Category: Points of Information

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

SpaceX withdraws from process to bring Starlink to South Africa

1:39 pm

In what appears to be directly related to the new South African law that will force the redistribution of private land holdings based on race, SpaceX this week withdrew from a meeting to discuss South Africa’s plan to license Starlink operations.

According to an Icasa spokeswoman, SpaceX notified Icasa on Wednesday evening that it would no longer participate in the oral presentations. The company had already made a written submission, which has not been withdrawn. It’s not clear why SpaceX decided to withdraw from the hearings – the company couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The withdrawal by SpaceX follows a post by Musk on his social media platform X that asked President Cyril Ramaphosa why the country has what he called “openly racist ownership laws”.

It is not surprising Musk had the company cancel its plans. Musk has more and more been learning about the corrupt and racist policies of the left, and since South Africa has been ruled for several decades by communists who have now decided to impose DEI quotas on land ownership that require a percentage of white-owned land to be confiscated to give to blacks, he has probably decided there are better places than South Africa to provide Starlink services.

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Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander gets commercial rover to replace NASA’s VIPER rover

11:51 am

Astrobotic’s commercial Griffin lunar lander has signed a deal with the space rover startup Venturi Astrolab to fly its FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform (FLIP) in place of NASA’s cancelled VIPER rover.

Last year NASA announced that it would be cancelling the VIPER lander that was set to travel aboard Astrobotic’s Griffin-1 lander, just months after the company’s first attempt at a moonshot failed. Now, the company has secured a contract to transport a rover developed by California-based aerospace firm Venturi Astrolab. That rover, the FLEX Lunar Innovation Platform, or FLIP for short, will be deployed to the Nobile region of the lunar south pole. The mission is scheduled for the end of the year and NASA’s contract with Astrobotic has been modified for the mission to serve as large lander demonstration flight.

This deal has significant ramifications outside of Astrobotic’s effort to make money hauling payloads to the Moon. Astrolab is one of three companies with NASA design contracts to develop a manned lunar rover for its later Artemis manned missions. By flying this smaller version now and successfully operating it on the Moon Astrolab puts itself in a better position to win the larger final rover contract from NASA, beating out Intuitive Machines and Lunar Outpost.

Astrolab was clearly aiming for the VIPER slot when it unveiled FLIP in October 2024. As I predicted then:

FLIP was clearly designed to match the fit of NASA’s now canceled VIPER rover that was to be launched on Astrobotic’s Griffin lander. Griffin is still being prepped for its lunar mission to be launched in 2025, but no longer has that prime payload. It is very obvious that Astrolab is vying to make FLIP that prime payload.

Note however how private enterprise moves. NASA can’t get it done but the competition to win contracts and make profits has these private companies scrambling to make things happen, quickly and cheaply.

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German startup Atmos gets FAA approval to launch its orbital research capsule

8:37 am

The German startup Atmos Space Cargo has now gotten its FAA launch license for testing the re-entry capability of its first orbiting research capsule, dubbed Phoenix.

That payload review was the final regulatory step needed for the mission, Sebastian Klaus, chief executive and co-founder of Atmos, said in an interview. The company doesn’t need a separate FAA reentry license because the spacecraft is planned to reenter over international waters, he said, and there are no licensing requirements by Germany, where the company is based.

Phoenix is fully assembled and has completed environmental testing, although the company is continuing to update software for the vehicle. “Physically and from a testing point of view, the spacecraft is ready for launch,” he said.

The capsule will be deployed immediately after the Falcon 9’s upper stage completes its de-orbit burn, so that it can then test that re-entry capability using an “inflatable decelerator”, likely a larger heat shield that can be used to protect a larger capsule.

This mission will be the first in a series of flights to test that inflatable system. If successful, the capsule will then be made available for orbital manufacturing for return to Earth, similar to the American startup Varda and its capsule.

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Putin fires head of Roscosmos

8:28 am

Vladimir Putin today fired Yury Borosov, who has run Russia’s space industry as head of Roscosmos for only two and a half years after he replaced Dmitry Rogozin, whom Putin had fired in 2022.

According to this British news report, Borosov was fired due to a “catastrophic reduction in the number of launches, as well as incidents and accidents with serious consequences”. Since 2022, the number of successful Russian launches has dropped from 21 to 19 to 17 (in 2024), and so far in 2025 it has only launched once, a classified military launch yesterday. Though there is no indication that launch was a failure, the timing of Borosov’s firing today suggests something might have gone askew once the payloads reached orbit.

