Alex Guerrero – New York New York
An evening pause: The guitarist, who goes by the handle of guitaro5000, goes around and asks strangers if they want to sing something. This example epitomizes in a nutshell America.
Hat tip Cotour.
March 30, 2026 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.
- Vast touts the start of the build-out of the intervior of its Haven-1 single module station
Launch is still targeting the first quarter of ’27.
- Scientists discover large and rare new lunar impact that took place sometime in the late spring of 2024
The Lunar Reconnaissance images show it to be about 750 feet wide with a depth of about 140 feet.
- China releases picture of Curiosity’s lander heat shield and parachute, taken by its Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter
X’s translation mis-translates MRO, which stands for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been monitoring this debris for more than a decade.
- Former Soviet astronaut Sergey Krikalev says the first flight of Russia’s new capsule, dubbed Oryol or PTK-NP, is expected in 2028
If you have faith in this promise I have a bridge in Brooklyn I could sell you cheap.
- Amazon asks FCC approval to test in Northridge, California, “a custom SATCOM user terminal” for its Leo constellation
Jay suggests this could be a test for the Pentagon, based on the military facilities in Northridge.
- On this day in 1982 the Columbia shuttle landed at White Sands, New Mexico
It was only shuttle to land outside of Florida and California.
- Messenger’s first picture taken after achieving orbit around Mercury, 15 years ago today
The picture shows Debussy crater.
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.
- Vast touts the start of the build-out of the intervior of its Haven-1 single module station
Launch is still targeting the first quarter of ’27.
- Scientists discover large and rare new lunar impact that took place sometime in the late spring of 2024
The Lunar Reconnaissance images show it to be about 750 feet wide with a depth of about 140 feet.
- China releases picture of Curiosity’s lander heat shield and parachute, taken by its Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter
X’s translation mis-translates MRO, which stands for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been monitoring this debris for more than a decade.
- Former Soviet astronaut Sergey Krikalev says the first flight of Russia’s new capsule, dubbed Oryol or PTK-NP, is expected in 2028
If you have faith in this promise I have a bridge in Brooklyn I could sell you cheap.
- Amazon asks FCC approval to test in Northridge, California, “a custom SATCOM user terminal” for its Leo constellation
Jay suggests this could be a test for the Pentagon, based on the military facilities in Northridge.
- On this day in 1982 the Columbia shuttle landed at White Sands, New Mexico
It was only shuttle to land outside of Florida and California.
- Messenger’s first picture taken after achieving orbit around Mercury, 15 years ago today
The picture shows Debussy crater.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
SpaceX launches first stage for record 34th time, passing shuttle Atlantis
SpaceX today successfully launched another 29 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The first stage (B1067) completed its 34th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic, only 32 days after its previous launch. With this flight, this stage passed the space shuttle Atlantis to hold second place in the rankings of the most reused launch vehicle.
39 Discovery space shuttle
34 Falcon 9 booster B1067
33 Atlantis space shuttle
32 Falcon 9 booster B1071
31 Falcon 9 booster B1063
30 Falcon 9 booster B1069
28 Columbia space shuttle
27 Falcon 9 booster B1077
27 Falcon 9 booster B1078
SpaceX continues to recycle its first stages in a month or less, so expect this booster to pass Discovery before the end of the year. We should also expect all the boosters in the list above to do the same by the end of next year, though it is possible some will be retired as SpaceX begins to transition from its Falcon 9 high launch rate to using Starship/Superheavy instead.
SpaceX today successfully launched another 29 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The first stage (B1067) completed its 34th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic, only 32 days after its previous launch. With this flight, this stage passed the space shuttle Atlantis to hold second place in the rankings of the most reused launch vehicle.
39 Discovery space shuttle
34 Falcon 9 booster B1067
33 Atlantis space shuttle
32 Falcon 9 booster B1071
31 Falcon 9 booster B1063
30 Falcon 9 booster B1069
28 Columbia space shuttle
27 Falcon 9 booster B1077
27 Falcon 9 booster B1078
SpaceX continues to recycle its first stages in a month or less, so expect this booster to pass Discovery before the end of the year. We should also expect all the boosters in the list above to do the same by the end of next year, though it is possible some will be retired as SpaceX begins to transition from its Falcon 9 high launch rate to using Starship/Superheavy instead.
Brownsville’s mayor: SpaceX has brought billions of dollars to the region
According to Brownsville’s mayor, John Cowen, SpaceX has brought billions of dollars to the region as well as created tens of thousands of jobs, and should be unanimously hailed by everyone there.
“The aerospace giant has infused $13 billion into into the economy across Brownsville and South Texas. It has created 24,000 direct and indirect jobs across the region, with approximately 4,000 jobs on site today. It is projected that 4,000 more jobs are coming,” Cowen said.
Cowen made his remarks about SpaceX at his 2026 State of the City Address, held March 25 at Texas Southmost College’s Performing Arts Center.
“SpaceX has generated more than $305 million in tax revenue. It has managed business relationships with more than 350 suppliers, putting $147 million into the regional supply chain,” Cowen said.
None of this is a surprise, except to some local and national news outlets that like to act as PR departments for the fringe activist groups — Save RGV, the South Texas Environmental Justice Network and the fake Indian tribe dubbed the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas — that have opposed SpaceX’s Boca Chica operations from day one, and have repeatedly gone to court to try to shut it down. Those news outlets always give these activists a big bullhorn to tout their position, even though they represent practically no one in the region and likely get their funding from leftist sources outside of Texas.
Hat tip to Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
According to Brownsville’s mayor, John Cowen, SpaceX has brought billions of dollars to the region as well as created tens of thousands of jobs, and should be unanimously hailed by everyone there.
“The aerospace giant has infused $13 billion into into the economy across Brownsville and South Texas. It has created 24,000 direct and indirect jobs across the region, with approximately 4,000 jobs on site today. It is projected that 4,000 more jobs are coming,” Cowen said.
Cowen made his remarks about SpaceX at his 2026 State of the City Address, held March 25 at Texas Southmost College’s Performing Arts Center.
“SpaceX has generated more than $305 million in tax revenue. It has managed business relationships with more than 350 suppliers, putting $147 million into the regional supply chain,” Cowen said.
None of this is a surprise, except to some local and national news outlets that like to act as PR departments for the fringe activist groups — Save RGV, the South Texas Environmental Justice Network and the fake Indian tribe dubbed the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas — that have opposed SpaceX’s Boca Chica operations from day one, and have repeatedly gone to court to try to shut it down. Those news outlets always give these activists a big bullhorn to tout their position, even though they represent practically no one in the region and likely get their funding from leftist sources outside of Texas.
