July 24, 2026 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
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Category: Behind The Black
Yestertainment – The Cox .049: the engine that modern America banned
An evening pause: This bit of technological history with a sad ending.
Hat tip Blair Ivey.
13th Starship/Superheavy launch goes almost perfectly
Starship/Superheavy, shortly after launch and looking
down at Boca Chica
SpaceX today successfully launched its Starship/Superheavy rocket on its 13th orbital test flight, during which the company was able to complete almost all of its planned tasks, as intended.
The only issue occurred when Superheavy ignited its engines for its landing burn a couple of miles off the coast of Texas. The plan was to fire 13 Raptor-3 engines. Instead, only ten lit initially. Almost immediately another two engines cut out, leaving eight firing, only for three more to shut down a few seconds later. The five working engines however were not enough to slow the booster enough for a soft splashdown. It instead continued to fire until the rocket hit the water hard.
In orbit, Starship successfully deployed 20 version-3 Starlink satellites, with the last two using cameras to photograph the ship’s exterior, as was done on the previous flight with the dummy satellites. Engineers were able to activate and communicate with all 20, and also link the satellites using communication lasers, before the satellites began breaking up in the atmosphere as their orbits decayed.
The ship then did a 14-second engine firing of one Raptor-3 engine, proving again that the engines can relight reliably once in orbit to accurately de-orbit Starship.
Starship afloat and intact after the flight
Finally, Starship completed a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean, once again proving that its thermal system works as planned. In fact, the splashdown was so soft and perfect that Starship fell sideways and then floated serenely on the ocean. On previous landings after splashing down vertically, the ship fell over hard and exploded. This time it remained afloat long enough for drones to get great imagery of the thermal tile system post landing. Even cameras inside the ship beamed back images. As noted by one announcer, the heat shield seemed “pretty intact. … You could count the number of missing tiles on one hand.” I would not be surprised if SpaceX manages to salvage the ship and bring it back to Boca Chica.
This success makes it very likely that the 14th test flight will be a full orbital test, lasting several orbits at least but more likely a full day.
The failure of several of Superheavy’s Raptor-3 three engines during the landing burn needs to be addressed, but this flight showed a significant improvement over the last flight, where multiple engines failed to light on both Superheavy and Starship after stage separation. The improvement suggests SpaceX’s engineers have a handle on this issue, and are making progress in fixing it. Based on the company’s multi-decade track record, once fixed it will not reappear ever again.
I predict that the next flight will take place no more then six weeks from now.
Though this flight did not complete a full orbit, I consider this an orbital success, because that low orbit was intentional. The rocket demonstrated the ability to reach orbit, and did so successfully. I thus add it to my launch count. The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
89 SpaceX
48 China
10 Rocket Lab (plus two suborbital HASTE launches)
10 Russia
For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 89 to 83.
July 24, 2026 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.
Note: X now requires log in to view videos with sound. You can get around this by clicking on the three dots at the top right to get the embed code. Ask for the code for an “embedded video.” The video will then be available for watching with sound.
- Video of lightning striking the Long March 3B 30 seconds after its liftoff yesterday.
No apparent damage occurred, and the payload was reported to reach orbit by China’s state-run press.
- Globs of oxygen-rich clouds detected flying away from Milky Way’s only helium nova
The nova eruption occurred in 2000, and only now has it cleared enough for astronomers to detect these clouds, moving away at about 20 million miles per hour.
- Film of the July 24, 1975 splashdown of the final Apollo mission, returning to Earth after docking with a Soviet Soyuz capsule
Even as the Soviets continued their aggressive station station program throughout the 1970s, the U.S. would not put humans in space again until 1981.
- The Viking-1 lander on Mars is actually part of the collection of the Air & Space museum
In 1984, NASA transferred the lander to the museum. At present there are no plans to display it in Washington.
- In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope — made up of telescopes across the globe — captured the first radio false-color image of a black hole
The tweet shows a picture of a stack of hard drives used to store the data, now on display at the Air & Space museum.
Martian crater with many gullies flowing into corroded “irregular cellular structures”
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and downloaded on June 1, 2026.
The science team labels the features on the floor of the crater vaguely as “irregular cellular structures on crater floor,” which to my eye — after looking at innumerable MRO pictures of craters on Mars — looks like glacial fill that has begun to sublimate away. As it does, from below, its protective top layer of dirt and debris begins to resemble peeling paint, or in this case the “irregular cellular structures” as described by the scientists.
Their description is purposely vague because they have probably not yet confirmed the presence of ice in this particular crater, though this supposition is reasonable based on almost two decades of orbital data.
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GAO releases a schizophrenic report on NASA
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) earlier this week released a report on the state of NASA’s major projects and the impact on the agency of Trump’s work force reductions.
