Dave Matthews Band – Corn Bread
An evening pause: Performed live 2007.
Hat tip Clark Jerrell.
Category: Behind The Black
A cool crater in Starship’s prime candidate zone on Mars
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on August 16, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). In mid-March it was featured as a captioned image by MRO’s science team. From their caption:
When they form, impact craters dig up material from below the surface and throw it outwards into what geologists call an ejecta blanket. The fastest ejected material travels the furthest so material from different depths can end up at different distances from the crater.
This HiRISE image shows a pedestal crater in Arcadia Planitia that has material of different brightness and color at various distances from the crater. This could tell us more about the material that’s buried below the surface here, but the situation is complex.
The caption however fails to mention the most interesting two aspects of this crater’s ejecta blanket. One, it suggests strongly that there was a lot of near surface ice at impact that melted to produce this splash apron.
Second, and even more intriguing, the 3,100-foot-wide unnamed crater is located smack dab in the middle of the candidate landing zone on Mars for SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, as shown by the overview map above. The white dot marks the location of this crater, while the red dots mark the four prime landing sites, as suggested by scientists in a 2021 paper [pdf], based on conclusions drawn from two workshops organized by SpaceX and these scientists. The other dots are other MRO images of this region, and include a number of potential secondary landing sites.
This zone is in the northern lowland plains of Mars, in a mid-latitude region where near-surface ice is plentiful. The splash apron of this crater provides further evidence of that near surface ice.
FAA to begin taxing launches by payload weight
As per the provisions in last year’s reconciliation budget bill (dubbed for propaganda reasons by Trump the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”), the FAA was authorized to begin charging fees (another word for taxes) on the mass of each launch payload. The agency last week announced it is now doing so.
More information here.
For 2026, that fee is 25 cents per pound of payload, capped at $30,000 per launch or reentry. The fees would fund work on improving integration of launches and reentries into the national airspace system directed by an FAA reauthorization act in 2024.
Though the amount per launch is small compared to the cost of the launch itself, this new tax is expected to provide ample funds to allow the FAA to expand its licensing operations to meet the growing launch industry. The real challenge will be whether the bureaucracy can stay focused on its main task of serving the public, or use the money to build a new bureaucratic empire aimed at garnering power over the private sector. History suggests we should be pessimistic, and expect the latter.
In the meantime, rocket companies are simply going to apply this new tax to the makers of their payloads, who in turn will have their customers pay the cost.
ULA launches 29 Leo satellites
ULA last night successfully launched another 29 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit, its Atlas-5 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
ULA is in the process of retiring the Atlas-5 rocket. It now has only eight Atlas-5 rockets left in stock, with two reserved for Leo launches and six for Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule (though there is a good chance some if not all of the Starliner launches will be switched to other payloads). Because its Vulcan rocket, intended to replace Atlas-5, is presently grounded, the company appears to be accelerating Atlas-5 launches, with this launch only about 24 days after the previous launch.
With this launch, Amazon now has 270 Leo satellites in orbit, out of the 1,616 it needs to launch by July to meet its FCC license requirement. Because it is not expected to meet that requirement, the company has asked for a time extension, which the FCC is presently considering.
As this was only the third launch by ULA in 2026, the leader board for the 2026 launch race remains unchanged:
50 SpaceX
23 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
For the third straight year SpaceX continues to lead the entire world combined in total launches, 50 to 43.
Def Leppard – Rocket
An evening pause: Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
April 27, 2026 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- New dates for future American ISS manned missions: Crew 13 (September 12, 2026); Crew 14 (March 2027); Crew 15/Starliner-2 (October 2027)
Before that Starliner manned mission an unmanned cargo mission must happen first, and it must go off without a hitch.
- Video of Russian astronauts during spacewalk in 2018, finding the hole drilled in the Soyuz capsule before launch
Though they had sealed the hole on the inside of the capsule, they wanted to look at it on the outside to confirm it was man-made. Though the Russians have said they figured out who drilled the hole, eight years later they still refuse to tell anyone.