The new Roscosmos head is 39-year-old Dmitry Bakanov, who was previously deputy minister of transport.

It is not likely Bakanov will have any better luck revitalizing Russia’s space industry than Borosov. First, Putin consolidated that industry in 2015 into this single Roscosmos corporation, so there is no competition allowed. Russia under Putin’s rule has increasingly returned to the top-down communist model, and as a result it is increasingly less capable of accomplishing much.

Second, Putin’s idiotic invasion of the Ukraine has done nothing but harm to the nation. And as that war continues to drag on, the harm has only been metastasizing.

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February 5, 2025 Quick space links

10:33 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.

These are late because my email server was bouncing Jay’s emails. The issue is being investigated.

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Martian hardened dunes untouched by dust devils

2:58 pm

Hardened dunes and dust devils
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on September 26, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

I picked this image out of the MRO archive because of the many dust devil tracts that cut across the entire image, traveling in all directions with no apparent pattern. I also picked it because those tracks also cut across the many parallel small ridges that appear to be ancient ripple dunes that have since hardened into rock. What makes this landscape puzzling is how those dust devil tracks leave no evidence on those ridges. It is as if the ancient ripple dunes were laid down after the very recent dust devil tracks, even though that is chronologically entirely backwards.

Apparently, the dust devil tracks form because the devil only disturbs the dust that coats the flat low ground between the ridges. The ridges themselves are hard, and thus the devils, produced in Mars’ extremely thin atmosphere, can leave no mark.
» Read more

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Sunspot update: Sunspot activity continued its decline in January

11:58 am

Another month has passed, meaning it is time for another update on the Sun’s sunspot cycle, based on NOAA’s monthly graph tracking that activity but annotated by me with additional information.

In January the decline in sunspot activity on the hemisphere facing Earth since August 2024 continued, with the number of sunspots dropping to a level not seen since May 2023, when the Sun’s was ramping up from solar minimum to solar maximum.
» Read more

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The uncertainty of science: Scientists now say eating eggs reduces your chances of a heart attack

9:52 am

I wish they’d make up their minds: For decades scientists — and the U.S. government — claimed with absolute certainty that eating eggs increased your risk of a heart attack because of the egg’s cholesterol content.

Now they say “Never mind.”

The researchers analyzed data from 8,756 Australian and American adults aged 70-plus who participated in the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) study and one of its sub-studies, the ASPREE Longitudinal Study of Older Persons (ALSOP) study. As part of the latter study, participants self-reported their total egg intake, which was categorized as never/infrequently (never or one-to-two times a month), weekly (one-to-six times a week), and daily (daily or several times a day). The association between egg intake and all-cause and cause-specific mortality – in this case, cardiovascular disease and cancer – was assessed after adjusting for sociodemographic, health-related and clinical factors, and overall diet quality. The follow-up period was close to six years.

Participants who fell into the weekly category of egg consumption, that is, they consumed one to six eggs per week, had a 29% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 17% lower risk of dying from any cause compared to those participants who ate eggs never or infrequently. There was no statistically significant association between egg consumption and deaths due to cancer.

The study found that eating eggs with a high quality diet reduced the risk of heart disease even more. It also found that eating eggs has the same exact benefit even for those who already had high levels of cholesterol.

In other words, our lovely government and the American Heart Association had been handing out guidelines for decades based on nothing more than very uncertain science, and doing it with an air of arrogant certainty that should make everyone want to vomit.

I should note that the results above are uncertain as well. It is based merely on a correlation of eating eggs and lower heart disease, and we must remind ourselves that correlation does not prove causation. The study says nothing about how eating eggs might lower your risk of heart disease, and the correlation might very well be unrelated entirely.

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New Mexico’s Spaceport America loses another customer

9:37 am

New Mexico’s Spaceport America, first established in the early 2000s with the expectation it would soon see hundreds of suborbital Virgin Galactic tourist flights per year — launches that never happened — has now lost another customer

In an announcement made late Friday (Jan. 31, 2025) evening, the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association (ESRA) will be holding its annual Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition (IREC) at the Midland International Air & Space Port in Midland, Texas, from June 9-14, 2025.

The announcement marks the first venue change for the IREC since the 2017 competition.

