Author: Robert Zimmerman

Europe’s Themis reusable hopper completes 2nd full dress rehearsal countdown

11:44 am

Themis on the launchpad
Themis on the launchpad

The Europe Space Agency’s (ESA) Themis reusable hopper has successfully completed a second full dress rehearsal countdown at its test site at Sweden’s Esrange spaceport, prior to doing its first hot static fire engine test and prior to a full hop to test its ability to land vertically.

This wet dress rehearsal of the flight chronology contributes to the technological maturation of the Themis system. ArianeGroup teams have achieved new milestones in repeating the “synchronized sequence” (the final automatic phase of the countdown), as well as in exploring the “post-flight” sequence with the use of a fleet of robots designed to secure the vehicle after landing.

These elements mark progress in the operational mastery of the system. Conducting this test has enabled the collection of essential data for the continuation of the SALTO campaign. The teams are now working on defining a window for the next test.

In plain English, they were merely testing their pre-launch countdown and post landing procedures. They aren’t yet ready to test fire the engines. This slow, very cautious pace of testing is typical of ESA. It is one reason this project is so far behind schedule. Themis was first proposed in 2019, with its first hops expected in 2022. Four years later, and no hops have occurred, and it is not clear when they will occur.

For context, SpaceX did similar hopper tests more than fifteen years ago, but it did so repeatedly and rapidly, so that it could quickly apply that knowledge to Falcon 9, which achieved the first vertical recovery of a first stage in 2015. More than a decade later, ESA is barely creeping towards its first hop.

One positive sign: ArianeGroup — the company that owns and builds the Ariane-6 rocket for ESA – is doing these tests, which suggests it will be able to apply the knowledge to future rocket designs. It better, because the future is very dim for expendable rockets like Ariane-6.

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Curiosity’s future travels as seen in morning light

11:03 am

Curiosity's future travels in morning light
Click for full resolution image.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

Cool image time! The panorama above, cropped and reduced to post here, was released yesterday by the science team for the Mars rover Curiosity. It looks uphill at the mountains within which the team hopes Curiosity will soon be traveling.

A newly released panorama captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover offers the most detailed view yet of distant, wind-carved Martian cliffs, highlighting features the mission’s scientists have long been waiting to see up close. The scene was snapped at 8:30 a.m. local Mars time, showing striking blue hues in the foreground as bright morning light illuminates crags known as yardangs on the horizon.

The panorama was captured by Curiosity’s Mastcam on Aug. 11, the 4,982nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission, and comprises six individual images that were stitched together after being sent to Earth. Unlike most of Curiosity’s Mastcam images, this one was processed without white balancing, preserving the early morning appearance.

The overview map to the right provides the context. The blue dot marks Curiosity’s present position, while the yellow dot its location when the panorama was taken. The yellow lines indicate approximately the area covered by the panorama. The red dotted line the rover’s planned route, while the white dotted line indicates its actual travels so far.

At this moment the science team has still not released its planned route through those distance jagged hills. I suspect they want to get closer before committing themselves to any particular canyon.

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Turkish officials visit planned spaceport location in Somalia

10:38 am

Proposed African spaceports
Proposed African spaceports

According to a report yesterday in Turkey’s state run press, a delegation of Turkish officials recently conducted a tour of the town of Warsheikh, the location of the planned spaceport in Somalia that Turkey hopes to build.

During the Warsheikh visit, the Turkish delegation also inspected school and hospital projects carried out with Turkish support. Officials met with district authorities, residents and students and spent time engaging with local communities.

Alkan and the delegation also visited the town’s coastline, where they spoke with local fishermen and joined young people for a game of football, according to the Turkish Embassy.

The goal of the visit appears to mostly have been to ease any local concerns about the project, while providing the Turkish government some nice PR it could use during this week’s international conference being held in Turkey. This report however does finally tell us the approximate location of this proposed spaceport, as indicated on the map to the right.

