Cat Stevens – Bitterblue
An evening pause: Performed live 1971, before he rejected all of western civilization and became a Muslim.
Hat tip Ferris Akel.
Category: Behind The Black
July 14, 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.
- Orlando Sentinel details the NASA perks in the just passed reconciliation bill, including money to move the space shuttle Discovery on display in DC to Texas
The article is behind a paywall, but if you scan it quick you can get the gist. My sense is that this is a typical press report, naively in favor of all spending.
- On this day in 1969 the Soviet Union launched Luna-15 in a desperate attempt to get lunar samples back to Earth ahead of Apollo 11
The mission failed, with the lander crashing.
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.
- Orlando Sentinel details the NASA perks in the just passed reconciliation bill, including money to move the space shuttle Discovery on display in DC to Texas
The article is behind a paywall, but if you scan it quick you can get the gist. My sense is that this is a typical press report, naively in favor of all spending.
- On this day in 1969 the Soviet Union launched Luna-15 in a desperate attempt to get lunar samples back to Earth ahead of Apollo 11
The mission failed, with the lander crashing.
Renewing the heroic Superman of America
George Reeves as the heroic Superman as envisioned
in the 1950s television show, emulated later by Richard
Donner in his 1978 movie. Click for show’s opening credits.
Not surprisingly, the newest Hollywood attempt to tell the story of Superman appears by all accounts to be on the verge of another movie disaster, for all the usual reasons. Though the first weekend receipts were acceptable, a closer look suggests they also have feet of clay. When compared with the 2013 attempt to reboot the 1978 classic Richard Donner film, the numbers do not look that good.
Now, look at the number of tickets sold:
Estimated tickets sold opening weekend:
MAN OF STEEL (14.3M)
SUPERMAN (10.7M)Sometimes a win isn’t quite a win.
The article also notes that the movie is having problems attracting foreign audiences.
The reviews meanwhile have been horrible. Take for example this review:
I’ve seen a lot of superhero movies, and this one — given the level of investment involved, the promotional push, the iconic nature of the character and the importance to the future of DC and Warner Bros. — is by far the worst. I would have left the theater if I hadn’t gone with a friend. There are minor Marvel entries with more to their credit than this. It doesn’t even manage to be fun.
Why should this new movie about the first true American super-hero standing for “truth, justice, and the American way” be having problems at box office? Isn’t the story exactly the kind of thing audiences love and normally consume with eager anticipation?
The problem is that this modern Superman movie is not about “truth, justice, and the American way.” Instead, the film’s director and producer, James Gunn, decided it should instead be about “truth, justice, and the human way,” a statement that is not only meaningless and carrying far less substance, it is a slap in the face of the very noble American ideals of this very American legend.
» Read more
A distant globular cluster
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of a research project to study globular clusters in galaxies other than the Milky Way.
The data for this image comes from an observing programme comparing old globular clusters in nearby dwarf galaxies — the LMC [Large Magellanic Cloud], the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy — to the globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. Our galaxy contains over 150 of these old, spherical collections of tightly-bound stars, which have been studied in depth — especially with Hubble Space Telescope images like this one, which show them in previously-unattainable detail. Being very stable and long-lived, they act as galactic time capsules, preserving stars from the earliest stages of a galaxy’s formation.
Astronomers once thought that the stars in a globular cluster all formed together at about the same time, but study of the old globular clusters in our galaxy has uncovered multiple populations of stars with different ages. In order to use globular clusters as historical markers, we must understand how they form and where these stars of varying ages come from. This observing programme examined old globular clusters like NGC 1786 [pictured] in these external galaxies to see if they, too, contain multiple populations of stars. This research can tell us more not only about how the LMC was originally formed, but the Milky Way Galaxy, too.
This cluster, discovered in 1835 by John Herschel, is about 160,000 light years away.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of a research project to study globular clusters in galaxies other than the Milky Way.
The data for this image comes from an observing programme comparing old globular clusters in nearby dwarf galaxies — the LMC [Large Magellanic Cloud], the Small Magellanic Cloud and the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy — to the globular clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. Our galaxy contains over 150 of these old, spherical collections of tightly-bound stars, which have been studied in depth — especially with Hubble Space Telescope images like this one, which show them in previously-unattainable detail. Being very stable and long-lived, they act as galactic time capsules, preserving stars from the earliest stages of a galaxy’s formation.
Astronomers once thought that the stars in a globular cluster all formed together at about the same time, but study of the old globular clusters in our galaxy has uncovered multiple populations of stars with different ages. In order to use globular clusters as historical markers, we must understand how they form and where these stars of varying ages come from. This observing programme examined old globular clusters like NGC 1786 [pictured] in these external galaxies to see if they, too, contain multiple populations of stars. This research can tell us more not only about how the LMC was originally formed, but the Milky Way Galaxy, too.
This cluster, discovered in 1835 by John Herschel, is about 160,000 light years away.
Third Indian state announces a space policy to encourage private enterprise
A third state in India, Andhra Pradesh, has now released its own space policy, designed to create what it calls “manufacturing clusters”, centered around India’s main spaceport at Sriharikota.
The A.P. Space Policy (4.0) 2025-30 is valid for five years from the date of issue (July 13, 2025), or till a new policy is announced. A technical committee will be constituted under the Commissioner of Industries to vet and process applications for land allotment in the Space Cities proposed to be developed along the Hyderabad-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor in Sri Sathya Sai district and in Tirupati (Routhasuramala).
The government will form an SPV, ‘AP Space City Corporation’, which will drive all initiatives related to the development of the above Space Cities, and serve as the central agency to coordinate infrastructure development, raise start-up funds, attract investments, facilitate industry partnerships, build partnerships to attract global demand, and liaise with all GoI [Government of India] entities for tapping the domestic demand.
The previous two state space policies in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, announced in April, had similar goals aimed at promoting the establishment of private aerospace companies within their regions.
Whether Andhra Pradesh’s policy will work carries uncertainties. Its advantage is that it is linked to India’s primary spaceport. Its disadvantage lies in the complex bureaucracy the state is creating in conjunction with these “Space Cities.” Such bureaucracies are rarely helpful for new businesses.
A third state in India, Andhra Pradesh, has now released its own space policy, designed to create what it calls “manufacturing clusters”, centered around India’s main spaceport at Sriharikota.
The A.P. Space Policy (4.0) 2025-30 is valid for five years from the date of issue (July 13, 2025), or till a new policy is announced. A technical committee will be constituted under the Commissioner of Industries to vet and process applications for land allotment in the Space Cities proposed to be developed along the Hyderabad-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor in Sri Sathya Sai district and in Tirupati (Routhasuramala).
The government will form an SPV, ‘AP Space City Corporation’, which will drive all initiatives related to the development of the above Space Cities, and serve as the central agency to coordinate infrastructure development, raise start-up funds, attract investments, facilitate industry partnerships, build partnerships to attract global demand, and liaise with all GoI [Government of India] entities for tapping the domestic demand.
