Category: Points of Information

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

China proposes its own mission to Apophis

9:50 am

Apophis' path past the Earth in 2029
A cartoon (not to scale) showing Apophis’s
path in 2029

Though it is not clear the Chinese government has approved the mission, Chinese scientists have now proposed a mission to to rendezvous with the potentially dangerous asteroid Apophis when it does its next close fly-by of the Earth in April 2029.

The mission would consist of two small satellites sent into a halo orbit around Sun-Earth Lagrange point 1 to await the approach of Apophis and transfer into a flyby orbit so as to meet the asteroid shortly after its close encounter with the Earth. The asteroid is due to pass within the geosynchronous orbit belt on Friday, April 13, 2029.

The Apophis mission would be added to a more ambitious larger asteroid mission, also not yet approved, dubbed CROWN, that would launch six spacecraft into “Venus-like, heliocentric orbits” where they would search and track Near-Earth Asteroids that are hard to spot because they are closer to the Sun than Earth.

China recently unveiled a blueprint to develop what it calls a “near-Earth asteroid defense system.” It appears the scientists for the project above are lobbying to get picked up as part of that blueprint. I should add that they first pushed this project in June, and three months later it still remains unfunded.

At present, there are many flying, planned, and proposed missions to reach Apophis during its 2029 fly-by. Osiris-Apex is on its way, having been repurposed after doing its sample return mission to Bennu. Europe is currently building its Ramses probe, which will also include two cubesats. Though other probes have been proposed, none have yet been approved.

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China launches 11 more satellites for its Geely satellite constellation

8:09 pm

Earlier today China successfully launched 11 more satellites for its Geely satellite constellation, its Smart Dragon-3 rocket lifting off from a launch platform off the eastern coast of China.

Video of the launch can be found here (Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay). This was the fifth launch for this constellation, bringing the number of satellites in orbit for this planned 240 satellite constellation to 52. The constellation is designed to provide positioning and communications for trucking and other ground-based businesses.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

114 SpaceX
52 China
12 Rocket Lab
11 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 114 to 89.

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September 8, 2025 Quick space links

3:14 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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Clumps of dust in a star-forming cluster

12:28 pm

Clumps of dust in a star-forming region
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of a study of the dusty clouds inside star-forming regions. From the caption:

Stars in a star cluster shine brightly blue, with four-pointed spikes radiating from them. The centre shows a small, crowded group of stars while a larger group lies out of view on the left. The nebula is mostly thick, smoky clouds of gas, lit up in blue tones by the stars. Clumps of dust hover before and around the stars; they are mostly dark, but lit around their edges where the starlight erodes them.

This cluster sits inside the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 160,000 million light years away and the largest of the several known dwarf galaxies to orbit the Milky Way. It is the second largest such star-forming region with that dwarf galaxies, and thus is a prime research target for studying the birth of stars.

I especially like this image because of the small dust clouds that sit in the foreground, blobs of material that is slowly being ionized away by the radiation from the stars.

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Has Curiosity stumbled upon a small slope streak?

10:25 am

Is that a slope streak in the lower right?
Click for original.

Overview map
Click for interactive map

In reviewing the pictures downloaded today by the Mars rover Curiosity, I noticed something very intriguing in the pictures taken by rover’s two navigation cameras. One such picture is above, taken by the right navigation camera and looking west across the boxwork ridges that Curiosity has been traversing for the past two months. You can see two such ridges in the right foreground, cutting diagonally from left to right.

The overview map to the right gives the context, with the blue dot marking Curiosity’s position. The white and red dotted lines indicate its actual and planned routes respectively, with the top inset zooming in to show the recent travels more clearly. The yellow lines show the approximate area covered by the picture above.

Note the dark streak in the lower right of the picture. The bottom inset on the overview map shows this streak more closely. To my eye, it strongly resembles a slope streak, a strange geological feature unique to Mars.

If I am right, expect the rover team to focus in on this streak. The cause of slope streaks remains unknown. From orbit, the streaks look like avalanches at first glance, but they don’t change the topography, have no debris pile at their base, and sometimes even travel up and over rises as they head downhill. They can occur randomly throughout the year, can be bright or dark, can occur anywhere, and fade with time.

There are a number of theories (see here, here, and here) attempting to explain their cause, but none has been confirmed. If this is a streak, it will be the first that any scientist can see up close.

It is also very likely my guess is wrong, and this is not a streak. Stay tuned for updates.

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EchoStar sells spectrum licenses to SpaceX for $17 billion while buying into Starlink

9:05 am

EchoStar today announced it has sold two of its spectrum licenses to SpaceX for $17 billion, in a deal that will also allow EchoStar’s customers to access Starlink.

EchoStar has entered into a definitive agreement with SpaceX to sell the company’s AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licenses for approximately $17 billion, consisting of up to $8.5 billion in cash and up to $8.5 billion in SpaceX stock valued as of the entry into the definitive agreement. Additionally, the definitive agreement provides for SpaceX to fund an aggregate of approximately $2 billion of cash interest payments payable on EchoStar debt through November of 2027.