The graph to the right, from the report, shows those reductions across numerous NASA centers nationwide.
In reading the report [pdf], I couldn’t help noting the sharp contrast from its first section, outlining the generally solid state of the agency’s major projects, and its second section, describing the terrible impact of Trump’s workforce reductions, which reduced NASA workforce by about 22%.
The report appeared almost schizophrenic, having a dual personality, with the first section written by a Republican and the second section by a Democrat.
In the first section, after reviewing the major changes imposed on the Artemis program by NASA administrator Jared Isaacman, the key paragraph was this:
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JAXA successfully tests older solid-fueled motor for use in its Epsilon-S rocket
Japan’s space agency JAXA has successfully completed a two minute static fire test of an older version of an upper stage solid-fueled motor for use in its new Epsilon-S rocket, the first launch of which has been delayed years because its upgraded upper stage motor kept failing in tests.
The engine burned normally for about two minutes in the test conducted at 9 a.m. at the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture. JAXA will now examine the data, such as temperature and strain, in detail before determining whether the test was a success. It seeks the launch of a demonstration rocket within this fiscal year.
… In a change in policy, JAXA used an older model with a history of successful launches in the test, because two previous tests of a new model had ended in an explosion. It made the decision so that its flagship rockets will all be operational as soon as possible.
Epsilon-S was originally supposed to do its inaugural launch in 2024. JAXA now hopes to do it later this year. Using the older upper stage design however reduces the rocket’s capabilities, and also likely increases its cost, as the original design was supposed to be less expensive.
While India is making a real effort to promote a private rocket sector and shift to the capitalism model, and China has been utilizing a pseudo-version of that model to invigorate its space industry, Japan remains a backwater, barely able to launch anything because it continues to rely too much on its space agency while its private sector seems captured by it.
Google owns 6% of SpaceX
Based on information in the most recent quarterly filing by Google’s parent company Alphabet, it owns about $94.1 billion in SpaceX stock, including both private and public investment, which according to the Wall Street Journal equals a 6% stake in the rocket company.
Of the total holding, approximately $80 billion remains subject to short-term post-IPO lockup restrictions, preventing near-term sales. An additional $14.1 billion faces longer-term restrictions, extending into the third quarter of 2027. This structure limits immediate liquidity but protects against market volatility as SpaceX transitions into public trading.
The SpaceX position contributed significantly to gains in Alphabet’s broader investment portfolio, which also includes a major stake in AI leader Anthropic. Combined, these holdings helped drive nearly $100 billion in investment gains during the second quarter, providing a substantial boost to net income amid ongoing AI spending pressures.
This revelation tells us that Google was one of the earlier investors in Starlink and Starship, making it possible for SpaceX to build the rocket with private funds and no government aid. It is also evidence that a major shift has been going on at Google since since 2017, when its woke/leftist employees forced the firing of an employee for criticizing the company’s leftist bias. Throughout the Covid panic the company also took action to squelch conservative free speech.
After Covid however there appeared to be a shift towards the middle at Google, though the company was still censoring political content it didn’t like. This major investment in SpaceX in recent years suggests that some common sense has percolated back into the company’s upper management.
Japan’s lunar lander startup Ispace wins $74 million contract from Europe
Artist rendering of Ispace’s Ultra lunar lander
Only a little more than a week after NASA canceled a major lunar lander contract with the Japan’s lunar lander startup Ispace, the company’s European division has won a $74 million lunar lander contract from the European Space Agency (ESA).
The agreement represents ESA’s commitment to funding MAGPIE, Europe’s first lunar polar ice exploration rover and its flight. MAGPIE will investigate the Moon’s south polar region, advancing scientific understanding of lunar volatiles, water ice stability and regolith properties while supporting future resource prospecting to enable lunar exploration.
The contract, valued at €65 million, funds the full remaining delivery of the MAGPIE mission, including rover and payload development, manufacture, testing, transportation to the lunar surface and lunar surface operations.
MAGPIE will fly on Ispace’s planned fourth mission, scheduled for a 2029 launch and already under construction. That lander, dubbed Ultra, is being funded by Japan’s Space Strategy Fund (designed to encourage Japanese private enterprise). This new contract apparently provides it a European payload.
China launches five classified satellites
China today successfully placed five classified satellites into orbit, its solid-fueled Kinetica-1 rocket (also called Lijian-1) lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.
China’s state-run press provided no information about the satellites, not even mentioning their names. That state-run press also said nothing about where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
88 SpaceX
48 China
10 Rocket Lab (plus two suborbital HASTE launches)
10 Russia
For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 88 to 83.
Sienna Spiro – Material Lover
An evening pause: Performed live 2026.
Hat tip Cotour.
July 23, 2026 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay as well as the last link from reader Nate P. 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.
