Year: 2025

Russia’s Bion-2 capsule returns to Earth after a month in space

8:44 am

After a month in space carrying a cargo of biological samples, including 1,500 fruit flies and 75 mice, Russia’s Bion-2 capsule was successfully recovered today after landing in southern Russia.

Following the landing, some mice was [sic] to be dissected at the site, followed by further dissections on the 1st, 5th, 15th and 30th days after landing to study the effects of space conditions on live organisms.

While resembling the commercial private returnable capsules, such as Varda’s, that are being developed, the difference is significant. Russia has been flying these capsules for decades, which is actually an upgrade from the very first Vostok capsule which it flew Yuri Gagarin in 1961. However, the research has always been focused not on producing a product for sale on Earth but related to Russia’s manned program. Thus, the results has always been somewhat dead end. Expect the same here.

1 comment

September 18, 2025 Quick space links

3:04 pm

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.

5 comments

At last some real pushback against the left’s slander culture

12:04 pm

For years I have been writing about the slander culture of the left, whereby they can say any lie about anyone who disagrees with them without any consequence. These lies are often pure slander and defamation, based on no facts. Often they grow to a point that anyone attacked in this manner becomes a persona non grata, ostracized by all society out of fear.

Here are some recent examples of this kind of slander:

This is what destroyed the Proud Boys organization. The left — and the propaganda press that works for it — labeled it as “racist”, “white supremacist”, and “neo-fascist” based on no evidence, so that soon it collapsed because ordinary people were afraid to associate with it. And in describing this slander campaign back in 2019, I correctly predicted even worse:

I fully expect the rhetoric against Trump supporters in the coming election to spread and get more vicious. This in turn will act to encourage more extreme actions, including violence comparable to what Antifa now does with impunity in Portland. Be prepared. When people abandon the truth for emotional labels inspired by hate, they are liable to do anything.

Meanwhile, this lying name-calling never seemed to carry any consequences. Big name Democratic Party politicians, celebrities, and leftist pundits could defame conservatives routinely in the same manner and get away with it. The only ones who would suffer would be the unjustly accused.

The events in the past two days in connection with former host Jimmy Kimmel of Jimmy Kimmel Live! however tells me that the murder of Charlie Kirk has truly changed things.
» Read more

37 comments

Astronomers refine the spin and size of Hayabusa-2’s next target asteroid

10:15 am

Using a number of ground-based telescopes, astronomers have determined that asteroid 1998 KY26, which Japan’s Hayabusa-2 probe will visit in 2031, spins much faster and is much smaller than previously estimated.

The new observations, combined with previous radar data, have revealed that the asteroid, 1998 KY26, is just 11 meters wide. It is also spinning about twice as fast as previously thought: “One day on this asteroid lasts only five minutes!” he says. Previous data indicated that the asteroid was around 30 meters in diameter and completed a rotation in approximately 10 minutes. The smaller size and faster rotation will make the spacecraft’s touchdown maneuver more difficult to perform than anticipated.

The observations also found that 1998 KY26 is bright, suggesting it is a solid object, not a rubble pile. Its fast rotation adds weight to this conclusion.

4 comments

SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites

9:31 am

SpaceX very early this morning successfully launched another 28 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

119 SpaceX
54 China
13 Russia
12 Rocket Lab

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 119 to 93.

0 comments

Perseverance data suggests multiple past wet periods occurred in Jezero Crater

9:24 am

Perseverance's travels inside Jezero Crater
Figure 1 of the paper, showing Perseverance’s travels inside Jezero Crater. PIXL is an instrument on the rover. The numbers indicate the Martian days since landing. The Three Forks Depot is where Perseverance placed its first cache of sample cores. Click for original.

Scientists analyzing data taken by the Mars rover Perseverance while it traversed the floor and delta inside Jezero Crater strongly suggests that the landscape there experienced multiple past wet periods.

In Jezero, the 24 mineral species reveal the volcanic nature of Mars’ surface and its interactions with water over time. The water chemically weathers the rocks and creates salts or clay minerals, and the specific minerals that form depend on environmental conditions. The identified minerals in Jezero reveal three types of fluid interactions, each with different implications for habitability.

The first suite of minerals — including greenalite, hisingerite and ferroaluminoceladonite — indicate localized high-temperature acidic fluids that were only found in rocks on the crater floor, which are interpreted as some of the oldest rocks included in this study. The water involved in this episode is considered the least habitable for life, since research on Earth has shown high temperatures and low pH can damage biological structures.

…The second suite of minerals reflects moderate, neutral fluids that support more favorable conditions for life and were present over a larger area. Minerals like minnesotaite and clinoptilolite formed at lower temperatures and neutral pH with minnesotaite detected in both the crater floor and the upper fan region, while clinoptilolite was restricted to the crater floor.