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NASA awards Yank Technologies two contracts for providing wireless power on the Moon

9:38 am

Artemis logo

As part of its Artemis program, NASA yesterday awarded the company Yank Technologies two different small contracts to develop technology for providing wireless power to a variety of robotic operations at the agency’s planned Moon Base.

Under the first award, Yank Technologies is developing a modular, kilowatt-class wireless power system for NASA robotic vehicles and equipment. By transferring power without physical contact, the system is designed to reduce the risk of connector degradation caused by regolith accumulation. The technology is also designed to maintain reliable power transfer when the transmitter and receiver are not precisely aligned, adjusting dynamically for different power levels and product positions.

Under the second award, Yank Technologies is developing a high-power density AC-DC converter with real-time self-diagnostics. The converter is designed to deliver kilowatt-class power in a smaller, lighter form factor while monitoring operating conditions such as voltage, current, and component temperature to identify potential system degradation during operation.

This contract is actually one of a number of similar small developmental engineering contracts NASA has issued in recent months in connection with its Moon Base plans. Such basic technology is not very exciting or glamorous but it is essential to make that base possible. Until Jared Isaacman took over as administrator however there had been little effort at NASA to get it developed. That has now changed. And once again, NASA is not developing this engineering in-house. It is asking the private sector to do it, and own it once built.

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Transportation Department eliminates or reduces launch and re-entry licensing regulations

9:18 am

FAA logo

In line with the space policy announced by Trump in August 2026, the Department of Transportation yesterday announced five specific changes to the FAA’s Part 450 rocket launch and spacecraft re-entry regulations that will eliminate or reduce paperwork and streamline the licensing process.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy today announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is proposing five rules to streamline and modernize the commercial space launch and reentry regulations. The rules were developed in concert with the recently launched the USDOT Space Policy Administration, Coordination, and Execution (SPACE) Task Force.

Key changes to the Part 450 commercial space licensing process include:

  • Allowing operators to submit launch applications electronically
  • Providing greater flexibility to demonstrate an equivalent level of safety
  • Combining three required safety analyses into a single submission
  • Eliminating duplicative safety analyses when a safety requirement is already addressed through other approved methods.

What we’re doing: The proposed rules would make the Part 450 licensing process more efficient, less burdensome, and more flexible for operators while maintaining the FAA’s safety standards.

These five changes appear to significantly reduce the paperwork involved in obtaining either a license to launch or a license to return a capsule to the U.S. proper. The latter issue is important because the recoverable capsule industry has had to flee to Australia to get its capsules back to Earth, rather than deal with this red tape.

These changes however do not eliminate the duplicative and burdensome environmental assessments that have become routine in recent years for the slightest revision or construction project. It appears that issue — a much more significant one — was addressed in the FAA’s in JulyJuly 2026 announcement, though those changes are also not yet official because of a number of environmental activist groups have filed lawsuits against them.

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SpaceX’s Freedom Dragon capsule departs ISS with four astronauts

8:51 am

SpaceX’s Freedom Dragon capsule this morning undocked from ISS, carrying four astronauts after completing almost eight months in orbit.

At 8:05 a.m. EDT, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev undocked from the space-facing port of the International Space Station’s Harmony module aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

Splash down is presently scheduled for 11:34 am (Eastern) on October 8, 2026 off the coast of California.

This crew was transported to and from ISS entirely by a private company, SpaceX, on its private rocket and in its private capsule. NASA merely footed the bill, though the agency’s ISS mission control coordinated with SpaceX to perform ISS-related operations. These manned SpaceX ferrying flights to ISS have now become so routine that they are hardly covered by the press.

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South Korea’s Nuri rocket launches successfully

8:43 am

South Korea today successfully placed fifteen satellites into orbit, its Nuri rocket completing its fifth launch, lifting off from that country’s Naro spaceport on its southern coast.

