Category: Points of Information

Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.

China launches nine more Guowang internet-of-things satellites

8:56 pm

China today successfully launched another nine internet-of-things satellites for the Guowang (or SatNet) constellation, its Long March 12 rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport.

China’s state-run press did not reveal the number of satellites, but the previous three Long March 12 launches that carried Guowang satellites all launched nine, so I think it is safe to assume nine launched today as well. This was the sixteenth launch for this constellation, which now has about 119 satellites in orbit, with a planned 13,000 once complete.

The Long March 12 is expendable. Though the launch proceeded over the ocean, one drop zone for the rocket’s lower stages was in the Philippines, where authorities warned its citizens to avoid those zones and to exercise caution if they see any likely rocket debris.

An upgraded version, the Long March 12A, with a first stage designed to land vertically and be reused, is scheduled to launch sometime in the next two weeks.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

164 SpaceX
82 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 164 to 134.

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December 11, 2025 Quick space links

2:45 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

  • Perseverance detects static electricity produced by Martian dust devils
    I didn’t post this story last week when it was first announced because the media framed it as “Lightning found on Mar!” That’s balderdash. What was actually found was that the dust moving in dust devils produces static charges that have now been detected. I should have clarified this point then. I thank Jay for getting me to correct this omission.
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Scientists posit that Neptune and Uranus might be rockier than previously theorized

12:35 pm

Scientists doing new computer modeling of the known data now posit that Neptune and Uranus might not be as icy as previously believed and instead could be more like the inner terrestrial planets like Earth, much rockier in their interior.

According to the work carried by the UZH scientific team, Uranus and Neptune might actually be more rocky than icy. The new study does not claim the two blue planets to be one or the other type, water- or rock- rich, it rather challenges that ice-rich is the only possibility. This interpretation is also consistent with the discovery that the dwarf planet Pluto is rock-dominated in composition.

…With their new agnostic, and yet fully physical model, the University of Zurich team found the potential internal composition of the “ice giants” of our Solar system, is not limited at all to only ice (typically represented by water). “It is something that we first suggested nearly 15 years ago, and now we have the numerical framework to demonstrate it,” reveals Ravit Helled, a professor at the University of Zurich and initiator of the project. The new range of internal composition shows that both planets can either be water-rich or rock-rich.

This new hypothesis might also help explain the multi-polar magnetic fields of both planets.

All is uncertain of course, as this is just a computer model based on limited data. Nor is it a surprise that an alternative conclusion appears to work. We know so little about these distant worlds that it is likely that multiple theories could fit the data, and all could be wrong when we finally learn more.

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French startup The Exploration Company now building an in-orbit servicing spacecraft

12:28 pm

The French startup The Exploration Company, which has been developing an unmanned cargo spacecraft called Nyx to supply the commercial space stations under development, has now also gotten funds from the European Space Agency (ESA) to build an in-orbit spacecraft designed to provide refueling and servicing capabilities as well.

More information here.

In a 25 November update on its progress with an ESA-funded project, the company revealed that it is also working on a spacecraft called Oura, designed to refuel satellites in orbit, thereby extending their operational lifespan.

…As part of the 25 November update, the company announced that it had been awarded a Phase B2 contract for the InSPoC-1 programme. The Phase B2 development of the project will include activities up to Technology Readiness Level 6, which represents the development of a prototype and its demonstration in a relevant environment.

Once again, this contract from ESA is radically different than its past policy of building and owning everything itself. Instead, it is hiring this French company to develop this capability, which this French company will then own and be able to sell for profits to others.

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Scientists map the outside edge of the Sun’s atmosphere

12:22 pm

The mapping of the Sun's atmosphere

Using multiple solar observatories in space, scientists have now been able to map the approximate location of the outside edge of the Sun’s atmosphere, the point “where the speed of the outward solar wind becomes faster than the speed of magnetic waves.”

The panels to the right are a sampling of that mapping, and is figure 3 of the peer-reviewed paper [pdf]. The bulk of the data (black) comes from five spacecraft observing the Sun from the L1 point a million miles from Earth. The blue line is data from Solar Orbiter, while the red line is data from the Parker Solar Probe. From the press release:

Astronomers have produced the first continuous, two-dimensional maps of the outer edge of the Sun’s atmosphere, a shifting, frothy boundary that marks where solar winds escape the Sun’s magnetic grasp. By combining the maps and close-up measurements, scientists from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) showed that the boundary grows larger, rougher and spikier as the Sun becomes more active.