For seven years beginning in 2017 and concluding in 2024, ESRA along with the New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) partnered and jointly held IREC at Spaceport America. During that time, the IREC rebranded as the Spaceport America Cup (SAC) and grew significantly. The growth period of over a half-decade culminated with the 2024 Spaceport America Cup which featured the largest number of competing teams and launches (122) of any previous competition.

No reason for the shift to Texas was mentioned.

The Spaceport America boondoggle has ended up costing New Mexico taxpayers millions, with little to show for it. This change will only increase the losses, and raises more questions about whether that state government should continue pouring money into this black hole. No orbital rocket companies have any interest in launching from there, and Virgin Galactic won’t be launching again for at least a year, and when (or if) it resumes launches it will be doing only a small number of flights. Thus the spaceport’s customer base is very small, and shrinking.

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Rocket Lab wins another multi-launch contract

9:26 am

Rocket Lab today announced it has won a four-launch contract with a Japanese company, the Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS), to launch its Earth-imaging satellites.

The multi-launch contract, signed in July 2024 [but apparently not publicly announced till now], includes three dedicated missions for launch in 2025 from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand, with a fourth launch scheduled for 2026. Each mission will carry a single satellite to form part of iQPS’ planned constellation of 36 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites that are capable of collecting images through cloud and at night with a high resolution of less than a meter.

Rocket Lab previously completed one launch for iQPS in 2023, signing the contract and launching within four months.

Though the company has not yet announced officially the number of launches it hopes to fly in 2025, it appears the number will exceed the 14 orbital launches it completed in 2024. Before adding the three 2025 iQPS launches above, Rocket Lab had 18 Electron launches listed for 2025 at the rocketlaunch.live website, as well as the first launch of the company’s new Neutron rocket. Altogether that adds up to a total of 22 launches.

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ISRO considering doing more docking tests with Spadex satellites

9:16 am

India’s space agency ISRO has delayed the undocking of its two Spadex satellites as it considers a plan to do more docking tests.

The original plan was to have the chase satellite complete only one docking with the target vehicle, after which the two satellites would separate and spend the next two years doing different work. That plan is being reconsidered.

[Isro chairman V.] Narayanan said in Sriharikota that they have to think of the money involved in such projects and utilise it to the maximum. “Now we are in the process of reviewing when to do the undocking, the power connections and when to totally separate them again and dock again. All these processes are going on. We do not want to undock and leave it,” the Isro chairman said.

“We have loaded five kg of propellant on both the satellites. The propellant is needed for docking and undocking exercises. Currently we have 60 to 70 per cent of the propellant (as of January 29) remaining in the spacecraft. There are going to be a lot of experiments in the docking, undocking, power connection exercises and it is not a one time exercise,” he said.

Sources at ISRO also suggest there may be issues with the docking that still need analysis.

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UAE hires Thales-Alenia to build its airlock for Lunar Gateway

9:09 am

The European space company Thales-Alenia today announced that it won the contract from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to build its airlock for Lunar Gateway.

It was expected, that after the UAE signed its agreement with NASA in early January to build this airlock in exchange for one astronaut flight to Lunar Gateway, that it would also have to hire someone to build it since that country does not have the capability. Initial reports suggested it was negotiating with Boeing to build the airlock, but not surprisingly the UAE ended up going elsewhere, considering Boeing’s present troubles. Either the UAE decided Boeing was too great a risk and too expensive, or Boeing’s new upper management decided to beg off.

As noted here, Thales Alenia now has contracts to build four major components of Lunar Gateway: the hull of NASA’s habitation module, Europe’s habitation module, the refueling/telecommunications module, and now the airlock. While the graphic below shows that other Gateway components are being built by others, the graphic also shows that NASA has past off many modules to other countries. These deals could make it easier politically for the Trump administration to cancel Lunar Gateway. Thales-Alenia’s dominant position in building the station in Europe would make transferring ownership to Europe simpler, with U.S. participation secondary. The European Space Agency for example could pick up the cost for the modules being built by SpaceX and others.

Lunar Gateway

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SpaceX launches two high resolution Earth imaging reconnaissance satellites

8:34 pm

SpaceX tonight successfully launched Maxar’s last two of six high resolution Earth imaging reconnaissance satellites of its Worldview constellation, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

SpaceX placed the entire Worldview constellation in orbit over three launches. The first stage on today’s launch completed its fourth flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral, while the rocket’s two fairing halves completed their 21st and 23rd flights respectively.

This was also SpaceX’s second launch today.