Hat tip to Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Voyager-2’s view of clouds on top of clouds on Neptune
Click for original image.
Time to continue our cool image tour this week of the Voyager-2 archive of Neptune, taken during the spacecraft’s August 25, 1989 close fly-by of the gas giant, zipping only 2,700 miles above the cloud-tops. This remains the only mission to visit Neptune so far.
The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken two hours before Voyager-2’s closest approach. From the caption:
These clouds were observed at a latitude of 29 degrees north near Neptune’s east terminator. The linear cloud forms are stretched approximately along lines of constant latitude and the sun is toward the lower [right]. The bright sides of the clouds which face the sun are brighter than the surrounding cloud deck because they are more directly exposed to the sun. Shadows can be seen on the side opposite the sun.
These shadows are less distinct at short wavelengths (violet filter) and more distinct at long wavelengths (orange filter). This can be understood if the underlying cloud deck on which the shadow is cast is at a relatively great depth, in which case scattering by molecules in the overlying atmosphere will diffuse light into the shadow. Because molecules scatter blue light much more efficiently than red light, the shadows will be darkest at the longest (reddest) wavelengths, and will appear blue under white light illumination.
The resolution of this image is 6.8 miles per pixel and the range is only 98,000 miles. The width of the cloud streaks range from 30 to 125 miles, and their shadow widths range from 18 to 30 miles. Cloud heights appear to be of the order of 31 miles.
Of all the high resolution images taken of Neptune by Voyager-2, this is the only one that clearly shows some dimensionality. Later photographs taken by Hubble and other ground- and space-based telescopes can only show global views that are far less sharp than the global views produced by Voyager-2.
This picture hints at Neptune’s very complex weather patterns, which has no well-defined surface and is made up mostly of gas and liquid. Though scientists have used Hubble to roughly track those weather patterns, they can only glean the most basic facts. For example, its fast-changing weather appears to be driven by high winds, thought to move as fast as 1,300 miles per hour. This fact however is woefully incomplete and very uncertain, as we have no way to track detailed weather patterns at multiple depths.
Our tour will continue tomorrow.
Click for original image.
Time to continue our cool image tour this week of the Voyager-2 archive of Neptune, taken during the spacecraft’s August 25, 1989 close fly-by of the gas giant, zipping only 2,700 miles above the cloud-tops. This remains the only mission to visit Neptune so far.
The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken two hours before Voyager-2’s closest approach. From the caption:
These clouds were observed at a latitude of 29 degrees north near Neptune’s east terminator. The linear cloud forms are stretched approximately along lines of constant latitude and the sun is toward the lower [right]. The bright sides of the clouds which face the sun are brighter than the surrounding cloud deck because they are more directly exposed to the sun. Shadows can be seen on the side opposite the sun.
These shadows are less distinct at short wavelengths (violet filter) and more distinct at long wavelengths (orange filter). This can be understood if the underlying cloud deck on which the shadow is cast is at a relatively great depth, in which case scattering by molecules in the overlying atmosphere will diffuse light into the shadow. Because molecules scatter blue light much more efficiently than red light, the shadows will be darkest at the longest (reddest) wavelengths, and will appear blue under white light illumination.
The resolution of this image is 6.8 miles per pixel and the range is only 98,000 miles. The width of the cloud streaks range from 30 to 125 miles, and their shadow widths range from 18 to 30 miles. Cloud heights appear to be of the order of 31 miles.
Of all the high resolution images taken of Neptune by Voyager-2, this is the only one that clearly shows some dimensionality. Later photographs taken by Hubble and other ground- and space-based telescopes can only show global views that are far less sharp than the global views produced by Voyager-2.
This picture hints at Neptune’s very complex weather patterns, which has no well-defined surface and is made up mostly of gas and liquid. Though scientists have used Hubble to roughly track those weather patterns, they can only glean the most basic facts. For example, its fast-changing weather appears to be driven by high winds, thought to move as fast as 1,300 miles per hour. This fact however is woefully incomplete and very uncertain, as we have no way to track detailed weather patterns at multiple depths.
Our tour will continue tomorrow.
A soft barred galaxy with an active nucleus
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of two different surveys aimed at studying galaxies with what scientists call active galactic nuclei.
IC 486 lies right on the edge of the constellation Gemini (the Twins), around 380 million light-years from Earth. Classified as a barred spiral galaxy, it features a bright central bar-shaped structure from which its spiral arms unfurl, wrapping around the core in a smooth, almost ring-like pattern.
…At the galaxy’s center a noticeable white glow outshines the starlight around it. This is light given off by IC 486’s active galactic nucleus (AGN), powered by a supermassive black hole more than 100 million times the mass of the Sun. Every sufficiently large galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its center, but some of these black holes are particularly ravenous, marshaling vast amounts of gas and dust into swirling accretion discs from which they feed. The intense heat generated by the orbiting disc of material generates intense radiation up to and including X-rays, which can outshine the entire rest of the galaxy. In these cases, the galaxy is known as an active galaxy, with an AGN at its center.
For comparison, the relatively inactive supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way has a mass of about four million Suns, considerably smaller than IC 486’s. Why one is active and the other not however is not yet truly understood, though their different masses might provide part of the explanation.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of two different surveys aimed at studying galaxies with what scientists call active galactic nuclei.
IC 486 lies right on the edge of the constellation Gemini (the Twins), around 380 million light-years from Earth. Classified as a barred spiral galaxy, it features a bright central bar-shaped structure from which its spiral arms unfurl, wrapping around the core in a smooth, almost ring-like pattern.
…At the galaxy’s center a noticeable white glow outshines the starlight around it. This is light given off by IC 486’s active galactic nucleus (AGN), powered by a supermassive black hole more than 100 million times the mass of the Sun. Every sufficiently large galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its center, but some of these black holes are particularly ravenous, marshaling vast amounts of gas and dust into swirling accretion discs from which they feed. The intense heat generated by the orbiting disc of material generates intense radiation up to and including X-rays, which can outshine the entire rest of the galaxy. In these cases, the galaxy is known as an active galaxy, with an AGN at its center.
For comparison, the relatively inactive supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way has a mass of about four million Suns, considerably smaller than IC 486’s. Why one is active and the other not however is not yet truly understood, though their different masses might provide part of the explanation.