…The boundary in the Sun’s atmosphere where the solar wind’s outward speed becomes faster than the speed of magnetic waves, known as the Alfvén surface, is the “point of no return” for material that escapes the Sun and enters interplanetary space; once material travels beyond this point, it cannot travel back to the Sun. This surface is the effective “edge” of the Sun’s atmosphere, and provides scientists with an active laboratory for studying and understanding how solar activity impacts the rest of the solar system, including life and technology on and around Earth.

This new data further refines the nature of the boundary, as earlier probes had already given scientists a rough idea of its size and nature.

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Yesterday’s posts are sadly lost

12:07 pm

The outage earlier today unfortunately toasted everything I did yesterday. That also appears to include the comments people left as well.

I will attempt to recreate those posts later today and over the weekend. Sorry however about the comments. I don’t think I can recover them.

UPDATE: I think I have recreated all the posts from yesterday. I was also able to repost the lost comments from the National Academies of Science story because commenter Edward had them still and sent them to me.

If I have missed anything, please comment below.

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Pentagon decides New Glenn must fly four times before its certifies it for military launches

11:33 am

Pentagon officials yesterday announced that before it will certify Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket for commercial military payloads, it must complete two more successful orbital launches, for a total of four flights.

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket will have to complete four successful orbital flights as its pathway to certification under the U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program, Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said Dec. 10 at the Spacepower conference. Garrant, who leads the Space Systems Command, said Blue Origin selected the four-flight benchmark and the government agreed. “The government is supporting a four-flight certification for New Glenn,” he told reporters. The rocket has logged two successful missions so far, and Garrant said a third launch is expected “earlier in the new year than later.” If upcoming flights stay on track, he added, “I think they’re going to be in a fantastic place to become our third certified provider and compete for missions.”

If certified, Blue Origin would join SpaceX and United Launch Alliance as the Space Force’s third heavy-lift launch provider.

It is surprising that the military is requiring four successful flights from Blue Origin, but required only two from ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, and certified that even though there were problems on Vulcan’s second flight.

These extra flights should not cause a significant delay, since Blue Origin is expecting to complete a number of launches in 2026 to meet its obligations under its Amazon Leo contract

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December 10, 2025 Quick space links

3:05 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

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Three launches today

1:31 pm

Three launches today, two by China and one by SpaceX.

First China placed what its state-run press called a “communications technology test satellite” into orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

China then placed nine smallsats into orbit, its Kinetica-1 (or Lijian-1) rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China. One of those satellites was for the United Arab Emirates.

In neither case did China’s press provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages crashed.

In between these launches SpaceX launched 27 more Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. The first stage completed its 18th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

163 SpaceX (a new record)
81 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 163 to 133.

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Abstract art produced by nature within Mars’ north pole ice cap

1:17 pm

Abstract art created by nature on Mars
Click for original

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, sharpened, and annotated to post here, was taken on October 27, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). I have also rotate the image so that north is to the top.

The science team labels this “Exposure of North Polar Layered Deposits,” an apt description of the horizontal red and grey and blue layers that dominate the image and make this geology look more like an abstract painting than a natural landscape. What we are actually looking at is a canyon 800-to-1,200 feet deep within the north polar ice cap of Mars.

The picture was taken in the summer with the Sun about 12 degrees above the horizon to the south. Thus, the northern cliff face is illuminated, revealing its many colored layers, while the south face is mostly in shadow, hiding those layers.
» Read more

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Chinese astronauts complete spacewalk inspecting damaged Shenzhou capsule

12:53 pm

Two Chinese astronauts yesterday completed their first spacewalk since arriving on China’s Tiangong-3 space station, during which they inspected the damaged viewport on the Shenzhou-20 capsule as well as installed a cover to protective that damage when the capsule returns to Earth.

Shenzhou-21 mission commander Zhang Lu and rookie crewmate Wu Fei began an extravehicular activity (EVA) at 9:28 p.m. Eastern, Dec. 8 (0228 UTC, Dec. 9), when Zhang opened the Wentian experiment module airlock hatch and exited the Tiangong space station.