Video of the launch can be found here. Five of the satellites were part of a government Earth observation constellation, while ten were a variety of cubesats from “domestic corporations, universities, and research institutes.”

This was the first launch in 2026 for South Korea’s government. Thus the leader board for the 2026 launch race remains unchanged:

114 SpaceX
60 China
16 Rocket Lab (plus two suborbital HASTE launches)
12 Russia

SpaceX now leads the entire world combined 114 to 113 in successful launches in 2026.

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Europe signs new deal with the American space station startup Vast

8:32 am

Vast's Haven-1 and Haven-2 stations

The European Space Agency yesterday signed a new agreement (MoU) with the American space station startup Vast, replacing the first agreement that was signed in 2024.

This MoU replaces the previous MoU that ESA and Vast signed at ILA Berlin in June 2024 and broadens their cooperation in human spaceflight, science, technology, and commercialization. It runs for an initial three years, starting with a joint feasibility study of research and utilization opportunities for Europe on Haven space stations, intended to produce a shared roadmap for future cooperation.

… The MoU sets out a phased approach. In the near term, the two organizations intend to focus on astronaut missions and related research on Haven-1 and on Vast-PAM-1, NASA’s sixth private astronaut mission to the ISS [Vast-PAM-1]. Four astronauts will fly on Vast-PAM-1, three of whom have been announced: Thomas Pesquet for France, Aleš Svoboda for Czech Republic, and Adrianos Golemis for Greece. Under the same agreement with France, Arnaud Prost is confirmed for a mission to Haven-1. Over the longer term, and subject to future decisions by ESA and its Member States, the two organizations intend to explore European contributions to and utilization of future Haven space stations, including the potential use of European transportation and launch services.

In 2023 ESA also signed a partnership deal with the competing Starlab space station consortium, but because Vast’s Haven-1 will orbit first, it is apparently grabbing this business now. I have no doubt however that once Starlab launches (inside Starship), its large size will garner plenty of business.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

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

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FCC approves 15,000 satellite Starlink constellation expansion for a cellphones

8:03 am

SpaceX logo

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) yesterday approved SpaceX’s application to launch a new 15,000 Starlink satellite constellation aimed specifically at providing cell-to-satellite service directly, eliminating the need for SpaceX to sign with any ground-based provider, as it presently does now with T-Mobile.

On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission cleared the company’s request for the 15,000 satellite constellation after SpaceX originally filed the application back in Sept. 2025. In addition, the FCC issued a waiver so that SpaceX can offer wireless services through satellites without entering into a leasing agreement with a ground-based mobile operator.

The approval seems to create a regulatory path for SpaceX to turn Starlink Mobile into a competitor to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, something that SpaceX executives have already been teasing. Currently, “version 1” of Starlink Mobile is exclusively available in the US through T-Mobile as T-Satellite —but it only uses around 650 satellites with data speeds estimated at 4Mbps.

That sounds like a lot of satellites to launch, but I suspect that Starship will likely carry a lot per launch. The system will use the frequencies obtained by SpaceX from Echostar and will orbit its satellites at a lower orbit than Starlink today, lowering the latency but likely requiring the satellites to be replaced frequently (more evidence they will be smaller allowing more to be launched per mission). The approval also allows SpaceX to market this product worldwide.

This is going to be a big competitive challenge for AST SpaceMobile. It needs to get its own cell-to-satellite system in orbit and operational, but is presently stymied because the rockets it has purchased (from ULA and Blue Origin) are presently grounded.

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How the delusions of Percival Lowell deluded generations about Mars

2:43 pm

The Martians by David Baron

The publishers of the 2025 history The Martians: The true story of an alien craze that captured turn-of-the-century America by David Baron recently sent me a review copy, asking me if I’d be willing to write a review. I was glad to oblige, because the twisted history of Mars and how scientists have repeatedly misinterpreted the data to fit their own conclusions has always fascinated me.

