Stray Cats – Rock this town
An evening pause: Performed live 2010.
Hat tip John Jossy.
Year: 2025
SpaceX launches 29 more Starlink satellites
The beat goes on! SpaceX today continued its torrid launch pace, launching another 29 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage completed its 16th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
164 SpaceX (a new record)
81 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 164 to 133.
December 11, 2025 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- American Airlines considering replacing ViaSat with Amazon Leo or Starlink for WiFi on its airplanes
The company appears to be favoring Leo, but nothing is confirmed or settled.
- European aerospace companies Kongserg and Helsing form partnership
It appears their capabilities are very complimentary.
- Webb detects supernova only only 730 million years after the Big Bang, the earliest seen yet
The big take-away is how little it differs from supernovae in our own time.
- Scientists simulate what an exoplanet super-Jupiter look like
Data said it was red with a very dusty and stormy atmosphere and they modeled its appearance based on this.
- Flaring black hole produces 60,000 kilometer per second winds
It has a mass of 30 million Suns, and sits at the center of a galaxy.
- Firefly gets a new commercial payload for its second Blue Ghost mission, going to the far side of the Moon
The company is Volta Space Technologies, and its payload is a demonstration test of its wireless power receiver for its proposed lunar power grid.
- L3Harris satellite-jamming system approved for export to close U.S. allies
Those allies are the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
- Perseverance detects static electricity produced by Martian dust devils
I didn’t post this story last week when it was first announced because the media framed it as “Lightning found on Mar!” That’s balderdash. What was actually found was that the dust moving in dust devils produces static charges that have now been detected. I should have clarified this point then. I thank Jay for getting me to correct this omission.
Astronomers: 70% of smaller galaxies don’t have supermassive black holes at their center
Astronomers reviewing data collected by the Chandra X-ray Observatory have found that 70% of smaller galaxies don’t appear to have supermassive black holes at their center.
A team of astronomers used data from over 1,600 galaxies collected in more than two decades of the Chandra mission. The researchers looked at galaxies ranging in heft from over ten times the mass of the Milky Way down to dwarf galaxies, which have stellar masses less than a few percent of that of our home galaxy. … The team has reported that only about 30% of dwarf galaxies likely contain supermassive black holes.
You can read the paper here [pdf].
This conclusion not only impacts the theories on the formation of supermassive black holes in the center of galaxies, it influences the present theories on the formation of galaxies themselves.
Scientists posit that Neptune and Uranus might be rockier than previously theorized
Scientists doing new computer modeling of the known data now posit that Neptune and Uranus might not be as icy as previously believed and instead could be more like the inner terrestrial planets like Earth, much rockier in their interior.
According to the work carried by the UZH scientific team, Uranus and Neptune might actually be more rocky than icy. The new study does not claim the two blue planets to be one or the other type, water- or rock- rich, it rather challenges that ice-rich is the only possibility. This interpretation is also consistent with the discovery that the dwarf planet Pluto is rock-dominated in composition.
…With their new agnostic, and yet fully physical model, the University of Zurich team found the potential internal composition of the “ice giants” of our Solar system, is not limited at all to only ice (typically represented by water). “It is something that we first suggested nearly 15 years ago, and now we have the numerical framework to demonstrate it,” reveals Ravit Helled, a professor at the University of Zurich and initiator of the project. The new range of internal composition shows that both planets can either be water-rich or rock-rich.
This new hypothesis might also help explain the multi-polar magnetic fields of both planets.
All is uncertain of course, as this is just a computer model based on limited data. Nor is it a surprise that an alternative conclusion appears to work. We know so little about these distant worlds that it is likely that multiple theories could fit the data, and all could be wrong when we finally learn more.
French startup The Exploration Company now building an in-orbit servicing spacecraft
The French startup The Exploration Company, which has been developing an unmanned cargo spacecraft called Nyx to supply the commercial space stations under development, has now also gotten funds from the European Space Agency (ESA) to build an in-orbit spacecraft designed to provide refueling and servicing capabilities as well.
More information here.
In a 25 November update on its progress with an ESA-funded project, the company revealed that it is also working on a spacecraft called Oura, designed to refuel satellites in orbit, thereby extending their operational lifespan.
…As part of the 25 November update, the company announced that it had been awarded a Phase B2 contract for the InSPoC-1 programme. The Phase B2 development of the project will include activities up to Technology Readiness Level 6, which represents the development of a prototype and its demonstration in a relevant environment.
Once again, this contract from ESA is radically different than its past policy of building and owning everything itself. Instead, it is hiring this French company to develop this capability, which this French company will then own and be able to sell for profits to others.
