Category: Behind The Black

July 21, 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.

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.

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SpaceX launches Northrop Grumman’s MRV robotic servicing satellite

2:22 pm

In doing its second launch in less than eight hours, SpaceX today successfully placed Northrop Grumman’s Mission Robotic Vehicle-1 (MRV) into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force station in Florida.

The MRV carries three Mission Extension Pods (MEPs), each assigned to attach to a different geosynchronous satellite to provide them fuel and power and extend their life for up to eight years. Two pods will attach to two Intelsat satellites, and the third will attach to an Australian Optus communications satellite. Though Northrop has done this kind of extension mission before, this is the first time it is launching an MRV with multiple pods. Previous robots, dubbed Mission Extension Vehicles (MEV), attached to only one satellite per mission. As of posting the MRV had not yet been deployed.

The rocket’s two fairings completed their 7th and 31st flights respectively. The first stage (B1069) completed its 32nd flight (81 days after its previous mission). Because of the fuel required to get the MRV to geosynchronous orbit where its target satellites are located, the first stage was not recovered. Instead it splashed down in the Atlantic. The flight however solidified the booster’s position in sixth place in the rankings for the most reused launch vehicle:

39 Discovery space shuttle (retired)
36 Falcon 9 booster B1067
35 Falcon 9 booster B1071
33 Atlantis space shuttle (retired)
33 Falcon 9 booster B1063
32 Falcon 9 booster B1069 (retired)
29 Falcon 9 booster B1077
29 Falcon 9 booster B1078

Sources here and here.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

88 SpaceX
45 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 80.

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Scientists rally to observe the Falcon 9 that will hit the Moon on August 5, 2026

12:48 pm

Falcon 9 impact location

On August 5, 2026 at precisely 11:35 pm (Pacific), the upper stage used by the Falcon 9 rocket that launched in 2025 the Blue Ghost and Hakuto-R lunar landers will impact the Moon.

Scientists have now published a paper [pdf], outlining the details of that impact and calling on the astronomical community, both professional and amateur, to conduct observations. The image to the right, showing the location on the Moon where the impact will occur, comes from Figure 1 of the paper. From the paper’s conclusion:

The upcoming Falcon 9 upper stage impact on the Moon on 2026 August 5, presents an ideal opportunity for observers in the Americas and space-based assets to study a significant lunar impact in real time. Potential observables from this event include the flash at the time of impact (likely lasting less than a second) and the ejecta plume (lasting minutes to tens of minutes) Although some specifics of the impact (such as its precise visual magnitude) remain unclear due to the complexity of the physical processes involved, this event is an ideal opportunity to calibrate measurements of flash brightness and plume dynamics against a known event, should either be detected.

This event also provides an opportunity to test pipelines for measuring flash properties to locate impact events seismically, and to better understand the multi-modal hazards posed to future lunar infrastructure and astronauts from space debris impacting the Moon. It also provides an opportunity to test our capability to monitor the cislunar environment. Given the renewed interest in the lunar exploration, the impact of artificial bodies on the Moon could is almost certain to become more frequent. To avoid uncontrolled increases in the amount of space debris in lunar orbit (as is the case now in low Earth orbit), advancing monitoring of cislunar space from ground- and space-based facilities will be key.

The scientists note that the impact will occur at night when the Moon is visible in South America and in the low and mid-latitudes of North America. Though the impact flash could be as bright as magnitude 3 (thus visible to the naked eye), its location during the lunar day will likely make it too faint for ordinary observers. They say that a telescope will be needed, that binoculars will not be sufficient.

The paper is also very enlightening in that it provides a detailed history of past observed lunar impacts, both natural and artificial.

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Update on the launch status for three new rockets from Relativity, Rocket Lab, and PLD

11:32 am

Link here. The article describes in detail the present state of development for the three rockets, Relativity’s Terran-R, Rocket Lab’s Neutron, and PLD’s Miura-5.

In the case of Relativity and PLD, it appears both are still on schedule for their first launch before the end of the year.

In the case of Rocket Lab, the company is still targeting a launch before the end of the year, but that date is more questionable because “the program has experienced some hardware setbacks earlier in the year, including the loss of components originally intended for flight use.” In January 2026 the company lost a tank intended for flight during a pressure test. Though the company said it would provide an update in February, no such update has so far been issued.

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The United Kingdom’s leftist government issues press release, touting how much it is spending on space

10:04 am

The leftist Labor Party that is presently in power in the United Kingdom today issued a press release extolling the “more than £62 million [$83 million] in government funding” it is spending to encourage its home-grown space industry.

