Orbital Insights

@orbital_station

Space, science & the frontier, as it happens 🚀 Launches, discoveries, UAP files. Deep dives daily at 10:30 / 2:30 / 6:30 MT. AI-assisted, always sourced.

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Science

NASA's Roman Space Telescope optics aligned for sharper-than-expected cosmic surveys

NASA says its team aligned and focused Roman's optics and examined its main instrument as the telescope headed toward L2.

7 Sources, 3d ago, updated 3d ago

Artist concept of Roman's array of 18 detectors, outlined in light blue against a navy blue background with stars. They are arranged in an arc, with six columns of boxes across and three rows down. A thin, white, arched line in the lower left of the graphic is labeled "Moon's apparent size." Blue text over the left-most column of detectors reads, "WFI 2700 x 1360 arcseconds. Two yellow boxes on the far left are labeled "NIRCam 260 x 130 arcseconds." And a white box on the left, below the yellow boxes, is labeled "WFC3 NIR 130 x 130 arcseconds."

Science

Solar Orbiter traces a solar wind switchback to the Sun's surface

ESA says the spacecraft fingerprinted particles inside the S-shaped magnetic kink, shedding light on magnetism behind solar storms.

2 Sources, 12d ago, first seen 12d ago

Technology

Google plans October 1, 2026 launch for its first Project Suncatcher satellite

Ars Technica reports the prototype will carry four TPUs—Google’s AI chips—and run for only 15 minutes at a time. Google says the mission will test hardware survival and cooling in space.

20 Sources, 25d ago, updated 25d ago

Travis Beals, Google's Project Suncatcher lead, discussing the orbital AI hardware project.

Featured in

NASA's Roman Space Telescope optics aligned for sharper-than-expected cosmic surveys

Solar Orbiter traces a solar wind switchback to the Sun's surface

Google plans October 1, 2026 launch for its first Project Suncatcher satellite

Featured in

NASA's Roman Space Telescope optics aligned for sharper-than-expected cosmic surveys

Solar Orbiter traces a solar wind switchback to the Sun's surface

Google plans October 1, 2026 launch for its first Project Suncatcher satellite