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
Two launches from China and SpaceX early today
Early this morning both SpaceX and China successfully launched rockets. First, SpaceX completed its sixteenth Transporter mission placing 119 payloads in orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The first stage completed its 12th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. A detailed description of the 119 payloads can be found here.
Next, China successfully completed the maiden launch of its Kinetica-2 rocket, lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China and placing three demonstration satellites into orbit. The rocket is built by the pseudo-company CAS Space, which is entirely owned by one of China’s government space agencies.
According to the developers, the rocket stands 53 meters tall, with a core stage diameter of 3.35 meters and a fairing 4.2 meters wide. At liftoff, it weighs 625 tons and produces 753 tons of thrust. It can deliver up to 12 tons to a 200 kilometers low Earth orbit or 8 tons to a 500 kilometers sun-synchronous orbit.
On this launch, the liquid-fueled core stage and two side boosters were expendable, and crashed somewhere in China. China will use this rocket to partly replace its older expendable Long March 2 and Long March 3 rockets that use very toxic hypergolic fuels, thus reducing the risk to its citizens somewhat from crashing lower stages. Eventually the plan is to make the core stage and boosters reusable, so that they no longer crash uncontrolled inside China.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
39 SpaceX
16 China
5 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
SpaceX has another Starlink launch scheduled for later today, using a first stage on a record 34th flight.
Early this morning both SpaceX and China successfully launched rockets. First, SpaceX completed its sixteenth Transporter mission placing 119 payloads in orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The first stage completed its 12th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. A detailed description of the 119 payloads can be found here.
Next, China successfully completed the maiden launch of its Kinetica-2 rocket, lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China and placing three demonstration satellites into orbit. The rocket is built by the pseudo-company CAS Space, which is entirely owned by one of China’s government space agencies.
According to the developers, the rocket stands 53 meters tall, with a core stage diameter of 3.35 meters and a fairing 4.2 meters wide. At liftoff, it weighs 625 tons and produces 753 tons of thrust. It can deliver up to 12 tons to a 200 kilometers low Earth orbit or 8 tons to a 500 kilometers sun-synchronous orbit.
On this launch, the liquid-fueled core stage and two side boosters were expendable, and crashed somewhere in China. China will use this rocket to partly replace its older expendable Long March 2 and Long March 3 rockets that use very toxic hypergolic fuels, thus reducing the risk to its citizens somewhat from crashing lower stages. Eventually the plan is to make the core stage and boosters reusable, so that they no longer crash uncontrolled inside China.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
39 SpaceX
16 China
5 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
SpaceX has another Starlink launch scheduled for later today, using a first stage on a record 34th flight.
Another rocket startup in India hopes to launch from its own spaceport
India’s spaceports, active, under construction, or proposed
A new rocket startup in India, dubbed Bharath Space Vehicle (BSV), is not only building a commercial rocket to launch smallsats, it hopes to establish its own private spaceport near the town of Kodinar in western India.
BSV has proposed a launch complex near Kodinar in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district. Gujarat’s Science and Technology Minister Arjun Modhwadia told the state assembly that IN-SPACe has identified a suitable location between Diu and Kodinar for a satellite launch facility, comparable to Sriharikota.
The coastal location offers open sea access and favourable launch corridors for specialised satellite trajectories. Isro had earlier evaluated a Gujarat site for its SSLV launch complex before Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu was selected.
Sriharikota has been operated for decades by India’s space agency ISRO. Kulasekarapattinam is a new ISRO spaceport set to begin operations next year, focused on launching its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) for commercial missions. Hope Island is a proposed private and commercial spaceport, under study.
BSV’s rocket is called Agasthya-1 and will use liquid-fueled engines. It appears to be similar in design to SpaceX’s first rocket, the Falcon-1.
Though the company’s founders are all ISRO veterans who helped develop its rockets, its website makes no mention of a launch schedule. At present, India has two rocket startups, Skyroot and Agnikul, that appear close to their first orbital launch.
India’s spaceports, active, under construction, or proposed
A new rocket startup in India, dubbed Bharath Space Vehicle (BSV), is not only building a commercial rocket to launch smallsats, it hopes to establish its own private spaceport near the town of Kodinar in western India.
BSV has proposed a launch complex near Kodinar in Gujarat’s Gir Somnath district. Gujarat’s Science and Technology Minister Arjun Modhwadia told the state assembly that IN-SPACe has identified a suitable location between Diu and Kodinar for a satellite launch facility, comparable to Sriharikota.
The coastal location offers open sea access and favourable launch corridors for specialised satellite trajectories. Isro had earlier evaluated a Gujarat site for its SSLV launch complex before Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu was selected.
Sriharikota has been operated for decades by India’s space agency ISRO. Kulasekarapattinam is a new ISRO spaceport set to begin operations next year, focused on launching its Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) for commercial missions. Hope Island is a proposed private and commercial spaceport, under study.
BSV’s rocket is called Agasthya-1 and will use liquid-fueled engines. It appears to be similar in design to SpaceX’s first rocket, the Falcon-1.
Though the company’s founders are all ISRO veterans who helped develop its rockets, its website makes no mention of a launch schedule. At present, India has two rocket startups, Skyroot and Agnikul, that appear close to their first orbital launch.
China’s government strengthens its commitment to space
Taken from my 2025 year-end report on the state of
global launch industry.
In the Chinese government’s most recently announced five-year plan, it appears it has increased its commitment to its space program and its government-controlled commercial space sector.
Aviation and aerospace was elevated at the Two Sessions [conference earlier this month] to a ‘pillar industry’—a step up from its previous classification as an emerging sector. For the first time, the 15th 5-year plan (2026–30) explicitly sets the goal of building China into a space power by 2030.
The 5-year plan prioritizes reusable launch vehicles, large-scale satellite constellations, and the commercialization of space applications, with cost reduction cast as central to long-term viability. Satellite internet has been earmarked for rapid development as part of broader ambitions around integrated space-air-ground connectivity. A new ‘Space+’ framing suggests that satellite infrastructure is being treated as part of the broader industrial system, with growing interest in on-orbit computing rather than communications alone.
…But the sector still runs on patient state capital—a funding model that has enabled rapid scaling while deferring any serious test of commercial viability. No domestic launch provider has yet turned a profit, and closing the cost gap with SpaceX on reusable rockets remains the industry’s central challenge.
The report at the link is very detailed. Though it comes from a Chinese-based think tank that almost certainly gets funding and supervision from the Chinese communists, it is definitely worth reading. It notes the areas where China is doing well — its Beidou GPS-type constellation and its manned space program — as well as those areas it has come up short — re-usable rockets and its mega-satellite constellations.
