Author: Robert Zimmerman

January 28, 2025 Quick space links

3:13 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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The blobby bottom of Utopia Basin

3:05 pm

The blobby bottom of Utopia Basin
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on October 25, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled merely as a “terrain sample,” it was likely taken not as part of any specific research project, but to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule so as to maintain the camera’s proper temperature.

The terrain is definitely blobby, with some hollows appears to have ripple dunes suggesting dust and sand. The rounded mounds and some hollows however suggest instead near surface ice or places where sublimation of that underground ice caused the hollows.

Some of the circular depressions might suggest impact craters, but if so, those craters have been significantly modified and softened since impact. Some do appear to be filled with glacial debris.
» Read more

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Pushback: The left discovers it doesn’t have the right to break the law

2:00 pm

The Bill of Rights, still in force
The Bill of Rights, still in force

In the past few months, since Trump won re-election in November, the string of legal and political victories by the thousands of individuals blacklisted by the left and the Democratic Party in the past decade has been so overwhelming that for me to report each story as it happened would have required me to change the focus of this website entirely, something I did not wish to do.

Instead, I have collected a short list of these victories, hardly complete, and am now posting them here in one essay. This will not only put these victories on the record, it will show unequivocally how many leftists since 2020 somehow came to believe they were not required to follow the law in imposing their leftist agenda on others. The belief however was a delusion. It has just taken a few years to make the rule of law regain its primacy.

Read now and celebrate. Note also that Trump’s election win was completely irrelevant to most of these stories. While his return to the presidency clearly accelerated the trend, the trend had been established long before his election. And that trend has only just begun.
» Read more

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Arianespace to launch Ariane-6 five times in 2025, with the first launch targeting February 26th

9:27 am

Arianespace now plans to launch the Ariane-6 rocket five times in 2025, with the first launch scheduled for February 26, 2025.

On 13 and 14 January, the Ariane 6 core stage stack and two solid-fuel boosters were successfully brought together on the ELA-4 launch pad. While this process was occurring, an Antonov transport plane touched down at Felix Eboué Airport carrying the rocket’s payload, the CSO-3 reconnaissance satellite.

This will be the first commercial payload launched by Ariane-6, a military reconnaissance satellite for France.

In addition, the Vega-C rocket is scheduled for six flights, though some of those flights might be arranged and controlled by the rocket’s Italian builder, Avio, not the European Space Agency’s commercial arm, Arianespace. Sometime in the next two years Arianespace’s responsibiilty for Vega-C is being phased out, so that Avio will own and sell all further launches.

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Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 test plane breaks the sound barrier

9:09 am

UPDATE: The XB-1, using the exact same air corridor used by Chuck Yeager when he became the first pilot to break the sound barrier in 1947, has successfully become the first privately funded and constructed airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound, doing it three times for about six minutes total.

Original post:
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The airplane startup Boom Supersonic is hoping to complete its first manned supersonic flight today, piloted by chief test tilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg.

The flight will be manned, using its prototype XB-1 test plane.

Since March 2024, Boom has carried out 11 test flights as it gradually pushed the envelope toward breaking the sound barrier. [Today’s] flight of the 68-ft-long (21-m) XB-1 prototype will be conducted in a special air corridor reserved for supersonic aircraft. During the 38-minute flight at an altitude of 34.000 ft (10,000 m), the aircraft is expected to reach Mach 1.1, which is half of the ultimate goal of Mach 2.2.

Once the company completes test flights of XB-1 it will begin building its Overture commercial supersonic plane for sale to airline companies, capable of carrying up to 80 passengers. It already has contracts and financial support from a number of major airlines, including United and Japan Airlines.

I have embedded the live stream below. It has already started.
» Read more

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Firefly planning five launches from Vandenberg in 2025

9:00 am

In announcing its plans to begin launches from both Wallops Island in Virginia and Esrange in Sweden in 2026, Firefly has also said it is planning five launches from Vandenberg in 2025.

Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea

The company is also building a launchpad at Cape Canaveral, so if these plans reach fruition it will eventually have four different launch sites. One issue for all these sites remains red tape. For example:

[Firefly VP Adam] Oakes said Firefly is continuing to work on regulatory issues for launches from Esrange. “The regulatory piece can really put you back if you want to let it,” he said. “We have a lot of paperwork in place. We’re not quite there on everything but things are moving in the right direction.”

One serious problem for Esrange is its interior location in Sweden. Any orbital launch will have to cross land, with most crossing significant territory of other countries. While the site has been used for decades for suborbital test launches, no orbital launches have ever taken off from there, and getting clearance will not be easy for orbital rockets to cross either Norway, Finland, or Russia. And unless the lower stages are reusable they will have to crash inside those territories, or inside Sweden itself.

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Barcelona Gipsy Klezmer Orchestra – Lulle Lulle

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Hat tip Judd Clark, who provides this translation:

O flower flower
O flower flower bouquet bouquet
I’m for you
I’m for you
I’m crazy for you
I’m crazy, I’m crazy
I’m crazy, this is true

Where did you go that I was always on your mind
I’m dying from missing you because I cannot see you
Where did you go that I was always on your mind
I’m dying from missing you because I cannot see you

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SpaceX launches another 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities

3:13 pm

SpaceX today successfully launched another 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its 20th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. At this time the first iteration of the direct-to-cell Starlink sub-constellation is largely complete, and the company has begun beta testing using these satellites directly with smartphones on Earth.

The 2025 launch race:

12 SpaceX
6 China
1 Blue Origin

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January 27, 2025 Quick space links

3:04 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.

2 comments

Barren Mars

10:45 am

Panorama by Perseverance on sol 1400, January 27, 2025
Click for full resolution panorama. For original images, go here, here, and here.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

Cool image time! The panorama above was created by me using three pictures taken today (here, here, and here) by the right navigation camera on the Mars rover Perseverance. The top of the rover can be seen to the right, as well as its tracks.

The overview map to the right provides the context. The blue dot marks Perseverance’s present position. The white dotted line its past travel route, with the red dotted line indicating the planned route. The yellow lines indicate the approximate area covered by the panorama.

Though the planned route had the rover head west and then south, the rover team instead had the rover retreat eastward about 450 feet the past few days, where it sits now. At the previous western location the team had attempted to find a location to drill a sample core, but apparently the ground was not satisfactory. By retreating to this previous location it could be they think they will have better luck.

What strikes me about this hilly terrain just outside Jezero Crater is its barrenness. You would have great difficulty anywhere on Earth finding terrain so empty of life. On Mars however there is nothing but dirt and rocks, for as far as the eye can see.

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Strap-on booster of Long March 3B launched yesterday crashed next to home

9:53 am

Long March 3B
Long March 3B

One of the four strap-on boosters used by a Long March 3B rocket that was launched yesterday from the Xichang spaceport in southwest China ended up crashing right next to a home.

The TJS-14 satellite launched on a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Thursday at 10:32 a.m. EST (1532 GMT; 11:32 p.m. local time). The satellite is safely on its way to geostationary orbit, but one of the rocket’s four strap-on side boosters fell to Earth in a populated area of Zhenyuan County in Guizhou province.

Security camera footage posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo captured the scene of two family members reacting to an explosion near their home that lit up the night sky. Fortunately, the booster, which exploded on impact, fell in what appeared to be hills above the house.

The video can be viewed here. While the booster apparently missed the house, any remaining hypergolic fuel in the booster posed a very serious health threat, especially if it was released as a gas. That fuel is extremely toxic, and can dissolve skin if it makes contact. I would expect that until a major clean-up occurred at the crash site, the people that lived in that home will have to evacuate.

China has said that it intends to replace all of its hypergolic-fueled rockets with liquid-fueled, and is expanding operations at its Wenchang coastal spaceport as well. When however these rockets stop launching from its interior spaceports remains unknown. It is likely in fact that toxic stages will continue to fall on the heads of Chinese citizens for years to come.

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January 24, 2025 Quick space links

3:17 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.

I also want to thank all my readers for their best wishes and prayers. Both Diane and I appreciate it beyond words.