The previous two state space policies in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, announced in April, had similar goals aimed at promoting the establishment of private aerospace companies within their regions.
Whether Andhra Pradesh’s policy will work carries uncertainties. Its advantage is that it is linked to India’s primary spaceport. Its disadvantage lies in the complex bureaucracy the state is creating in conjunction with these “Space Cities.” Such bureaucracies are rarely helpful for new businesses.
LIGO detects gravitational waves of largest black hole merger yet
The LIGO gravitational wave detector, spread across several continents, successfully detected the largest black hole merger yet on November 23, 2023.
The two black holes that merged were approximately 100 and 140 times the mass of the Sun. In addition to their high masses they are also rapidly spinning, making this a uniquely challenging signal to interpret and suggesting the possibility of a complex formation history. “This is the most massive black hole binary we’ve observed through gravitational waves, and it presents a real challenge to our understanding of black hole formation,” says Professor Mark Hannam, from Cardiff University and a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. “Black holes this massive are forbidden through standard stellar evolution models. One possibility is that the two black holes in this binary formed through earlier mergers of smaller black holes.”
To date, approximately 300 black-hole mergers have been observed through gravitational waves, including candidates identified in the ongoing O4 run. Until now the most massive confirmed black-hole binary was the source of GW190521, with a much smaller total mass of “only” 140 times that of the sun.
As noted by the press release as well as this news article, present theories of stellar evolution say that these black holes could not have come from single stars, which are predicted to never be this massive. It is posited that each black hole might have formed from earlier mergers, but there is also a lot of uncertainty in the data. To quote the release again: “Extracting accurate information from the signal required the use of theoretical models that account for the complex dynamics of highly spinning black holes.”
That this detection was almost two years ago and only announced now makes me wonder if the timing of the announcement has more to do with lobbying and less to do with science. Trump’s proposed budget eliminates the U.S. funding portion for this project, and it is standard operating procedure for such projects to suddenly announce big discoveries timed to correspond to when Congress is considering the budget.
The LIGO gravitational wave detector, spread across several continents, successfully detected the largest black hole merger yet on November 23, 2023.
The two black holes that merged were approximately 100 and 140 times the mass of the Sun. In addition to their high masses they are also rapidly spinning, making this a uniquely challenging signal to interpret and suggesting the possibility of a complex formation history. “This is the most massive black hole binary we’ve observed through gravitational waves, and it presents a real challenge to our understanding of black hole formation,” says Professor Mark Hannam, from Cardiff University and a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. “Black holes this massive are forbidden through standard stellar evolution models. One possibility is that the two black holes in this binary formed through earlier mergers of smaller black holes.”
To date, approximately 300 black-hole mergers have been observed through gravitational waves, including candidates identified in the ongoing O4 run. Until now the most massive confirmed black-hole binary was the source of GW190521, with a much smaller total mass of “only” 140 times that of the sun.
As noted by the press release as well as this news article, present theories of stellar evolution say that these black holes could not have come from single stars, which are predicted to never be this massive. It is posited that each black hole might have formed from earlier mergers, but there is also a lot of uncertainty in the data. To quote the release again: “Extracting accurate information from the signal required the use of theoretical models that account for the complex dynamics of highly spinning black holes.”
That this detection was almost two years ago and only announced now makes me wonder if the timing of the announcement has more to do with lobbying and less to do with science. Trump’s proposed budget eliminates the U.S. funding portion for this project, and it is standard operating procedure for such projects to suddenly announce big discoveries timed to correspond to when Congress is considering the budget.
Suborbital test launch from Oman’s Duqm spaceport scrubbed
The Middle East, showing the location of
Oman’s proposed spaceport at Duqm.
A suborbital test launch from Oman’s Duqm spaceport was scrubbed yesterday due to” a technical issue” with the rocket.
DUQM: Etlaq Spaceport’s highly anticipated experimental rocket launch mission “Duqm-2” was aborted due to a technical issue on Sunday, July 13, 2025. Consequently, the launch has been postponed until “a replacement solution is developed,” it stated.
This was the second attempt launch scrubbed at Duqm, officially labeled the Etlaq Spaceport. The first, an attempt by a Middle East startup to do a vertical take-off and landing of a prototype small rocket, was scrubbed in April due to weather and technical issues. No new launch date has been scheduled.
The spaceport had announced in April a schedule of five launches before the end of the year. Two have now been scrubbed. All appear to have major financing from the Oman government. I suspect all have been pushed too hard and too fast by the government for PR reasons, which explains the two scrubs and the lack of a new launch schedule.
The Middle East, showing the location of
Oman’s proposed spaceport at Duqm.
A suborbital test launch from Oman’s Duqm spaceport was scrubbed yesterday due to” a technical issue” with the rocket.
DUQM: Etlaq Spaceport’s highly anticipated experimental rocket launch mission “Duqm-2” was aborted due to a technical issue on Sunday, July 13, 2025. Consequently, the launch has been postponed until “a replacement solution is developed,” it stated.
This was the second attempt launch scrubbed at Duqm, officially labeled the Etlaq Spaceport. The first, an attempt by a Middle East startup to do a vertical take-off and landing of a prototype small rocket, was scrubbed in April due to weather and technical issues. No new launch date has been scheduled.
The spaceport had announced in April a schedule of five launches before the end of the year. Two have now been scrubbed. All appear to have major financing from the Oman government. I suspect all have been pushed too hard and too fast by the government for PR reasons, which explains the two scrubs and the lack of a new launch schedule.
Dragon capsule undocks from ISS carrying four Axiom’s passengers
After spending 18 days in space, 14 on ISS, the Dragon capsule early this morning undocked from ISS with a splashdown scheduled for early tomorrow.
The mission was financed by the space station company Axiom, and was commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, now employed by Axiom as a professional astronaut. The three paying passengers were all government astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary.
The capsule, dubbed Grace, is the newest addition to SpaceX’s fleet of five manned reusable capsules, flying on its first mission.
Splashdown is scheduled for the wee hours of July 15th tomorrow off the coast of California. The live stream can be found here.
After spending 18 days in space, 14 on ISS, the Dragon capsule early this morning undocked from ISS with a splashdown scheduled for early tomorrow.
The mission was financed by the space station company Axiom, and was commanded by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, now employed by Axiom as a professional astronaut. The three paying passengers were all government astronauts from India, Poland, and Hungary.
The capsule, dubbed Grace, is the newest addition to SpaceX’s fleet of five manned reusable capsules, flying on its first mission.
Splashdown is scheduled for the wee hours of July 15th tomorrow off the coast of California. The live stream can be found here.
SpaceX launches geosynchronous satellite for unnamed customer
SpaceX tonight successfully launched a geosynchronous satellite for unnamed customer, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage completed its thirteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The fairings completed their fourteenth and eighteenth flights respectively. No information about the satellite was released, including ending the live stream right after the first stage landed while providing no information about the satellite’s orbit after stage separation.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
86 SpaceX
36 China
10 Rocket Lab
8 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 86 to 63.
