Science News Roundup: U.S. court upholds SpaceX satellite deployment plan; NASA's mega-moon rocket ready for liftoff on eve of debut Artemis mission

Following is a summary of current science news briefs. U.S. court upholds SpaceX satellite deployment plan A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the decision of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve a SpaceX plan to deploy some Starlink satellites at a lower Earth orbit than planned as part of its push to offer space-based broadband internet.

Following is a summary of current science news briefs.

U.S. court upholds SpaceX satellite deployment plan

A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld the decision of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to approve a SpaceX plan to deploy some Starlink satellites at a lower Earth orbit than planned as part of its push to offer space-based broadband internet. Elon Musk's SpaceX won FCC approval in 2021 to fly 2,824 satellites at a lower orbit to provide high-speed broadband internet services to people who currently lack access. Competitors Viasat Inc and DISH Network Corp challenged the FCC approval.

NASA's mega-moon rocket ready for liftoff on eve of debut Artemis mission

Launch teams at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida spent a final full day of preparations ahead of Monday's planned liftoff of NASA's giant next-generation rocket on its debut test flight, kicking off the agency's Artemis moon-to-Mars program 50 years after the end of the Apollo era. NASA officials said on Sunday that all systems appeared "go" for liftoff, and weather forecasts called for an 80% chance of favorable conditions at the top of Monday's two-hour launch window, starting at 8:33 a.m. EDT (1233 GMT), diminishing to 60% toward the end of that period.