The 2025 launch race:

16 SpaceX
6 China
1 Blue Origin
1 India
1 Japan

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Gullies on crater wall

3:11 pm

Gullies on Mars
Click for full image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on August 8, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The picture’s research focus is the gullies, which the scientists’ describe as “perched pole-facing gullies on ancient crater wall.” Perched means the start and end of each gully is on that crater wall, linked neither to the top or bottom of the wall itself. That the gully starts below the top means whatever caused it came from within the wall itself, not from the plateau above. That it ends before the crater floor means the process that cut the gully out was not powerful enough to reach the bottom.

That the gullies are on the interior north wall of this unnamed 25-mile-wide crater means they get less sunlight year round, something that must play a part in causing the gullies.
» Read more

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Astronomers find galaxy with nine rings

11:15 am

The Bullseye Galaxy
Click for original image.

Using both the Hubble Space Telescope as well as the Keck telescope in Hawaii, astronomers have discovered a galaxy with nine rings, something never seen before.

The gargantuan galaxy LEDA 1313424 is rippling with nine star-filled rings after an “arrow” — a far smaller blue dwarf galaxy — shot through its heart. Astronomers using Hubble identified eight visible rings, more than previously detected by any telescope in any galaxy, and confirmed a ninth using data from the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Previous observations of other galaxies show a maximum of two or three rings.

More information from Keck can be found here.

Keck Observatory and Hubble’s follow-up observations helped the researchers prove which galaxy plunged through the center of the Bullseye — a blue dwarf galaxy to its center-left. This relatively tiny interloper traveled like a dart through the core of the Bullseye about 50 million years ago, leaving rings in its wake like ripples in a pond. A thin trail of gas now links the pair, though they are currently separated by 130,000 light-years.

The Hubble picture is to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here. The small blue dwarf galaxy to the left is believed to be the galaxy that plowed through LEDA 1313424 to create the rings. LEDA is itself thought to be two and a half times the size of the Milky Way, making one of the larger known galaxies.

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NASA calls for the private sector to launch VIPER to the Moon

10:55 am

As a follow-up of its August request for suggestions on how to save its cancelled VIPER rover mission to the Moon, NASA has now issued a request for actual proposals from the private sector for flying the mission, due on March 3, 2025.

The Announcement for Partnership Proposal contains proposal instructions and evaluation criteria for a new Lunar Volatiles Science Partnership. Responses are due Monday, March 3. After evaluating submissions, any selections by the agency will require respondents to submit a second, more detailed, proposal. NASA is expected to make a decision on the VIPER mission this summer.

…As part of an agreement, NASA would contribute the existing VIPER rover as-is. Potential partners would need to arrange for the integration and successful landing of the rover on the Moon, conduct a science/exploration campaign, and disseminate VIPER-generated science data. The partner may not disassemble the rover and use its instruments or parts separately from the VIPER mission. NASA’s selection approach will favor proposals that enable data from the mission’s science instruments to be shared openly with anyone who wishes to use it.

Expect a number of companies to tout their proposals in press releases in the coming weeks.

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NASA suspends numerous advisory committees to comply with Trump executive orders

10:47 am

In what appears to be an over-reaction by NASA, it has ordered that numerous science advisory committees suspend all meetings and work so that it make sure they are complying with Trump’s executive orders requiring the removal of all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs.

More here and here.

The orders listed twenty different working groups as well as the cancellation of the first in-person meeting of the Mercury working group this week.

In reviewing the released list of these groups, only two, the EDIA Working Group (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) and the H2O program (Here to Observe), are expressly focused on promoting these racist policies. EDIA’s job is to make sure DEI is implemented across all working groups and science projects. H2O is an educational program restricted to “under-represented students” only, which really means minorities only. All other kids need not apply.

All the other research groups are focused on research and science, not DEI. While a review of their work to make sure they don’t have racial quotas might make sense, it seems NASA’s memos shutting them down entirely during that review appears to be overkill, and might actually be an example of malicious compliance, a tactic used by the bureaucracy to generate bad press against a politician’s policy orders. By over reacting the bureaucrats try to make the elected official’s new policy look stupid.