SpaceX tonight successfully launched a geosynchronous satellite for unnamed customer, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The first stage completed its thirteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The fairings completed their fourteenth and eighteenth flights respectively. No information about the satellite was released, including ending the live stream right after the first stage landed while providing no information about the satellite’s orbit after stage separation.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
86 SpaceX
36 China
10 Rocket Lab
8 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 86 to 63.
Judge narrows SpaceX lawsuit against California Coastal Commission
Though U.S. district judge Stanley Blumenfeld ruled in May that SpaceX’s lawsuit against California Coastal Commission for targeting the company because the commissioners did not like Elon Musk’s political views can proceed, in early July he also narrowed the lawsuit significantly.
Blumenfeld granted a motion to dismiss violations of the First Amendment and due process against the commission and individual members based on lack of standing, sovereign immunity and failure to state a claim, but allowed allegations of “biased attempts to regulate SpaceX’s activity” and unlawfully demanding a CDP to proceed.
“In sum, SpaceX has plausibly alleged a ripe, nonspeculative case or controversy over whether it must obtain a CDP to continue its Falcon 9 launches,” Blumenfeld said in his order. “The credible threat that defendants will bring an enforcement action and subject SpaceX to daily fines for not having a CDP — which defendants pointedly do not disavow — is sufficient to establish an actual injury under Article III [of the U.S. Constitution].”
It appears the judge acted to protect the commissioners themselves from direct liability, using the made-up concept from the 20th century that government employees are somehow wholly immune from any responsibility for their actions.
Nonetheless, SpaceX has a great case, and is very likely to win in court, a victory that could very well cause the coastal commission and the state of California serious monetary pain.
Though U.S. district judge Stanley Blumenfeld ruled in May that SpaceX’s lawsuit against California Coastal Commission for targeting the company because the commissioners did not like Elon Musk’s political views can proceed, in early July he also narrowed the lawsuit significantly.
Blumenfeld granted a motion to dismiss violations of the First Amendment and due process against the commission and individual members based on lack of standing, sovereign immunity and failure to state a claim, but allowed allegations of “biased attempts to regulate SpaceX’s activity” and unlawfully demanding a CDP to proceed.
“In sum, SpaceX has plausibly alleged a ripe, nonspeculative case or controversy over whether it must obtain a CDP to continue its Falcon 9 launches,” Blumenfeld said in his order. “The credible threat that defendants will bring an enforcement action and subject SpaceX to daily fines for not having a CDP — which defendants pointedly do not disavow — is sufficient to establish an actual injury under Article III [of the U.S. Constitution].”
It appears the judge acted to protect the commissioners themselves from direct liability, using the made-up concept from the 20th century that government employees are somehow wholly immune from any responsibility for their actions.
Nonetheless, SpaceX has a great case, and is very likely to win in court, a victory that could very well cause the coastal commission and the state of California serious monetary pain.
First suborbital launch of Taiwan rocket startup fails
The first suborbital launch of the Taiwan rocket startup Tispace failed today shortly after lift-off from a new commercial spaceport on the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan.
The rocket took off from Hokkaido Space Port at 11:40 a.m. local time, but it was soon seen drifting, with smoke escaping. Footage of the launch was shown by NHK News on its website.
Nobody was reported injured in the incident, and the rocket was not carrying any payload. The first launch of a foreign-made rocket from Hokkaido served to test its engine’s capabilities, the report said.
The rocket startup was formed in 2016 and originally wanted to launch from Taiwan. After legal issues blocked that launch site it then attempted to arrange a launch from Australia. It appears similar red tape issues forced it to switch to Japan.
The first suborbital launch of the Taiwan rocket startup Tispace failed today shortly after lift-off from a new commercial spaceport on the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan.
The rocket took off from Hokkaido Space Port at 11:40 a.m. local time, but it was soon seen drifting, with smoke escaping. Footage of the launch was shown by NHK News on its website.
Nobody was reported injured in the incident, and the rocket was not carrying any payload. The first launch of a foreign-made rocket from Hokkaido served to test its engine’s capabilities, the report said.
The rocket startup was formed in 2016 and originally wanted to launch from Taiwan. After legal issues blocked that launch site it then attempted to arrange a launch from Australia. It appears similar red tape issues forced it to switch to Japan.
July 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.
- Vast touts its thermal vacuum testing of the power distribution unit for its Haven-1 space station
It says this is the unit’s “final qualification milestone”. Whether they are still on schedule for a launch in early 2026 remains unclear.
- Firefly files papers in preparation for its first public stock offering
The number of shares and their price has not yet been determined. Nor is there any date set for the offering.
- Blue Origin shows off the seven BE-4 engines it plans to install on the first stage of the second New Glenn rocket launch
As always, this company moves like frozen molasses. The first launch was seven months ago. Only now they are thinking of assembling the second rocket? Did it take that long to build these BE-4 engines? Or is the company simply twiddling its thumbs while Jeff Bezos gets married?
- Axiom’s spacesuit visor, built for it by the subcontractor Oakley in California
The company’s visor design used technology found in the sunglasses it sells commercially.
- ISRO touts the rocket it is building for its proposed lunar manned missions
Don’t hold your breath. They are targeting the 2040s for the mission. If built the rocket will be bigger than SLS and only slightly shorter than Starship/Superheavy.
- On this day in 1978 Skylab fell to Earth, with some pieces hitting the ground in Australia
The original plan had been to use the space shuttle to dock with it, raise its orbit, and then use both together. Shuttle development however was late and thus there was no way to prevent Skylab’s orbit from decaying, with its de-orbit an uncontrolled one.
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.
- Vast touts its thermal vacuum testing of the power distribution unit for its Haven-1 space station
It says this is the unit’s “final qualification milestone”. Whether they are still on schedule for a launch in early 2026 remains unclear.
- Firefly files papers in preparation for its first public stock offering
The number of shares and their price has not yet been determined. Nor is there any date set for the offering.
- Blue Origin shows off the seven BE-4 engines it plans to install on the first stage of the second New Glenn rocket launch
As always, this company moves like frozen molasses. The first launch was seven months ago. Only now they are thinking of assembling the second rocket? Did it take that long to build these BE-4 engines? Or is the company simply twiddling its thumbs while Jeff Bezos gets married?
- Axiom’s spacesuit visor, built for it by the subcontractor Oakley in California
The company’s visor design used technology found in the sunglasses it sells commercially.
- ISRO touts the rocket it is building for its proposed lunar manned missions
Don’t hold your breath. They are targeting the 2040s for the mission. If built the rocket will be bigger than SLS and only slightly shorter than Starship/Superheavy.
- On this day in 1978 Skylab fell to Earth, with some pieces hitting the ground in Australia
The original plan had been to use the space shuttle to dock with it, raise its orbit, and then use both together. Shuttle development however was late and thus there was no way to prevent Skylab’s orbit from decaying, with its de-orbit an uncontrolled one.
