Author: Robert Zimmerman

Bright spokes in Saturn’s rings

11:46 am

Bright spokes in Saturn's rings
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped slightly to post here, was taken on December 26, 2008 from a distance of 350,000 miles by the Cassini spacecraft as it orbited Saturn. The resolution is about 37 miles per pixel.

I think sunlight is coming from the upper left, its light bouncing off the rings and thus making the those spokes bright and visible.

In the viewing geometry in which Cassini is looking approximately in the direction of the sun (called high phase), the spokes appear white against the rings because the very small particles comprising the spokes preferentially scatter light forward (in this case, toward Cassini).

At least that’s one theory for explaining the spokes that appear randomly and for only short periods within Saturn’s rings, sometimes bright, sometimes dark, depending on the angle of the Sun. According to a Hubble press release from 2023, the spokes are formed due to an interaction between Saturn’s magnetic field, the solar wind, and the tiny particles in the rings.

“The leading theory is that spokes are tied to Saturn’s powerful magnetic field, with some sort of solar interaction with the magnetic field that gives you the spokes,” said Simon. When it’s near the equinox on Saturn, the planet and its rings are less tilted away from the Sun. In this configuration, the solar wind may more strongly batter Saturn’s immense magnetic field, enhancing spoke formation.

Planetary scientists think that electrostatic forces generated from this interaction levitate dust or ice above the ring to form the spokes, though after several decades no theory perfectly predicts the spokes. [emphasis mine]

Just another strange alien phenomenon in space that remains unsolved. All we really know is that the spokes appear, remain visible for at most a rotation or two of the rings, and then disappear.

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Japan’s Ispace signs deal with SpaceX to use Starship for lunar cargo delivery

9:14 am

Ispace's mobile cargo system
Click for original.

The Japanese lunar lander startup Ispace yesterday announced it has signed an agreement with SpaceX to use its Starship lunar lander to transport cargo to the Moon’s surface.

The Ispace graphic to the right shows the company’s proposed “Mobile Cargo System” on the Moon after deployment from Starship.

In preparation for the new business offering, Ispace has secured 500 kilograms of payload capacity on Starship, scheduled for launch as early as 2030. Ispace is offering global customers with relatively small payload delivery needs, weighing 500 kilograms or less, a comprehensive service to integrate, transport and operate their payloads on the Moon.

As part of the integration process, Ispace will assess each customer’s payload requirements and implement the quality control necessary for lunar transportation. Ispace will then integrate multiple payloads into the dedicated “Mobile Cargo System” in development by the company and provide services, including interface coordination with Starship as part of the system. Upon landing on the Moon, Ispace aims to provide operational support through the “Mobile Cargo System” to ensure the smooth deployment of payloads onto the lunar surface, their movement across the lunar surface, and access to other infrastructure.

Ispace is clearly hoping this cargo system will be of interest to NASA for its Moonbase project. It is also something that will appeal to other commercial customers who want to get a payload to the Moon cheaply.

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Satellite company Loft Orbital signs multi-launch deal with European rocket startup Maiaspace

8:59 am

Because it appears SpaceX is ending its multi-payload Transporter Falcon 9 launches for smallsats after 2028, the satellite company Loft Orbital has now signed multi-launch deal with European rocket startup Maiaspace.

Although the announcement provided few details, it did share that the first flight was expected in 2028. In an 8 July press release, MaiaSpace explained that the multi-launch agreement “consolidates its launch manifest,” adding that the company has now sold more than half of all capacity for its first three years of operation.

To date, all Loft Orbital satellites have been launched aboard SpaceX Transporter rideshare missions. However, according to reporting from SpaceNews, in recent weeks, several customers of these missions have said that SpaceX is not accepting Transporter reservations beyond late 2028 or early 2029. The publication quoted Rocket Lab CFO Adam Spice as saying that there “seems to be a panic setting in.”