For example, the cancellation of the first in-person meeting of the Mercury exploration working group (MExAG) seems absurd. It was scheduled to occur this week in Maryland to discuss for example the Japanese/Italian BepiColombo mission, and the sudden cancellation resulted in quotes like this:

“We are forced, therefore, to cancel MExAG 2025,” the Mercury committee’s chair Carolyn Ernst, a planetary scientist with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, wrote in a memo obtained by Space.com. “This turn of events is shocking and concerning, and is extra painful given the order comes four days before our first in-person meeting.” Some committee members had already begun travel for the meeting, Ernst added.

The nearly three-day hybrid meeting was expected to include at up 200 scientists attending either in person of virtually, one scientist Ed Rivera-Valentin shared on the social media site Bluesky. It was expected to include a number of researchers connected to the BepiColombo Mercury mission run by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the European Space Agency. The probe just made its sixth flyby of Mercury on Jan. 8.

I can see no logical reason for NASA’s management to cancel this meeting other than to create bad press for Trump.

There one other possibility. NASA’s management might simply be running scared, and has decided it must over-react in order to make sure it doesn’t get fired for appearing defiant.

I must add that the suspension of the Earth science working groups is not related to DEI, but to adhere to the Trump executive orders requiring a review of the government’s global warming and climate research. For that order a larger suspension of work makes more sense.

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Boeing writes off another half billion dollars due to Starliner

10:02 am

In filing an annual report to the SEC, Boeing revealed that has written off another half billion dollars due to Starliner delays and technical problems, bringing the total the company has lost on the capsule to more than two billion.

In the company’s 10-K annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Feb. 3, Boeing said it took $523 million in charges on Starliner in 2024. The company blamed the losses on “schedule delays and higher testing and certification costs as well as higher costs for post certification missions.”

Both Boeing and NASA remain utterly silent on the future of Starliner. It remains uncertified for operational manned flights, which means Boeing continues to earn nothing from it. Will it have to fly another manned mission on its own dime to get that certification? Or will NASA instead pay it to fly a cargo mission to ISS, as rumors have suggested, to prove the capsule is ready for manned flights?

No one knows. Nor do we know if Boeing will either sell off its space division or cancel Starliner entirely and thus free itself of the problem.

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Curiosity’s view from the heights

10:36 am

Panorama of Gale Crater taken February 3, 2025
Click for full resolution panorama. Original images can be found here, here, and here.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

Cool image time! The panorama above was created by me from three images taken by Curiosity’s left navigation camera today (available here, here, and here).

The overview map to the right provides the context. The blue dot marks Curiosity’s present position. The red dotted line marks the planned route, while the white dotted line its actual travels. The yellow lines indicate the area covered by the panorama above.

The butte in the center where the red dotted line ends is about a half mile away. The far rim of Gale Crater is about 25 to 30 miles beyond. Though Curiosity has climbed about 3,000 feet from the floor of the crater where it landed, it still sits about 5,000 feet below the top of the crater’s rim.

As you can see, the air at Gale Crater has cleared somewhat from December 2024. Then the rim was barely visible. Now it can be seen, though the crater floor is still obscured by a layer of dust.

The journey west continues to slow but steady. The rover can only go so far each day across this very rough terrain, so as to protect its already damaged wheels.

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Is SpaceX routinely stiffing its outside construction contractors in Boca Chica?

9:31 am

According to an article today in the San Antonio Express-News SpaceX has been routinely not paying its bills to construction contractors hired by it to build things in Boca Chica, and almost three dozen have had to file liens against the company to get their money.

A San Antonio Express-New review of Texas property records found at least 29 contractors — and six in San Antonio — have filed 77 liens against SpaceX since March 2022. Their total value is up from $2.5 million in May. Since then, SpaceX has settled at least six liens but gained another 44.

Though it’s unclear whether the money is owed by SpaceX, its general contractors or subcontractors, landowners are ultimately responsible for unpaid construction bills on their properties under Texas law. The liens are a legal mechanism for contractors and suppliers to secure their claims.

The article admits repeatedly that its information is incomplete, and that many of these liens might already be settled. It also admits that the failure to pay might not be by SpaceX, but as landowner with the most money, it is the biggest target capable of forcing payment by others.

It is also likely, with the amount of work and expansion that is going on at Boca Chica, such liens are somewhat expected, especially because they seem to be a relatively small amount compared to the billions that SpaceX is spending in the area.

Thus, though the article appears to suggest SpaceX is a deadbeat company, it also appears the article might also be part of the propaganda press’s effort to slander Elon Musk wherever it can.

Regardless, if SpaceX is behind in paying its bills, it needs to fix this issue now.

