David Bull – Taking a close look at an 1896 wood block print
An evening pause: From a series of podcasts about one particular type of art, dubbed David’s Choice.
Hat tip Cotour.
Author: Robert Zimmerman
October 3, 2025 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.
- Ispace’s lunar lander passes structural ground testing
This lander is an upgrade from the two landers the company tried to land on the Moon (unsuccessfully), and is for a Japanese mission targeting a 2028 launch.
- Lunar Outpost touts its manned lunar rover proposal by showing it off at the Kennedy Space Center October 2-10
Unlike many other federal visitor centers that have been shuttered due to the government shut down, this visitor center is remaining open.
- Astronomers detect phosphine in nearby brown dwarf
This is the same molecule that astronomers thought they might have maybe detected in the atmosphere of Venus. And just like then, this brown dwarf detection has been followed immediately with joyous cries “We’ve found evidence of life!” Hardly. They have found unexpected chemistry, but that is a far cry from a biosignature.
- Europe and Japan further solidify their Ramses and Destiny+ joint mission to the asteroid Apophis
It appears Japan will launch both together, with Destiny+ doing a fly-by of the asteroid prior to Ramses’ arrival.
- Axiom extends its agreement with the United Kingdom for access to both its ISS module and future free-flying Axiom station
The UK is essentially buying space and passenger seats for future missions
SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites
SpaceX this morning successfully launched another 28 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The first stage completed its second flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
127 SpaceX
58 China
13 Russia
12 Rocket Lab
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 127 to 98.
Renée Zellweger – Roxie
An evening pause: From the film Chicago (2002).
Hat tip Judd Clark.
October 2, 2025 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.
- Lockheed Martin signs non-profit to study if a commercial mission with Orion, launched on other rockets, would make sense
Very preliminary, but it indicates the company is searching for ways to make money on Orion once SLS is eventually cancelled.
- Ispace to fly two South Korean commercial rovers on its future lunar lander missions
The rovers will be built by a company called UEL. Each are two-wheeled and would fly prior to ’27.
- Intuitive Machines completes acquisition of KinetX
The deal gives Intuitive Machines deep space navigation and communications capabilities.
- Japanese rocket startup Innovative Space Carrier purchases engines from American rocket company Ursa Major
The deal was signed in early July. Jay has doubts about Innovative Space Carrier, which seems to have very big dreams for a startup.
- Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS shows “extreme negative polarization”
Already some of making more into this than justified. It is merely a known aspect of comets, though the number here appears to be an outlier, not surprising as it comes from outside our solar system.
- On this day in 1958, the NACA (the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) officially became NASA
For some reason, while we pronounce “NASA” as a word, “NACA” was always spelled out when named, as in “the EN-A-SEE-A”.
Distractions
Jazz inspecting her new domain.
Posting has been relatively light this week for two reasons.
First, I am in the process of switching to a new computer, and getting it properly configured to my very complex requirements (which include a keyboard that matches the old RadioShack TRS-80 Model III) has been time consuming. Progress is being made, but with Linux there are always glitches than need fixing.
Second and more important, Diane and I adopted a new kitten this week, as shown in the picture to the right. We have named her Jazz, and getting her acclimated has required a bit of work, especially because our older cat Molly seems unhappy about the change (Nothing but hisses, which I think will fade with time). Things are improving but it does take me from work.
We hope this new family member will fill the hole when our tabby Misty disappeared in June, likely grabbed by a predator. So far it appears Jazz will do the job.
Sunspot update: For one month the Sun does what the scientists predicted!
It is the start of the month, which means it is time for my monthly sunspot update, using NOAA’s own monthly update of its graph of sunspot activity and annotating it with extra information to illustrate the larger scientific context.
This graph is below, with the green dot showing the sunspot number for activity on the Sun’s Earth-facing hemisphere in September. As you can see, the count closely matched the April 2025 prediction by NOAA’s panel of solar scientists, which posited that the Sun was finally beginning its ramp down from solar maximum (as indicated by the purple/magenta line).
» Read more
Satellite propulsion startup Portal successfully tests new and radical thruster design
The satellite propulsion startup Portal has become the first commercial company to test successfully a thruster that uses concentrated sunlight to ionize a fuel.
The concept has been studied several times by NASA and other government entities, but never tested to a point where it could be used on a mission. According to this report:
For the vacuum chamber test at Portal’s Bothell lab, engineers used an electrical induction system to simulate the sun’s heating power. The apparatus reached temperatures in the range of 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,700 degrees Fahrenheit), and the performance of the thruster validated Portal’s propulsion architecture for integration with future flight hardware.
The concept is similar to an ion engine, but appears to produce more thrust, allowing it to move satellites more quickly to different orbits. Portal hopes to do an in orbitat test by next year. The company has raised $17.5 million in private funding, and $45 million from an Air Force grant.
Update on the plans to observe interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas using interplanetary spacecraft
Link here. The key take-away is that nothing is being repurposed to attempt to fly to Comet 3I/Atlas. Instead, as expected the science teams for all the Mars orbiters will turn their instruments to the comet when it is at its closest point to Mars, about 19 million miles away.
Don’t expect any Earth-shattering revelations:
The cameras on these spacecraft were designed to photograph the surface of Mars from Mars orbit, and won’t be able to pick out much detail on such a relatively small comet 30 million km away. But the cameras may be able to capture images of its long tail and also gather data that scientists can use to find out more about what 3I/ATLAS is made of.
Some spectroscopic data will be obtained, but it likely will not be much better than what Webb and other Earth-based telescopes have gotten already.
Similarly, the science team for Europe’s Juice mission, on its way to Jupiter, will take a look, but the distances and orbital positioning will likely limit what it can detect as well.
October 1, 2025 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Shocking Blue – Venus
An evening pause: Performed live 1970. A real taste of the sixties, even if this took place just after the decade ended.
Hat tip Doug Johnson.
October 1, 2025 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.
- Orbital tug startup Momentus signs deal with satellite propulsion startup Pulsar Fusion to test its engines in orbit
The mission will fly in 2026 on Momentus’ Vigoride tug.
- Orbital servicing startup Starfish Space touts its Otter Pup 2 demo mission to test its simplified docking system
It claims Otter Pup 2 will rendezvous using just one thruster and autonomous software.
- India rocket startup Agnikul says it plans to vertically land and recover its Agnibaan rocket’s first stage
The stage will land on a drone ship.
- Blue Origin signs deal with Luxembourg Space Agency to develop a project to map the Moon’s water ice and resources
Like all of Blue Origin’s proposed projects, it is long on pretty graphics and high-minded goals, but short on any specific details.
- China releases an image of its Tianwen-2 asteroid probe on its way to near Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa
It has been in space now for 125 days, and is now about 28 million miles from the asteroid.
- A list showing every delay since Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser was first proposed
Quite disgusting. First proposed in 2007 with a launch promised in 2009, there follows almost two dozen announced delays, steadily pushing the launch back to late ’26, if then.
- This week in 2022, Juno flew by Jupiter’s moon Europa
Cool image at the link. It was the first close look in two decades, since the end of the Galileo orbiter.