Author: Robert Zimmerman

May 14, 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.

  • Video of the launch of Venera 10 on May 14, 1975
    The lander operated for 65 minutes on the surface of Venus, taking the second picture ever of that surface. It worked in conjunction with Venera-9, which launched a week earlier and took the first picture ever of Venus’s surface.
17 comments

Brain terrain on Mars?

11:00 am

Brain terrain on Mars?
Click for original picture. For full image go here.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and expanded to post here, was taken on April 2, 2026 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled simply as a “terrain sample”, such images are usually taken not as part of any specific research project, but to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule. The camera team needs to take pictures at a regular cadence to maintain its proper temperature.

When they have such a gap, they try to find interesting things to photograph, and usually succeed. In this case we are looking at what I think the scientists dub “brain terrain,” a feature unique to Mars that is thought related to near surface ice and its sublimation, though at present the origins of brain terrain remain murky. The scale is approximately 100 meters across the width of this picture.

However, the location of this brain terrain makes any conclusions about its origin difficult.
» Read more

3 comments

Japanese company NEC initiates its own orbital tug project

9:08 am

Having won a grant from Japan’s $6.6 billion strategic fund (designed to encourage private enterprise in space), the Japanese company NEC Corporation has now begun work on its own commercial orbital tug, which it dubs an Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV).

Moving forward, NEC plans to conduct market feasibility studies, conceptual design, and demonstrations for OTVs by the end of fiscal year 2027 to clarify the required functions and other specifications. Following this, NEC plans to begin development of a demonstration model in fiscal year 2028, with the goal of launching it and conducting in-space demonstrations in fiscal year 2032, and aims to bring the technology to practical use in the future.

While the overall goal makes sense, the timetable seems far too slow. By the time NEC is ready with its operational OTV in 2032, at least a half dozen tugs will have been in operation for at least three to five years. Already several tugs have flown missions, with several more in the pipeline. Moreover, these companies have found less demand for tugs than expected, and have been repurposing their technology to other purposes.

Regardless, it does appear Japan is beginning to use this strategic fund as intended, to encourage the development of a private space industry, independent of its government space agency JAXA.

1 comment

Europa Clipper and Juice make simultaneous UV light observations of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas

8:52 am

Overview of November observations
Overview of November 2025 observations.
Click for original image.

By viewing interstellar comet 3I/Atlas when it was between the Jupiter probes Europa Clipper and Juice (on their way to Jupiter) in November 2025, the science teams for both were able to get a 360 degree view of the comet in ultraviolet wavelengths.

“As the comet passed between Juice and Europa Clipper, we were able to informally coordinate observations between the two spacecraft,” said Dr. Kurt Retherford, the principal investigator of Juice-UVS and Europa-UVS. “Crucially, we observed hydrogen, oxygen and carbon emissions. These elements are produced when gases escaping the comet’s nucleus break apart into atoms when exposed to sunlight.”

…“Observing the interstellar comet was some exciting bonus science. The resulting rare and unique dataset includes gas emissions and scattered dust,” said SwRI’s Dr. Philippa Molyneux, co-deputy principal investigator for the Juice-UVS instrument. “This was the first time we’ve had simultaneous direct views of a comet’s coma of escaping gas from two directions. Europa Clipper showed us the night side of the comet, with a great deal of scattered dust, while Juice imaged mostly glowing gas on the day side.”

…The researchers found higher levels of carbon emissions from 3I/ATLAS than expected early on, especially in comparison to typical comets from our solar system, corroborating similar findings through other observations about the interstellar comet’s origin and composition. Observing the trends of emissions over several days revealed how the ratios of these molecules changed and how the comet evolved during its journey through our solar system.

These results confirm once again that while Comet 3I/Atlas is from outside our solar system and has some unique features, it is still remarkably similar to ordinary comets found within our solar system.

0 comments

Pharmaceutical company to use Varda’s capsules to manufacture heart drugs in space

8:34 am

Varda's W-5 capsule after landing today
Varda’s fifth capsule after landing on January 29, 2026

The pharmaceutical company United Therapeutics Corporation has purchased space on an unspecified number of future Varda’s recoverable capsules so that it can manufacture pulmonary drugs in space.

Through the collaboration, Varda and United Therapeutics will conduct pharmaceutical processing of small molecule medicines for pulmonary disease aboard Varda’s orbital manufacturing and reentry platform during multiple missions to low Earth orbit.

The companies will utilize microgravity’s influence on the structure and crystallization properties of therapeutic compounds in pursuit of novel formulations that may improve stability, bioavailability, and other delivery characteristics. The first compounds to be analyzed onboard Varda spacecraft will likely be focused on therapies for patients living with life-threatening pulmonary diseases.

Varda has a deal in Australia to land 20 more capsules through 2028. This deal helps fill the payload space on those capsules.

As I have noted repeatedly, there is money to be made manufacturing drugs in weightlessness for later sale back on Earth, a reality that NASA has blocked on ISS for decades. Varda is now grabbing that market, which is also why a lot of investment capital has become available for a whole slew of proposed competing recoverable capsule companies.

