Why is Galileo down?

The EU’s global navigation  satellite system  went down July 11th.   On the 15th,  the GSA blamed the Galileo outage on  “a technical incident related to its ground infrastructure.”   The agency said that the search and rescue (SAR) feature — used for locating and helping people in distress situations for example at sea or mountains — remained operational during the outage,  which impacted only navigational and satellite-based timing services.

That strikes me as ass-covering B.S.,  which the EU is very skilled at producing.   I am a very long way from being satisfied with this sip of information.   It smells like an attack to me,  and I could hazard a guess as to which nations might be behind such a move.

Sinking Venice…

I always assumed Venice was sinking because it was a city built on islands and swamp land,  and that modern life had simply accelerated the inevitable process.   I was sort of right and sort of wrong,  as this  fascinating satellite  study shows.

I was last in Venice decades ago,  before the annual flooding got so bad,  and before it became such a tourist city that locals lived elsewhere,  but I imagine it’s still worth a visit simply because of its unique circumstances.

Satellite spotter…

It’s fun to watch the Space Station go overhead,  for adults as well as children,  because you can see it with the naked eye.   You can also spot some satellites if you know where to look,  and even an inexpensive telescope will reveal the others.

NASA has a handy Skywatch site that allows you to select a location,  then tells you what your viewing opportunities are.