An excellent overview of AST SpaceMobile following the New Glenn launch failure
Link here. For an article in a mainstream media outlet the writing is remarkable in its general accuracy and understanding of the larger context. It is also quite thorough, covering all aspects of AST SpaceMobile’s business model and how it stacks up against its main competitor, SpaceX’s Starlink.
According to the article, the company still hopes to get as many as 45 of its large new Bluebird satellites in orbit by the end of this year, though it admits the New Glenn failure now makes that goal more difficult. As the article notes:
AST SpaceMobile is continuing to manufacture, assemble and test satellites in Midland, and it will soon ship three new BlueBird satellites for launch on a yet-to-be-announced rocket. [emphasis mine]
That unnamed rocket is likely the Falcon 9, but at some point AST must find other rockets, as there is likely a limit to how many launches SpaceX can provide. Both ULA’s Vulcan rocket and Blue Origin’s New Glenn are both presently grounded because of launch failures, and other than SpaceX’s Falcon-9 and Falcon Heavy they are the only American rockets capable of launching the Bluebirds. It is also doubtful AST can buy flights on Europe’s Ariane-6 rocket. Though that rocket has had trouble garnering customers because of its high cost, its operator, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) commercial agency Arianespace, has also been very slow to ramp up operations. Even if AST was willing to pay a premium, Arianespace would likely not be able to fit extra launches into its schedule.
Overall, this situation illustrates a great opportunity. There is a strong demand for rockets from the satellite industry that the present rocket industry — excluding SpaceX — has been unable to meet.
Starlink returns to Papua New Guinea after court ruling
SpaceX’s Starlink internet service will once again be available in Papua New Guinea after its court this week overturned a ban that had been imposed by a government bureaucracy.
In early 2024, the [Ombudsman] Commission blocked licensing efforts for Starlink, arguing that existing regulations may not be adequate to manage potential risks to public interest and safety.
But in her National Court ruling last week, Judge Susan Purdon-Sully strongly criticised the Ombudsman Commission for its move to halt Starlink’s license process. Finding no breach of PNG’s leadership code, nor evidence of corruption, the judge said the Ombudsman’s concerns were more administrative, meaning its directive to NICTA had been “an unconstitutional exercise of power”.
Meanwhile, the prime minister again urged Starlink to work collaboratively with state-owned Telikom PNG to “ensure a coordinated rollout that complements national infrastructure priorities”.
The article describes in detail several recent natural disasters where the lack of Starlink was a critical component in rescue and repair operations. The country also has large rural areas where Starlink is the only method for reaching the rest of the world quickly. There was thus apparently great political pressure to end this ban.
Avio makes more from its Vega-C rocket now that Arianespace is out of the picture
According to a report today at Europeanspaceflight.com, the European Space Agency (ESA) paid Arianespace €51.65 million ($60.6 million) for a December 2024 launch using the Vega-C rocket that the Italian company Avio produces.
That flight was one of the last ones managed by Arianespace. In November 2025 ESA completed the transfer of ownership back to Avio, so that the company now manages and sells its own rocket, rather than have a middle-man government agency run things and take a cut.
Since then Avio has won three separate launch contracts, one from Taiwan for $81 million, another from Brazil for $35.6 million, and a third from Airbus for $84.4 million (see here).
Based on these numbers, it appears that Avio is doing much better selling this rocket directly to the market than having Arianespace and ESA run things for it. It is not only generally getting slightly more revenue per launch (about $67 million average compared to $60.6 million under Arianespace), but it is keeping all the profits, rather than having the Arianespace government bureaucracy take a percentage.
These numbers however won’t hold in the coming years. In the U.S. in the next year at least two reusable rockets — Rocket Lab’s Neutron and Stoke Space’s Nova — are coming on line, and will drive these launch prices down. Furthermore, new smallsat rockets being developed in Germany (two), Spain, India (two), South Korea, and Australia should do the same.
At the moment however Avio is benefiting from the present state of the market, though even that advantage is threatened because it has had to delay the next Vega-C launch due to a technical issue.