Though the graph to the right illustrates the long-term growth of China as a space power, it has not yet been able to match the U.S. in these two areas, mostly because of SpaceX. Moreover, the inability of China’s pseudo-rocket companies to get its reusable rockets operational is hindering the ability of China’s pseudo-satellite companies to launch their satellites. In both cases this new five-year plan appears to be applying pressure on these pseudo-companies to get moving, or the government will take over.
I must repeat again that the Chinese government’s support for space is deep and widespread, strengthened by that government’s almost two-decade-long policy of using that program as a training ground for its political leaders. Many of its successful space industry managers have been promoted to higher political office, and thus wield great power in deciding policy. Their pro-space roots clearly influence that policy in favor of China’s space effort.
Taken from my 2025 year-end report on the state of
global launch industry.
In the Chinese government’s most recently announced five-year plan, it appears it has increased its commitment to its space program and its government-controlled commercial space sector.
Aviation and aerospace was elevated at the Two Sessions [conference earlier this month] to a ‘pillar industry’—a step up from its previous classification as an emerging sector. For the first time, the 15th 5-year plan (2026–30) explicitly sets the goal of building China into a space power by 2030.
The 5-year plan prioritizes reusable launch vehicles, large-scale satellite constellations, and the commercialization of space applications, with cost reduction cast as central to long-term viability. Satellite internet has been earmarked for rapid development as part of broader ambitions around integrated space-air-ground connectivity. A new ‘Space+’ framing suggests that satellite infrastructure is being treated as part of the broader industrial system, with growing interest in on-orbit computing rather than communications alone.
…But the sector still runs on patient state capital—a funding model that has enabled rapid scaling while deferring any serious test of commercial viability. No domestic launch provider has yet turned a profit, and closing the cost gap with SpaceX on reusable rockets remains the industry’s central challenge.
The report at the link is very detailed. Though it comes from a Chinese-based think tank that almost certainly gets funding and supervision from the Chinese communists, it is definitely worth reading. It notes the areas where China is doing well — its Beidou GPS-type constellation and its manned space program — as well as those areas it has come up short — re-usable rockets and its mega-satellite constellations.
Though the graph to the right illustrates the long-term growth of China as a space power, it has not yet been able to match the U.S. in these two areas, mostly because of SpaceX. Moreover, the inability of China’s pseudo-rocket companies to get its reusable rockets operational is hindering the ability of China’s pseudo-satellite companies to launch their satellites. In both cases this new five-year plan appears to be applying pressure on these pseudo-companies to get moving, or the government will take over.
I must repeat again that the Chinese government’s support for space is deep and widespread, strengthened by that government’s almost two-decade-long policy of using that program as a training ground for its political leaders. Many of its successful space industry managers have been promoted to higher political office, and thus wield great power in deciding policy. Their pro-space roots clearly influence that policy in favor of China’s space effort.
Astronaut Mike Fincke finally reveals details of his medical emergency on ISS
Astronaut Mike Fincke, who had an undisclosed medical issue on ISS in January 2026 that forced the early return of his crew, has finally provided details of what happened.
Four-time space flier Mike Fincke said he was eating dinner on Jan. 7 after prepping for a spacewalk the next day when it happened. He couldn’t talk and remembers no pain, but his anxious crewmates jumped into action after seeing him in distress and requested help from flight surgeons on the ground. “It was completely out of the blue. It was just amazingly quick,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press from Houston’s Johnson Space Center.
Fincke, 59, a retired Air Force colonel, said the episode lasted roughly 20 minutes and he felt fine afterward. He said he still does. He never experienced anything like that before or since. Doctors have ruled out a heart attack and Fincke said he wasn’t choking, but everything else is still on the table and could be related to his 549 days of weightlessness. He was 5 ½ months into his latest space station stay when the problem struck like “a very, very fast lightning bolt.”
Fincke hopes he can fly in space again, but I doubt NASA would agree if the cause of this incident is not identified. His other option then would be to get hired by one of the commercial space station companies to fly to their stations, but even they might be reluctant to hire him.
Astronaut Mike Fincke, who had an undisclosed medical issue on ISS in January 2026 that forced the early return of his crew, has finally provided details of what happened.
Four-time space flier Mike Fincke said he was eating dinner on Jan. 7 after prepping for a spacewalk the next day when it happened. He couldn’t talk and remembers no pain, but his anxious crewmates jumped into action after seeing him in distress and requested help from flight surgeons on the ground. “It was completely out of the blue. It was just amazingly quick,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press from Houston’s Johnson Space Center.
Fincke, 59, a retired Air Force colonel, said the episode lasted roughly 20 minutes and he felt fine afterward. He said he still does. He never experienced anything like that before or since. Doctors have ruled out a heart attack and Fincke said he wasn’t choking, but everything else is still on the table and could be related to his 549 days of weightlessness. He was 5 ½ months into his latest space station stay when the problem struck like “a very, very fast lightning bolt.”
Fincke hopes he can fly in space again, but I doubt NASA would agree if the cause of this incident is not identified. His other option then would be to get hired by one of the commercial space station companies to fly to their stations, but even they might be reluctant to hire him.
Rocket Lab launches GPS-type demo satellite for Europe
Rocket Lab this morning successfully placed a European Space Agency (ESA) smallsat into orbit, its Electron rocket lifting off from one of its two launchpads in New Zealand.
The smallsat, dubbed Celeste, is the first of two such demo satellites that ESA has contracted Rocket Lab to launch. They are designed to test a low Earth orbit constellation for providing global navigation and location information to users on the ground, similar to the U.S.’s GPS constellation. Celeste will work from low orbit with Europe’s medium orbit Galileo constellation, but being smaller will be cheaper and faster to build and launch.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
38 SpaceX
15 China
5 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
Rocket Lab this morning successfully placed a European Space Agency (ESA) smallsat into orbit, its Electron rocket lifting off from one of its two launchpads in New Zealand.
The smallsat, dubbed Celeste, is the first of two such demo satellites that ESA has contracted Rocket Lab to launch. They are designed to test a low Earth orbit constellation for providing global navigation and location information to users on the ground, similar to the U.S.’s GPS constellation. Celeste will work from low orbit with Europe’s medium orbit Galileo constellation, but being smaller will be cheaper and faster to build and launch.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
38 SpaceX
15 China
5 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
March 27, 2026 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
The Ross Sisters – Solid Potato Salad
An evening pause: From the 1944 movie Broadway Rhythm. Makes me want to go to a potluck picnic this weekend.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
March 24, 2026 Zimmerman appearance on the Space Show
David Livingston has now archived my appearance earlier this week, March 24, 2026, on the Space Show. You can view it or download it here.