July 11, 2025 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
André Rieu – Scotland the Brave & Amazing Grace
An evening pause: Performed live in Bahrain in 2024. It shouldn’t surprise us that these Arabs play bagpipes. It is merely a reflection of the British colonial influence from the past century.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Weird drainages on Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on Februay 11, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The camera team posted it yesterday as their own cool image, labeling it “A Fissure and Channel near Pavonis Mons”. From the caption:
A linear trough strikes northeast, then abruptly ends (or changes into a narrow ridge). Where the trough ends, a sinuous channel has an east-southeast strike, trending at almost a right angle to the trough. What happened to form these features?
We can speculate that first there was a southwest-to-northeast trending fracture or fault, perhaps associated with a volcanic vent. Groundwater (or some other runny fluid) coursed through the fault until overflowing and forming the sinuous channel. Continued movement through the fault carved a trough up to the overflow point.
The arrows indicate the downhill grades. Though this caption mentions groundwater, it is far more likely that the “runny fluid” was lava, as shown by the overview map below.
» Read more
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on Februay 11, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The camera team posted it yesterday as their own cool image, labeling it “A Fissure and Channel near Pavonis Mons”. From the caption:
A linear trough strikes northeast, then abruptly ends (or changes into a narrow ridge). Where the trough ends, a sinuous channel has an east-southeast strike, trending at almost a right angle to the trough. What happened to form these features?
We can speculate that first there was a southwest-to-northeast trending fracture or fault, perhaps associated with a volcanic vent. Groundwater (or some other runny fluid) coursed through the fault until overflowing and forming the sinuous channel. Continued movement through the fault carved a trough up to the overflow point.
The arrows indicate the downhill grades. Though this caption mentions groundwater, it is far more likely that the “runny fluid” was lava, as shown by the overview map below.
» Read more
Senate committee moves to cancel most of Trump’s proposed NASA budget cuts
Like pigs at the trough
We’ll just print it! Though disagreements prevented the Senate’s appropriations committee from approving the 2026 bills covering the commerce, justice, and science agencies of the federal government (including NASA) , the committee yesterday appeared poised to cancel most of Trump’s proposed NASA budget cuts and even add more spending across the board.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), the top Democrat on the CJS subcommittee, said this morning the bill would fund NASA at $24.9 billion, slightly above its current $24.8 billion level, with the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) remaining level at $7.3 billion.
By contrast, the Trump Administration wants to cut NASA overall by $6 billion, from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion. SMD’s portion would drop 47 percent, from $7.3 billion to $3.9 billion.
The disagreements centered not on NASA, but on the Trump administration’s effort to cancel a very expensive new FBI headquarters building in the Maryland suburbs and instead shift the agency to an already existing building in DC. Van Hollen opposed this, and the ensuing political maneuvering forced the committee to cancel the vote.
This bill would once again continue full funding for SLS, Orion, and Lunar Gateway. It also includes funding for NASA’s very messed-up Mars Sample Return mission (which comprises the large bulk of the money added back in for science). From this it appears that the Republicans in the Senate are quite willing to join the Democrats in spending money wildly, as they have for decades. They have no interest in gaining some control over the out-of-control federal budget, in any way, as Trump is attempting to do.
What remains unknown is this: Who has the support of the American people? The election suggests the public agrees with Trump. History suggests that this support for cutting the budget is actually very shallow, and that while the public says it wants that budget brought under control, it refuses to accept any specific cuts to any program. “Cut the budget, but don’t you dare cut the programs I like!”
It is my sense that the public’s view is changing, and it is now quite ready to allow big cuts across the board. The problem is that the vested interests in Congress and in the DC work force are quite powerful, and appear to still control the actions of our corrupt elected officials.
Thus, the more of that work force that Trump can eliminate as quickly as possible, on his own, the more chance he will have to eventually bring this budget under some control.
Like pigs at the trough
We’ll just print it! Though disagreements prevented the Senate’s appropriations committee from approving the 2026 bills covering the commerce, justice, and science agencies of the federal government (including NASA) , the committee yesterday appeared poised to cancel most of Trump’s proposed NASA budget cuts and even add more spending across the board.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland), the top Democrat on the CJS subcommittee, said this morning the bill would fund NASA at $24.9 billion, slightly above its current $24.8 billion level, with the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) remaining level at $7.3 billion.
By contrast, the Trump Administration wants to cut NASA overall by $6 billion, from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion. SMD’s portion would drop 47 percent, from $7.3 billion to $3.9 billion.
The disagreements centered not on NASA, but on the Trump administration’s effort to cancel a very expensive new FBI headquarters building in the Maryland suburbs and instead shift the agency to an already existing building in DC. Van Hollen opposed this, and the ensuing political maneuvering forced the committee to cancel the vote.
This bill would once again continue full funding for SLS, Orion, and Lunar Gateway. It also includes funding for NASA’s very messed-up Mars Sample Return mission (which comprises the large bulk of the money added back in for science). From this it appears that the Republicans in the Senate are quite willing to join the Democrats in spending money wildly, as they have for decades. They have no interest in gaining some control over the out-of-control federal budget, in any way, as Trump is attempting to do.
What remains unknown is this: Who has the support of the American people? The election suggests the public agrees with Trump. History suggests that this support for cutting the budget is actually very shallow, and that while the public says it wants that budget brought under control, it refuses to accept any specific cuts to any program. “Cut the budget, but don’t you dare cut the programs I like!”
It is my sense that the public’s view is changing, and it is now quite ready to allow big cuts across the board. The problem is that the vested interests in Congress and in the DC work force are quite powerful, and appear to still control the actions of our corrupt elected officials.
Thus, the more of that work force that Trump can eliminate as quickly as possible, on his own, the more chance he will have to eventually bring this budget under some control.
Varda raises another $187 million in private investment capital
Varda’s third capsule, on the ground in Australia.
Click for original image.
The in-space manufacturing startup Varda has now raised another $187 million in private investment capital, bringing the total cash the company has raised to $329 million.
The $187 million fundraise was led by Natural Capital and Shrug Capital, with participation from Founders Fund, Peter Thiel, Khosla Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, Lux Capital, and Also Capital. Since launching their first mission, W-1, in 2023, Varda has completed three successful launch and return missions, with a fourth, W-4, currently in orbit and a fifth expected to launch before the end of the year.
…”With this capital, Varda will continue to increase our flight cadence and build out the pharmaceutical lab that will deliver the world’s first microgravity-enabled drug formulation,” said Varda CEO Will Bruey.
Varda has expanded its footprint terrestrially as well, opening an office in Huntsville, Ala. and a new 10,000 square foot laboratory space in El Segundo, which will allow its pharmaceutical scientists to begin working on developing processes to crystallize biologics, such as monoclonal antibodies. As of 2022, the market size for monoclonal antibodies is estimated to be $210.06 billion.
As I have noted previously, a real market for pharmaceuticals produced in weightlessness has existed for decades. It appears Varda is now well placed to be the first to make money doing so, using its returnable capsules.
One more note: These products and this industry could have been developed on ISS, but NASA has banned all profit-making commercial manufacturing projects there from the station’s beginning. You can do research, but you are forbidden to create any products for sale later on Earth. This strange policy is left over from before the station, when Reagan discontinued all commercial missions on the shuttle following the Challenger accident.