The funding – unveiled on Monday 20 July at Farnborough International Airshow by Space Minister Liz Lloyd – will support new satellite communications systems and space innovation projects, helping turn early-stage ideas into commercial products, strengthen the UK’s ability to monitor and protect assets in orbit, and build a more resilient domestic space sector.

$56 million of this fund will go to “UK businesses, universities and research organisations,” while the remaining $27 million will go “to support the development of space technologies across UK industry, universities and research organisations.” Not only is this funding small potatoes, insufficient to do more that fund small design studies, much of it is likely going to pie-in-the-sky research not grounded in profit or reality.

This press release contrasts nicely with the statement issued today by the leftist Labor government in Australia. In Australia the government recognized regulation is a problem and vowed to stream line it. In the United Kingdom the Labor government said nothing about this at all, even though the red tape in the UK is far worse than in Australia, having bankrupted two rocket startups and one spaceport.

Based on this UK statement, do not expect much to change in the UK. The Labor government is pouring money into the industry as subsidies, but doing little to fix the country’s more fundamental bureaucratic problems. If anything, these subsidies will worsen things, as a good percentage are going to the very entities in leftist academia that are the source of the problem.

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Australia’s leftist government issues a new policy statement on space

9:46 am

The leftist Labor party that is presently running Australia’s government today issued a new policy statement on the nation’s space industry, focused on trying to encourage its growth.

You can read the statement here [pdf]. Though it is mostly filled with meaningless bureaucratic and leftist jargon, including an an “acknowledgement” of the primary land rights of the aborginal population (or as it calls them, “the many nations of First Peoples”), the statement has one item left to the very end that suggests this government recognizes its bureaucracy is slowing development.

After many pages of gobbly-gook that has little substance in reality, that last action item is the following:

Action: Advance regulation and international governance:

  • Evolve domestic regulatory frameworks to support current and emerging
    Australian space activities, ensuring safety, security and national interests
    while enabling entrepreneurship and innovation.
  • Shape international governance by contributing to global rules and norms
    for the safe and sustainable use of outer space.

It appears the Labor government recognizes the regulatory framework in Australia is slowing development, and is at least willing to say it wishes to fix the issue. At the same time, it also vows its continuing allegiance to international globalist regulations and the need to make space “safe and sustainable.”

These two goals are generally opposed to each other. How Labor will square this circle is quite unclear, but at least it appears it is aware of the regulatory issues. Its ability to fix them however will I think be hampered by that party’s very “woke” focus. For example, the statement opens by endorsing ancient aboriginal religious beliefs, but never once recognizes the very basic western values of private property and law that built the country that presently exists.

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SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites

9:15 am

SpaceX this morning successfully placed another 24 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The first stage (B1082) completed its 23rd flight (51 days after its previous mission), landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

87 SpaceX
45 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, 87 to 80.

SpaceX plans a second launch later today, to place Northrop Grumman’s Mission Robotic Vehicle-1 (MRV) into orbit. The MRV-1 is the first of that company’s next generation of robotic servicing spacecraft. It carries three pods that the company has contracts to deploy to dock with three different geosynchronous satellites and extend their life.

A launch later today by a Chinese pseudo-company is also expected, though this schedule is not as certain.

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July 20, 2026 Quick space links

3:01 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.

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.

  • On July 18, 1966 John Young and Michael Collins launched on the Gemini 10 mission
    They were the first to achieve a clean docking in space, with no problems. After docking with their own Agena target, they then rendezvoused with the Agena target that Gemini 8 had docked with but shortly thereafter had to make an emergency undocking and return to Earth due to an unexpected thruster firing. Collins then did a spacewalk across to that Gemini 8 Agena, traveling across about 10 feet of space.
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Solar scientists come up with another “method” for predicting the Sun’s future sunspot activity

2:41 pm

The uncertainty of science: Using archival data from the last four sunspot cycles, solar scientists think they have found a new method for predicting the Sun’s future sunspot activity, based on what they claim is a “switch-off” moment in each cycle when the most extreme solar events stop happening.

The new prediction method builds on Professor Chapman’s previously developed ‘sunclock’, which maps the Sun’s irregular cycles onto a standard clock. This revealed that the most extreme space weather does not gradually fade away but instead switches off at a distinct point in each solar cycle.

Professor Chapman’s team has found that the number of sunspots present at this switch-off point is closely linked to the peak number of sunspots in the following solar cycle. This provides a new forecasting method that can predict the strength of the next solar cycle around six to seven years before it reaches its maximum, giving a longer lead time than current methods, which rely on waiting until the solar minimum.