Note: X now requires log in to view videos with sound. You can get around this by clicking on the three dots at the top right to get the embed code. Ask for the code for an “embedded video.” The video will then be available for watching with sound.
- Bill to legalize supersonic flight just passed the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously
It has already been passed by the House, also unanimously. This bill would legalize without question recent FAA regulations that attempt to do the same.
- Startup InSitu Space touts its proposed Daedalus Hopper
It would be brought to the Moon on another lunar lander, use its engines to bring cargo to several other locations. The first demo mission is targeting a 2030 launch.
- A barge arrived at KSC today carrying the launch mount used for the Ares-1 rocket
No information on why or who is moving it.
- Scientists discover the first exoplanet orbiting a brown dwarf star
They don’t know how to label it. A moon orbits a planet. A planet orbits a star. This object orbits a brown dwarf, a failed star that is too big to be a planet but too small to be a star.
- On July 23, 1972 Landsat-1 was launched, the U.S.’s first US Earth resources satellite
It operated for 5.5 years, taking over 300,000 images. It was the first satellite to take multi-spectral pictures, using upgraded technology first tested by astronauts on Apollo missions.
- Introduction to Space, published March 26, 1958 and written by President Eisenhower’s Science Advisory Committee [pdf]
The statement was put together quickly to address the public’s strong concern following the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik. It laid the political ground work for changing NACA to NASA.
The study that found half of all social science papers cannot be replicated also found that NO education research could be replicated
Junk research in the soft sciences
In June 2026, I reported on a major 7-year study of more than 3,900 social science papers that found that more than half could not be replicated, suggesting that a very very large percentage of social science research is junk and should be ignored.
A recent close analysis of that paper, shown in the graph above, reveals even more starkly how worthless some of this “science” is. In the field of education, of the six papers the researchers attempted to replicate, only three could be “approximately replicated” (which the researchers appeared to consider largely unsatisfactory). No papers could be confidently replicated. In the field of business, of the six papers tested only one could be replicated, with two others getting that “approximately replicated” label.
In sociology the result was only slightly better but still terrible, with only two of nine papers replicated with confidence.
Meanwhile, about 60% of the papers tested in economic and political science could be replicated.
These are all the soft sciences, but it appears that education, business, and sociology are softer than others. Or to put it more bluntly, the research in these fields is likely all worthless. Education and sociology have been poisoned by Marxist critical race theory now for years. The education field in particular has become more interested in teaching kids the queer agenda and telling lies of oppression about western civilization than teaching the three “R’s”. This inability to replicate any of its junk research shows how bankrupt this part of academia has become.
Business research meanwhile has been equally poisoned by Marxist ideology and the bad business practices of the MBA academic world. No wonder modern corporations so routinely treat their customers like dirt, and fail so spectacular. Their Ivy League managers care only about DEI and ending capitalist oppression and nothing about running a company effectively while creating good products people will want to buy.
Large distinct Martian gully
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on June 1, 2026 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter (MRO).
The object of focus is obviously that large gully, draining downhill about 5,000 feet to the northeast, over a distance of about three miles.
Gullies like this are found in many places in the Martian mid-latitudes. When first discovered scientists thought they might be related to the sublimation of underground ice. More recent research suggests they are formed by the seasonal dry ice frost cycle that in the high latitudes has carbon dioxide condense to fall as snow in autumn and then sublimate away in the spring.
This latter hypothesis however generally applies to a set of gullies on the interior rim of craters, all of which experience that cycle of freeze-thaw. In the case of this large gully the former hypothesis seems more likely, as it appears to be within a thick lobe of soft material that was a mass wasting event of glacial material off the crater wall (whereby a large section detaches and moves downward). Regardless, the near surface ice impregnated in the soil appears to be sublimating away, creating the gully.
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Could Japan’s Hayabusa-2 next target asteroid be instead a failed Soviet Mars probe?
Artist rendering of Phobos-1 in orbit around Mars
Scientists reviewing the data known about the asteroid 1998 KY26, the next goal of Japan’s Hayabusa-2 asteroid probe, now speculate that it might not be an asteroid at all but could instead be the failed Soviet Mars probe, Phobos-1.
The researchers came up with this possibility due to 1998 KY26 small size, its inexplicable orbital shifts, and the fact that its solar orbit closely matches that of Phobos-1 after it failed to enter Mars orbit when a mistyped command shut down its systems.
Hibberd points out that the 10-metre (32.8ft) span of its solar panels matches the estimated size of 1998 KY26 and that the craft would be expected to have a high albedo. The non-gravitational acceleration of the object would be explained by solar radiation pressure as sunlight reflects off the probe’s shiny metallic surfaces.
