Category: Points of Information

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

Astroscale awarded patent for its space junk removal technology

9:03 am

Astroscale's patented design
Astroscale’s patented design. Click for original.

The Japanese orbital tug and space junk removal startup Astroscale was awarded a U.S. patent in late July for its space junk removal technology.

Under this new patented method, the servicer docks with a debris object (the “client”) and transfers it to a reentry shepherd vehicle in a lower orbit. Once the client is docked with the shepherd, the servicer separates and proceeds to engage a new client, while the shepherd safely guides the initial client into Earth’s atmosphere for reentry. This process repeats, allowing the servicer to remove multiple large debris objects over the course of its mission.

Astroscale’s architecture also supports flexible mission profiles: the shepherd can remain docked through reentry, undocked after performing reentry insertion and returned to orbit, or in some cases, missions can proceed without a shepherd vehicle at all. This adaptability is essential in addressing the diverse size and risk profile of objects in orbit.

The company notes that this technology, which the image suggests will use robot arms to grab its targets, will allow its spacecraft to remove not only inactive satellites that were launched with docking equipment already attached but also rocket bodies and older satellites without that docking capability.

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Duffy touts nuclear power for lunar base

8:53 am

Sean Duffy
Sean Duffy, transportation secretary and interim
NASA administrator

NASA’s interim administrator Sean Duffy yesterday issued a directive touting the need to develop nuclear power for NASA’s planned lunar base. His comments during a press conference yesterday underlined his position.

Listen, this is not a new concept. This has been discussed under Trump One, under Biden, but we are in a race, we’re in a race to the Moon, in a race with China to the Moon. And to have a base on the Moon, we need energy. And some of the key locations on the Moon, we’re going to get solar power. But this fission technology is critically important, and so we’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars studying can we do it? We are now going to move beyond studying and we are going, we have given direction to go. Let’s start to deploy our technology, to move, to actually make this a reality.

And I think the stat we have is 100 kilowatt output. That’s the same amount of energy a 2,000 square foot home uses every three-and-a-half days. So we’re not talking about massive technology. We’re not launching this live, that’s obviously, if you have any questions about that, no, we’re not launching it live [activated].

This is all blather designed to push Artemis and SLS and Orion. Duffy also once again touted the next Artemis mission, Artemis-2, that will use SLS and Orion to send astronauts around the Moon in April 2026, acting as if he had no idea about the mission’s known technical risks. He also insisted the lunar landing would follow soon thereafter.

More and more it appears to me that Trump dumped Jared Isaacman because it was almost certain Isaacman — with his own personal experience as an astronaut — would have likely refused to permit astronauts to fly on Artemis-2 because of Orion’s heat shield issues as well as its untested environmental systems. Duffy meanwhile is acting as a company man, pushing the program hard while ignoring the real risks. It appears Trump wants that manned lunar landing before he leaves office, and will brook no hesitation from anyone.

Welcome to Challenger and Columbia, all over again. Politics and scheduling has become paramount, while engineering takes a back seat.

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NASA awards small orbital tug study contracts to six companies

8:35 am

NASA yesterday awarded six companies small study contracts in connection with orbital tug operations, with some to study using their rocket upper stage for this purpose while others to see how they can refine the use of their tugs.

The press release was not entirely clear on how much money was involved in each contract, though in each case the amounts are relatively small.

The firm-fixed-price awards comprise nine studies with a maximum total value of approximately $1.4 million. The awardees are:

Arrow Science and Technology LLC, Webster, Texas [tug study]
Blue Origin LLC, Merritt Island, Florida [both tug and upper stage studies]
Firefly Aerospace Inc., Cedar Park, Texas [tug study]
Impulse Space Inc., Redondo Beach, California [tug study]
Rocket Lab, Long Beach, California [both tug and upper stage studies]
United Launch Services LLC, Centennial, Colorado [upper stage study]

The studies are expected to be finished by September 2025, and will be used by NASA to determine how it will get some of its future spacecraft to their intended orbits.

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August 5, 2025 Quick space links

11:36 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.

Sorry this is so late, but I was on my way home this evening and only just got in.

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Amazon’s Kuiper constellation wins contract from Australian telecom

9:32 am

The Australian telecommunications company NBN has now signed a contract with Amazon to use its Kuiper constellation of satellites, once operational, to provide internet access to its customers.