The more than eight-hour EVA concluded at 5:42 a.m. Eastern (1042 UTC) Dec. 9, with the pair safely back inside Tiangong. Zhang and Wu, wearing Feitian EVA suits with red and blue markings respectively, were assisted by the space station’s robotic arm, crewmate Zhang Hongzhang from inside Tiangong, and teams in mission control. New, upgraded Feitian suits were delivered to Tiangong via the July Tianzhou-9 cargo mission.

The first series of tasks centered on the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, the return module of which suffered a suspected debris impact to a viewport window, rendering the spacecraft unsafe to return its three-astronaut crew to Earth in early November. At around 12:19 a.m. Eastern, Zhang Lu approached the viewport window of the Shenzhou-20 return module while attached to the Tiandong robotic arm and photographed and assessed the damage.

China has said that the damage was caused by a millimeter-sized object that impacted at high speed. It has yet however to release any images of the damage, and provided no other details.

Thus, we still do not know the damage’s exact nature, other than what that state-run press has told us. It could very well be that this damage was caused by some other factor that China does not wish to reveal.

NOTE: This is a recreation of a post published on December 10, 2025 that was lost during this morning’s server outage.

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Unconfirmed anonymous sources at Reuters and Bloomberg claim SpaceX is planning a public stock offering

12:46 pm

Two stories from Reuters and Bloomberg yesterday suggest Elon Musk is considering making SpaceX a publicly traded company, with an initial stock offering sometime in 2026. From the Reuters’ report:

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is looking to raise more than $25 billion through an initial public offering in 2026, a move that could boost the rocket-maker’s valuation to over $1 trillion, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The company’s move towards a public listing, which could rank among the largest global IPOs, has been largely driven by the rapid expansion of its Starlink satellite internet business, including plans for direct-to-mobile service and progress in its Starship rocket program for moon and Mars missions.

SpaceX has started discussions with banks about launching the offering around June or July, the person said, requesting anonymity to discuss confidential information.

Since both stories rely entirely on anonymous sources, we should not take either very seriously. I only post this now merely to put it on the record. And though Elon Musk has since hinted there might be some truth to both, he has also been very vague about his plans. While a public offering would garner him a lot of cash, it would bring with it a lot of regulatory headaches that would seriously interfere with what he wants to do. In the end I think (and hope) he will decide it ain’t worth it. Starlink right now is bringing in enough money to allow him to accomplish everything, and more.

If anything, these stories illustrate again the corruption in our modern propaganda press. Such stories would have been considered junk four decades ago. Then it was traditional practice that a story needed at least two independent sources, one of which was not anonymous. No longer. Anyone can push any lie, and these news outlets will publicize it, for the sake of clicks.

NOTE: This is a recreation of a post published on December 10, 2025 that was lost during this morning’s server outage.

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Engineers lose contact with Mars orbiter Maven

8:48 am

NASA announced late yesterday that the engineering team running the Maven Mars orbiter lost contact with the spacecraft on December 6, 2025, and are still trying to figure out what happened and regain communications.

NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, in orbit around Mars, experienced a loss of signal with ground stations on Earth on Dec. 6. Telemetry from MAVEN had showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind the Red Planet. After the spacecraft emerged from behind Mars, NASA’s Deep Space Network did not observe a signal.

The spacecraft and operations teams are investigating the anomaly to address the situation. More information will be shared once it becomes available.

No other information was released.

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December 9, 2025 Quick space links

2:55 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

2 comments

SpaceX completes its 11th launch this year for the National Reconnaissance Office

1:46 pm

SpaceX today successfully placed its 11th payload into orbit this year for the National Reconnaissance Office, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its fourth flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral. The rocket’s two fairings were both new, flying their first mission.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

162 SpaceX (a new record)
79 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 162 to 131.

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New data detects potassium and chlorine in Cassiopeia supernova remnant

11:30 am

The Cassiopeia supernova remnant
Click for original.

Using the Japanese orbiting XRISM space telescope, astronomers have now detected evidence of both potassium and chlorine in the ancient Cassiopeia supernova remnant.

The picture to the right, reduced to post here, shows the evidence for potassium in the remnant, overlaid onto an image of Cassiopeia produced by combining data from X-ray data from Chandra, infrared data from Webb, and optical data from Hubble. The green grid boxes indicate strong evidence of potassium, while the yellow grid boxes indicate weaker evidence.

