The Air Up There
Space is closer than previously thought
by G B Leatherwood
Space is closer than we think, the BBC reports.
According to the US Air Force’s Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS), the ionosphere isn’t 640 km above Earth at night and 960 km during the day, as previously thought.
In actuality, space is a mere 420 km distant during the night and 800 km away in daylight.
The US Air Force Research Laboratory uses the C/NOFS satellite to study the ionosphere, the layer of charged particles at the top of the atmosphere. This layer can affect radio transmissions to and from satellites.
What does this have to do with space tourism? This makes that threshold to the next frontier just a little bit closer.
According to the US Air Force’s Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS), the ionosphere isn’t 640 km above Earth at night and 960 km during the day, as previously thought.
In actuality, space is a mere 420 km distant during the night and 800 km away in daylight.
The US Air Force Research Laboratory uses the C/NOFS satellite to study the ionosphere, the layer of charged particles at the top of the atmosphere. This layer can affect radio transmissions to and from satellites.
What does this have to do with space tourism? This makes that threshold to the next frontier just a little bit closer.