For the interplanetary trajectory of Phobos 1 to fit the measured orbit of 1998 KY26, the probe would need to have subsequently fired its rocket twice, say the team: once on 2 September 1988 (shortly after contact was lost) and then again on 19 May 1996. This isn’t impossible for a malfunctioning spacecraft and there is some evidence that Phobos 1 did indeed fire its rocket without being commanded.
The last supposition, that the spacecraft fired its engines on its own, is the most implausible part of this theory, but not impossible.
Hayabusa-2 is scheduled to arrive at 1998 KY26 in 2031, assuming its last ion thruster does not fail. We shall then find out if this wild theory is right. If so, the probe will have an entirely different job. Rather than studying a very small asteroid, it will be studying a piece of human space history.
UPDATE: I just realized that one of the scientists putting out this theory is Avi Loeb, the Harvard hack who relentless pushed the idea that Comet 3I/Atlas was an alien spaceship long after data showed it was nothing more than a comet. His name on this work makes this hypothesis far less creditable.
Watching the 13th orbital test flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy
Starship/Superheavy at T-4:00 minutes on July 16th.
Click for source.
UPDATE: Delayed 24 hours due to weather. Now scheduled for 5:45 pm (Central) on July 24th. More specifically, the weather above the Gulf was too cloudy for good observations of Starship’s heat shield during ascent. The company decided to delay until tomorrow, when conditions is expected to be “ideal.”
Originally posted July 19, 2026. Bumped to today, the launch date.
Original post:
————————–
Now that SpaceX has confirmed the launch date for the 13th orbital test flight of Starship/Superheavy for July 20, 2026 July 23, 2026 July 24, 2026, with a 90-minute launch window beginning at 5:45 pm (Central), it is time to provide my readers with the many ways they can watch the launch. I have embedded several live streams below. SpaceX’s live steam can be found here. I have embed it below:
Watch Starship's thirteenth flight test https://t.co/qkYYJiX24h
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 23, 2026
The flight plan remains the same as last week, a low orbit that will bring the ship down in the Indian Ocean. The main goals are to test the Raptor-3 engines, bring Superheavy back as planned, relight a Raptor-3 engine in orbit, and test the ship’ thermal tile system during re-entry. In addition, the company will attempt to deploy 20 actual Starlink satellites rather than dummies.
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Local officials in Louisiana hold meeting about possibility of SpaceX spaceport
Pecan Island SpaceX facility?
A state senator and local realtor yesterday held a public meeting — attended by hundreds — to describe the ramifications to the community should SpaceX or some other big space company establish a spaceport in Vermilion Parish, where the unincorporated village of Pecan Island is located, as shown on the map to the right.
Hundreds of residents gathered at the Erath Community Center to hear from state Sen. Bob Hensgens of Abbeville and local realtor Jim Keaty about the possibility of aerospace development — potentially involving SpaceX — coming to Vermilion Parish, with both men acknowledging the rumors while stopping short of confirming any deal.
Hensgens, a Republican representing District 26, opened the meeting of the Abbeville Rotary Club by making clear the limits of what he knew. “I wanna thank y’all for coming and, and I wanna start off the statement by saying I know no details of any hyper deal economic development in Vermilion Parish right now,” he said. “But like the rest of my constituents, I’ve heard over the last six months the rumors,” he added.
Realtor Jim Keaty added some advice for businesses in the construction trade.
He said those working in construction-related trades in Acadiana may want to prepare now, noting that SpaceX already accepts applications from prospective vendors. “If I was into construction and I was in a trade, like electrical engineer or a contractor, I certainly would try to apply to become a vendor for SpaceX,” he added.
Keaty is the realtor who first revealed the rumors in May. At this moment however nothing is confirmed. SpaceX has not made any firm statement about Louisiana or the 200-plus squaire-mile plot owned by Exxon that is appears to be for sale. Nor has any state official, all of whom like Hensgens say they have no confirmed information about a deal.
Starlink now available in the Seychelles Islands off the eastern coast of Africa
Starlink has now offering terminals to citizens of the Seychelles Islands, located about 800 miles east of Africa.
Starlink has launched commercial satellite internet services in Seychelles, expanding its footprint to 28 African countries. Unlike its previous African markets, Seychelles already has one of the continent’s highest internet penetration rates and affordable broadband.
The one tidbit of information from this story that struck me was its claim that 28 African nations have approved Starlink. I had not thought it was that high, considering the number of stories of African governments opposing the SpaceX company.
China launches a communications satellite for its manned space program
China last night successfully launched a communications satellite used by its manned space program, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.
No mention was made in China’s state-run press as to the crash sites of the rocket’s lower stages, which use very toxic hypergolic fuels.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
88 SpaceX
47 China
10 Rocket Lab (plus two suborbital HASTE launches)
10 Russia
For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 88 to 82.
July 22, 2026 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more