The Martians however isn’t really about “an alien craze that captured turn-of-the-century America” as stated in the book’s subtitle. This claim is a bald-faced exaggeration. While the idea of aliens on Mars appealed to many people from the 1880s onward into the mid-1900s, most Americans treated the proposal as intriguing at best, or absurd at worst.

Baron instead has written a nice biography of Percival Lowell, the wealthy amateur astronomer who built his own high quality telescope observatory in Arizona and spent the last three-quarters of his life studying Mars, trying to convince the world that the features he (and others) thought they saw on its surface were artificial canals built by an intelligent alien species attempting to stave off death on a dying planet whose water was slowly disappearing.

Lowell’s sincere passion for this false conclusion in the end convinced many of the existence of Martian civilization, and caused a long-lasting cultural stream that even generations later produced science fiction books and movies about aliens on Mars. Sadly it was based solely on his imagination and not on any real data from Mars. In the end, better observations proved him wrong, and the space age proved it without doubt: there are no canals on Mars, and no alien civilization ever existed there.

Baron tells the story of Lowell’s passion and how he fooled himself into seeing Martian canals with wit and clarity. If that is what you want to learn I recommend the book highly.

For a lot of other reasons however I do not recommend this book. » Read more

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October 6, 2026 Quick space links

2:33 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.

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SpaceX calls for more cooperation from other nations to avoid satellite collisions

12:35 pm

Orbital data shared or not shared by others
Orbital data shared or not shared by others. Click for original image.

In both a lecture held today at the International Astronautical Federation conference in Turkey by SpaceX official Mike Nicolls as well as a major press release by the company, SpaceX advocated for more cooperation by nations and companies to in order to more effectively prevent satellite collisions.

The graph above is from the press release and Nicoll’s presentation, and shows in white those nations and companies that publicly share their orbital data so that others can make sure their satellite paths do not conflict. Blue indicates those who do not share data, with China (PRC) and Russia (CIS) the biggest culprits, with China releasing almost nothing and Russia about half. SpaceX meanwhile releases almost all its satellite orbital data, the only exceptions being the national security launches it does for the federal government. As noted in the press release:

Operating safely in space requires knowing the trajectories of other nearby objects, to be able to effectively mitigate upcoming conjunctions. This requires satellite operators to share their ephemeris, typically by either publishing their own propagated trajectories, or proactively announcing their upcoming manoeuvres. Today, SpaceX operates at these standards and will continue to do so as our Starlink constellation grows, and we begin deploying the Starmind constellation next year. However, not all operators fly by these standards, with many still performing maneuvers without sharing their intentions ahead of time.

Not sharing satellite manoeuvres ahead of time can result in dangerous close approaches, that would otherwise have been easy to avoid. As the population of satellites in LEO continues to grow, we encourage every operator to adopt similar practices to prioritise the sharing of information and space safety.

In its presentations today SpaceX noted several examples where others satellite operators suddenly did unannounced maneuvers that required the company to quickly respond with its own maneuvers to guarantee no collision would occur. As noted in the release:

There is a simple solution to this issue if all operators proactively share planned ephemeris before the burn and then publish what actually happened afterwards. While the community has seen progress on this front, there are still considerable gaps, with many manoeuvring objects still not publishing their manoeuvres ahead of time.

SpaceX has created a webpage called Space-Safety.com for this purpose, using data collected by Starlink and making it available to all satellite users. Others can add their own data to the page. The company hopes this action will encourage countries like China to begin acting responsibly. And if not, the data from Starlink’s own systems will help everyone else track the non-players.

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Streamers from supernova from 1181 are actually clumpy, not continuous

10:26 am

Supernova 1181
Supernova 1181

Astronomers using the Gemini North ground-based telescope have determined that the filaments that radiate outward from a supernova that occurred in 1181 are not smooth plumes but are instead made up of clumps or knots of gas.