If the SpaceX aspect of this story is true, it means there will now be a slew of new satellite customers for all the many rocket startups, not just Maiaspace. In fact, it is puzzling Loft Orbital went to Maiaspace first. That company does not expect to do its first orbital test flight until late ’27. Meanwhile the Spanish startup PLD, the Indian startup Skyroot, the South Korean startup Innospace, the German startups Isar and Rocket Factory, and the American startups Stoke Space and Relativity are all expected to try their first launches before the end of this year. In addition, Rocket Lab has its Electron rocket, and hopes to launch its new Neutron rocket also by the end of this year.

That SpaceX is no longer taking reservations for Transporter flights after late 2028 also gives us a hint as to the company’s future plans for its Falcon 9 rocket. There has been much speculation it would be replaced by Starship, and this news suggests that transition from Falcon 9 to Starship is now beginning.

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Saxavord approves August launch window for Rocket Factory Augsburg

8:40 am

Proposed or active spaceports in north Europe
Proposed or active spaceports in north Europe

The Saxavord spaceport yesterday announced it has approved a five week launch window beginning on August 10, 2026 during which the German startup Rocket Factory Augsburg will be permitted to attempt a launch of its RFA-1 rocket.

SaxaVord Spaceport said the launch window was designed to minimise disruption to everyday life in Unst while maintaining the highest safety standards. The window spans five weeks from Monday 10 August, but restrictions will not be in place continuously throughout that period. Instead, potential launch attempts can only take place on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 4pm and 8pm.

In April Rocket Factory had applied for a launch window opening on July 1st. As expected, Saxavord did not give it, likely because of regulatory demands by the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It appears the CAA had in 2024 required Saxavord to put in a perimeter fence surrounding the facility, and it had not done so. Last week the spaceport announced it would spend more than $100K to install the fence. I suspect this last delay is to give it time to do the work.

The launch itself will be Rocket Factory’s first attempt. In 2024 it was gearing up for a launch, but an explosion during the last static fire test of the first stage destroyed the stage and damaged the pad.

If this launch occurs as planned, it will end almost a decade of delays at Saxavord, almost all of which the result of red tape from the CAA. As a result, though Saxavord had a significant head start on the other spaceports shown on the map above, it remains uncertain whether it or Norway’s Andoya spaceport will achieve the first successful launch. The German rocket startup Isar Aerospace has been trying to launch from Andoya since last year. Its first attempt in 2025 was a failure, and its second attempt has been scrubbed three times since January. A new launch attempt is tentatively scheduled for later this month.

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Firefly to build descent aeroshell for NASA’s Mars Skyfall helicopter mission

8:01 am

Skyfall concept
SkyFall helicopter deployment. Click for original animation.

In a press release yesterday, Firefly Aerospace announced it has won a $13 million contract to build the descent aeroshell that will be used to protect the three Ingenuity-class helicopters being sent to Mars in 2028 on NASA’s proposed Skyfall mission.

The SkyFall aeroshell, comprising both the backshell and heatshield, will be developed within Firefly’s new Gloworks innovation lab and manufactured at the company’s Rocket Ranch in Briggs, Texas. Firefly will utilize advanced carbon composite technologies from its proven Blue Ghost lunar landers, Elytra orbiters, and Alpha and Eclipse launch vehicles to rapidly produce high-strength, lightweight structures.

This press release provides the most details yet about the mission. The graphic to the right is a screen capture from a video from JPL, showing the mission concept. First the helicopters would descend through the Martian atmosphere encapsulated in Firefly’s aeroshell. The bottom half would then drop off, and parachutes would release from above. Once close to the ground, the helicopters would be lowered out of the shell on the frame shown to the right, turn on their rotots, and then be released to fly away and land on their own.

This technique utilizes an entry capsule to release the three helicopters during descent, eliminating the need for a landing platform. The helicopters will then fly to the surface and capture high-resolution surface imagery and subsurface radar data.

We still do not know the chosen landing location on Mars, though the press release mentions a search for water ice, suggesting it will not be in the dry equatorial regions, where almost all landers and rovers have gone, but in mid-latitudes or higher where glaciers and lots of near surface ice has been detected.