Varda’s third capsule, on the ground in Australia.
Click for original image.
The in-space manufacturing startup Varda has now raised another $187 million in private investment capital, bringing the total cash the company has raised to $329 million.
The $187 million fundraise was led by Natural Capital and Shrug Capital, with participation from Founders Fund, Peter Thiel, Khosla Ventures, Caffeinated Capital, Lux Capital, and Also Capital. Since launching their first mission, W-1, in 2023, Varda has completed three successful launch and return missions, with a fourth, W-4, currently in orbit and a fifth expected to launch before the end of the year.
…”With this capital, Varda will continue to increase our flight cadence and build out the pharmaceutical lab that will deliver the world’s first microgravity-enabled drug formulation,” said Varda CEO Will Bruey.
Varda has expanded its footprint terrestrially as well, opening an office in Huntsville, Ala. and a new 10,000 square foot laboratory space in El Segundo, which will allow its pharmaceutical scientists to begin working on developing processes to crystallize biologics, such as monoclonal antibodies. As of 2022, the market size for monoclonal antibodies is estimated to be $210.06 billion.
As I have noted previously, a real market for pharmaceuticals produced in weightlessness has existed for decades. It appears Varda is now well placed to be the first to make money doing so, using its returnable capsules.
One more note: These products and this industry could have been developed on ISS, but NASA has banned all profit-making commercial manufacturing projects there from the station’s beginning. You can do research, but you are forbidden to create any products for sale later on Earth. This strange policy is left over from before the station, when Reagan discontinued all commercial missions on the shuttle following the Challenger accident.
July 10, 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.
- Space Forge signs deal to use Intuitive Machines’ proposed orbital capsule for in-space product manufacturing
Space Forge manufactures semi-conductors, but it has also partnered with Rhodium Scientific, a biotech manufacturer, so the plan is to produce both pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
- Rocket Lab hires Bollinger Shipyard to modify its ship as a landing platform for its Neutron rocket
Delivery is scheduled for early 2026. Since Rocket Lab has been targeting its first Neutron launch for this year, this either means the schedule has been pushed back, or the company doesn’t expect to recover the rocket on the first launch.
- NASA touts Parker images of the Sun
A short video summary describing Parker’s results so far, though heavy on platitudes.
- ESA and France sign new agreement for expanding commercial launch operations at French Guiana
The deal runs through 2035, allowing continued launches of Ariane-6 and Vega-C, but expands opportunities for new commercial rocket startups.
- On this day in 1962 AT&T launched the first private satellite, Telstar-1
It demonstrated relatively inexpensive broadcast and communication between Europe and North America. AT&T’s plan then was to launch a full constellation to provide phone and broadcast service worldwide, replacing the expensive and very limited undersea cables. The plan ended up getting blocked by Congress and President Kennedy, who instead created a monopoly run by the pseudo-company Comsat, partly owned by the government. While Comsat launched a number of geosynchronous satellites, it never came close to the success promised. Had the government stayed out, we would have had large satellite constellations in the early 1960s and a robust private launch industry. Instead, it all died on the vine, and it would be more than a half century before the American commercial space industry recovered.
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.
- Space Forge signs deal to use Intuitive Machines’ proposed orbital capsule for in-space product manufacturing
Space Forge manufactures semi-conductors, but it has also partnered with Rhodium Scientific, a biotech manufacturer, so the plan is to produce both pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
- Rocket Lab hires Bollinger Shipyard to modify its ship as a landing platform for its Neutron rocket
Delivery is scheduled for early 2026. Since Rocket Lab has been targeting its first Neutron launch for this year, this either means the schedule has been pushed back, or the company doesn’t expect to recover the rocket on the first launch.
- NASA touts Parker images of the Sun
A short video summary describing Parker’s results so far, though heavy on platitudes.
- ESA and France sign new agreement for expanding commercial launch operations at French Guiana
The deal runs through 2035, allowing continued launches of Ariane-6 and Vega-C, but expands opportunities for new commercial rocket startups.
- On this day in 1962 AT&T launched the first private satellite, Telstar-1
It demonstrated relatively inexpensive broadcast and communication between Europe and North America. AT&T’s plan then was to launch a full constellation to provide phone and broadcast service worldwide, replacing the expensive and very limited undersea cables. The plan ended up getting blocked by Congress and President Kennedy, who instead created a monopoly run by the pseudo-company Comsat, partly owned by the government. While Comsat launched a number of geosynchronous satellites, it never came close to the success promised.Had the government stayed out, we would have had large satellite constellations in the early 1960s and a robust private launch industry. Instead, it all died on the vine, and it would be more than a half century before the American commercial space industry recovered.
Primal Space – The Underground Clocks of Paris
An evening pause: Some fascinating technology history, worth fast forwarding through the annoying commercial in the middle.
Hat tip Willi Kusche.
Another scientist blacklisted by the Biden CDC ends up in charge
Martin Kulldorff, no longer blacklisted
Fight! Fight! Fight! When Trump appointed Jay Bhattacharya, the director of Stanford University’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH) a few weeks after his election victory in November, I immediately noted that this choice “underlined quite forcefully the certainty that the outsider nature of all of Trump’s picks to head all the health-related agencies in the federal government will led to major changes in how those agencies operate.”
Bhattacharya had been blacklisted for his very vocal opposition to the government’s lockdown and mandate policies during the COVID epidemic. He along with Martin Kulldorff, one of the world’s foremost experts on vaccines and who was also blacklisted during the epidemic, co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration that strongly criticized the policies imposed by these health agencies, calling instead for a return to the standard response to infectious diseases that had been followed successfully for more than a century.
Putting Bhattacharya in charge of NIH is incredibly ironic. When he along with Kulldorff had come out opposed to the lockdown and jab mandates advocated by Francis Collins, then-head of the NIH, Collins in league with Anthony Fauci, then head of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), put together a back-room campaign to have Bhattacharya, Kulldorff, and many others blacklisted across social media. This campaign also had Kulldorff removed as a member of the CDC’s vaccine safety advisory committee.
My prediction that the outside nature of Trump’s appointments was going to signal major changes continues to hold true, and was further underlined with the announcement on June 29, 2025 that Kulldorff has now been re-appointed to the CDC’s vaccine advisory board as part of the major house-cleaning that Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. announced in early June, when he removed all seventeen members of the board. As noted in the previous link:
» Read more
Martin Kulldorff, no longer blacklisted
Fight! Fight! Fight! When Trump appointed Jay Bhattacharya, the director of Stanford University’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging, to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH) a few weeks after his election victory in November, I immediately noted that this choice “underlined quite forcefully the certainty that the outsider nature of all of Trump’s picks to head all the health-related agencies in the federal government will led to major changes in how those agencies operate.”
Bhattacharya had been blacklisted for his very vocal opposition to the government’s lockdown and mandate policies during the COVID epidemic. He along with Martin Kulldorff, one of the world’s foremost experts on vaccines and who was also blacklisted during the epidemic, co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration that strongly criticized the policies imposed by these health agencies, calling instead for a return to the standard response to infectious diseases that had been followed successfully for more than a century.