The image to the right comes from Figure 1 of the research paper [pdf]. The inset shows an optical image of the supernova remnant, which at first glance resembles a fireworks burst. The red box marks the area shown in the larger image, which shows that the the filaments are not smooth streaks but clumpy. From the paper’s abstract:

We present deep, narrowband Gemini North/GMOS images of the Pa 30 nebula that reveal rich small-scale structure in the ejecta filaments. In [S II], the number of detected filaments increases by about an order of magnitude compared to previous studies. The imaging further reveals that the filaments are not smooth radial streaks, but instead are composed of cascades of knots or clumps.

We know of this 1181 eruption from Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic sources from that time. The supernova remnant, dubbed Pa 30, was only discovered in 2013.

The researchers put forth no explanation for the clumpy nature of these filaments, as it appears they are observational scientists, not theorists. They only state this data will “provide important constraints on models proposed to explain the peculiar morphology of Pa 30.”

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Iran protests to Norway about unauthorized use of Starlink terminals in Iran

9:52 am

In an article today in Iran’s state-run press, the Iranian government announced another official protest to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) against Norway and the unauthorized use of Starlink terminals in Iran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Director General for International Peace and Security Mohammad Hassan-Nejad Pirkoohi summoned Norwegian Ambassador to Tehran Paul Bjornstad on Sunday and conveyed Tehran’s formal protest over Norway’s failure to take effective action against unauthorized Starlink operations, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

During the meeting, Hassan-Nejad outlined the use of Starlink’s satellite communications infrastructure by the United States and Israel to support interventionist activities against Iran. He said Tehran strongly objected to Norway’s continued failure to fulfill its responsibilities as the administration responsible for registering the Starlink satellite network with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

This whole kerfuffle is puzzling. Why protest to Norway? How is that country allowing illegal Starlink terminals to operate in Iran?

Meanwhile, it appears the ITU has been slow-walking its consideration of this Iranian complaint, which was first submitted in 2023. In the three years since all the ITU has done is “urged” Norway to stop this unauthorized use, but has imposed no fines or sanctions. Thus, Iran’s frustration at the lack of action.

I guess the ITU isn’t really bothered about the fact that Iran’s oppressed citizens are finding ways to communication with the outside world.

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Treaty to allow American launches from Canada remains unsigned

9:38 am

Proposed Canadian spaceports
Proposed Canadian spaceports

While the Canadian parliament is moving to pass a bill that appears aimed at streamlining and easing liability issues for future launch and re-entry operations inside that country, a separate agreement with the U.S. to allow American rockets and satellites to launch from Canada remains stalled and unsigned, more than two years after it was negotiated.

The Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) with the United States, which governs how U.S. launch technology can be used on Canadian soil, remains unsigned more than two years after the two countries finished negotiating it.

Under a TSA, the host country (Canada), agrees to protect U.S. launch hardware and data on its territory, through measures such as controlled areas at launch sites and limits on who can access the technology. The agreement is needed before U.S.-origin rockets can fly from Spaceport Nova Scotia, the site Maritime Launch Services (MLS) is developing near Canso.

… Canada announced in August 2024 that “substantive negotiations” had been completed.

Those negotiations however occurred during the Biden administration. It appears that the Trump administration is hesitating signing the deal, for a whole range of possibly reasons, including the generally poor relations between Trump and Canada’s leftist government during Trump’s second term. It is also possible Trump is uninterested in helping these Canadian spaceports, preferring instead the launch business goes to American launch sites.

Until this bill is signed, American rocket companies cannot launch from either of Canada’s two proposed spaceports. Neither can satellite companies put their payloads on the rockets of other countries, launched from those sites.

As for the new Canadian bill designed to ease liability and regulation on space operations, a first reading leaves me skeptical about whether it will achieve its goals. While the liability clauses seem beneficial, the regulatory language is complicated and confusing, and leaves a lot of room open to misuse by government officials.