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Satellite startup Astranis awards SpaceX another launch contract

9:17 am

The satellite startup Astranis, which already has five small satellites placed in orbit by SpaceX, has announced a new SpaceX launch contract for launching its next five satellites later this year.

By making its geosynchronous satellites small, like cubesats, the company is challenging the recent trend away from these high orbits. In the past five years very few new big geosynchronous communications satellites have been built or launched, because they can’t compete with the cheaper low-orbit smallsats.

Astranis is bucking that trend, partly because of its small satellites, and partly because SpaceX’s launch costs are so much less than anyone else’s.

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British rocket start-up Orbex wins two-launch contract from Italian orbital tug company D-Orbit

9:10 am

The British rocket start-up Orbex, which hopes to complete its first test orbital launch of its Prime rocket this year, after years of regulatory delays, has gotten a two-launch contract from the Italian orbital tug company D-Orbit.

The contract appears to be part of Europe’s effort to have its European payloads launch on European rockets. Previously D-Orbit tugs have mostly been launched by SpaceX because the only available European rockets, Ariane-6 and Vega-C, have either not been operational or available. Moreover, all these rockets are too big for D-Orbit’s tugs, which thus have to fly as secondary payloads.

Orbex’s Prime rocket is small, and so the tugs can be launched as the primary payload. The rocket however is not yet operational, unlike for example Rocket Lab’s small Electron rocket. The decision to go with Orbex’s untested rocket suggests Europe is forcing D-Orbit to sign with a European rocket company.

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OneWeb is years behind schedule in activating its service in the Falklands

8:59 am

Despite contracts with the local government that said service would begin in 2023, OneWeb has still not activated its service in the Falklands, and that government is considering switching to Starlink as it considers legal action to recover its money.

Local reports say that the Falkland Islands government “wants its money back” from an agreement which it entered into with local telco SURE and which provides national and international fixed line, mobile data and broadband services as well as data centre and enterprise solutions to consumer and corporate customers. SURE is part of Bahrain’s Batelco Group and SURE’s coverage extends to the Ascension Islands and Saint Helena in the South Atlantic.

The problem is seemingly OneWeb. Mark Pollard, a member of the Falkland’s Legislative Assembly, speaking on January 30th, said that the telco had failed to introduce a promised service from OneWeb, which itself was supplied with capacity from Eutelsat and prime contractor Intelsat.

The article at the link does not provide any explanation for the delay. It is probably related to OneWeb’s requirement for ground stations to connect the local communications network with the satellites. There must be issues building those ground stations. Starlink meanwhile provides antennas to customers which connect directly to the satellites.

The article also notes the company’s stock value has been plummeting, dropping 62% in the past six months.

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Indian navigation satellite stranded in wrong orbit

8:49 am

Though the GSLV launch rocket worked as planned, putting India’s new navigation satellite in the proper transfer orbit on January 29, 2025, the satellite’s own engines have failed to fire.

Subsequent to the launch, the solar panels on board the satellite were successfully deployed and power generation is nominal. Communication with the ground station has been established. But the orbit raising operations towards positioning the satellite to the designated orbital slot could not be carried out as the valves for admitting the oxidizer to fire the thrusters for orbit raising did not open.

The satellite systems are healthy and the satellite is currently in elliptical orbit. Alternate mission strategies for utilising the satellite for navigation in an elliptical orbit is being worked out. [emphasis mine]

The highlighted sentence suggest India’s space agency ISRO has determined there is no way to raise the orbit to its proper height. With the solar panels deployed and the spacecraft’s orbit having low point that dips into the Earth’s atmosphere, the satellite’s orbit will likely decay relatively quickly. If so, the satellite’s mission will be a failure, not a good way to start what ISRO’s hopes to be its busiest year.

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Japan’s H3 rocket successfully completes its fifth launch

9:40 am

Japan’s space agency JAXA early today successfully launched the sixth satellite in that country’s GPS-type constellation, its new H3 rocket lifting off from the Tanegashema spaceport in south Japan.

This was the rocket’s fifth launch, and the first for Japan this year. The link goes to the JAXA live stream, cued to T-30 seconds. Though it now also provides English translation, JAXA still insists on having an announcer count off every second, several minutes prior to and after launch, something that is incredibly annoying and distracting, and entirely unnecessary.

The 2025 launch race:

14 SpaceX
6 China
1 Blue Origin
1 India
1 Japan

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