SmallSats
Space
+6
Aug 31, 2026
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5 min read
The Satellite Shaped Like a Dinner Plate
Small satellites have been built as cubes for twenty years, not for any reason to do with spaceflight but because that is the shape of the dispenser that pushes them out of the rocket. Four spacecraft shaped like dinner plates, a metre across and 2.5 centimetres deep, have now spent six months in orbit testing the alternative. The prize is very low orbit, where cameras see more and signals travel faster. Here is why shape decides who gets there.
Space
+14
Jul 25, 2026
•
5 min read
NASA Is Building a Telescope the Size of a City Out of Six Shoeboxes
NASA's SunRISE flies six toaster-oven satellites in tight formation so they behave as one radio telescope kilometres wide, built to map where on the Sun the biggest particle storms are launched, the space weather that can threaten satellites, power grids and astronauts.