A good conversation about Isaacman’s proposed changes to NASA’s Moon and space station programs.
David Livingston has now archived my appearance earlier this week, March 24, 2026, on the Space Show. You can view it or download it here.
A good conversation about Isaacman’s proposed changes to NASA’s Moon and space station programs.
March 27, 2026 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.
- Elon Musk touts SpaceX’s completion of more than 500 rocket landings
As Al Jolson once said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
- PLD touts successful strongback testing using a full‑scale mockup of its Muira-5 rocket
The strongback now gets shipped to their French Guina launchpad. First launch still targeting this year.
- Astroscale touts its almost year-long ADRAS‑J rendezvous demo mission, now preparing for de-orbit
It did fly-around observations within 50 feet of an abandoned upper stage. The company plans a follow-up mission to de-orbit that stage in 2027.
- Chinese pseudo-company Sustain Space completes a week-long first set of tests of an early robotic refueling arm onboard its Xiyuan-0 satellite
Nice video at the link. More info here. No fueling was done. They were testing the arm’s ability to move and hit a refueling port.
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.
- Elon Musk touts SpaceX’s completion of more than 500 rocket landings
As Al Jolson once said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
- PLD touts successful strongback testing using a full‑scale mockup of its Muira-5 rocket
The strongback now gets shipped to their French Guina launchpad. First launch still targeting this year.
- Astroscale touts its almost year-long ADRAS‑J rendezvous demo mission, now preparing for de-orbit
It did fly-around observations within 50 feet of an abandoned upper stage. The company plans a follow-up mission to de-orbit that stage in 2027.
- Chinese pseudo-company Sustain Space completes a week-long first set of tests of an early robotic refueling arm onboard its Xiyuan-0 satellite
Nice video at the link. More info here. No fueling was done. They were testing the arm’s ability to move and hit a refueling port.
Neptune as seen by Voyager-2 in 1989, four days before closest approach
Click for original image.
Cool image time! In two earlier posts I highlighted the pictures taken by Voyager-2 of Neptune’s two largest moons, Triton and Proteus, when it made its close fly-by of Neptune in 1989. Other than a very distant low resolution picture of 105-mile-wide Nereid, Voyager-2 took no other good images of Neptune’s other known moons.
So today, let’s begin a tour of some of Voyager-2’s imagery of Neptune itself. The picture to the right, reduced slightly to post here, was taken on August 20, 1989 as the spacecraft was beginning its approach to Neptune. It shows the full daylight hemisphere of the gas giant. From the caption:
The images were taken at a range of 4.4 million miles from the planet, 4 days and 20 hours before closest approach. The picture shows the Great Dark Spot and its companion bright smudge; on the west limb the fast moving bright feature called Scooter and the little dark spot are visible. These clouds were seen to persist for as long as Voyager’s cameras could resolve them. North of these, a bright cloud band similar to the south polar streak may be seen.
Next week I will post some of the other good shots taken of Neptune, as well as one or two close-ups of Triton that need highlighting. Sadly, at that point we will have more or less reviewed most of the best data now available of this distant world. Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope in subsequent years to attempt to track its weather patterns, but even Hubble really can’t provide enough resolution to really make that research substantive.
But stay tuned. The Voyager-2 images to come are worth viewing.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! In two earlier posts I highlighted the pictures taken by Voyager-2 of Neptune’s two largest moons, Triton and Proteus, when it made its close fly-by of Neptune in 1989. Other than a very distant low resolution picture of 105-mile-wide Nereid, Voyager-2 took no other good images of Neptune’s other known moons.
So today, let’s begin a tour of some of Voyager-2’s imagery of Neptune itself. The picture to the right, reduced slightly to post here, was taken on August 20, 1989 as the spacecraft was beginning its approach to Neptune. It shows the full daylight hemisphere of the gas giant. From the caption:
The images were taken at a range of 4.4 million miles from the planet, 4 days and 20 hours before closest approach. The picture shows the Great Dark Spot and its companion bright smudge; on the west limb the fast moving bright feature called Scooter and the little dark spot are visible. These clouds were seen to persist for as long as Voyager’s cameras could resolve them. North of these, a bright cloud band similar to the south polar streak may be seen.
Next week I will post some of the other good shots taken of Neptune, as well as one or two close-ups of Triton that need highlighting. Sadly, at that point we will have more or less reviewed most of the best data now available of this distant world. Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope in subsequent years to attempt to track its weather patterns, but even Hubble really can’t provide enough resolution to really make that research substantive.
But stay tuned. The Voyager-2 images to come are worth viewing.
China launches “test satellite”
China yesterday afternoon successfully placed what its state-run press merely described as “a test satellite”, its Long March 2C rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.
That state-run press also provided no information as to where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
38 SpaceX
15 China
4 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
China yesterday afternoon successfully placed what its state-run press merely described as “a test satellite”, its Long March 2C rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.
That state-run press also provided no information as to where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
38 SpaceX
15 China
4 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
War Department conducts classified suborbital missile test from Cape Canaveral
The War Department yesterday launched an unidentified suborbital missile test from its Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, providing no public information about the rocket, the purpose of the launch, or who built it.
An unidentified missile launched and zoomed across the Atlantic Ocean Thursday, March 26, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, leaving a slim white contrail against the afternoon blue sky. None of the Space Coast’s major rocket-launch providers had missions scheduled on Thursday. The mysterious unannounced launch occurred at roughly 12:30 p.m.
The Pentagon did not respond to media requests for information.
The missile was likely a suborbital hypersonic test, but that is pure speculation. What makes it unusual is the lack of any information about launch provider. In recent years the military has relied entirely on the private sector to build its hypersonic test program. This launch suggests the War Department has moved from testing hypersonic components on private rockets, airplanes, and capsules to building and testing its own final hypersonic missile prototype.
This is also pure speculation. We will have to wait for some clarification from the Pentagon.
The War Department yesterday launched an unidentified suborbital missile test from its Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, providing no public information about the rocket, the purpose of the launch, or who built it.
An unidentified missile launched and zoomed across the Atlantic Ocean Thursday, March 26, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, leaving a slim white contrail against the afternoon blue sky. None of the Space Coast’s major rocket-launch providers had missions scheduled on Thursday. The mysterious unannounced launch occurred at roughly 12:30 p.m.