Finally, the third category represents low-temperature, alkaline fluids and is considered quite habitable from our modern Earth perspective. Sepiolite, a common alteration mineral on Earth, formed under moderate temperatures and alkaline conditions and was found widely distributed across all units the rover has explored. The presence of sepiolite in all of these units reveals a widespread episode of liquid water creating habitable conditions in Jezero crater and infilling sediments.

You can read the peer-reviewed paper here. The uncertainty of these results is important to note. The analysis did not actually look at real samples. It took data obtained by Perseverance and used computer models and AI to analyze it. The research also assumes the minerals formed based on our understanding of such geological processes on Earth. On Mars conditions are very alien, and could result from chemistry we as yet do not understand, or are unaware even exists.

1 comment

ISS research suggests weightlessness accelerates aging in stem cells

8:58 am

According to a study that flew stem cells on four separate missions to ISS ranging in length from 32 to 45 days, weightlessness appears to age stem cells significantly.

Researchers from University of California San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute have discovered that spaceflight accelerates the aging of human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), which are vital for blood and immune system health. In a study published in Cell Stem Cell, the team used automated artificial intelligence (AI)-driven stem cell-tracking nanobioreactor systems in four SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services missions to the International Space Station (ISS) to track stem cell changes in real time. The findings show that the cells lost some of their ability to make healthy new cells, became more prone to DNA damage and showed signs of faster aging at the ends of their chromosomes after spaceflight — all signs of accelerated aging.

Upon return to Earth the study also found the cells recovered somewhat.

You can read the peer-reviewed paper here.

In a sense, this study confirms what numerous other research has found, that weightlessness mimics the conditions of old age, and causes the same physical decline seen in the elderly. It also shows that much of that damage in weightlessness is transient, recovering upon return to Earth.

This research once again highlights the imperative need to study the impact on various levels of artificial gravity on the human body. Will producing a 10% g environment — using centrifugal force — mitigate these negative impacts? Or will we have to simulate a full 1 g environment? Or something in between?

The first option is much easier in terms of engineering. The last will be complex and take time to develop.

At the moment almost no research has been done in this area. And it needs to happen soon, if people intend to go to Mars in the near future. Such journeys, six months minimum in weightlessness, are likely to leave the passengers somewhat debilitated upon arrival, no matter how much they exercise along the way. And being debilitated is not a good condition for a pioneer trying to build a new civilization on an alien world.

10 comments

NASA and Northrop Grumman work out rendezvous plan to get Cygnus to ISS

11:08 pm

UPDATE: The plan worked and Cygnus is safely berthed at ISS.

According to a press release tonight, NASA and Northrop Grumman have figured out a new rendezvous plan to get Cygnus to ISS after its previous engine burns yesterday cut off prematurely and left it in the wrong orbit.

NASA and Northrop Grumman are targeting the safe arrival of the company’s Cygnus XL at approximately 7:18 a.m. EDT Thursday, Sept. 18, to the International Space Station. The Cygnus XL now will conduct a series of burns to bring the spacecraft to the space station for its robotic capture and installation.

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim is scheduled to capture Cygnus XL using the station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm with backup support from NASA astronaut Zena Cardman. After capture, the spacecraft will be installed on the Unity module’s Earth-facing port and will remain at the space station until March 2026.

The release also added this detail about why that engine burn ended too soon:

Data shared by the spacecraft confirmed that Cygnus XL operated as intended during two planned maneuvers when an early warning system initiated a shutdown command and ended the main engine burn because of a conservative safeguard in the software settings.

Apparently this cause has reassured them that the engine is in good shape for the final rendezvous burns.

4 comments

September 17, 2025 Quick space links

3:01 pm

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.

  • ESA delivers to NASA the third service module for Orion
    The first was used on the Artemis-1, that went around the Moon unmanned in 2022. The second will be used on the first manned mission, presently scheduled for April 2026 to also fly around the Moon. This third service module will be used on the planned landing mission, Artemis-3, scheduled for 2027 (very unlikely).
7 comments

Monitoring the largest recent impact detected by InSight’s seismometer

11:51 am

Overview

Cool image time! On December 24, 2021 the seismometer of the Mars lander InSight detected a four magnitude earthquake, the largest detected up until then. Because its nature suggested that it had been caused by an impact, not an internal shifting, the science team for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) immediately started searching for new impact craters in the area of Mars where the data suggested the quake came from.

Two months later they found it, in the northern lowland plains just south of the prime landing zone chosen by SpaceX for its Starship spacecraft. The black cross on the overview map to the right indicates the position. The four red spots are the prime Starship landing sites. The white dots indicate other locations considered. The black dots were images taken for a proposed Dragon landing. This impact is thus only about 100 miles away from the nearest possible Starship landing spot.
» Read more

7 comments
1 … 52 53 54 55 56 … 182