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Today’s blacklisted American: Queer protesters force cancellation of a speech against men playing women’s sports

2:45 pm

Olivia Krolczyk being silenced at Washington University
Olivia Krolczyk being silenced at Washington University

They’re coming for you next: Just because the majority of the country has chosen a different path opposing the queer agenda in schools and public facilities doesn’t mean the war is over. Far from it. A mob of protesters supporting the queer agenda in all things forced the cancellation of a speech at a Turning Point USA chapter event at the University of Washington earlier this week.

Olivia Krolczyk was unable to give her talk, “Protect Women from Men: The Threat of the Trans Agenda,” after protesters pulled the fire alarm and later smashed a window in the building. The university’s TPUSA chapter and the Leadership Institute hosted the event.

“The responsibility for interrupting last night’s event falls on those whose actions were disruptive and damaging, including breaking a window, graffiti in the building and wasting firefighters’ time with a false fire alarm,” university spokesperson Victor Balta told The College Fix in an email Wednesday. “Anyone who is identified to have been responsible for vandalism or property damage will be pursued through legal channels,” he said.

» Read more

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European rocket startups team up to send letter to ESA outlining their priorities

11:18 am

In a surprising joint action, six European rocket startups have sent a detailed letter to the European Space Agency (ESA) outlining several recommendations about policy required by these rocket startups in order for their industry to prosper.

The companies involved were HyImpulse, Latitude, MaiaSpace, Orbex, Rocket Factory Augsburg and The Exploration Company. The letter’s recommendations were wide-ranging and appeared focused on getting ESA to free up the industry from traditional European red tape.

  • Provide funding in the range of €150 million to a limited number of rocket companies, not all. The companies say that funding will make it possible for the winning companies to raise another €1 billion in private investment capital. Limiting the number of companies getting awards will also force competition and achievement. The awards should also be granted only after specific milestones are achieved, not based on promises of eventual achievement.
  • Ease access to launchpads both at French Guiana and in Norway and the United Kingdom. Right now French rule-making at French Guiana is hindering that access, and ESA rules about launches make it harder to use the new commercial spaceports in Norway and the UK.
  • Red tape must be reduced. For example, ESA should not set rules on the size of payloads, but give companies “the freedom to determine their payload capabilities, allowing market dynamics to drive innovation rather than imposing artificial requirements.”

That the German rocket startup Isar Aerospace did not sign this letter is interesting, especially since it is now only a few months from completing its first orbital test launch of its Spectrum rocket from the new spaceport in Andoya, Norway. It also has a twenty-year lease for that launchpad.

It is also interesting that the letter did not include the newly proposed orbital spaceport Esrange in Sweden. That launch site has been used for decades for suborbital tests. It is now attempting to make itself available for orbital tests as well. Its interior location however is likely the reason these rocket companies left it out. Too many issues for them to consider launching from there.

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Engineers confirm OSIRIS-APEX successfully completed its second of six close fly-bys of the Sun

10:19 am

Engineers have now confirmed that the asteroid probe OSIRIS-APEX successfully completed its second of six close fly-bys of the Sun in September, using its solar panels to shield its instruments from the Sun’s heat and light.

On Jan. 23 the mission team completed its review of all the data recorded by the spacecraft and its instruments during the solar pass [about 46 million miles from the Sun]. “There were no surprises, and the spacecraft is operating well,” said Mike Moreau, OSIRIS-APEX deputy project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

As planned, on Sept. 2, 2024, OSIRIS-APEX passed through perihelion — the phase of its orbit closest to the Sun. The trajectory to Apophis takes the spacecraft much closer to the Sun than it was originally designed for. Between Aug. 1 and Oct. 13, the spacecraft was configured in a special orientation that uses one of the solar arrays to shade the most heat-sensitive components, keeping them within safe operating temperatures.

Because of the improvised orientation during the close approach, full data communications was not possible until months afterward. Only now have engineers completed their analysis.

OSIRIS-APEX original mission was to visit the asteroid Bennu and return samples from it to Earth. Once that mission was successfully completed, the probe was repurposed to go to the potentially dangerous asteroid Apophis when it makes its next close approach to the Earth in April 2029.