The Pentagon did not respond to media requests for information.
The missile was likely a suborbital hypersonic test, but that is pure speculation. What makes it unusual is the lack of any information about launch provider. In recent years the military has relied entirely on the private sector to build its hypersonic test program. This launch suggests the War Department has moved from testing hypersonic components on private rockets, airplanes, and capsules to building and testing its own final hypersonic missile prototype.
This is also pure speculation. We will have to wait for some clarification from the Pentagon.
Ispace to replace engine on its lunar lander, delaying its NASA mission to 2030
The Japanese lunar lander startup Ispace has been forced to institute a major shake-up of its upgraded lunar lander design because a subcontractor’s engine did not meet the required specifications.
The engine, called Voidrunner and built by Agile Space Industries, was about to be installed in the lander for a 2027 launch of NASA lunar lander mission when a review found its performance to be unsatisfactory.
After closely monitoring the engine’s status and conducting careful review, Ispace has determined that a change in the development plan to incorporate a new alternative engine is necessary to ensure the successful execution of the lunar landing mission. The new engine, which will replace VoidRunner, has already been developed by the alternative supplier and has a proven track record of operation in past lunar missions.
The company has also decided to standardize its two lunar lander designs, one developed in Japan and the second in parallel by its American division. The new lander, dubbed Ultra, will use this new engine and fly all of Ispace’s subsequent missions. The image above shows the company’s original lander Hakuto-R on the left, compared to its new Ultra lander on the right.
This change will delay its planned NASA mission by three years, to 2030, though the company hopes it will not impact the schedule of two other lunar lander missions for Japan. Its new updated schedule, all using Ultra:
- 2028: a Japanese mission funded by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
- 2029: a Japanese mission funded by Japan’s Space Strategy Fund (designed at encouraging the private space sector
- 2030: NASA’s mission, being built in partnership with the American company Draper
Ispace has also created a new lunar satellite program, to provide communications, location data, and satellite tracking from lunar orbit, with a goal of launching its first lunar orbiter by next year, and five by 2030.
As a lunar lander company Ispace has had a very mixed record. It has successfully flown two landers to lunar orbit and then down to the surface. Each however crashed, failing just prior to landing due to software issues. This new delay of its NASA mission is not going to please NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, who instead wants to speed up the agency’s lunar lander program, flying almost monthly beginning in 2030. It likely means Ispace is going to have problems winning any new NASA lander contracts, until it proves its new Ultra lander design.
The Japanese lunar lander startup Ispace has been forced to institute a major shake-up of its upgraded lunar lander design because a subcontractor’s engine did not meet the required specifications.
The engine, called Voidrunner and built by Agile Space Industries, was about to be installed in the lander for a 2027 launch of NASA lunar lander mission when a review found its performance to be unsatisfactory.
After closely monitoring the engine’s status and conducting careful review, Ispace has determined that a change in the development plan to incorporate a new alternative engine is necessary to ensure the successful execution of the lunar landing mission. The new engine, which will replace VoidRunner, has already been developed by the alternative supplier and has a proven track record of operation in past lunar missions.
The company has also decided to standardize its two lunar lander designs, one developed in Japan and the second in parallel by its American division. The new lander, dubbed Ultra, will use this new engine and fly all of Ispace’s subsequent missions. The image above shows the company’s original lander Hakuto-R on the left, compared to its new Ultra lander on the right.
This change will delay its planned NASA mission by three years, to 2030, though the company hopes it will not impact the schedule of two other lunar lander missions for Japan. Its new updated schedule, all using Ultra:
- 2028: a Japanese mission funded by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
- 2029: a Japanese mission funded by Japan’s Space Strategy Fund (designed at encouraging the private space sector
- 2030: NASA’s mission, being built in partnership with the American company Draper
Ispace has also created a new lunar satellite program, to provide communications, location data, and satellite tracking from lunar orbit, with a goal of launching its first lunar orbiter by next year, and five by 2030.
As a lunar lander company Ispace has had a very mixed record. It has successfully flown two landers to lunar orbit and then down to the surface. Each however crashed, failing just prior to landing due to software issues. This new delay of its NASA mission is not going to please NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, who instead wants to speed up the agency’s lunar lander program, flying almost monthly beginning in 2030. It likely means Ispace is going to have problems winning any new NASA lander contracts, until it proves its new Ultra lander design.
SpaceX launches another 25 Starlink satellites
SpaceX this afternoon successfully placed another 25 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The first stage completed its 23rd flight 39 days after its previous flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
38 SpaceX
14 China
4 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
SpaceX this afternoon successfully placed another 25 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The first stage completed its 23rd flight 39 days after its previous flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
38 SpaceX
14 China
4 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
Carl Perkins & Ringo Starr – Honey Don’t
An evening pause: Performed live 1985.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Readers: I am in need of evening pause suggestions. If you’ve sent me suggestions in the past you know the drill. More suggestions are welcome! If you haven’t and want to suggest something, say so in the comments below, but DON’T provide the link to your suggestion or mention it. I will contact you to send you the guidelines so you can send it to me to schedule.
Proteus, Neptune’s second largest moon, discovered by Voyager-2 in 1989
For original images go here and here.
Our tour continues of the only close visit to Neptune on August 25, 1989 by Voyager-2. The two pictures to the right were taken by the spacecraft during that fly-by of Neptune’s second largest moon, dubbed Proteus. Both pictures are shown as Voyager-2 took them.
The top picture was taken from a distance of about 540,000 miles, and has a resolution of about five miles per pixel.
The satellite has an average radius of about 120 miles and is uniformly dark with an albedo of about 6 percent. The irregular shape suggests that 1989N1 has been cold and rigid throughout its history and subject to significant impact cratering.
The bottom picture was taken from a distance of about 91,000 miles, and can resolve objects as small as 1.7 miles in size.
Hints of crater-like forms and groove-like lineations can be discerned. The apparent graininess of the image is caused by the short exposure necessary to avoid significant smear.
Proteus was not known prior to Voyager-2’s fly-by, because it orbits so close to Neptune (about 73,000 miles) that the ground-based telescopes of the time could not see it in the glare of the gas giant. It was discovered in early global pictures of Neptune as Voyager-2 approached.
While planetary scientists have made some educated guesses about the moon’s origin and geology based on these two images, they are simply guesses. These are the only detailed images we have of Proteus, and neither is particularly good.