The roughly circular Cas A supernova remnant spans about 10 light-years, is over 340 years old, and has a superdense neutron star at its center — the remains of the original star’s core. Scientists using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory had previously identified signatures of iron, silicon, sulfur, and other elements within Cas A.

In the hunt for other elements, the team used the Resolve instrument aboard XRISM to look at the remnant twice in December 2023. The researchers were able to pick out the signatures for chlorine and potassium, determining that the remnant contains ratios much higher than expected. Resolve also detected a possible indication of phosphorous, which was previously discovered in Cas A by infrared missions.

The orientation and position of these grid boxes on the face of the expanding supernova remnant suggest the original star and explosion might have formed unevenly.

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Nova explosions appear to have multiple slow and fast explosive outflows

10:46 am

Nova
Click for original.

According to new observations of two different recent nova events have shown that the star’s eruption is complex, with multiple outflows moving at both fast and slow speeds.

The graphic and images to the right come from figure 1 of the paper, and show the evolution of one of these novae, Nova V1674 Herculis. The initial slow flow along the star’s equator, indicated at the top, acts to force the later fast flow to move out along the star’s poles, as shown at the bottom. From the paper’s abstract:

The images of the very fast 2021 nova V1674 Her, taken just 2–3 days after discovery, reveal the presence of two perpendicular outflows. The interaction between these outflows probably drives the observed γ-ray emission. Conversely, the images of the very slow 2021 nova V1405 Cas suggest that the bulk of the accreted envelope was ejected more than 50 days after the eruption began, as the nova slowly rose to its visible peak, during which the envelope engulfed the system in a common-envelope phase. These images offer direct observational evidence that the mechanisms driving mass ejection from the surfaces of accreting white dwarfs are not as simple as previously thought, revealing multiple outflows and delayed ejections.

Novae are stellar explosions of a much smaller scale than supernovae, and occur when a white dwarf star gathers enough material on its surface stolen from a binary star companion for that material to go critical. Because the stars are binaries, with some systems this process is periodic.

That these better observations, including good high resolution visuals, reveal the explosions are more complicated than “previously thought” should not be a surprise to anyone. In fact, to even suggest that anyone expected the process to be simply is absurd. Whenever we get a better view we discover new details that increase the complexity of any phenomenon.

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A new study blasts the European Union’s proposed space act

9:28 am

The European Union
This label would be more accurate if it read
“NOT made in the European Union”

A new study [pdf] just published by the generally leftist Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) has concluded that the proposed European Union’s space act would do great harm to both the European and American space industries if passed and should be reconsidered.

The economic analysis relied on the European Commission’s own estimates of increased compliance costs. The commission projected that the act would increase the cost of manufacturing a satellite in Europe by 2% and a launch vehicle by 1%. The study assumed companies would pass those costs on to customers through average price increases of 2.7%. Depending on price elasticity in each market segment, that could reduce demand by 1% to 13.6%. The resulting loss to European companies would be 245 million euros ($285 million) in annual revenue and 100 million euros in profits, the study concluded.

U.S. companies exporting to the EU would also be affected. The study estimates that American firms would lose 85 million euros in annual revenue and 7 million euros in profits from reduced European sales.

Officials from PPI are further quoted as opposed to the act as presently written, calling for a complete rewrite before passage. As PPI is a decidedly partisan leftwing think tank, formed initially by the Democratic Party in 1989, this clear public opposition to this decidedly leftwing top-down law suggests support for the bill is truly waning.

The bill itself won’t be voted on until the summer of 2026, and even if approved would not begin going into effect until 2027. Considering the opposition from the U.S. and other member nations of the European Union and the European Space Agency, it would demonstrate the EU’s utter disregard for its claimed democratic principles if it were to go ahead and ratify it as presently written. And that remains a possibility.

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Three astronauts return from ISS in Soyuz capsule

9:09 am

Early today one American and two Russians safely returned to Earth, their Soyuz capsule touching down on the plains of Kazakhstan after spending more than eight months on ISS.

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim returned to Earth on Tuesday alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, wrapping up an eight-month science mission aboard the International Space Station to benefit life on Earth and future space exploration. They made a safe, parachute-assisted landing at 12:03 a.m. EST (10:03 a.m. local time), southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, after departing the space station at 8:41 p.m. on Dec. 8, aboard the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft.

Over the course of 245 days in space, the crew orbited Earth 3,920 times, traveling nearly 104 million miles. They launched to the space station on April 8. This mission marked the first spaceflight for both Kim and Zubritsky, while Ryzhikov completed his third journey to space, logging a total of 603 days in space.