The mission is intended after launch to use the nuclear propulsion engines NASA is developing jointly with the Energy Department to get to Mars. I remain skeptical those engines will be ready by 2028.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

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July 7, 2026 Quick space links

2:44 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.

Note: If the X tweet videos don’t play, right click on the tweet and open it in a new tab. It should play there.

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The empty desolation west of Jezero crater

2:07 pm

The empty desolation west of Jezero crater
Click for full resolution image. For original images go here and here.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

Cool image time! The panorama above was created from two pictures taken on July 1, 2026 (here and here) by the left navigation camera on the Mars rover Perseverance.

The overview map to the right provides the context. The white dotted marks the rover’s travels, with the blue dot marking Perseverance’s last posted location as of July 6, 2026. The yellow lines indicate roughly the area viewed by the panorama, taken five days earlier at a previous location.

The panorama looks west, at a low ridge line about 1,000 feet from the rover (the white dot), with a distant hill beyond (the black dot), about 4,500 feet away. The ridge is only about 50-60 feet high, while the hill rises about 600 feet. The rover’s tracks can be seen on the left.

Once again, the view from Perseverance indicates starkly the lifeless nature of Mars. Maybe it once had microbiology (though this is certainly not indicated so far by any solid evidence), but if it did, it is long long gone, and in fact likely never prospered at this location at all. NASA might claim repeatedly that Perseverance’s mission is to search for life, but every geologist on the mission knows this is a very low priority. What they are doing is studying the alien geology of another world. This image gives one a hint of its alienness.

Most specifically, Perseverance is studying a region in the dry tropics of Mars, where no near surface water remains, but also carries ample evidence of potentially valuable mineralogy. Orbital data strongly suggests the region west of Jezero crater will become a major mining region for future settlers. It might not contain any life, but it carries resources that will sustain the life that is soon to come from Earth.

The Perseverance team has been scouting this region now for the last four months, without doing any additional drilling. In fact, the last drill samples were taken at Witch Hazel Hill, in the spring of 2025. It appears they are taking their time to look for the best place to get core samples.

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NASA wants its future space telescopes designed to be serviceable, like Hubble

11:04 am

In a briefing at a recent science conference, a NASA official made it clear that it wants its proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) — presently undergoing its initial design studies for launch in the 2040s — be designed in a way that it can be maintained, repaired, and upgraded, much like the Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA is planning for HWO to be serviceable, which means that they will need to figure out a way to work on, repair, and maintain the observatory while it operates roughly a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away. “HWO will have to be serviceable to some extent,” NASA’s astrophysics division director Shawn Domagal-Goldman told Space.com during a session at the American Astronomical Society’s (AAS) 248th meeting in Pasadena, California.

This design decision not only makes sense, NASA should have made it common practice a decade ago. The ability for robots to do this work is becoming increasingly robust, and in the next decade will become commonplace. For NASA to have launched anything in the past decade without this in mind was shameful.

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Scientists tighten the protocols for announcing any evidence of alien life

10:56 am

New protocols developed by Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project and approved by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) now tighten significantly what the scientific community is expected to do if anyone detects evidence that might be extraterrestrial life.

You can read the full protocols here [pdf]. From the press release:

At the heart of the new rules is a reaffirmation of a core scientific principle: “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” Under the revised protocols, no public announcement should be made until a signal or artifact has been rigorously authenticated by independent organisations using different instrumentation.

“We do not shout “alien” the moment we see a strange blip,” Garrett added. “The scientific method demands we check, check again, and then ask others to check. Only when we have reached a consensus that a signal is credible do we bring it to the world.”

SETI’s press release notes this rule is necessary due to the modern nature of social media, which allows the wildest claims to be spread like poison almost immediately. As noted in this story, the new rules almost appear to be a direct slap at hack Harvard scientist Avi Loeb, who with both interstellar objects Oumuamua and Comet 3I/Atlas claimed evidence of alien technology when there was no evidence to say so.

