Category: Points of Information

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

July 17, 2025 Quick space links

3:19 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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Musk: 10th Starship/Superheavy launch in “about three weeks”

12:31 pm

According to a very short tweet Elon Musk posted on July 15, 2025, SpaceX will attempt the 10th orbital test flight of Starship/Superheavy in “about three weeks.”

Musk however provided little information. This is the full text of his tweet:

Launching again in ~3 weeks

The lack of information raises more questions than it answers. For example, how is SpaceX replacing the destroyed Starship that blew up during a static fire test in June on its Massey test stand at Boca Chica? I assume it is using another prototype already in the assembly line, but will it be a version 2 prototype that the company has flown on the past three flights that failed each time after stage separation from Superheavy? Or has SpaceX dumped the prototypes of version 2 and shifted directly to version 3 because of those failures?

How is it going to do its Starship prelaunch static fire tests? Has it gotten its Massey test stand repaired that quickly, or has it found other options? Earlier reports suggested fixing the stand would take much longer. Furthermore, there was the question of fixing it for version 2 or version 3, which require different configurations. Fixing it for version 2 suggested this would delay bringing version 3 on line.

This tweet raises more questions than it answers. However, if Musk is even close to correct than many of these questions will be answered in only a week or two, since that is when prelaunch static fire test must begin.

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Astronomers detect first evidence of gas condensing to molecular solids in baby solar system

11:39 am

Baby star with jets of new material
Click for original image.

Using a combination of ground- and space-based telescopes, astronomers have detected the first evidence of the gas and dust surrounding a young star condensing to molecular solids, thus beginning the initial stages of planet formation.

This newborn planetary system is emerging around HOPS-315, a ‘proto’ or baby star that sits some 1300 light-years away from us and is an analogue of the nascent Sun. Around such baby stars, astronomers often see discs of gas and dust known as ‘protoplanetary discs’, which are the birthplaces of new planets. … Their results show that SiO [silicon monoxide] is present around the baby star in its gaseous state, as well as within these crystalline minerals, suggesting it is only just beginning to solidify. “This process has never been seen before in a protoplanetary disc — or anywhere outside our Solar System,” says co-author Edwin Bergin, a professor at the University of Michigan, USA.

…With these data, the team determined that the chemical signals were coming from a small region of the disc around the star equivalent to the orbit of the asteroid belt around the Sun.

The false-color picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile. It shows jets blowing out from the central baby star. Orange indicates carbon monoxide, while blue is the silicon monoxide. Initially the astronomers detected these molecules using spectroscopy from the Webb Space Telescope. This ALMA image was then used to identify where these molecules were located in the system.

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Proposed North Sea offshore launch platform gets ESA okay

10:38 am

Launch platforms proposed for North Sea
Launch platforms proposed for North Sea

The proposed North Sea offshore launch platform of the startup Eurospaceport has now signed an agreement with the European Space Agency to support a test launch of a suborbital test rocket by Polish rocket startup SpaceForest.

The map to the right shows approximately where Eurospaceport’s launch platform will be located for this launch. The map also shows the locations of the two proposed spaceports in the United Kingdom, as well as a second German-based launch platform, Offshore Spaceport Alliance, based out of Bremen.

The SpaceForest launch is targeting a 2026 launch, with the ESA contract covering some of the expenses. As it will be suborbital, the rocket will likely not cross over any nearby habitable land.

The Offshore Spaceport was first proposed in 2020, and has received financial support from the German government, and announced earlier this year that it would be ready to host launches by September 2025. As of yet no launches have been scheduled.

Both of these launch platforms will need to travel farther to the west in the North Sea to provide any orbital rockets a path north that will not fly over other nations. Even so, launches for both will likely be limited to polar orbits, making their value less appealing to rocket companies.

At the same time, their proximity to Europe and the ability of the launch platforms to dock in Europe gives them other advantages that will be of interest to the German rocket startups.