There remains on ISS one Soyuz, with its crew of three, with a planned return in July 2026. Getting its replacement crew launched however remains an unknown right now because of the damage to the Soyuz-2 rocket launchpad in Baikonur that occurred when they were launched two weeks ago. Roscosmos has provided no public updates about its plans to fix the pad or replace it, and until such plans are revealed, the Russians have no ability to launch any further manned missions.

This is why I speculated earlier that the present Soyuz crew might be starting an extended mission, awaiting repairs to the launchpad.

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China completed two launches today

11:42 pm

China today completed two launches from two different spaceports, one a pseudo-commercial launch and the other a classified military payload.

First China launched the fifteenth set of satellites in the Guowang or SatNet internet-of-things satellite constellation, its Long March 6A rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in north China. According to China’s state-run press, this brings the total number of Guowang satellites in orbit to about 110, fewer than I had previously estimated. The final plan calls for a constellation of 13,000.

The second launch took place on December 9th (in China), with a Long March 4B rocket lifting off from China’s Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China, placing a classified satellite into orbit.

With both launches, China’s state-run press provided no information about where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. This is especially critical with the Long March 4B, which uses very toxic hypergolic fuels that can dissolve your skin.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

161 SpaceX
79 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 161 to 131.

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Senate committee approves Isaacman’s nomination as NASA administrator

11:27 pm

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee today approved the nomination of Jared Isaacman for NASA administrator, doing so for the second time after his first nomination was withdrawn by Trump in May and then re-instated his nomination in November.

All 15 committee Republicans and three of the 13 Democrats voted in favor: Senators Ted Cruz (Chairman, R-Texas), John Thune (R-South Dakota), Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), Deb Fischer (R-Nebraska), Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Todd Young (R-Indiana), Ted Budd (R-North Carolina), Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri), John Curtis (R-Utah), Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), Tim Sheehy (R-Montana), Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyoming), Maria Cantwell (Ranking Member, D-Washington), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), and John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania).

Ten of the 13 Democrats voted no: Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), Gary Peters (D-Michigan), Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada), Ben Ray Luján (D-New Mexico), John Hickenlooper (D-Colorado), Andy Kim (D-New Jersey), and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Delaware).

In the previous April 2025 confirmation vote two Democrats, Kim and Hickenlooper, had voted yes. Now they voted no. In turn in April Fetterman had voted no and now changed his vote to yes.

Isaacman’s nomination still has to be confirmed by the Senate. No vote has been scheduled, but there have been indications that it will be scheduled in the next week or so. If not, the vote will have to wait until after the New Year. In either case, it is expected Isaacman will be approved handily.

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Astronomers detect a seven-hour-long gamma ray burst, the longest many times over

4:40 pm

Very long GRB

Astronomers have detected the longest gamma ray burst (GRB) ever measured, lasting more than seven hours when most GRBs at most last mere seconds.

The image to the right was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and is taken from figure 1 of the peer-reviewed paper [pdf]. The two hash marks indicate the location of the GRB, within the outer reaches of its host galaxy and inside one of its spiral arms, based on other data. The data also suggested the host galaxy is “massive [100 billion solar masses], dusty, and [an] extremely asymmetric system that is consistent with two galaxies undergoing a major merger.”

The GRB’s long length means that none of the known theories for its origin work. From the press release:

Of the roughly 15,000 GRBs observed since the phenomenon was first recognized in 1973, only a half dozen come close to the length of GRB 250702B. Their proposed origins range from the collapse of a blue supergiant star, a tidal disruption event, or a newborn magnetar. GRB 250702B, however, doesn’t fit neatly into any known category.

From the data obtained so far, scientists have a few ideas of possible origin scenarios: (1) a black hole falling into a star that’s been stripped of its hydrogen and is now almost purely helium, (2) a star (or sub-stellar object such as a planet or brown dwarf) being disrupted during a close encounter with a stellar compact object, such as a stellar black hole or a neutron star, in what is known as a micro-tidal disruption event, (3) a star being torn apart as it falls into an intermediate-mass black hole — a type of black hole with a mass ranging from one hundred to one hundred thousand times the mass of our Sun that is believed to exist in abundance, but has so far been very difficult to find. If it is the latter scenario, this would be the first time in history that humans have witnessed a relativistic jet from an intermediate mass black hole in the act of consuming a star.

