December 11, 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.
- American Airlines considering replacing ViaSat with Amazon Leo or Starlink for WiFi on its airplanes
The company appears to be favoring Leo, but nothing is confirmed or settled.
- European aerospace companies Kongserg and Helsing form partnership
It appears their capabilities are very complimentary.
- Webb detects supernova only only 730 million years after the Big Bang, the earliest seen yet
The big take-away is how little it differs from supernovae in our own time.
- Scientists simulate what an exoplanet super-Jupiter look like
Data said it was red with a very dusty and stormy atmosphere and they modeled its appearance based on this.
- Flaring black hole produces 60,000 kilometer per second winds
It has a mass of 30 million Suns, and sits at the center of a galaxy.
- Firefly gets a new commercial payload for its second Blue Ghost mission, going to the far side of the Moon
The company is Volta Space Technologies, and its payload is a demonstration test of its wireless power receiver for its proposed lunar power grid.
- L3Harris satellite-jamming system approved for export to close U.S. allies
Those allies are the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
- Perseverance detects static electricity produced by Martian dust devils
I didn’t post this story last week when it was first announced because the media framed it as “Lightning found on Mar!” That’s balderdash. What was actually found was that the dust moving in dust devils produces static charges that have now been detected. I should have clarified this point then. I thank Jay for getting me to correct this omission.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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.
- American Airlines considering replacing ViaSat with Amazon Leo or Starlink for WiFi on its airplanes
The company appears to be favoring Leo, but nothing is confirmed or settled.
- European aerospace companies Kongserg and Helsing form partnership
It appears their capabilities are very complimentary.
- Webb detects supernova only only 730 million years after the Big Bang, the earliest seen yet
The big take-away is how little it differs from supernovae in our own time.
- Scientists simulate what an exoplanet super-Jupiter look like
Data said it was red with a very dusty and stormy atmosphere and they modeled its appearance based on this.
- Flaring black hole produces 60,000 kilometer per second winds
It has a mass of 30 million Suns, and sits at the center of a galaxy.
- Firefly gets a new commercial payload for its second Blue Ghost mission, going to the far side of the Moon
The company is Volta Space Technologies, and its payload is a demonstration test of its wireless power receiver for its proposed lunar power grid.
- L3Harris satellite-jamming system approved for export to close U.S. allies
Those allies are the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
- Perseverance detects static electricity produced by Martian dust devils
I didn’t post this story last week when it was first announced because the media framed it as “Lightning found on Mar!” That’s balderdash. What was actually found was that the dust moving in dust devils produces static charges that have now been detected. I should have clarified this point then. I thank Jay for getting me to correct this omission.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
An interesting find with respect to metals:
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-molten-metal-nano-droplets-reveal.html
The formation of solids is essential in various natural processes, including mineralization, ice formation, and the folding of protein fibrils. It also plays a significant role in technological applications such as pharmacy and industries that use metals, such as aviation, construction, and electronics.
Scientists from the University of Nottingham and the University of Ulm in Germany have used transmission electron microscopy to image the solidification processes of molten metal nano-droplets. This study has been published in ACS Nano.
The team previously reported films of chemical reactions involving individual molecules, including the first instance of a chemical bond breaking and forming in real time. Their method enables the observation of chemistry at the atomic level.
Professor Andrei Khlobystov from the University of Nottingham said, “The effect is particularly striking when stationary atoms create a ring that surrounds the liquid. Once the liquid is trapped in this atomic corral, it can remain in a liquid state even at temperatures significantly below its freezing point, which for platinum can be as low as 350 degrees Celsius—that is more than 1,000 degrees below what is typically expected.”
Below a certain temperature, the corralled liquid solidifies, not into a crystalline form but as an amorphous solid. This amorphous form of metal is highly unstable, maintained only by the confinement of stationary atoms. When the confinement is disrupted, the tension is released, allowing the metal to transform into its normal crystalline structure.
Other materials:
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/what-new-materials-are-there.18181/page-26#post-859369
The only reason I can see for an airline contemplating an in-flight broadband system that won’t be available for at least three or four years is if the provider is offering loss-leader pricing. If your competitor picks something else that’s available off-the-shelf, even if the standard cost is higher, he stands to benefit a lot prior to the debut of the late-arriving system on your planes. Can’t beat something with nothing.
And am I the only one who thinks a tie-up between Kongsberg and Helsing sounds like a deal to go vampire hunting?
Seriously, this seems like a good project for which the four contributors – start-up launch company Isar Aerospace and a sensor-maker named Hensoldt are also involved – are a good complementary set. But the system has the same gaping drawback as the original SDA Proliferated Warfighter Network concept – it is all eyes and no teeth. There is limited value in being able to see, in great detail, your own side losing a war because your space-based system can do nothing but watch.
I thought the same thing ;)
One of the wildest vampire animes (other than Vampire Hunter D) was “Hellsing”
I am unschooled in Fantasy and Horror, but:
I could see this as a Swedish law firm, perhaps with a partner in right-next-door Denmark. Some licensing fees, and you have The Troggs shilling for injury recovery:
Kongsberg and Helsing, you make my wallet sing
You make everything smooth, Helsing
Kongsburg, it’s time to call you
+46 08 123 4567
You know they’ll treat you right, for sure
Call and sue
Blair Ivey,
Major guffaw there. Good thing I wasn’t in the middle of drinking anything when I read that.
For vibration reduction
https://spacenews.com/metaseismic-material-mitigates-vibration-and-shock-in-nasa-marshall-testing/