1 comment

Chinese pseudo-company launches its expendable Zhuque-2 rocket

11:20 pm

The Chinese pseudo-company Landspace successfully placed an experimental payload into orbit today (May 14th in China), its expendable Zhuque-2 rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

Video of the launch (found by BtB’s stringer Jay) can be seen here. Zhuque-2 was the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit, but it is not reusable, as is Landspace’s larger Zhuque-3 rocket that has made one failed attempt to land its first stage. The company hopes to try again before the summer.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

56 SpaceX
26 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 56 to 47.

0 comments

The Warning – Enter Sandman

6:01 pm

In 2017 I posted an evening pause of this band playing this same song, when Daniela (on guitar) was 14 years old, Paulina (on drums) was 12 years old, and Alejandra (on bass guitar) was 9 yrs old. This version is from their 2025 tour in Mexico (where they are from). To put it mildly, they are a bit older.

Hat tip Richard Reese.

3 comments

May 13, 2026 Quick space links

2:45 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.

4 comments

Corroding glacial features inside Martian crater

11:25 am

Overview map
Glacier country in the Martian northern mid-latitudes.

The corroding glacial floor of a Martian crater
Click for original image.

Today’s cool image gives us another nice example of the ample availability of near surface ice on Mars, even if it might take a bit of processing to extract it from the dust and soil. The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on March 31, 2026 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The picture captures in detail most of the floor of a 5.8-mile-wide unnamed crater, located in the northern mid-latitudes of Mars, in a 2000-mile-long strip I like to call glacier country, because practically every image taken there shows extensive glacial features. The white dot on the overview map above shows the location within that strip, with the inset showing the full crater, as well as the surrounding terrain.

The softness of this landscape strongly suggests a topsoil well impregnated with ice. The crater’s rim is itself very soft and subdued, suggesting melting and sublimation over time.

The material in the floor of the crater resembles peeling paint, which in this case suggests the ice there has been sublimating away as well. Nonetheless, there remains a lot under the surface. Future Martian colonists will certainly come to this region to gather ice for their own purposes.

0 comments

New cost estimate for Trump’s Golden Dome exceeds $1 trillion over 20 years

10:15 am

According to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) new estimates, the cost to build Trump’s proposed Golden Dome defense plan will be about $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years, double what the CBO predicted last year and more than six times what the program’s head has predicted.

The Congressional Budget Office issued an updated estimate today of the cost of President Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense system. Lacking detailed data from the Administration, CBO based its analysis on the capabilities called for in Trump’s January 2025 Executive Order and concluded the total cost over 20 years is $1.2 trillion, about twice its estimate last year, with the bulk of it for Space-Based Interceptors.

Trump issued the Iron Dome for America Executive Order on January 27, 2025, seven days after his second term began. He soon renamed it Golden Dome in part to distinguish it from Israel’s Iron Dome system which has more limited capabilities. Trump appointed Gen. Michael Guetlein to lead the project and in an Oval Office meeting on May 20, 2025, said it would cost $175 billion and be completed in three years, before he leaves office.

By then CBO had estimated the cost at $524 billion based on information available at the time.

Guetlein has since raised his estimate to $185 billion, but it is widely viewed as far too low.

Several important points: First, the CBO’s cost estimates are usually wrong, in either direction, which means the cost could be a lot less, or a lot more. Odds are that in this case its estimate is trending in the right direction. Guetlein’s cost estimate is absurdly too low.

Second, the high cost helps explain why a lot of investment money is pouring into a lot of new space startups, for both rocket and satellite companies. Wall Street sees the federal government spending a lot of money on Golden Dome, and wants to get into the action. For the same reason this is why a lot of space companies have shifted their focus from civilian projects to the military.

Finally, the idea of Golden Dome is perfectly reasonable, as its concept has already been proven both by the U.S.’s Patriot missile system and Israel’s Iron Dome. The implementation however is going to be bad, because the people in Washington being asked to do it have a terrible track record. They routinely waste money and manage projects badly.

8 comments

ESA announces new round of funding for new rocket companies

9:28 am

Capitalism in space: The European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday announced a new round in its Boost! program to provide new startup rocket companies funding.

The new round will accept new submissions through 2028. The program is designed to encourage the development of private and independent rocket companies, competing for market share, with the added ability to provide ESA its needed launch services. What makes this ESA program different than all its previous rocket programs is that ESA does not own or control the rockets. It is helping to get these companies started, and will simply then be a customer buying the product from them once operation. Ownership will belong to the companies, not ESA.

To emphasize the ownership point, to get funding under this program “requires private co-funding. For every euro invested by ESA in commercial space businesses, often more than five euros are leveraged from private investors.”

So far ESA has provided funding to eleven different European startups, including Isar Aerospace, Rocket Factory Augsburg, and PLD, all three of which hope to make their first orbital launch this year. This new round is being offered to these companies and any new ones that might come forward. Of the 110 million euros so far allocated 20 million euros remains available for distribution.

3 comments
1 … 9 10 11 12 13 … 2,929