Sounds good, eh? I would not bet one plugged nickel on this prediction method. It might work, or it might not, but even if it does, it is not based on any real understanding of why sunspots rise and fall every eleven years. Nor does it explain why the Sun’s magnetic field flips polarity in line with that sunspot cycle. This prediction is merely using past behavior to predict future actions, a method that every stock broker will tell you is fraught with danger.

Knowing however that there is a moment in each cycle where the most active sunspots and solar flares stop happening is useful. This pattern could help theorists figure out what is really going on inside the Sun.

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Another bad indicator relating to the UK’s space effort

2:30 pm

A space junk removal demo mission first proposed in 2024 by the United Kingdom’s space agency has apparently missed a deadline for issuing the final contract award to one of two startups to fly the mission.

The UK Space Agency has missed a deadline to award a £75.6 million contract for the country’s first mission to capture and remove dead satellites from low Earth orbit.

A call for Phase 3 of the mission’s development was published in July 2025, with the contract initially expected to be awarded by 30 March 2026. However, in its final annual report as an independent entity, published on 14 July, UKSA admitted that the contract award had been delayed. The agency is now targeting summer 2026 but has not explained the reason for the delay or provided a more precise timetable.

The two companies are Astroscale (based in Japan with a UK division) and Clearspace, which has been attempting to launch a junk removal mission for the European Space Agency now for almost a decade, with nothing getting off the ground.

This delay should not be a surprise. The Labor government that is presently in power has been in the process of shutting down the space agency, even as it has allocated a half billion dollars for space-related government projects. It has also done nothing to eliminate the red tape that is squelching its private space industry.

It thus makes great sense that this contract hasn’t been issued. For one, the bureaucracy involved is probably in chaos as the Labor government rearranges deck chairs. For another, there is probably little interest by the private sector to do any work in the UK, because the red tape there is stifling, and has already bankrupted two rocket startups and one spaceport. It is very possible both companies declined to bid. Or if they did, the confusion in the government made any decisions impossible.

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India’s government invests approximately $7 million in home-grown satellite company

9:21 am

In a complicated arrangement involving the Indian government and an Indian venture capital firm, the Indian satellite company Dhruva announced last week that it obtained approximately $7 million in private investment.

The money comes out of a government investment fund of just under $200 million — dubbed the Antariksh Venture Capital Fund — established by the agency IN-SPACe but administered by the venture capital company SIDBI Venture Capital Limited. Unlike India’s space agency ISRO — which has for decades run India’s entire space program — IN-SPACe is focused on encouraging a competitive and independent private space sector.

This was the first investment in that government investment fund, coming just before the first successful launch this past weekend by a private Indian rocket company, Skyroot. Besides building satellites, Dhruva appears to also act as a satellite aggregator, obtaining launch services from rocket companies for other satellite companies and then serving to integrate and deploy their satellites. With this investment the company now has $330 million in capital in hand.

It is a bit puzzling why this first investment went to a satellite company, rather than a rocket startup, of which India has several. For India’s space sector to really grow, it needs home-grown commercial rockets. Satellites can’t reach orbit without rockets.

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Russia launches 2nd set of Rassvet satellites

8:51 am

Russia today successfully launched 16 more Rassvet satellites as part of its own Starlink-type internet constellation, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from its Plesetsk spaceport in northeast Russia.

This launch was originally scheduled for April but never occurred. Furthermore, Russia issued multiple flight plans for this launch covering a period of 24 hours, all likely designed to prevent the Ukraine from targeting the actual launch with drones. The Ukraine considers this constellation a direct military threat, and it appears it has attempted to use drones to attack Plesetsk during earlier launches.

With this launch the Rassvet constellation has 31 satellites in orbit. It is being built by Bureau (Buro) 1440, a so-called private company in Russia, which hopes to get the full 700+ satellite constellation in orbit by 2035.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

86 SpaceX
45 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, 86 to 80.

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Watching the 13th orbital test flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy

1:20 pm

Starship/Superheavy at T-4:00 minutes on July 13th
Starship/Superheavy at T-4:00 minutes on July 16th.
Click for source.

Now that SpaceX has confirmed the launch date for the 13th orbital test flight of Starship/Superheavy for July 20, 2026 July 23, 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. When SpaceX makes its own live stream available I will add it here as well.

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.
» Read more

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SpaceX: 13th Starship/Superheavy test orbital launch now set for July 23, 2026

9:09 am

UPDATE: Less than a few hours after I posted this announcement, SpaceX changed the launch date from July 20th to July 23rd. The post below now reflects that change.

SpaceX today issued an update confirming the company’s intention to launch Starship/Superheavy on its 13th test orbital launch July 23, 2026, one week after the rocket had a launch abort at T-0 seconds.

The 90-minute launch window opens at 5:45 pm (Central).