Putting Bhattacharya in charge of NIH is incredibly ironic. When he along with Kulldorff had come out opposed to the lockdown and jab mandates advocated by Francis Collins, then-head of the NIH, Collins in league with Anthony Fauci, then head of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), put together a back-room campaign to have Bhattacharya, Kulldorff, and many others blacklisted across social media. This campaign also had Kulldorff removed as a member of the CDC’s vaccine safety advisory committee.
My prediction that the outside nature of Trump’s appointments was going to signal major changes continues to hold true, and was further underlined with the announcement on June 29, 2025 that Kulldorff has now been re-appointed to the CDC’s vaccine advisory board as part of the major house-cleaning that Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. announced in early June, when he removed all seventeen members of the board. As noted in the previous link:
» Read more
SpaceX gets approval to build oxygen plant at Boca Chica
SpaceX today received the okay from Cameron County to build a plant at Boca Chica to produce oxygen from the atmosphere for use in its Superheavy/Starship rocket.
The commissioners voted, 3-1, to give Elon Musk’s rocket company a beachfront construction certificate and dune protection permit, allowing the company to build a modern-day factory akin to an oil refinery to produce gases needed for space flight launches.
The plant will consist of 20 structures on 1.66 acres. The enclosed site will include a tower that will reach 159 feet, or about 15 stories high, much shorter than the nearby launch tower, which stretches 480 feet high. It is set to be built about 280 feet inland from the line of vegetation, which is where the dunes begin. The factory will separate air into nitrogen and oxygen. SpaceX utilizes liquid oxygen as a propellant and liquid nitrogen for testing and operations.
By having the facility on site, SpaceX hopes to make the delivery of those gases more efficient by eliminating the need to have dozens of trucks deliver them from Brownsville. The company says they need more than 200 trucks of liquid nitrogen and oxygen delivered for each launch, a SpaceX engineer told the county during a meeting last week.
As usual, the same cranks who always complain about this stuff are given space by this news outlet to whine, but the truth is that the commission’s vote well reflects the attitude of the local community. It supports what SpaceX is doing, because of the prosperity the company is bringing to this formerly depressed region.
Moreover, this facility will not only save SpaceX money and make it easier to launch more frequently, it is likely environmentally beneficial. I suspect the facility will be relatively clean compared to the truck convoys it will replace.
Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
SpaceX today received the okay from Cameron County to build a plant at Boca Chica to produce oxygen from the atmosphere for use in its Superheavy/Starship rocket.
The commissioners voted, 3-1, to give Elon Musk’s rocket company a beachfront construction certificate and dune protection permit, allowing the company to build a modern-day factory akin to an oil refinery to produce gases needed for space flight launches.
The plant will consist of 20 structures on 1.66 acres. The enclosed site will include a tower that will reach 159 feet, or about 15 stories high, much shorter than the nearby launch tower, which stretches 480 feet high. It is set to be built about 280 feet inland from the line of vegetation, which is where the dunes begin. The factory will separate air into nitrogen and oxygen. SpaceX utilizes liquid oxygen as a propellant and liquid nitrogen for testing and operations.
By having the facility on site, SpaceX hopes to make the delivery of those gases more efficient by eliminating the need to have dozens of trucks deliver them from Brownsville. The company says they need more than 200 trucks of liquid nitrogen and oxygen delivered for each launch, a SpaceX engineer told the county during a meeting last week.
As usual, the same cranks who always complain about this stuff are given space by this news outlet to whine, but the truth is that the commission’s vote well reflects the attitude of the local community. It supports what SpaceX is doing, because of the prosperity the company is bringing to this formerly depressed region.
Moreover, this facility will not only save SpaceX money and make it easier to launch more frequently, it is likely environmentally beneficial. I suspect the facility will be relatively clean compared to the truck convoys it will replace.
Hat tip Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.
Why did Trump suddenly pick Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to become temporary head of NASA?
The reason for Trump’s sudden decision yesterday to name Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as interim NASA administrator, replacing long-time NASA manager Janet Piro — who had held the job since Trump took office — remains unclear.
This article suggests the president wanted someone with more political clout who was also part of his inner circle.
Two articles (here and here) imply the decision was related to the recent clashes politically between Trump and Musk, adding that Duffy and Musk have been reported to be in conflict over air traffic controller issues. Picking Duffy thus directly reduces Musk’s influence at NASA.
The truth is that we really don’t know exactly what motives brought Trump to make this appointment. It could be that Trump wants someone in charge who will have the political clout to push through his proposed NASA cuts. It also could be Trump wants someone with that clout to review those cuts and change them.
The bottom line is that NASA remains a political football, a situation that in the end had done decades of harm to the American space industry. The sooner it can be made irrelevant and replaced by a commercial, competitive, and (most important) profitable space industry, the better.
We really don’t need a “space agency.” We didn’t have such a thing when we settled the American west.
The reason for Trump’s sudden decision yesterday to name Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as interim NASA administrator, replacing long-time NASA manager Janet Piro — who had held the job since Trump took office — remains unclear.
This article suggests the president wanted someone with more political clout who was also part of his inner circle.
Two articles (here and here) imply the decision was related to the recent clashes politically between Trump and Musk, adding that Duffy and Musk have been reported to be in conflict over air traffic controller issues. Picking Duffy thus directly reduces Musk’s influence at NASA.
The truth is that we really don’t know exactly what motives brought Trump to make this appointment. It could be that Trump wants someone in charge who will have the political clout to push through his proposed NASA cuts. It also could be Trump wants someone with that clout to review those cuts and change them.
The bottom line is that NASA remains a political football, a situation that in the end had done decades of harm to the American space industry. The sooner it can be made irrelevant and replaced by a commercial, competitive, and (most important) profitable space industry, the better.
We really don’t need a “space agency.” We didn’t have such a thing when we settled the American west.
SpaceX finally passes final regulatory hurdle to sell Starlink in India
You might get deja-vu from this story, since I have reported repeatedly in the past that SpaceX has finally gotten regulatory approval to sell Starlink in India.
However, India’s complex regulatory framework — leftover from the days of British rule and strengthened for decades after independence when the strongly socialist Congress Party ruled — ended up requiring SpaceX to leap multiple regulatory hurdles to get the Starlink approved. According to news reports today, that last licensing hurdle has now finally been leaped.
The final approval marks a crucial milestone that will pave the way for the Musk-led company to launch its commercial satellite operations in the country. The Elon Musk-led company has been waiting for regulatory approvals since 2022 to operate legally in India. With this approval, Starlink has become the third company to enter the satellite space in India after Reliance Jio and Eutelsat’s OneWeb, in which Bharti Airtel, led by Sunil Mittal, is a shareholder.
Does this mean SpaceX can now sell Starlink in India? Of course not:
The next step for Starlink is to secure spectrum from the government, which will likely be assigned in the coming months. It also needs to set up infrastructure on the ground. One of the most critical aspects of Starlink’s India foray will be its compliance with the country’s security rules.
