A evening pause: As Hartley says in describing how this classic song was created, “But they kept it so simple.” After watching the video below I think you will want to go back to yesterday’s pause and listen again.
May everyone have a great weekend.
Hat tip Cotour.
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.
Click for full resolution. Original images can be found here and here.
Click for interactive map.
Cool image time! The panorama above was created using two pictures taken on December 4, 2025 (here and here) by the navigation camera on the Mars rover Perseverance. The view I think is looking west, away from the rim of Jezero Crater, which now lies behind the rover to the east.
The blue dot on the overview map to the right marks Perseverance’s position when it took this picture. The yellow lines indicate my rough guess as to the area covered by the panorama. The white dotted line marks the actual route the rover has taken, while the red dotted line the original planned route.
As I noted in my previous Perseverance update in mid-November, the science team has apparently decided to revise the route, abandoning initial plan of going back uphill towards the rim and instead travel downhill into the hills beyond. This is a region that orbital data has suggested might be rich in minerals, making it a prime mining location for future colonists. My guess is that the science team decided they needed to get there, that they had enough data from the rim and that it was now more important to get to the western mineralogy.
Though I am sure they are using the highest resolution orbital images from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to guide them, the Perseverance team has not yet upgraded its interactive location map to show those details in this western region. Thus, the map in this area is fuzzy and not as detailed.
The team has also not published its revised planned route, so there is no way to guess where the rover will go next. It does appear however that it is finally leaving Jezero Crater for good.
And as all recent pictures from Perseverance, these images show this Martian landscape to be utterly barren, its hills and valleys softened by dust and eons of erosion from the very thin Martian wind. This is an alien place, though it has the potential with human ingenuity to bloom if we have the courage to try.
Click for original.
The uncertainty of science: New research using a combination of ground- and space-based telescopes has not only failed to resolve the difference between the two values observed for the Hubble constant (the expansion rate of the universe), it actually confirms that conflict.
The graphic to the right nicely illustrates the conflict. Observations from the early universe come up with a value of 67-68 kiloparsecs per second per megaparsec for the Hubble constant. Observations from the present universe, including these new more precise measurements, come up with a value of 73-74. From the press release:
A team of astronomers using a variety of ground and space-based telescopes including the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, have made one of the most precise independent measurements yet of how fast the universe is expanding, further deepening the divide on one of the biggest mysteries in modern cosmology.
Using data gathered from Keck Observatory’s Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) as well as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) researchers have independently confirmed that the universe’s current rate of expansion, known as the Hubble constant (H₀), does not match values predicted from measurements from the universe when it was much younger.
Cosmologists call this conflict “the Hubble Tension”, a absurd fake term expressly designed to hide the fact that they have no idea what’s going on. It isn’t “tension”, it is a perfect example of good observations coming up with contradictory data that no theory can explain.
The space subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee yesterday held a hearing on space, one day after the Senate held its own hearing on the nomination of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator.
The House hearing however was not about Isaacman, but was apparently staged to highlight what appears to be strong reservations within Congress about NASA’s Artemis program, as presently structured. Its timing, just after the Isaacman hearing, was clearly aimed at garnering as much publicity as possible.
Video of the hearing can be seen here.
The focus of the hearing was also on China, and how there is real fear in Congress that its space program is outstripping NASA’s. Both the Republican committee chairman and the ranking Democrat stressed these concerns, and the need to beat China to the Moon and beyond.
More important, all four witnesses pushed the same point.
The rallying cry at this hearing as well as yesterday’s is the “race” with China.
…Foushee asked each of the witnesses for one-word answers to the question: is NASA on track to get back to the Moon before Chinese taikonauts arrive?
Not all succeeded with one word, but their sentiment was similar. Cheng replied “no, I am very pessimistic.” Swope: “worried.” Besha: “maybe.” Griffin: “no possible way…with the present plan.”
Former NASA administrator Mike Griffin was the most blunt in his criticism of NASA.
» Read more
In what is a major coup for one of China’s planned large constellations, Airbus yesterday agreed to use the Qianfan or Spacesail constellation to provide Wi-Fi service on its airplanes.
At a satellite internet industry ecology conference in east China’s Shanghai on Thursday, Airbus signed a market cooperation agreement on the satellite internet service with Shanghai Spacesail Technologies Co., Ltd. The Spacesail Constellation will provide high-speed, low-latency broadband satellite services via the high-speed connectivity system on aircraft, enhancing the in-flight experience for passengers.
The two parties will also work together to meet the needs of airlines, and promote the development of intelligent, personalized services based on low-orbit broadband communication technology.
Starsail is a direct competitor to Starlink. China has so far launched 119 satellites out of a planned first phase constellation of 648. Later phases could increase the constellation to as many as 10,000 satellites.
It seems puzzling why Airbus went with this Chinese constellation, rather than either Starlink or Amazon’s Leo (formerly Kuiper). Starlink is far more developed, while Leo has more satellites in orbit (154 to 119) than Spacesail. And both are private companies from the capitalistic west, not pseudo-companies controlled by the Chinese communists.
Maybe this deal is preliminary to a major purchase of Airbus airplanes by China. China wanted its system on those planes, and so Airbus agreed to go along.
Regardless, this deal tells us that this Chinese internet constellation is going to be a major competitor to both Starlink and Leo.
Click for original.
Click for original.
Both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday released new photos of the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas.
First, NASA released the image on the right, taken on November 30, 2025 by the Hubble Space Telescope. At the time the comet was about 178 million miles away. It clearly shows the comet’s coma of material, surrounding a bright nucleus at the center. The streaks are background stars.
Next, the mission team for Europe’s Juice probe, on its way to Jupiter, released one small portion of a picture taken by its navigation camera. That picture is the second to the right.