I have embedded below a short video showing the spacecraft’s journey to get to Apophis.
» Read more

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China and SpaceX complete launches

10:02 am

Both China and SpaceX successfully completed launches since last night.

First, China placed a classified technology communications test satellite in orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China. No further details about the satellite were released. Nor did China’s state-run press provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters, all using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China. UPDATE: One of the four strap-on boosters crashed next to a home.

Then SpaceX this morning launched 23 more Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. The first stage completed its 23rd flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The 2025 launch race:

11 SpaceX
6 China
1 Blue Origin

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Space Perspective needs new investors

9:50 am

According to this news article today, the high altitude balloon company Space Perspective is in need of new investment capital, and its apparent lease default in the Cape Canaveral area is because the company has apparently shifted operations about ninety miles south because costs there are lower.

Space Perspective co-founder Jane Poynter told OBJ in a Zoom interview in December that although Port Canaveral “is our home port” and “we’re very committed to the community we work in” the company had been operating out of Fort Pierce, nearly 90 miles south, for several months. “They are having to struggle with how they balance what’s happening with the cruise industry and space industry growing like gangbusters,” she said of the Space Coast. “It’s so congested that we can’t actually stay there.”

While the company claims it is still moving forward, it has had to lay off most of its staff as it tries to find more investment capital. While it also claims it will return to full staffing when that investment arrives, the question is whether it will arrive. At this moment the default of $90,295 in rent to Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority is not a good look at all.

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AST SpaceMobile raises $400 million in capital

9:33 am

The direct-to-cell satellite company AST SpaceMobile has raised another $400 million in investment capital, giving it a total of $900 million in cash on hand for building its full constellation of its much larger second generation Bluebird satellites.

The operator now has more than $900 million of cash on its balance sheet to shift production of its Block 2 BlueBird satellites into a higher gear this year, after deploying five smaller Block 1 spacecraft to low Earth orbit (LEO) in September.

At about 223 square meters when fully deployed, a Block 2 satellite is significantly larger than Block 1, which spans 64 square meters, enabling 10 times the capacity to support up to 120 megabits per second (Mbps) peak data rates.

It has plans to launch 45 of these larger satellites in the next two years.

At the moment AST SpaceMobile and SpaceX are the only two companies offering direct-to-cell service. One component of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation has this capability, and the company has a deal with T-Mobile to use it to fill in gaps in its cell tower ground network. AST in turn has a deal with AT&T.

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Report predicts both Boeing and Airbus will sell off their space divisions this year

9:23 am

According to an analysis of industry trends by the company Space Capital, it predicts that both Boeing and Airbus will sell off their space divisions this year.

According to Space Capital’s latest investment trends report released Jan. 23, these aerospace giants are struggling to maintain pace with the rapidly evolving space sector. “These divestitures by entrenched government contractors marks a pivotal moment in the space economy, as it changes the competitive landscape, establishes a new power broker system, and creates new opportunities and risks in the government’s extended capabilities in space,” the report states.

This prediction for Boeing is not a surprise, especially as the company has also recently announced it expects to take a $1.7 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2024 from five different program in its Defense, Space and Security business unit.

Most of those charges will go towards two programs: $800 million for the KC-46A tanker and $500 million for the T-7A trainer aircraft. That leaves $400 million in charges for Starliner as well as the VC-25B presidential aircraft and MQ-25 drone.

Airbus’s space division is likely in trouble because of the failure of its Ariane-6 to compete successfully in the modern launch market. It has obtained some launch contracts, but not as many as expected because, as an expendable rocket, it costs too much to launch.

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Peeling flood lava on Mars

12:09 pm

Peeling flood lava on Mars
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on October 2, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The scientists label this “enigmatic terrain” because its origins are a bit difficult to decipher. The location is just north of the equator, so this is in the dry tropics of Mars, where no near-surface ice is found at all. The location is also in the middle of Elysium Planitia, one of the largest flood lava plains on Mars. Elysium is a largely featureless flat plain, where flood lava from the large giant Martian volcanoes covered a vast region.