Scientists map the outside edge of the Sun’s atmosphere
Using multiple solar observatories in space, scientists have now been able to map the approximate location of the outside edge of the Sun’s atmosphere, the point “where the speed of the outward solar wind becomes faster than the speed of magnetic waves.”
The panels to the right are a sampling of that mapping, and is figure 3 of the peer-reviewed paper [pdf]. The bulk of the data (black) comes from five spacecraft observing the Sun from the L1 point a million miles from Earth. The blue line is data from Solar Orbiter, while the red line is data from the Parker Solar Probe. From the press release:
Astronomers have produced the first continuous, two-dimensional maps of the outer edge of the Sun’s atmosphere, a shifting, frothy boundary that marks where solar winds escape the Sun’s magnetic grasp. By combining the maps and close-up measurements, scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) showed that the boundary grows larger, rougher and spikier as the Sun becomes more active.
…The boundary in the Sun’s atmosphere where the solar wind’s outward speed becomes faster than the speed of magnetic waves, known as the Alfvén surface, is the “point of no return” for material that escapes the Sun and enters interplanetary space; once material travels beyond this point, it cannot travel back to the Sun. This surface is the effective “edge” of the Sun’s atmosphere, and provides scientists with an active laboratory for studying and understanding how solar activity impacts the rest of the solar system, including life and technology on and around Earth.
This new data further refines the nature of the boundary, as earlier probes had already given scientists a rough idea of its size and nature.
Yesterday’s posts are sadly lost
The outage earlier today unfortunately toasted everything I did yesterday. That also appears to include the comments people left as well.
I will attempt to recreate those posts later today and over the weekend. Sorry however about the comments. I don’t think I can recover them.
UPDATE: I think I have recreated all the posts from yesterday. I was also able to repost the lost comments from the National Academies of Science story because commenter Edward had them still and sent them to me.
If I have missed anything, please comment below.
Pentagon decides New Glenn must fly four times before its certifies it for military launches
Pentagon officials yesterday announced that before it will certify Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket for commercial military payloads, it must complete two more successful orbital launches, for a total of four flights.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will have to complete four successful orbital flights as its pathway to certification under the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said Dec. 10 at the Spacepower conference. Garrant, who leads the Space Systems Command, said Blue Origin selected the four-flight benchmark and the government agreed. “The government is supporting a four-flight certification for New Glenn,” he told reporters. The rocket has logged two successful missions so far, and Garrant said a third launch is expected “earlier in the new year than later.” If upcoming flights stay on track, he added, “I think they’re going to be in a fantastic place to become our third certified provider and compete for missions.”
If certified, Blue Origin would join SpaceX and United Launch Alliance as the Space Force’s third heavy-lift launch provider.
It is surprising that the military is requiring four successful flights from Blue Origin, but required only two from ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, and certified that even though there were problems on Vulcan’s second flight.
These extra flights should not cause a significant delay, since Blue Origin is expecting to complete a number of launches in 2026 to meet its obligations under its Amazon Leo contract
December 10, 2025 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Svetlana Zakharova – Nikiya’s Death in La Bayadère
An evening pause:This website provides a quick summary of what is happening during the dance:
Nikiya’s epic “death” solo at the end of La Bayadère‘s second act is more than a test of stamina: It’s integral to the ballet’s plot. In it, Nikiya laments her doomed relationship with Prince Solor, rejoices upon receiving a basket of flowers she believes to be from him and collapses after being bitten by a snake hidden in the basket.
Hat tip Judd Clark, who adds, “The High Brahmin offers to give Nikiya the antidote to the poison if she will renounce her vow to Solor, but she chooses death rather than life without her beloved.”
December 10, 2025 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Axiom Space and KBR successfully complete first uncrewed thermal vacuum test of the spacesuit
These tests are to make sure it can survive the Moon’s harsh environment. The suit has already been tested manned underwater.
- Muon Space wins $1.9 million military contract to develop its infrared sensors for missile tracking
It apparently is adapting the sensors it uses for commercial “global thermal detection” applications.
- Startup Lunar Outpost selected to fly NASA dust experiment on second manned lunar landing, Artemis-4
This contract is not for its big manned lunar lander. NASA hasn’t yet awarded that contract. It is for its small red-wagon-sized MAPP rover, which will position itself away from the manned lander when it lifts off to measure the dust produced at lift-off.
- On this day in 1964, the last ASSET re-entry engineering test vehicle launched from Cape Canaveral
It tested re-entry profiles for the military’s proposed X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane program, which was canceled shortly thereafter without ever having flown a mission.
- On this day 1978 the Pioneer Venus Probe sent five probes into the atmosphere of Venus
The data confirmed the data from 14 previous Soviet and American spacecraft: Venus’ atmosphere is hellishly hot and dense with a layer of sulfuric acid.