Since Starlink doesn’t need a complex ground infrastructure, selling terminals directly to customers, the infrastructure mentioned in the quote likely involves partnering Starlink operations with the Indian telecommunications companies Airtell and Jio, so that they get a piece of the action.
You might get deja-vu from this story, since I have reported repeatedly in the past that SpaceX has finally gotten regulatory approval to sell Starlink in India.
However, India’s complex regulatory framework — leftover from the days of British rule and strengthened for decades after independence when the strongly socialist Congress Party ruled — ended up requiring SpaceX to leap multiple regulatory hurdles to get the Starlink approved. According to news reports today, that last licensing hurdle has now finally been leaped.
The final approval marks a crucial milestone that will pave the way for the Musk-led company to launch its commercial satellite operations in the country. The Elon Musk-led company has been waiting for regulatory approvals since 2022 to operate legally in India. With this approval, Starlink has become the third company to enter the satellite space in India after Reliance Jio and Eutelsat’s OneWeb, in which Bharti Airtel, led by Sunil Mittal, is a shareholder.
Does this mean SpaceX can now sell Starlink in India? Of course not:
The next step for Starlink is to secure spectrum from the government, which will likely be assigned in the coming months. It also needs to set up infrastructure on the ground. One of the most critical aspects of Starlink’s India foray will be its compliance with the country’s security rules.
Since Starlink doesn’t need a complex ground infrastructure, selling terminals directly to customers, the infrastructure mentioned in the quote likely involves partnering Starlink operations with the Indian telecommunications companies Airtell and Jio, so that they get a piece of the action.
New census of inverted channels on Mars strongly suggests the planet once had more water
Click for original image.
A new review of inverted channels on Mars now strongly suggests that the red planet was once far wetter than presently seen, with the channels implying the existence of liquid rivers.
The discovery of more than 15,000 kilometres of ancient riverbeds on Mars suggests that the Red Planet may once have been much wetter than previously thought. Researchers looked at fluvial sinuous ridges, also known as inverted channels, across Noachis Terra – a region in Mars’ southern highlands. These are believed to have formed when sediment deposited by rivers hardened and was later exposed as the surrounding material eroded.
Similar ridges have been found across a range of terrains on Mars. Their presence suggests that flowing water was once widespread in this region of Mars, with precipitation being the most likely source of this water.
The image to the right is a good example of an inverted channel, a previous cool image posted in April 2025. It is located not in Noachis Terra but in the northern lowland plains.
The researchers argue that these channels suggest that about 3.7 billion years ago there were flowing liquid rivers on Mars, fed by precipitation. This conclusion however still does not explain how this could happen on a planet that is too cold with too thin an atmosphere for liquid water to exist. Every model so far proposed to make Mars warmer with a thicker atmosphere in the distant past remains questionable with many holes.
Could the inverted channels have been created by glacial activity, ice instead of liquid water? At present we don’t know enough about the Mars environment and the physics of such things in the planet’s one-third gravity to answer that question. It is however a question that scientists I think should be asking, based on the extensive evidence of glacial activity in the Martian mid-latitudes.
The big takeaway from this study however is that it adds weight to the overall trend seen in the data, that over time the total amount of water on the planet has declined. We can see this in glaciers, for example, with later glacial flows always falling short of previous flows. This research shows that even in the dry tropics there was once ample water, even if we don’t yet know what form it took.
Click for original image.
A new review of inverted channels on Mars now strongly suggests that the red planet was once far wetter than presently seen, with the channels implying the existence of liquid rivers.
The discovery of more than 15,000 kilometres of ancient riverbeds on Mars suggests that the Red Planet may once have been much wetter than previously thought. Researchers looked at fluvial sinuous ridges, also known as inverted channels, across Noachis Terra – a region in Mars’ southern highlands. These are believed to have formed when sediment deposited by rivers hardened and was later exposed as the surrounding material eroded.
Similar ridges have been found across a range of terrains on Mars. Their presence suggests that flowing water was once widespread in this region of Mars, with precipitation being the most likely source of this water.
The image to the right is a good example of an inverted channel, a previous cool image posted in April 2025. It is located not in Noachis Terra but in the northern lowland plains.
The researchers argue that these channels suggest that about 3.7 billion years ago there were flowing liquid rivers on Mars, fed by precipitation. This conclusion however still does not explain how this could happen on a planet that is too cold with too thin an atmosphere for liquid water to exist. Every model so far proposed to make Mars warmer with a thicker atmosphere in the distant past remains questionable with many holes.
Could the inverted channels have been created by glacial activity, ice instead of liquid water? At present we don’t know enough about the Mars environment and the physics of such things in the planet’s one-third gravity to answer that question. It is however a question that scientists I think should be asking, based on the extensive evidence of glacial activity in the Martian mid-latitudes.
The big takeaway from this study however is that it adds weight to the overall trend seen in the data, that over time the total amount of water on the planet has declined. We can see this in glaciers, for example, with later glacial flows always falling short of previous flows. This research shows that even in the dry tropics there was once ample water, even if we don’t yet know what form it took.
July 9, 2025 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
July 9, 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.
- Trump appoints Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as interim NASA administrator
At first glance this does NOT bode well for NASA as an agency. It suggests Trump is beginning to think of it as an after thought. Then again, it could mean he has decided action needs to be taken to help the agency. We can only wait and see.
- Starfish Space touts the nominal operations of its Otter Pup-2 robotic docking demo satellite
It will demonstrate rendezvous, proximity operations, and then a docking. The company is proving out its standardized docking system for sale to satellite companies.
- Relativity provides update of what it has accomplished in June
The company continues to move aggressively towards a first launch of its Terran-R rocket.
- Jeff Bezos wins the IAF World Space Award for 2025
For WHAT? As Jay notes, “One New Glenn launch? Best lawn outside of KSC? Biggest check to IAF?”
- Blue Origin touts the integration of propellant tanks on the first flight vehicle of its Blue Ring orbital tug
It would be nice if this damn company would finally begin actual commercial operations of something.
- On this day in 1979 Voyager-2 made its closest fly-by of Jupiter
The video provides a nice summary of what was learned, with the volcanoes of Io the biggest discovery.
- On this day in 2011 the space shuttle Atlantis was launched on the program’s last mission
It was a supply mission to ISS. Replacing the shuttle with cheaper commercial spacecraft took time. In about ten months the first cargo Dragon would launch to ISS, followed by the first cargo Cygnus in 2013, and the first manned Dragon in 2020.
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.
- Trump appoints Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as interim NASA administrator
At first glance this does NOT bode well for NASA as an agency. It suggests Trump is beginning to think of it as an after thought. Then again, it could mean he has decided action needs to be taken to help the agency. We can only wait and see.
- Starfish Space touts the nominal operations of its Otter Pup-2 robotic docking demo satellite
It will demonstrate rendezvous, proximity operations, and then a docking. The company is proving out its standardized docking system for sale to satellite companies.
