A tiny Ecuadoran satellite that collided in space with the remains of a Soviet rocket survived the crash, but was damaged and is not transmitting, Quito’s space agency said on Thursday.
Ecuador’s space agency EXA had warned on Wednesday that a space fender-bender was likely between its “Pegaso” (Pegasus) nanosatellite and the remains of an S14 rocket launched by the Soviet Union into space in 1985.
The agency’s director, Ronnie Nader, said in a Twitter message that US space officials confirmed Pegaso had suffered only a glancing blow from the space debris.
“It was a not a direct hit,” tweeted Nader, Ecuador’s first and only astronaut. “Pegasus remains in orbit.”
He added that despite the collision, which occurred around 0538 GMT some 1,500km above the east coast of Madagascar, the satellite seemed to be holding its course.
Later data indicated that the nanosatellite — a cube measuring just 10cm by 10cm by 75cm, not counting its solar panels, and weighing 1.2kg — actually struck tiny debris in the particle cloud surrounding the Soviet space junk.
The EXA said that the satellite’s antenna had “lost its orientation and the craft is spinning wildly over two of its axes, so it cannot currently receive transmissions or send commands.”
Engineers will not know whether they can get Pegaso to work again until Monday, EXA said.
Nader earlier said that the nanosatellite is insured, without revealing for how much.
Pegaso — the first satellite designed and built in Ecuador — set off aboard an unmanned rocket on April 25 from the Jiuquand station in China. On May 16, it transmitted its first live video with audio.
Ecuador plans to send a second satellite into space from Russia in July.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of