Washington, Nov 14 : Researchers from University of Florida (UF) aerospace engineering laboratory are building a small satellite, which may hold the key to a future of easy access to outer space — one where sending satellites into orbit is as routine and inexpensive as shipping goods around the world.

Known as the “pico satellite”, it is the first ever built at UF and may be the first orbiting spacecraft to be built in Florida, according to Peggy Evanich, director of space research programs at UF.

Washington, Nov 14 : The Naval Research Laboratory’s (NRL) SHIMMER (Spatial Heterodyne Imager for Mesospheric Radicals) satellite has successfully observed Earth’s highest clouds.

The satellite observed a second northern season of Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs), which are the Earth’s highest clouds.

This successful observation fulfills the primary goal of the Space Test Program Satellite-1 (STPSat-1) Extended Mission.

Washington, November 14 : American researchers at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) are working on a system that will help astronaut pilots in real time to overcome the effects of spatial disorientation, the confusion of senses as to which way is up that often leads to fatal aviation accidents.

Ron Small, a member of the NSBRI Sensorimotor Adaptation Team, says that such a system may also prove beneficial for military, general aviation, and helicopter pilots.

Spatial disorientation accidents has been a major concern for astronaut pilots, though such a mishap in space has not been reported to date.

Washington, Nov 14 : Monitoring changes to water levels in the sea, in rivers and lakes, in ice sheets and even under the ground, with the help of observations from satellites, has revealed that since the start of 1993, sea level has been rising by 3.3 mm a year, almost double the rate of the previous 50 years.

Sea level rise in one of the major consequences of global warming, but it is much more difficult to model and predict than temperature.