In connection with the transaction, SpaceX and EchoStar will enter into a long-term commercial agreement, which will enable EchoStar’s Boost Mobile subscribers – through its cloud-native 5G core – to access SpaceX’s next generation Starlink Direct to Cell service.

Essentially, in exchange for the spectrum EchoStar is investing in SpaceX.

EchoStar also today canceled a contract it had signed in early August with the satellite company MDA to build its own 100 satellite constellation designed to provide direct-to-cellphone service, competing with Starlink and AST SpaceMobile. EchoStar will no longer build a rival constellation.

Wall Street apparently liked this deal, as EchoStar’s stock value quickly rose about 19%. It also appears the deal resolves questions the FCC had raised about EchoStar recent activities.

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Two more launches today

3:35 pm

As expected, SpaceX and China completed launches today.

First SpaceX launched another 24 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. The first stage completed its 20th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacitic.

Next, China placed an unspecified “group” of “remote sensing” satellites into orbit, its Long March 6A rocket lifting off from its Taiyuan spaceport in northeast China. No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

114 SpaceX
51 China
12 Rocket Lab
11 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 114 to 88.

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China yesterday completed two launches

9:03 am

China yesterday successfully completed two launches using different rockets from two different spaceports in the country’s interior.

First, its Long March 3C rocket launched a classified technology test satellite, the rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China. No real information about the satellite was released, though its name, Shiyan, is part of a series of satellites that tests new designs for communications and remote sensing.

Next, the pseudo-company Galactic Energy placed three satellites into orbit, its solid-fueled Ceres-1 rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan spaeport in northwest China. Once again, little information was released about the satellites’ purpose.

With each launch, China’s state-run press also provided no information about where the lowers stages of both rockets landed inside China. This is especially of concern for the Long March 3C, which uses very toxic hypergolic fuels that can dissolve the skin.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

113 SpaceX
50 China
12 Rocket Lab
11 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 113 to 87.

These numbers should change again by the end of today, with both SpaceX and China planning an additional launch each.

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September 5, 2025 Quick space links

3:16 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.

  • Startup PERSEI Space plans to test the use of tethers to remove space junk
    The concept, using the electromagnetic force produced as the tether moves through the Earth’s magnetic field to lower defunct satellites, is actually an old one. There have been a number of attempts to test it previously, especially by the space shuttle, but every time technical problems prevented the test from succeeding.
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Astrobotic signs launch deal with Norway’s Andoya spaceport

9:01 am

Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea

The American lunar lander startup Astrobotic (which is now also a rocket startup) has signed a launch deal with Norway’s Andoya spaceport, where the company intends to launch its proposed reusable Xodiac rocket.

Astrobotic will perform their initial European Xodiac launch campaign operations from Andøya Space starting in 2026. Andøya Space will provide various services, including ground operations, flight preparation, and infrastructure support.

It will be wise to remain skeptical about Astrobotic’s rocket. The company owns the rights and technology of the vertical take-off-and-landing hopper developed and successfully tested by Masten Space System (which Astrobotic took over in 2022), but it also claimed in 2024 it would begin flying an upgraded suborbital version by 2025. No such flights appear on the horizon at this moment.

At the same time, developing a new rocket always involves delays. It will be quite exciting if Astrobotic succeeds in entering the launch market in the next year or so.

As for the Andoya spaceport, it continues to be in the lead among the four spaceports proposed surrounding the Norwegian Sea. Norway has made its licensing arrangement smooth and easy, the spaceport is well located, and it already has another launch contract with the German rocket startup Isar Aerospace, which attempted its first launch there earlier this year (albeit a failure). Moreover, Andoya has signed an agreement with the U.S. allowing American commercial companies to launch there, which is likely why Astrobotic made its deal.

Esrange’s location in the interior places it at a disadvantage, while red tape have badly stymied the two spaceports proposed in the United Kingdom.

Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.

1 comment

A simple phone device for kids

8:40 am

A British company is selling a very simple phone device for young children that allows them to stay in contact with their parents, including GPS location, without giving them a touchscreen and any access to the web.

The Messenger, from London-based outfit Karri, is meant to help kids aged 5-13 become more independent, while giving their parents peace of mind. It’s designed entirely around voice messaging, so you can chat with your child one-on-one, or connect them with other family members in a group conversation.

This is actually the company’s second-generation Messenger with an improved design over the first from 2023. It features a dot matrix display, a speaker, and most importantly, a “slide to talk” button in the center. Slide it down to listen to a voice message you’ve just received, slide up and hold to record a reply, and short slide up to send it off.

Considering the increasing evidence that smartphones do real damage to kids during their development ages, this kind of option makes sense. So does a simple flip phone, but this device provides a simpler and more limited alternative.

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