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South Korea to push for a lunar base and Mars missions by 2045

9:58 am

South Korea’s new space agency today announced a long term space exploration road map that hopes to have the nation establish by 2045 a small base on the Moon as well as a Mars orbiter and lander.

The Korea Aerospace Administration (KASA) categorizes the exploration areas into Earth, the Moon, the heliosphere, and deep space, dividing them into five major programs: low orbit and microgravity exploration, lunar exploration, solar and space science exploration, planetary system exploration, and astrophysical exploration. The roadmap presents scientific missions for each program and engineering tasks to realize them.

When South Korea established this space agency in 2024, its chief emphasized the need to encourage private enterprise. I however had doubts, noting:

If KASA maintains this approach, then South Korea’s future as a space power is bright. If instead KASA moves to control all space development, including the design and ownership of its rockets and spacecraft, then that program will be stifled, as America’s was by NASA for forty years after the 1960s space race.

In January 2025 that space agency announced policies that it said would encourage the private sector, but in reviewing the language of those policies I concluded it sounded more like a power-play by that agency to run everything.

KASA’s new road map today unfortunately confirms that analysis. Over the next two decades South Korea will have a government-controlled “space program,” not a competitive space industry.

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New Space Force policy will encourage a robust private industry to build the capabilities it needs

9:39 am

Capitalism in space: The U.S. Space Force (USSF) today released what it calls an “annex,” outlining its “Principles for Space Access Resourcing Decisions,” that will act as an over-arching guidance to its general space policy. The nine principles listed are expressly focused on encouraging redundancy in launch and satellite military capabilities by using the robust private and competitive aerospace industry that now exists.

The annex details how the service will consider and prioritize commercial space sector requests for government resources, as well as government investment decisions. The annex features nine principles, rooted in law, that will guide the Assured Access to Space Enterprise’s decision-making on a variety of resourcing decisions including acquisition strategies, investment priorities and property allocation. … “These principles reflect our understanding that a strong commercial space industry is a force multiplier for the U.S. Space Force. We are committed to working alongside our industry and allied partners to ensure safe, reliable and resilient access to space for decades to come,” [said Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements Lt. Gen. Shawn N. Bratton.]

The annex signals an acknowledgment of the evolution of the space access landscape from the 1950s, in which the government was the primary customer, to today where commercial space activities account for the preponderance of launch manifest activities.

You can read the full “annex” here [pdf]. The principles clearly emphasize the need to use the private sector for the military’s needs. It also underlines the Space Force’s responsibility to serve the needs of this growing private sector by making its launch ranges as available as possible to that industry.

The principles however also recognize that strain caused that increased use, and adds this last principle as a caveat:

Launch rates at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Vandenberg Space Force Base have increased to the point where commercial and hybrid launches comprise the vast majority of operations. The demand for operational support and infrastructure sustainment and modernization exceeds USSF resources. Therefore, the USSF transparently engages with stakeholders to arrange equitable cost-sharing of multi-use resources and balanced input on public/private infrastructure investment.

It makes excellent sense for the military to re-negotiate its fees with the launch companies that use its facilities to cover costs. In fact, this is a much better way to cover these costs than the launch taxes proposed by Senator Ted Cruz’s budget bill in June. Cruz’s proposal is a legal tax that allows no room for negotiation. The Space Force’s policy will allow it flexibility to negotiate fees as needed and with much greater efficiency and speed.

Sadly, expect Cruz’s taxes to win out, as this kind of heavy-handed overuse of government power has been the default for decades.

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Satellite companies SES and Intelsat complete their merger

9:07 am

The Luxembourg-based satellite company SES has now completed its acquisition of the European-based satellite company Intelsat, giving the combined company 120 active satellites in a variety of low and high Earth orbits.