The new rules also underline a second point: Under no condition will any scientist attempt to reply or contact any potential alien source. “The Declaration reaffirms the enduring principle that transmitting a response to an extraterrestrial intelligence is a decision that belongs to all of humanity and should only take place following international consultations, specifically through the United Nations.”

It will be impossible for the science community to enforce this rule, but by stating it they hope to encourage scientists to exercise more caution, and further ostracize those like Loeb who do not. I remain skeptical, especially because it will have no influence on government agencies like NASA, which love to scream “We have found alien biology!” at the slightest hint. Nor will it influence the public, which seems determined to accept such wild claims with no skepticism at all.

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In counting craters to determine age on other planets, AI does not do a good job

10:14 am

Researchers from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have found that all eight AI-generated lunar crater catalogs failed to meet the standards achieved by human catalogs.

Astronomers use crater counts on other planets to roughly determine the age of the surface.The more craters the older the surface. The work is however tedious and time-consuming, and it was hoped that artificial intelligence (AI) could speed up the process and make it more efficient. Unfortunately, this new study [pdf] shows that AI is not ready for prime time. From the abstract:

In this work, we compare eight crater databases using several standardized metric sets, including a tight tolerance based on manual researcher repeatability. Of the six databases that quote metrics, we find that under these strictest criteria, practically all databases return worse metrics—some dropping by factors of >10. When we resolve these metrics in diameter space, we find that most databases do well in some diameter ranges and poorly in others, meaning that single-value overall metrics can be misleading.

Our work shows that the current state of machine learning–based AI still has a long way to go before it can be relied upon to create a database comparable in quality with manual efforts. We recommend researchers examine any database they plan to use and independently determine if it is of sufficient quality for their application.

The researchers are not opposed to using AI for this purpose. They are simply warning others that it is not yet capable of doing what many promise.

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Canada’s Nova Scotia spaceport signs German rocket startup Isar Aerospace

9:45 am

Proposed Canadian spaceports
Proposed Canadian spaceports

After a decade of effort, Canada’s Spaceport Nova Scotia has finally closed a deal with a rocket company. German rocket startup Isar Aerospace yesterday announced it has finalized a deal first signed in May 2026 with Maritime Launch Services, which operates the spaceport for the Canadian government on a 10-year $200 million lease, to launch its Spectrum rocket there.

Maritime Launch Services will provide the licensed launch site, including the launch pad, assembly, integration and testing (AIT) facilities, a launch operations center, and a facility for payload integration. Build-out is planned to begin in 2026, with first orbital launches targeted for 2028. The launch site will be designed to support frequent launches, with the potential for Spaceport Nova Scotia to offer additional capacity for future expansion. To anchor its North American presence, Isar Aerospace has established a dedicated Canadian entity, Isar Aerospace Canada Inc.

Maritime was formed in 2016, but for a decade was unable to attract any customers. That changed in March 2026 when the present Canadian government signed its ten year lease, committing itself to finance the spaceport in order to develop what it called a “sovereign” Canadian launch capability.

This deal apparently convinced Isar that Nova Scotia was a viable launch site. The deal is for ten years, with the option for two more five year extensions. During the first 2.5 years all fees will be waived, after which Isar will pay Maritime $3.75 million quarterly, with the intention to ramp up to 40 launches per year by 2029. It will also pay additional per launch fees.

Isar however still has to successfully complete its first launch. It has had one launch failure in 2025, and has repeatedly scrubbed for technical reasons its second attempt in 2026, first in January, then in March, and then in June. Though there are indications it will try again later this month, no new launch date has been announced. All these launches have been from Norway’s Andoya spaceport.

The irony here is that the Canadian government isn’t really getting its own rocket capability. It is buying it from a German company.

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SpaceX launches 81 payloads on its 17th Transporter mission

9:17 am

SpaceX last night successfully placed 81 different commercial payloads in orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenderg Space Force Base in California.

This was the company’s 17th Transporter mission, designed to provide launch services to very small satellites and payloads, including “cubesats, microsats, hosted payloads, and orbital transfer vehicles carrying eight of those payloads to be deployed at a later time.”