Regardless, these numbers give us a strong sense of the present competitive launch costs in today’s market, averaging about $60 million per launch. Before SpaceX came along, that price generally exceeded more than $100 million, and often as high as $200 to $500 million. No more. SpaceX has forced competition on the industry, and the result has been a notable drop in price, with more to come.
Australian rocket startup Gilmour pinpoints cause of first rocket launch failure
Click for video, cued to just before launch. The red
dot marks the launchpad location.
The Australian rocket startup Gilmour Space on April 24, 2026 released the results of its investigation into the launch failure seconds after liftoff of its Eris rocket in July 2025.
Our investigation found that approximately nine seconds after ignition, one of the four first-stage hybrid rocket motors experienced a loss of thrust. A second motor exhibited similar behaviour at around 17 seconds, reducing vehicle performance and bringing the mission to an early end.
Analysis identified two independent failure modes originating from the oxidiser pump subsystem. Electrical and thermal faults were observed in the electric pump motors and associated inverters, including components sourced from an external supplier. We now have a clearer understanding of the underlying causes.
The company hopes to try again later this year, but to do so it will need license approval from Australia’s bureaucracy, and such approvals have not been quick.
Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.
Trump fires the entire governing board of the National Science Foundation
In a move that should surprise no one at this point in Trump’s second term, yesterday President Trump informed all 24 members of the National Science Board, the committee that runs the National Science Foundation (NSF), that they have been fired.
“On behalf of President Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the National Science Board is terminated, effective immediately,” reads a 24 April email from Mary Sprowls of the presidential personnel office to each NSB member. “Thank you for your service.”
The article at the link, from the journal Science, takes the typical one-sided propaganda press anti-Trump view, interviewing only those who oppose Trump and spending most of its time screaming “He’s destroying science!”
A wider view would ask this: Is there a reason that the president of the United States, elected by the American people, might have reasons to question the management of this board? At the moment the federal government is running a deficit that is back-breaking, and this board publicly criticized Trump’s effort to rein in spending when he proposed a 55% cut in NSF’s budget. If they are not going to cooperate with their boss, then maybe they should leave, and not let the door hit them as they head out.
The Science article also included this howler: “the mass firing is the latest indication that the White House is ignoring the board’s authority and dictating policies at NSF.” Um, who elected them? No one. In fact, they were appointed by the president himself, and he is the only one with the constitutional authority to decide these matters.
Expect court suits of course, with some lower level unelected judge somewhere attempting to take over running the executive branch by demanding these board members remain in power, defying the elected president of the U.S.
Two space station startups strengthen their positions
The startups building the commercial space stations Haven-1 and Starlab this week made deals that will further strengthen their positions both to win future NASA contracts while also making their own operations more functionally viable.
First, Vast, which hopes to launch its Haven-1 single module demonstration station next year and follow it up with its full Haven-2 station (as shown to the right), signed a deal with former NASA astronaut Sunita “Suni” Williams, making her the fifth astronaut to join the company’s astronaut advisory committee.
Former NASA astronaut and U.S. Navy Captain Sunita “Suni” L. Williams has joined Vast as an Astronaut Advisor. She joins Vast’s esteemed group of Astronaut Advisors led by Lead Astronaut Andrew Feustel, including Garrett Reisman, Megan McArthur, and former JAXA astronaut and Vast Japan General Manager Naoko Yamazaki.
It is clear each one of these former government astronauts sees the possibility of flying again to Vast’s Haven-1 station, which the company hopes to have occupied four times for two weeks during its three year mission. They are also hoping to be part of the much larger Haven-2 station to follow.
Vast in turn is now assembling a staff of very experienced professional astronauts it can use to lead all these proposed missions.
Next, Voyager Technologies, the lead company in the consortium building the single-module large Starlab station that will launch on Starship, signed an agreement with Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. While initially the deal will have the university do research at Voyager’s research facility in Ohio, it also lays the groundwork for the univesity to eventually get access on Starlab, once launched.
For Voyager this deal helps show NASA that there is a real market for these private stations, something NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has expressed doubts about.
In my rankings below of the five stations under development, the first three stations remain essentially tied for first place.
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