Here however that top layer of flood lava appears almost like peeling paint that failed to stick to the underlying rougher terrain. In many places it is gone, exposing a stippled surface that is also likely flood lava but laid down either in a rougher manner or eroded over time to leave a rougher surface.
» Read more

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Congresswoman calls for moving NASA headquarters to Florida

9:29 am

Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida) has now publicly repeated Governor Ron DeSantis’ call to move NASA’s main headquarters from Washington to Florida, doing so by sending Trump a letter noting the reasons why such a move make sense.

“I write to you in support of relocating NASA’s Headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Florida’s Space Coast,” Luna wrote. “While Washington, D.C., has historically been the home of NASA’s headquarters, the rapidly evolving space landscape demands a more integrated and efficient approach to space policy. Florida’s Space Coast, home to key facilities like the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, is uniquely positioned to support this transformation and strengthen America’s leadership in space exploration.”

The lease for NASA’s headquarters building expires in 2028. The agency has already put out a request for proposals for building a new building from scratch, at great cost. I suspect that expensive project is about to die, and the lease expiration will provide the Trump administration and Congress the motive for reducing staffing at headquarters most significantly, as well as moving it elsewhere.

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NASA quickly shutters its DEI offices

9:10 am

NASA has quickly complied with the executive order issued by Donald Trump right after taking office that demanded all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices within the federal government be shut down by January 22, 2025 at the latest.

In a memo to employees Jan. 22 obtained by SpaceNews, NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro said the agency was working to close offices related to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) at the agency and cancel relevant contracts. “These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination,” she wrote in the memo.

The steps, she wrote, are intended to implement an executive order issued by President Trump hours after his Jan. 20 inauguration. The order called on federal agencies to terminate DEIA programs and positions related to them, calling such efforts “discriminatory” and an “immense public waste.”

That was followed the next day by a memo to federal agencies by Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), directing them to remove “outward facing media” related to DEIA programs by 5 p.m. Eastern Jan. 22 and to place employees of DEIA offices on paid administrative leave. The memo also requires agencies to provide lists of their DEIA offices and employees, as well as related contracts, by Jan. 23, and submit plans for laying off DEIA employees by the end of the month.

As of today it appears the NASA DEI websites have all been removed. It also appears that NASA is complying completely, unlike some government agencies that have tried to save its DEI programs and employees by changing their job titles. We should also expect the racist quota hiring system NASA instituted during the Biden administration to favor some races over others will now be dismantled. Couldn’t happen sooner.

What I have found interesting is the relatively lack of leftist protests — so far — for these actions. It will happen, of course but it also appears the general public won’t buy into it. The leftist propaganda press will highlight those protests, but since very few people trusts or even pays attention to that propaganda press any longer these protests will carry little weight.

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Rocket Lab wins launch contract with German satellite constellation

8:58 am

Rocket Lab has won a launch contract with the German satellite constellation Orora Technologies,with the launch to occur only four months hence and place eight satellites into orbit.

The constellation is focused on monitoring wildfires for fire-fighting teams, and will eventually have 100 satellites in orbit.

OroraTech is developing a constellation of satellites with thermal infrared cameras that can provide 24/7 monitoring of wildfires globally, supporting better and faster wildfire response to protect forests, people, and infrastructure worldwide. The mission will deploy its latest plane of satellites called OTC-P1 to their current constellation, further expanding OroraTech’s capabilities to first responders, governments, and industry partners. The company will expand their constellation with up to 100 satellites in total by 2028.

If this launch goes as planned, expect Rocket Lab to win launch contracts for the rest of the constellation, a minimum of 11 more launches.

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China launches 6th group of 18 satellites for its Spacesail internet constellation

8:52 am

China late yesterday successfully launched the sixth group of 18 satellites for its Spacesail internet constellation, its Long March 6A rocket lifting off from the Taiyuan spaceport in northeast China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. The state-run report however touted proudly how the rocket uses liquid oxygen and kerosene, both of which are “non-toxic and pollution-free”. Apparently it has recognized the bad press it has gotten from crashing stages inside China that use very toxic hypergolic fuels.

The article noted that China plans at least ten launches in 2025 of the Long March 6A, likely as part of building this constellation of more than 1,200 satellites.

The 2025 launch race:

10 SpaceX
5 China
1 Blue Origin

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