With a world-class network including approximately 90 geostationary (GEO), nearly 30 medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites, strategic access to low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, and an extensive ground network, SES can now deliver connectivity solutions utilising complementary spectrum bands including C-, Ku-, Ka-, Military Ka-, X-band, and Ultra High Frequency. The expanded capabilities of the combined company will enable it to deliver premium-quality services and tailored solutions to its customers. The company’s assets and networks, once fully integrated, will put SES in a strong competitive position to better serve the evolving needs of its customers including governments, aviation, maritime, and media across the globe.

Both companies are long established, with Intelsat initially founded in the mid-1960s as a consortium of 23 nations aimed at launching the first geosynchronous communications satellites over the Atlantic and Pacific serving most of the Old World and linked to the New.

The merger is an attempt by both companies to compete with the new low-orbit constellations of SpaceX, Amazon, and from China.

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Russia: Commercial satellite constellations providing help to the Ukraine are now targets

10:39 pm

Russia this week informed regulators at the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that it now considers all European and American private satellite constellations “legitimate targets to be destroyed” if they provide any help to the Ukraine.

Russia tells ITU that GPS/Galileo/GNSS nav & commercial broadcast sats helping Ukraine militarily should expect interference. Same for EutelsatGroup, OneWeb, Starlink constellations, which Russia has said are ‘legitimate targets to be destroyed.

There is more at the full article, but that is behind a subscription paywall.

Russia’s announcement here is probably in response to Trump’s more bellicose statements recently about Putin and Russia.

It is hard to predict what will happen, especially when you have a dictator like Putin in power where rational thinking can never be relied on and no laws apply. For example, destroying any orbiting satellites in low Earth orbit will create space junk that will threaten ISS, and a situation NOT beneficial to Russia.

I suspect Russia will begin by trying to jam these constellations. Let us hope it does not go farther than that.

Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.

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July 16, 2025 Quick space links

3:01 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.

  • Sierra Space wins contract from Mitsubishi to deliver hardware to ISS
    Though the press release does not say, we must assume delivery will be via Sierra’s Tenacity mini-shuttle, which still has not flown and is years behind schedule. That the release does not mention Tenacity however is not a good thing, suggesting Sierra is not sure it will be available for use and will need to find other alternatives.
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Poll: A near majority of Americans are now disgusted with the Ivy league

2:16 pm

What many now label the
A better name might be the “Poison Ivy League”

Good news: A new poll taken of 2,000 registered voters in June 2025 has found that the reputation of the Ivy League universities continues to decline, and has now dropped so much that almost half of those polled had no trust at all in these institutions.

A new poll by the Manhattan Institute found that only 15 percent of voters have a great deal of trust in the elite universities, while 46 percent have little to no trust at all.

Most of those polled said they want to see reforms such as the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion and race-based admissions and programs. Additionally, 64 percent “support requiring universities to advance truth over ideology by enforcing rigorous academic standards, controlling for academic fraud, requiring preregistration of scientific studies, and basing decisions on merit,” the poll found.

You can read the poll itself here. Though it covers many other major institutions, such as Congress, big business, the Presidency, public colleges and universities, it is this line item shown in the figure below that I think that stands out most starkly.
» Read more

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Mars meteorite sells at auction for $5.3 million

12:46 pm

The largest Mars meteorite found so far on Earth sold yesterday at auction for $5.3 million, a million dollars more than expected.

The 54-pound (25-kilogram) rock named NWA 16788 was discovered in the Sahara Desert in Niger by a meteorite hunter in November 2023, after having been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike and traveling 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) to Earth, according to Sotheby’s. The estimated sale price before the auction was $2 million to $4 million.

The identity of the buyer was not immediately disclosed. The final bid was $4.3 million. Adding various fees and costs, the official bid price was about $5.3 million.

Most Mars’ meteorites found on Earth are scooped up in Antarctica as part of government funded research. Thus, they are not available for sale. This rock was found by a private meteorite hunter, who then owned the rock free and clear and could do with it as he or she liked. It appears the hunting paid off handsomely.

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