The update describes the mission, which remains unchanged from last week, but provides no details as to what the company has done to correct the issue that caused four Raptor-3 engines in Superheavy to misfire. Previously Musk had indicated they would replace two engines, but no further information has as yet been released.

Regardless, it is clear the company is pushing hard to complete this launch, as it wishes to go to full orbital test flights on the next mission.

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NASA cancels Draper/Ispace unmanned lunar lander contract

12:45 pm

Artist rendering of Ispace's Ultra lunar lander
Artist rendering of Ispace’s Ultra lunar lander

According to a press release from the Japanese lunar lander startup Ispace, NASA last week canceled its contract with Draper for a lunar lander mission in 2030, a mission that Ispace was the main subcontractor.

Ispace technologies U.S., (Ispace-U.S.) an American lunar exploration company and subsidiary of Ispace, inc. (ispace), and Draper, a non-profit research, development and manufacturing company, today announced that Draper has mutually agreed with NASA to end the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) task order CP-12.

Since July 2022, Ispace-U.S. served as a subcontractor to Draper to provide a lunar lander transportation service for NASA’s CLPS task order CP-12. Following the agreement with NASA on the primary contract, Draper and ispace-U.S. expects the mutual termination of the subcontract between the two companies.

For that 2030 mission Ispace was really the main contractor — having already built and launched two failred lunar landers — but as a Japanese company (even with a U.S. division), it needed an American company to act as lead in order to win the NASA contract. Draper fulfilled that purpose.

Draper however has little experience building lunar landers. Ispace was really doing the job. The problem was that Ispace discovered with its two failures that its original lander design was insufficient. The development of a new larger lander, dubbed Ultra, has caused significant delays.

It appears NASA and Draper decided this arrangement was not acceptable. Both were probably uncomfortable with its faux lead position. Ispace’s delays also were likely a factor.

It is certainly possible for Ispace alone to win later contracts. It has said it intends to bid. Moreover, as Japan is both a partner in the Artemis program and a signatory to the Artemis Accords, there really is little reason for NASA or Ispace to play these games. NASA can issue a contract directly to it. It simply has to make sure it issues contracts to American companies first.

Below is the present rough schedule of missions in NASA’s Artemis program, as revised under NASA administrator Jared Isaacman’s leadership, and adjusted to include this cancellation.

NASA’s Artemis mission schedule:
» Read more

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Indian’s private rocket startup Skyroot completes a perfect first launch

9:31 am

Vikram-1's perfect flight path
Click for source.

In a spectacular success, the Indian private rocket startup Skyroot today completed the first launch of its smallsat rocket Vikram-1, placing several payloads into orbit.

The graphic to the right shows the rocket’s flight path from the ground to orbit, overlaid over its nominal planned flight path. The match is precise. During the launch everything worked exactly as intended, an achievement on a first launch almost no rocket company has ever accomplished, including SpaceX.

During the broadcast there were several things I noticed that were of interest. First, Skyroot launched from India’s government spaceport at Sriharikota, operated by the country’s space agency ISRO. During normal ISRO launches the control room is filled with more than a hundred controllers, packed tightly in several rows. For this private launch, however, that control room appeared to have less than third of those numbers, many of which I suspect were ISRO employees tasked with monitoring the launch to protect the agency’s assets. Those controllers who appeared part of Skyroot’s team, in the front row, were few.

Second, in the viewing gallery at the back were several important ISRO managers, including the head of the agency. While everyone else around them cheered the success enthusiastically, they sat quiet, with some having very dour expressions. This could have simply been an effort at professionalism, but I suspect it also had an element of resentment and fear. Skyroot’s launch today of a smallsat private rocket is something ISRO has not been able to do for almost two years. The agency’s PSLV rocket has failed at launch twice in a row, and remains grounded.

In fact, right now Skyroot’s one launch is the only Indian launch of the year.

Moreover, Skyroot represents the future, and ISRO the past. The Modi government has been pushing hard to transition from the present government model, where ISRO owns, runs, and controls the entire Indian space program, to the capitalism model, where the private sector does it, and the government is merely the customer. ISRO has been somewhat resistant to this change, slow-walking many Modi directives.

This success signals the beginning of a new era in India, one in which private enterprise, competition, and freedom fuel innovation and success. It also signals an era where ISRO will become less powerful and important. Those ISRO managers know this, and some clearly didn’t like the prospect.

The leader board for the 2026 launch race remains unchanged.

86 SpaceX
45 China
10 Rocket Lab (plus two suborbital HASTE launches)
9 Russia

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 86 to 79.

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July 17, 2026 Quick space links

3:01 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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