- Relativity provides update of what it has accomplished in June
The company continues to move aggressively towards a first launch of its Terran-R rocket.
- Jeff Bezos wins the IAF World Space Award for 2025
For WHAT? As Jay notes, “One New Glenn launch? Best lawn outside of KSC? Biggest check to IAF?”
- Blue Origin touts the integration of propellant tanks on the first flight vehicle of its Blue Ring orbital tug
It would be nice if this damn company would finally begin actual commercial operations of something.
- On this day in 1979 Voyager-2 made its closest fly-by of Jupiter
The video provides a nice summary of what was learned, with the volcanoes of Io the biggest discovery.
- On this day in 2011 the space shuttle Atlantis was launched on the program’s last mission
It was a supply mission to ISS. Replacing the shuttle with cheaper commercial spacecraft took time. In about ten months the first cargo Dragon would launch to ISS, followed by the first cargo Cygnus in 2013, and the first manned Dragon in 2020.
Donnie Iris & The Cruisers – Ah Leah!
Sightseeing near Starship’s candidate Martian landing sites
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image takes us sightseeing in the region on Mars that SpaceX has chosen for its prime landing zone for its Starship spaceship. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on May 29, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and shows a 465-foot-high unusually shaped mesa in this region.
The full resolution inset at the bottom of the picture focuses at the strange tilted layers on the southern slope of this mesa. Apparently the layers at this spot were pushed sideways so they lie significantly angled to the horizontal. Though it isn’t clear from this picture, it is possible that the mesa itself is made up of similar tilted layers, hidden below the surface. We can see the tilt only on the mesa’s southern flank because erosion has apparently exposed it.
Note also the black stain that surrounds the mesa. Though this might be caused by wind distributing dust, such stains have also been seen at a location where scientists suspect an inactive hot spring might exist, as well as another location where there may have been relatively recent volcanic activity.
Is this stain caused by any of these processes? In situ exploration would probably be necessary to find out. And we may soon actually have spaceships landing here in the relatively near future with the capability to do this.
» Read more
Click for original image.
Today’s cool image takes us sightseeing in the region on Mars that SpaceX has chosen for its prime landing zone for its Starship spaceship. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on May 29, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and shows a 465-foot-high unusually shaped mesa in this region.
The full resolution inset at the bottom of the picture focuses at the strange tilted layers on the southern slope of this mesa. Apparently the layers at this spot were pushed sideways so they lie significantly angled to the horizontal. Though it isn’t clear from this picture, it is possible that the mesa itself is made up of similar tilted layers, hidden below the surface. We can see the tilt only on the mesa’s southern flank because erosion has apparently exposed it.
Note also the black stain that surrounds the mesa. Though this might be caused by wind distributing dust, such stains have also been seen at a location where scientists suspect an inactive hot spring might exist, as well as another location where there may have been relatively recent volcanic activity.
Is this stain caused by any of these processes? In situ exploration would probably be necessary to find out. And we may soon actually have spaceships landing here in the relatively near future with the capability to do this.
» Read more
The walls of Jericho blocking Trump’s effort to streamline government have now fallen
Trump defiant
Fight! Fight! Fight! The Supreme Court ruling yesterday that allowed Trump’s plan to reorganize and reduce the federal workforce to go forward was far more significant than most realize. It in fact tells us that opposition to Trump’s effort is dissolving, and that he will have the ability in the last three years of his present term in office to complete this effort in a manner that will reshape the federal bureaucracy in ways so radical we will not recognize it when he is done — assuming Trump maintains his present aggressive effort.
First the background. In February Trump issued an executive order requiring agency managements throughout the executive branch to institute plans for reducing staffing signficiantly.
Titled “Implementing The President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative,” the executive order also severely limits federal departments’ ability to bring on more staffers and mandates that agency heads closely coordinate with their DOGE representatives on future hiring plans. Once the hiring freeze that Trump put in place is lifted, agencies will only be allowed to replace one of every four employees who leave and hiring will be restricted to the highest-need areas.
Plus, agencies will not be able to fill vacancies for career positions that DOGE team leaders think should remain open, unless the department head determines they should be filled. DOGE leaders at each agency will file a monthly hiring report to DOGE.
Not surprisingly numerous lawsuits were immediately filed to block this order, claiming that Trump was required to get Congressional approval for such actions.
» Read more
Coalition of space companies begs Congress to fund office designed to track satellites
A coalition of 450 space companies has now submitted letters to both the House and Senate begging Congress to not kill the funding for an office in NOAA created during the first Trump administration and designed to help manage satellite traffic in orbit.
A coalition of space industry associations representing hundreds of companies is urging Congress to reject Trump Administration plans to kill the nascent Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS). Developed through NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce, TraCSS began beta testing last fall to provide data to civil and commercial satellite operators to avoid collisions. Just as the system is finally taking shape, it is targeted for elimination in the FY2026 budget request. The Senate Appropriations Committee takes up that proposal on Thursday when it marks up the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill that includes NOAA.
This new office was first conceived as a replacement for the tracking that the U.S. military has been doing since Sputnik was launched in 1957, information that it provides free to the industry. It appears Trump in his second administration has now concluded this new NOAA office is essentially redundant and therefore unnecessary.
The letters to the House [pdf] and Senate [pdf] urge Congress to reinstate the $65 million in spending for this NOAA office, but offer no suggestions on what to cut to fund this extra cost. Instead, like all such lobbying efforts, it expects Congress to simply print money to pay for the expense.
Meanwhile, it remains a valid question why this additional office is needed if the military has been doing the job quite successfully for the last three-quarters of a century. The letters argue this is a job better suited to a civil agency, but why? The military has to do it anyway for security reasons. Why waste money on a duplicate effort?
A coalition of 450 space companies has now submitted letters to both the House and Senate begging Congress to not kill the funding for an office in NOAA created during the first Trump administration and designed to help manage satellite traffic in orbit.
A coalition of space industry associations representing hundreds of companies is urging Congress to reject Trump Administration plans to kill the nascent Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS). Developed through NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce, TraCSS began beta testing last fall to provide data to civil and commercial satellite operators to avoid collisions. Just as the system is finally taking shape, it is targeted for elimination in the FY2026 budget request. The Senate Appropriations Committee takes up that proposal on Thursday when it marks up the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill that includes NOAA.
This new office was first conceived as a replacement for the tracking that the U.S. military has been doing since Sputnik was launched in 1957, information that it provides free to the industry. It appears Trump in his second administration has now concluded this new NOAA office is essentially redundant and therefore unnecessary.
The letters to the House [pdf] and Senate [pdf] urge Congress to reinstate the $65 million in spending for this NOAA office, but offer no suggestions on what to cut to fund this extra cost. Instead, like all such lobbying efforts, it expects Congress to simply print money to pay for the expense.
Meanwhile, it remains a valid question why this additional office is needed if the military has been doing the job quite successfully for the last three-quarters of a century. The letters argue this is a job better suited to a civil agency, but why? The military has to do it anyway for security reasons. Why waste money on a duplicate effort?