For original images go here and here.
Our tour continues of the only close visit to Neptune on August 25, 1989 by Voyager-2. The two pictures to the right were taken by the spacecraft during that fly-by of Neptune’s second largest moon, dubbed Proteus. Both pictures are shown as Voyager-2 took them.
The top picture was taken from a distance of about 540,000 miles, and has a resolution of about five miles per pixel.
The satellite has an average radius of about 120 miles and is uniformly dark with an albedo of about 6 percent. The irregular shape suggests that 1989N1 has been cold and rigid throughout its history and subject to significant impact cratering.
The bottom picture was taken from a distance of about 91,000 miles, and can resolve objects as small as 1.7 miles in size.
Hints of crater-like forms and groove-like lineations can be discerned. The apparent graininess of the image is caused by the short exposure necessary to avoid significant smear.
Proteus was not known prior to Voyager-2’s fly-by, because it orbits so close to Neptune (about 73,000 miles) that the ground-based telescopes of the time could not see it in the glare of the gas giant. It was discovered in early global pictures of Neptune as Voyager-2 approached.
While planetary scientists have made some educated guesses about the moon’s origin and geology based on these two images, they are simply guesses. These are the only detailed images we have of Proteus, and neither is particularly good.
March 26, 2026 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.
- Vast issues a statement supporting NASA new space station plans
Not surprising, as their module development program can easily fit with NASA’s own core module proposal.
- JAXA posts update on the most recent launch failure of its H3 rocket
Engineers have “almost pinpointed” the failure to a honeycomb panel, a failure apparently noted previously. Two solutions are being considered.
- Astroforge touts its precision laser mining system that extracts material without the need for a drill
Still needs to be tested in space or on the Moon.
- Namibia rejects Starlink because SpaceX refused to give it ownership rights
And like South Africa, SpaceX said nope! And so Namibia remains in the dark age.
- In 1999, NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter was lost when one team used imperial units (pounds) and another used metric units (newtons)
One of the most egregious failures by NASA ever.
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.
- Vast issues a statement supporting NASA new space station plans
Not surprising, as their module development program can easily fit with NASA’s own core module proposal.
- JAXA posts update on the most recent launch failure of its H3 rocket
Engineers have “almost pinpointed” the failure to a honeycomb panel, a failure apparently noted previously. Two solutions are being considered.
- Astroforge touts its precision laser mining system that extracts material without the need for a drill
Still needs to be tested in space or on the Moon.
- Namibia rejects Starlink because SpaceX refused to give it ownership rights
And like South Africa, SpaceX said nope! And so Namibia remains in the dark age.
- In 1999, NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter was lost when one team used imperial units (pounds) and another used metric units (newtons)
One of the most egregious failures by NASA ever.
Astronomers detect the first comet whose nucleus’ reversed its rotation
Astronomers using data collected by the orbiting Gehrels Swift and Hubble space telescopes now think the nucleus of a small comet reversed its rotation sometime in 2017, caused by the force of the material sublimated off its surface.
From the abstract of their paper [pdf]:
The rotations of cometary nuclei are known to change in response to outgassing torques. The nucleus of the Jupiter-family comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresak exhibited particularly dramatic rotational changes when near perihelion in 2017 April. Here, we use archival Hubble Space Telescope observations from 2017 December to study the postperihelion lightcurve of the nucleus and to assess the nucleus size.
From both Hubble photometry and nongravitational acceleration measurements, we find a diminutive nucleus with effective radius 500 ± 100 meters. Systematic optical variations are consistent with a two-peaked (i.e., rotationally symmetric) lightcurve with period 0.60 ± 0.01 days, substantially different from periods measured earlier in 2017. The spin of the nucleus likely reversed between perihelion in 2017 April and December as a result of the outgassing torque.
In plain English: the thrust of the material being thrown from the surface as the comet made its close approach to the Sun was sufficient to slow and then reverse the nucleus’s rotation. This process was helped by the relatively small size of the nucleus compared to the material being sublimated from it.
The data also suggests the nucleus was once much larger, and has been whittled down to its present small size as it made its multiple close fly-bys of the Sun during the past 1,500 years. Rather than break-up, as most comets do at some point as their nucleus gets smaller, this comet’s nucleus simply kept shrinking, to the point that the thrust of that material could change its rotation.
Astronomers using data collected by the orbiting Gehrels Swift and Hubble space telescopes now think the nucleus of a small comet reversed its rotation sometime in 2017, caused by the force of the material sublimated off its surface.
From the abstract of their paper [pdf]:
The rotations of cometary nuclei are known to change in response to outgassing torques. The nucleus of the Jupiter-family comet 41P/Tuttle–Giacobini–Kresak exhibited particularly dramatic rotational changes when near perihelion in 2017 April. Here, we use archival Hubble Space Telescope observations from 2017 December to study the postperihelion lightcurve of the nucleus and to assess the nucleus size.
From both Hubble photometry and nongravitational acceleration measurements, we find a diminutive nucleus with effective radius 500 ± 100 meters. Systematic optical variations are consistent with a two-peaked (i.e., rotationally symmetric) lightcurve with period 0.60 ± 0.01 days, substantially different from periods measured earlier in 2017. The spin of the nucleus likely reversed between perihelion in 2017 April and December as a result of the outgassing torque.
In plain English: the thrust of the material being thrown from the surface as the comet made its close approach to the Sun was sufficient to slow and then reverse the nucleus’s rotation. This process was helped by the relatively small size of the nucleus compared to the material being sublimated from it.
The data also suggests the nucleus was once much larger, and has been whittled down to its present small size as it made its multiple close fly-bys of the Sun during the past 1,500 years. Rather than break-up, as most comets do at some point as their nucleus gets smaller, this comet’s nucleus simply kept shrinking, to the point that the thrust of that material could change its rotation.
The space station part of Isaacman’s new program is facing push back, from industry and Congress
Four of the American space stations under development.
The fifth, Max Space, is a late comer and not shown.
At a hearing yesterday before the space subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, both the trade organization representing the five commercial space station projects as well as some members of Congress expressed strong reservations about NASA’s new plan to build a core module as a basis for helping these companies develop their space stations.
Dave Cavossa, President of the Commercial Space Federation (CSF) that represents these companies, outlined in his statement [pdf] to the committee the industry’s dissatisfaction, not so much because of the specifics of NASA’s plan but because it follows other sudden changes last year by the previous NASA administrator Sean Duffy, and is still uncertain in its outline.