None of these proposed explanations are confirmed. What is known is that this GRB was unique in all ways, defying all theoretical expectations.

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December 8, 2025 Quick space links

2:50 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

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A small galaxy with lots of massive stars

9:54 am

A small galaxy with many massive stars
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 and released this week as the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hubble picture of the week.

This dwarf galaxy, 13 million light years away, is called Markarian 178 (Mrk 178). Though much smaller than the Milky Way, it is packed with massive stars. From the caption:

While the bulk of the galaxy is blue owing to an abundance of young, hot stars with little dust shrouding them, Mrk 178 gets a red hue from a collection of massive stars, which are especially concentrated in the brightest, reddish region near the galaxy’s edge. This azure cloud is home to a large number of rare objects called Wolf–Rayet stars. Wolf–Rayet stars are massive stars that are casting off their atmospheres through powerful winds. Because Mrk 178 contains so many Wolf–Rayet stars, the bright emission lines from these stars’ hot stellar winds are etched upon the galaxy’s spectrum. Particularly ionised hydrogen and oxygen appear as a red colour to Mrk 178 in this photo, observed using some of Hubble’s specialised light filters.

Massive stars enter the Wolf–Rayet phase just before they collapse into black holes or neutron stars. Because Wolf–Rayet stars last for only a few million years, researchers know that something must have triggered a recent burst of star formation in Mrk 178. At first glance, it’s not clear what could be the cause — Mrk 178 doesn’t seem to have any close galactic neighbours that could have stirred up its gas to form new stars. Astronomers believe that it was triggered by the interaction with a smaller satellite, as revealed by the presence of low surface brightness tidal features detected around Mrk 178 in deep imaging acquired with the Large Binocular Telescope.

And yet, these observations do not see this small satellite galaxy. It has either been completely absorbed into Mrk 178, or maybe this theory for explaining this dwarf galaxy’s make-up is flawed.

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More than 300 companies in discussions in connection Space Force’s “Golden Dome” project

9:40 am

According to guarded remarks by the head of Trump’s “Golden Dome” project, he has been in negotiations with more than 300 aerospace companies as the Space Force begins preliminary design work on this missile defense system.

President Trump’s Golden Dome czar says he has held “one-vs.-one” talks with more than 300 private companies in recent months to hash out the secretive architecture of the futuristic missile defense shield that the administration is determined to put into operation over the entire U.S. homeland by mid-2028.

In his first public remarks since being named to the position in June, Gen. Michael A. Guetlein, vice chief of space operations at the U.S. Space Force, told an audience at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum that although the layered design of the Golden Dome remains classified, he is confident that “our industry partners have a pretty good insight into what we’re doing.”

The project, which remains mostly cloaked in secrecy, received $24.5 billion in funding this year from Congress, with that number expected to rise considerably in later years.

My sense from Guetlein’s remarks is that right now the project is simply gathering already existing missile defense assets under one roof in order to get something operational by 2028 as ordered by Trump. Guetlein is also getting the enthusiastic support of the industry — which sees big bucks flowing their way from Golden Dome in the coming years. Many of the new space startups have been shifting operations from civilian space to this military project in anticipation of this funding.

While the concept is not unreasonable, considering the success seen with the Pentagon’s Patriot system and Israel’s Iron Dome, the secret structure so far of Golden Dome is almost guaranteed to lend itself to corruption and wasteful spending, a systemic problem within our present federal government.

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Korean Air and Hyundai Rotem sign deal to develop methane-fueled rocket engine

9:15 am

Two South Korean companies, the airline company Korean Air and the railroad company Hyundai Rotem, have signed a partnership agreement to develop a methane-fueled rocket engine by 2030, funded by the government’s Korea Research Institute for Defense Technology Planning and Advancement (KRIT).

Korean Air will lead the development of the engine’s turbopump, a core component often described as the heart of the propulsion system. The turbopump compresses liquid methane and oxidizer at extremely high pressures and speeds. Its development requires advanced engineering capable of handling cryogenic temperatures of -180°C to several hundred degrees, while rotating tens of thousands of times per minute.

Hyundai Rotem is a division of the automobile company Hyundai, but its focus is building railroads. The press release does not say what it will do as part of this partnership.