During November 2025, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) used five of its science instruments to observe 3I/ATLAS. The instruments collected information about how the comet is behaving and what it is made of. In addition, Juice snapped the comet with its onboard Navigation Camera (NavCam), designed not as a high-resolution science camera, but to help Juice navigate Jupiter’s icy moons following arrival in 2031.
Though the data from the science instruments won’t arrive on Earth until February 2026, our Juice team couldn’t wait that long. They decided to try downloading just a quarter of a single NavCam image to see what was in store for them. The very clearly visible comet, surrounded by signs of activity, surprised them.
Not only do we clearly see the glowing halo of gas surrounding the comet known as its coma, we also see a hint of two tails. The comet’s ‘plasma tail’ – made up of electrically charged gas, stretches out towards the top of the frame. We may also be able to see a fainter ‘dust tail’ – made up of tiny solid particles – stretching to the lower left of the frame.
The image was taken on 2 November 2025, during Juice’s first slot for observing 3I/ATLAS. It was two days before Juice’s closest approach to the comet, which occurred on 4 November at a distance of about 66 million km.
Because Juice is presently behind the Sun (as seen from Earth), most of the data it collected during its closest approach won’t be downloaded until February. This one partial image is only a fore taste.
China today successfully placed two experimental communications satellites into orbit, its solid-fueled Kuaizhou-1a rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.
China’s state-run press provided no information on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed. The rocket is supposedly owned and operated by a Chinese pseudo-company, but its solid-fueled heritage clearly comes from military missiles, and thus could only have been developed and used under the full supervision of China’s military.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
159 SpaceX
76 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 159 to 128.
According to a report yesterday, a countdown rehearsal two weeks ago for the Orion/SLS stack that also included the four astronauts to fly on the next mission was delayed because a “blemish” was found on the Orion hatch “thermal barrier.”
“Prior to the countdown demonstration test, the agency had planned to conduct a day of launch closeout demonstration. This demonstration was paused when a blemish was found on the crew module thermal barrier, preventing hatch closure until it could be addressed,” the statement read. “A repair was completed on Nov. 18 allowing the closeout demo to successfully complete on Nov. 19. To allow lessons learned from the closeout demo to be incorporated into the planning for the countdown demonstration test, the decision was made to proceed into water servicing next and place the countdown demonstration test after this servicing completes.”
It was not clear from the NASA statement how a ‘blemish’ prevented the closure of the hatch and NASA would not say exactly when the countdown rehearsal will take place. Declining to provide further details, the space agency spokesperson said: “NASA remains on track to launch Artemis 2 no later than April 2026 with opportunities to potentially launch as soon as February.”
NASA released no additional details, though it claimed this delay will have no impact on the launch schedule for the Artemis-2 mission, planned for launch no later than April 2026.
The lack of detailed information from NASA is disturbing. What was the “blemish?” It appears it was on the rubber gaskets that circle the hatch’s edge. What caused it? Was it some damage? A production flaw? NASA’s general silence forces us to consider more serious possibilities.
I continue to pray that these four astronauts are not going to end up as sacrificial lambs to the political scheduling demands that is forcing NASA to push on blindly, as it did with both the Challenger and Columbia failures, ignoring or minimizing issues that common sense should never be minimized.
An evening pause: I normally don’t post pauses that are not live and have no visuals, such as this one. However, in this case I have reasons for using this original recording of this wonderful song, which will become evident in tomorrow’s evening pause.
SpaceX today successfully launched another 28 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The first stage completed its 4th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
159 SpaceX (a new record)
75 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 159 to 127.
It turns out that one week after a judge approved a plea deal in early November between Boeing and the Justice Department that would allows the company to avoid a criminal prosecution for its malfeasance and fraud that led to two 737-Max airplane crashes that killed a total of 346 people — thus dismissing the pending criminal charges — the families of the victims filed an appeal, asking a higher court to overturn that deal.
The families had argued before U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor that the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) non-prosecution agreement violated the judicial review provisions, which was reached behind closed doors without the families’ statutory right to confer. The writ of mandamus argues that no substantive proceedings before Judge O’Connor were held before he made his decision in favor of Boeing.
…DOJ initially presented Judge O’Connor with a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) that he rejected. Instead of coming back with something more stringent, DOJ presented Boeing with the lesser punishment of an NPA in which Boeing would merely pay a $243.6 million penalty, give $444.5 million to be divided amongst the 346 families, and make additional investments in its safety and compliance. In exchange, the DOJ agreed to dismiss the criminal charge against Boeing. On November 6, Judge O’Connor approved this revised NPA and granted the government’s motion to dismiss.
The families now look forward to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse this decision through its writ of mandamus. In the writ, Paul Cassell, pro bono, attorneys for the families and professor of the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah, argued on behalf of the families’ that the government’s NPA with Boeing would not provide sufficient oversight of Boeing and failed to account for the fact that Boeing’s criminal behavior was found to have caused the deaths of 346 crash victims. Boeing’s CEO and its lawyers had admitted to the fraud in a guilty plea issued four years ago.
In 2021 Boeing itself pleaded guilty to malfeasance and corruption charges, and was given three years to clean up its act or face criminal prosecution. When after three years Justice found Boeing had instead lied to it while doing little to fix things, it first proceeded with prosecution, only to suddenly back off and make this plea deal.
Thus, the families’ case is strong. Boeing is an admitted criminal and has also done nothing to change its behavior. Whether the families can get the plea deal overturned, however, remains unknown. The legal system no longer can be trusted when it comes to big government contractors like Boeing. The government acts routinely to protect them (as Justice is doing here), and thus there will be heavy political pressure on the courts to turn down this appeal.