Given the delays and possible shifts in strategy, industry has been left to continue spending resources to develop private space stations without a full understanding of what NASA will require from a private station, how the agency will structure the rest of the procurement and program, and when industry may see a return on investment. This uncertainty challenges the public-private partnership business model and puts the agency at risk of deorbiting ISS before private stations are operational.
The trade group proposed that NASA stick with its previous plan to fund two or more station projects, dropping Isaacman’s core module proposal. It also wanted Congress give the agency the funds to do so.
Cavossa also strongly disputed NASA’s claim that the market at present doesn’t support these commercial stations.
» Read more
All space stocks soar in anticipation of SpaceX’s impending IPO
It appears SpaceX’s upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of publicly-traded stocks, now anticipated to raise as much as $75 billion for the company, has caused stock investors to also pour their money into a whole range of space stocks, causing them all to soar in value.
Initially, it was expected that the IPO could raise $50 billion for the company, but the latest report indicates it could raise as much as $75 billion, with a valuation as high as $1.75 trillion. The colossal figures being thrown around on Wednesday have garnered excitement among investors for other space stocks that are already publicly traded.
Here were the top gainers in the session:
- Firefly Aerospace: +19%
- Intuitive Machines: +11%
- AST SpaceMobile: +9%
- EchoStar Corporation: 9%
- Rocket Lab Corporation: +8%
The most recent indications suggest SpaceX will file the offering’s prospectus in the next week or so. If the predictions about it are correct, and SpaceX does raise $75 billion, it would then have on hand more than three times the cash that Congress normally budgets annually to NASA, with an ability to use that money far more effectively.
As I have been saying now for more than a year, the real space program for the United States is being run by SpaceX, not NASA. Expect SpaceX to outpace NASA in their parallel and complementary efforts to build a moonbase.
It appears SpaceX’s upcoming initial public offering (IPO) of publicly-traded stocks, now anticipated to raise as much as $75 billion for the company, has caused stock investors to also pour their money into a whole range of space stocks, causing them all to soar in value.
Initially, it was expected that the IPO could raise $50 billion for the company, but the latest report indicates it could raise as much as $75 billion, with a valuation as high as $1.75 trillion. The colossal figures being thrown around on Wednesday have garnered excitement among investors for other space stocks that are already publicly traded.
Here were the top gainers in the session:
- Firefly Aerospace: +19%
- Intuitive Machines: +11%
- AST SpaceMobile: +9%
- EchoStar Corporation: 9%
- Rocket Lab Corporation: +8%
The most recent indications suggest SpaceX will file the offering’s prospectus in the next week or so. If the predictions about it are correct, and SpaceX does raise $75 billion, it would then have on hand more than three times the cash that Congress normally budgets annually to NASA, with an ability to use that money far more effectively.
As I have been saying now for more than a year, the real space program for the United States is being run by SpaceX, not NASA. Expect SpaceX to outpace NASA in their parallel and complementary efforts to build a moonbase.
Webb and Hubble take a look at Saturn
Astronomers using both the Hubble Space Telescope and the Webb Space Telescope have produced new complementary views of the ringed planet Saturn.
Those photographs are shown above, with Webb’s false-color infrared image to the left and Hubble’s optical image to the right. From the press release:
In the Webb image, a long-lived jet stream known as the “ribbon wave” meanders across the northern mid-latitudes, influenced by otherwise undetectable atmospheric waves. Just below that, a small spot represents a lingering remnant from the “Great Springtime Storm” of 2010 to 2012. Several other storms dotting the southern hemisphere of Saturn are visible in Webb’s image, as well. All these features are shaped by powerful winds and waves beneath the visible cloud deck, making Saturn a natural laboratory for studying fluid dynamics under extreme conditions.
…In Webb’s infrared image, the rings are extremely bright because they are made of highly reflective water ice. In both images, we’re seeing the sunlit face of the rings, a little less so in the Hubble image, hence the shadows visible underneath on the planet.
There are also subtle ring features such as spokes and structure in the B ring (the thick central region of the rings) that appear differently between the two observatories. The F ring, the outermost ring, looks thin and crisp in the Webb image, while it only slightly glows in the Hubble image.
The press release says little about the Hubble image, mostly because it shows little new by itself. It however is part of an on-going decade-long survey using Hubble to track Saturn’s changing weather patterns.
While both images are valuable, they also highlight our present limits in observing Saturn. Views from Earth can only see so much. It is like trying to watch a football game from ten miles away, with binoculars. And sadly, no mission is presently planned to return to Saturn.
Astronomers using both the Hubble Space Telescope and the Webb Space Telescope have produced new complementary views of the ringed planet Saturn.
Those photographs are shown above, with Webb’s false-color infrared image to the left and Hubble’s optical image to the right. From the press release:
In the Webb image, a long-lived jet stream known as the “ribbon wave” meanders across the northern mid-latitudes, influenced by otherwise undetectable atmospheric waves. Just below that, a small spot represents a lingering remnant from the “Great Springtime Storm” of 2010 to 2012. Several other storms dotting the southern hemisphere of Saturn are visible in Webb’s image, as well. All these features are shaped by powerful winds and waves beneath the visible cloud deck, making Saturn a natural laboratory for studying fluid dynamics under extreme conditions.
…In Webb’s infrared image, the rings are extremely bright because they are made of highly reflective water ice. In both images, we’re seeing the sunlit face of the rings, a little less so in the Hubble image, hence the shadows visible underneath on the planet.
There are also subtle ring features such as spokes and structure in the B ring (the thick central region of the rings) that appear differently between the two observatories. The F ring, the outermost ring, looks thin and crisp in the Webb image, while it only slightly glows in the Hubble image.
The press release says little about the Hubble image, mostly because it shows little new by itself. It however is part of an on-going decade-long survey using Hubble to track Saturn’s changing weather patterns.
While both images are valuable, they also highlight our present limits in observing Saturn. Views from Earth can only see so much. It is like trying to watch a football game from ten miles away, with binoculars. And sadly, no mission is presently planned to return to Saturn.
China launches two radar satellites
China today successfully placed two radar satellites into orbit, its Long March 2D rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in north China.
China’s state-run press provided no information about where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
37 SpaceX
14 China
4 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
China today successfully placed two radar satellites into orbit, its Long March 2D rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in north China.
China’s state-run press provided no information about where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
37 SpaceX
14 China
4 Rocket Lab
3 Russia
SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, as it did in both ’24 and ’25.
March 25, 2026 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more