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Turkey once again touts its plans to build a spaceport in Somalia

9:13 am

Kenya spaceports
Africa’s eastern coast, showing Kenya’s proposed spaceports

During his keynote speech yesterday at an international space conference in Turkey, that nation’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan once again touted its plan to build a spaceport in Somalia that was confirmed in December 2025, though he also failed once again to provide any specific details, such as a construction schedule or a specific location.

Turkey first proposed this Somalia spaceport idea early last year, though so far all we have seen is talk and no action. Erodogan’s speech meanwhile was mostly his attempt to duplicate John Kennedy’s 1961 Moon space. He not only boasted about this proposed spaceport, he outlined Turkey’s grand ten-year space plans.

Turkey’s National Space Programme, unveiled in 2021 with a 10-year vision, includes a series of objectives ranging from reaching the Moon and developing a globally competitive commercial satellite brand to establishing a regional positioning and timing system.

The programme also aims to secure independent access to space and establish a spaceport, improve astronomical observation and the tracking of space objects, and develop a domestic space industry and technology development zone. A crewed space mission is also among its objectives.

He also touted a Turkish lunar rover being built with “more than 80% of the components … domestically produced.” That rover is likely a very small one, and it is not clear how Turkey is going to get it to the Moon. Mostly likely it has a deal with China to do so, but no such agreement has been announced, as far as I know. Moreover, his use of the word “components” strongly suggests that the bulk of real design and construction is not really being done by Turkish engineers.

All of this could happen, but we would be wise to not believe it until we see it.

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The Space Force is asking for industry input on its expanding launch facilities at Vandenberg

8:20 am

Vandenberg Space Force Base
The commercially leased launchpads at Vandenberg

In order to meet the expected surge in launches in the coming years, the Space Force is now requesting industry feedback on its proposal to create what it is tentatively calling a “Mission Development Zone” at Vandenberg where it would create joint facilities for commercial operators.

Vandenberg, which hosts one of the service’s two coastal spaceports, expects its cadence could approach 200 launches per year by the end of the decade—a sharp increase from the 66 space launch missions it supported in 2025.

To meet that higher rate, the range not only needs to designate space for more launch pads and ensure its roads can handle heavier traffic, but it must also make room for the administrative offices, processing facilities, and assembly and test infrastructure that launch suppliers rely on. The Mission Development Zone is Vandenberg’s answer to that challenge.

While officials at Space Launch Delta 30, which oversees the range there, have a vision for what that area could look like, they’re asking industry for input on how to finance, design, construct, and maintain that infrastructure. They also want to hear what types of facilities and layout companies are most interested in.

I suspect the industry will ask the base to provide increased access to roads, fuel, and utility services, but will mostly want to lease their own launch complexes — as the map indicates the base has been doing so far — and run everything from within those complexes, rather than share some joint facility.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

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Redwire gets contract to build solar arrays for Axiom’s second space station module

8:02 am

Axiom's module assembly sequence
Axiom’s module assembly sequence

Axiom yesterday awarded Redwire a second contract to build the solar arrays for its second space station module, having previously in 2025 awarded the company the contract to build the arrays for the first module.

The press release provided no information as to contract price or schedule, but did say this about the status of Axiom’s first two modules:

Axiom Station’s first module is currently undergoing final assembly at Thales Alenia Space, in Turin, Italy, after which the module will be transferred to Houston for integration and testing and ultimately transferred to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for launch. Axiom Space is planning to launch the first module in 2028. The second module is preparing to undergo final assembly at Thales Alenia Space and is planned to launch less than a year after the first, where it can loiter on orbit until ready to dock with the first module. Together, these two modules will form a four crew-capable, operational free-flying space station.

The plan is to initially attach these modules to ISS, transfer much of ISS’s equipment into Axiom’s modules for NASA, and then detach to fly as an independent station before ISS is retired and de-orbited in 2030. Though this schedule remains unchanged since the last update, the schedule remains very tight to get everything done before ISS goes away.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

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

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