The first stage (B1097) completed its eleventh flight (30 days after its previous flight), landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The two fairing halves completed their 19th and 35th flights respectively.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

81 SpaceX
44 China
10 Rocket Lab (plus two suborbital HASTE launches)
8 Russia

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 81 to 76.

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NASA ends its participation in the lunar orbiter CAPSTONE

8:30 am

After four years of operation, NASA has terminated its participation in the privately built and operated lunar orbiter CAPSTONE.

The orbiter was built jointly by Terran Orbital and Rocket Lab, and launched by Rocket Lab. In space it was operated not by NASA but by the private company Advanced Space. On its way to the Moon Advanced Space’s engineers lost contact with the spacecraft twice, but were able to re-establish communications in time to save the mission, get it into orbit, where it spent four years testing a host of technologies NASA then planned to use in its Artemis program.

The orbiter is not dead however. Advanced Space “will continue to use the spacecraft as a technology development testbed.”

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NASA requests space stations bids from industry

8:02 am

The American space stations under development

Having abandoned its short-lived NASA-built core module concept due to industry opposition, NASA is now requesting new proposals from the private sector for its space station program to replace ISS.

Based on industry’s input, NASA will proceed with its original plan to procure commercial services through FAR-based contract(s) awarded via full and open competition. Industry has indicated there is significant capital investment behind this approach and expressed high confidence in their ability to attract additional capital investment and expand future market opportunities after NASA makes an award.

NASA intends to award firm-fixed-price, multi-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts supporting development, certification, and services. This approach would allow NASA to select two or more contractors through early development, followed by a competitive task order for final design, test, evaluation, as well as certification and services from one or more contractors. [emphasis mine]

The deadline for submission is July 27, 2026. From these proposals NASA will proceed with its original plan to award construction contracts to build at least one new space station. The highlighted words above however suggest a significant change in the program. Under the original plan, NASA said it could only afford to finance one private station, something NASA administrator Jared Isaacman found unsatisfactory. NASA officials also did not believe there was sufficient private investment capital to make up the difference if NASA spread the money around to more than one station.

It looks like the industry has changed his mind. It now appears NASA will entertain multiple station proposals, and could conceivably award as many as three contracts. Of the five stations being built (see my list below), three are very robust at this point — Vast, Starlab, and Axiom — with a lot of private investment, a slew of customers, and some construction completed. Choosing one or two of these would be difficult, and possibly counter-productive, as all three have viable plans.

While I am speculating wildly, it looks to me that this NASA request for proposals is laying the groundwork for awarding at least three space station contracts, with these three stations in the lead. The amount of money in NASA’s space station budget might not be sufficient to finance all three, but it appears it might be enough once supplemented with the private capital all three stations have on hand.

Stay tuned. Some very exciting developments might very well be in the offing.

My updated ranking of the five American space stations presently under development:
» Read more

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William Shatner – Rocket Man

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Performed (mostly) live at the 1978 Saturn awards event, given out by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. Though the song is by Elton John, this performance makes it William Shatner personified.

Hat tip Mike Nelson.

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July 6, 2026 Quick space links

2:25 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, as well as the first from Nate P. 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.

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Webb’s mid-infrared view of the very active galaxy Centaurus A

10:57 am

Centaurus A, as seen by Webb and Hubble
Click for original Webb image. For the original Hubble image, go here.

Cool image time! The false color mid-infrared image above, reduced and annotated to post here, was taken reeently by the mid-infrared instrument on the Webb Space Telescope of the galaxy Centaurus A, 11 million light years away and known for more than a century as an elliptical galaxy crossed by a dark streak of dust, as shown by the inset, an optical Hubble Space Telescope photograph taken in July 2014. More recent research has shown the galaxy is very active, caused by the existence of a supermassive black hole in the center pulling in matter around it.

Webb’s infrared data reveals an entirely different shape. From the press release today:

Webb’s mid-infrared vision highlights the galaxy’s rich dust structures, which glow in intricate shapes that surprise and even perplex astronomers. A warped, parallelogram-like band cuts across the galaxy’s center, while wisps of material stretch outward like cosmic clouds.

