previous name was Tons of Mirrors, it would seem that their aim is likely to be to imitate Elon Musk's Starlink by launching thousands of mirrors into low-earth orbit, and pointing them back at earth. One article reports that the company plans to have 4,000 satellites in orbit by 2030, with the eventual aim of launching a quarter of a million satellites.

The Golden Dome

9 June 2025

On 27 January POTUS (the President Of The United States) signed an executive order to create an “Iron Dome” of defence against ballistic, hypersonic, cruise missiles and other advanced aerial attacks. This was renamed “Golden Dome for America” on 24 February. Surprisingly, the renaming isn't about POTUS' preference for golden things. Apparently “Iron Dome” is a registered trademark, owned by an Israeli defence firm.

Souls of the dead tracking across the sky

8 July 2024

Craig wrote a couple of weeks ago about a couple of strange ideas he was introduced to at a Matariki event he attended - the idea that Matariki's brightness can predict the future, and also an idea that the earth has apparently recently shifted on its axis by 20 degrees.

Long March 5B

10 May 2021

The Chinese launch vehicle - Long March 5B has been in the news over the past week. The rocket was launched at the end of last month to carry the living quarters of China's independent space station into orbit.

The great documentary heist

1 August 1989

Sometimes a programme really makes one think about how television defines what is important for us to know about.