NEWS & EVENTS
EDGE NEWS
Intuitive Machines to acquire Lanteris Space Systems
4 November 2025
WASHINGTON — Intuitive Machines, a company that develops lunar landers and other vehicles, announced Nov. 4 it is buying Lanteris Space Systems, a satellite manufacturer formerly known as Maxar Space Systems.
“This strategic acquisition positions Intuitive Machines as a next-generation space prime directly in the flow of multibillion-dollar space programs,” Steve Altemus, chief executive of Intuitive Machines, said in a statement.
Intuitive Machines is best known for developing a line of robotic lunar landers, two of which landed on the moon, albeit only partially successfully, in February 2024 and March 2025. The company is developing a network of lunar communications relay satellites and is bidding on a NASA program to develop a lunar rover for future Artemis crewed missions. It is also working on an Earth reentry vehicle, Zephyr.
Learn more HERE.
EDGE Site Visit at NASA Goddard
25 September 2025
On September 25, 2025, EDGE PI Helen Fricker, Deputy PI John Armston, Deputy PI Bryan Blair, Project Scientist Scott Luthcke, and the whole EDGE team welcomed the ESE Evaluation Panel to present the EDGE mission during a Site Visit.
EDGE at AGU25
18 December 2025
EDGE, in partnership with STV, will be hosting two Oral Sessions at AGU25: G43A & G44A- Advances in Geodetic Mapping of Earth: Tracking Earth’s Changing Surface, Including Solid Earth, Cryosphere, and Ecosystems
Earth’s surface topography and vegetation structure and changes provide information about climate change, natural hazards, ecosystem structure, and water availability. Precise measurement of both and their changes has wide ranging applications including for geologic hazards, ecosystems, cryosphere, hydrology, and coastal geomorphology. Lidar, radar, and stereoimaging are all methods for determining surface topography and vegetation structure. Each method contributes unique and complementary measurements. Satellite laser altimetry offers global coverage, enabling monitoring of key vital signs of Earth. Lidar measurements provide canopy height and ground returns. Stereoimaging provides digital surface models over broad areas. Radar provides broad area coverage while penetrating clouds and can indirectly measure vegetation 3-dimensional structure. This interdisciplinary session brings together key geodetic findings: significant losses from ice sheets, glaciers, and sea ice; and the global distribution of terrestrial carbon stocks and fluxes, 3D vegetation structure, biodiversity and habitat, surface topography, global water reservoirs, sea level change, and bathymetry.
16 December 2025
William Bowie Lecture honoree, Helen A. Fricker will present: A half century of satellite altimetry: A tale of quantum leaps in knowledge and understanding of Earth systems (link)
Measuring height over time is something many of us do without thinking, for instance when families mark their children's growth on a wall and write the date beside it. That simple act creates a time series of height measurements. Satellite altimetry works in much the same way, but instead of just one child, it tracks the height of Earth’s dynamic surface -- its oceans, ice, land, and vegetation -- all around the globe. First proposed in 1969, satellite altimetry has steadily advanced, providing consistent and repeated measurements from space. By 1991, the European Space Agency's radar altimetry missions were underway for ice, starting with ERS-1. In 2003, NASA launched its first laser altimeter (the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat)) to further refine our understanding of ice, land and vegetation. (more)