An “S” shaped feature, most notable in the image from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), is also unusual and invites questions that need further study to answer. What created this shape? How does the black hole influence it? Is it influenced by merger-induced star formation?

Many of the glowing red points in the MIRI image are dust-rich stars or stellar nurseries, where aging stars are shedding material back into space or new stars are forming. This dust is the raw ingredient for future generations of stars and planets, making it central to the ongoing life cycle of the galaxy.

Once again, this data illustrates the need for astronomers to have telescopes observing in all wavelengths and from space, since a large fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum is blocked by the atmosphere.

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Europe’s Euclid optical space telescope discovers 31 new quasars in the very early universe

9:10 am

The uncertainty of science: The Europe Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid optical space telescope — with a mirror half the size of Hubble’s — has now identified 31 new quasars in the very early universe, all of which really shouldn’t be there based on present theories as to how long it should take for them to form.

The European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope has discovered 31 of the most ancient quasars ever found. Two of these giant and dazzling galaxy cores, powered by gargantuan black holes, are the earliest quasars yet observed in cosmic history. They shone with the light of a trillion Suns back when the Universe was 670 million years old – just 5% of its current age.

UPDATE: Astronomers using the Keck telescopes in Hawaii have now confirmed 21 of the 31 one quasars identified by Euclid.

The scientific problem is that, according to most theories on the evolution and formation of galaxies and black holes and quasars, it takes billions of years for such large supermassive black holes to accrete their mass. Yet, these exist less than a billion years after the Big Bang. The numbers do not compute.

Euclid doesn’t get the publicity of Hubble, partly because ESA does not do as good a job of selling its work as NASA, partly because it is a European project and the American propaganda press is thus generally uninterested, and partly because it is simply smaller and a later telescope, thus not ground-breaking. Nonetheless, with a mirror 1.2 meters across, it is capable of truly spectacular optical astronomy, being above the atmosphere as well as above the many satellite constellations now in orbit. It is placed in the Lagrange point 2, a million miles from Earth.

In fact, Euclid is exactly the kind of space telescope the astronomy community should be building, in huge numbers, rather than whining about those satellite constellations blocking its big ground-based telescopes. The future of astronomy is in space, and it is high time astronomers recognized this.

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Saxavord spaceport suddenly wants to spend £120K for a security fence

8:53 am

Proposed or active spaceports in north Europe
Proposed or active spaceports in north Europe

In what might cause another delay in the first launch from the United Kingdom’s Saxavord spaceport on the Shetland Islands, the spaceport’s management last week suddenly submitted a plan to spend £120K to build a security fence around the spaceport, even as the launch window for the German startup Rocket Factory Augsburg’s first launch had opened.

SaxaVord Spaceport has submitted a building warrant application detailing plans for a perimeter fence, which would be built at an estimated cost of around £120,000. The application was submitted last week, just ahead of the provisional launch window sought by German aerospace company Rocket Factory Augsburg, which took effect from 1st July.

It is part of wide ranging safety and security plans set out as part of SaxaVord’s range control licence, which was approved by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in 2024.

Since Rocket Factory announced in April its application to launch during this July launch window, there has been no word from Saxavord if that window was approved. Nor has Rocket Factory provided any updates on any specific launch dates. It has delivered both rocket stages to Saxavord, but beyond that there have been no other updates.

This new security fencing suggests that a launch approval was denied by the CAA, because that fencing was not in place as ordered in 2024. It appears Saxavord is now scrambling to get it done so Rocket Factory can launch.

The CAA has a bad track record. The delays caused by that government agency due to its regulatory burdens has resulted in two rocket companies going bankrupt (Virgin Orbit and Orbex) and one spaceport shutting down (Sutherland). It would not surprise me if Rocket Factory does not launch in July. In fact, I predicted this in April. Hopefully my pessimism about the CAA is wrong, but at present I am skeptical.

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