It is also unclear from the press release whether these companies will be own this engine for sale to others, or are developing it for the government. If the latter, the project will have a much more limited potential.

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Japanese startup Ispace expands deal with Japan Airlines

9:04 am

The Japanese lunar lander startup Ispace has now expanded its partnership deal with Japan Airlines (JAL) and two other associated JAL companies aimed at building transportation infrastructure to, from, and on the Moon.

The new agreement outlines the co-creation of systems and infrastructure supporting future lunar bases with high-frequency transportation to the lunar surface. Leveraging maintenance technology, air traffic control, and operations management expertise developed by JAL and JALEC in the aviation field, the two companies will aim to advance a sustainable presence on the Moon.

With the addition of JALUX to the partnership, the companies will explore new collaborations regarding space-related services for the public within the JAL Group. Consideration will also be given to sales cooperation for payloads sales utilizing ispace’s lunar transportation service. By combining ispace’s lunar transportation via its lander with the JAL Group’s aviation expertise and customer network, the partnership is expected to provide lunar transportation opportunities to diverse stakeholders.

A lot of vague PR language, but it does appear the goal is to develop lunar transportation products for what the companies expect to be a growing industry on the Moon.

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Russia and India agree to orbit their space stations in the same inclination, the same as ISS

8:02 am

India's Bharatiya Antariksh Station as outlined in 2024
India’s Bharatiya Antariksh Station as outlined in 2024.
Click for original image.

According to statements made by Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov at a conference in New Delhi this week, Russia and India have agreed to orbit their planned new space stations in the same inclination as ISS, 51.6 degrees, and coordinate their operations at both stations.

By choosing the same orbital geometry for ROS [Russian Orbital Station] and BAS [Bharatiya Antariksh Station], Moscow and New Delhi are effectively planning a continuous “replacement belt” in low Earth orbit. After the ISS is retired, crewed spacecraft launched from Russia and India would still be able to reach a major laboratory complex without radically changing launch trajectories or infrastructure, and—crucially—could, in principle, travel between the two stations with relatively modest maneuvers compared with a full plane-change.

Bakanov’s New Delhi comments build on a broader Roscosmos–ISRO understanding that the two stations should be able to support cross-visits, resource sharing and coordinated operations once both are flying.

This high inclination is required because spacecraft launching from Russia’s high latitudes can’t reach lower inclinations practically. India could put its station at a lower inclination (being at a lower latitude), but if this story is true, it apparently has decided there are advantages using an orbit that will allow cross-missions with Russia, including launches from Russia.

India plans to launch the first module of its station in 2028, and have the entire station operational by 2035. Russia says it will launch is station’s first module by 2027, with full operations beginning by 2030. While both schedules are likely to see delays, we should expect India to get its station built, while Russia will likely struggle to launch even one module.

In fact, I suspect this deal is Russia’s effort to find some partner that can carry it in the future, when its own station gets delayed.
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SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites

5:37 pm

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 12th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leader board in the 2025 launch race.

160 SpaceX (a new record)
77 China
15 Rocket Lab
15 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 160 to 129.

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SpaceX to launch another secondary private stock sale, hints at going public

9:44 am

UPDATE: Elon Musk has posted on X that this story is “not accurate.”

According to reports yesterday, SpaceX is about to launch another secondary private stock sale that double the value of the company.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is initiating a secondary share sale that would give the company a valuation of up to $800 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

SpaceX is also telling some investors it will consider going public possibly around the end of next year, the report said.

At the elevated price, Musk’s aerospace and defense contractor would be valued above ChatGPT maker OpenAI, which wrapped up a share sale at a $500 billion valuation in October.

At $800 billion, SpaceX would be the world’s most valuable private company.

As for going public, nothing is confirmed. Musk has made some comments suggesting he is considering the idea, but at the same time has noted the problems such a act would cause him.

Musk recently discussed whether SpaceX would go public during Tesla’s annual shareholders meeting last month. Musk, who is the CEO of both companies, said he doesn’t love running publicly traded businesses, in part because they draw “spurious lawsuits,” and can “make it very difficult to operate effectively.”

It seems to me it would be a big mistake for Musk to do this. As a public stock-trading company, Musk would lose the freedom he presently has with SpaceX.

Meanwhile, this new private stock offering has done wonders for the value of Echostar’s stock, now that the company’s own stake in SpaceX after selling it some of its FCC licensed spectrum.

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