It appears that Amazon will sell its Kuiper terminals through NBN, instead of directly to customers, unlike Starlink which generally sells direct (unless local law forbids it). In this case it could be the Australian government is requiring these constellations to make such deals. It is also possible that government is playing favorites, favoring Amazon (not operational) over Starlink (now operational for years with millions of customers.

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Rocket Lab and China complete launches

7:56 am

Two launches since yesterday. First Rocket Lab used its Electron rocket to place a Japanese commercial radar satellite into orbit, lifting off from one of its two launchpads in New Zealand.

Next China’s Long March 12 rocket lifted off from its Wencheng coastal spaceport, placing another set of satellites in orbit for one of China’s mega-constellations intended to compete with Starlink..

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

97 SpaceX
42 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 97 to 73.

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August 4, 2025 Quick space links

5:28 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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August 1, 2025 Quick space links

3:07 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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Echostar issues contract to build satellites for direct-to-phone constellation

1:19 pm

Echostar has awarded the satellite company MDA Space a $1.3 billion contract to build the first 100 satellites in its proposed direct-to-phone constellation that will compete directly with the constellations of SpaceX’s Starlink and AST SpaceMobile.

The initial contract, valued at approximately US$1.3 billion (approx. C$1.8 billion), includes the design, manufacturing and testing of over 100 software-defined MDA AURORA™ D2D satellites. With contract options, enabling a full initial configuration of a network of over 200 satellites, the value of the contract would increase to an approximate total value of US$2.5 billion (approx. C$3.5 billion). EchoStar envisions future growth to thousands of satellites, as demand requires, to provide global talk, text and broadband services directly to standard 5G handheld devices.

The constellation will be fully compliant with the newly created NTN and 3GPP standards, allowing EchoStar to provide messaging, voice, broadband data, and video services upon launch to all phones configured to this standard, without modifications. Additionally, the constellation will connect to an array of sensor and mobile vehicles.

All three constellations are designed to provide cell service in areas where there are no cell towers. The satellites themselves become the cell towers, in orbit.

Since most people today access the internet via their smartphones, I can see these direct-to-phone constellations eventually becoming the prime method for accessing the web. Why have a separate provider for your web services when these constellations can give you that as well as phone service. It is for this reason I suspect Echostar is jumping on the bandwagon.

This move also suggests the older Starlink and Kuiper constellations, that only provide web service, are going to eventually get superseded. For Starlink this isn’t really a threat, as it is already beginning the transition to this new technology and can likely shift its millions of customers to it easily when the time comes. For Amazon’s Kuiper constellation, however, it appears it might be arriving too late in the game.

More proof that in capitalism speed is essential. Amazon has simply moved too slowly in launching its constellation.

Hat tip Btb’s stringer Jay.

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Russia desperately lobbies the U.S. to continue and expand its space partnership

10:06 am

Roscosmos: a paper tiger
Roscosmos: a paper tiger

A string of short articles in Russia’s state-run press today, describing the meetings between the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, and interim NASA administrator Sean Duffy, suggest strongly that Russia is desperate to link itself with someone in order to continue its generally bankrupt space program.

Bakanov is making his first visit to the U.S. He and Duffy are also conducting the first face-to-face talks by the heads of their respective agencies in eight years. While the U.S. press has been entirely uninterested in these discussions, mostly because it knows little of substance will come of them other than an agreement to maintain the partnership at ISS through its planned retirement in 2030, the reaction by Russia’s press has been remarkably fawning, repeatedly proposing the U.S. and Russia expand their partnership beyond ISS:

Very clearly, Bakanov was trying to convince Duffy to consider a greater partnership, whereby Roscosmos and NASA do other space projects together. He might have even been offering to join NASA’s Artemis program to explore the Moon.

It appears from the other Russian state-run reports, however, that Duffy’s response was diplomatic but unenthused by such a proposal. All he apparently agreed to was to continue the ISS partnership, until the station’s retirement.
» Read more

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Endeavour launched successfully, carrying four astronauts to ISS

9:03 am

SpaceX’s Endeavour Dragon capsule has been successfully placed in orbit carrying four astronauts to ISS, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Kennedy in Florida.

This is Endeavour’s sixth flight. It will dock at ISS in the early hours tomorrow. The first stage completed third flight, landing back in Florida.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

96 SpaceX
41 China
10 Rocket Lab
9 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 96 to 71.

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SpaceX launches 19 more Starlink satellites

3:35 pm

Only a few hours after it scrubbed the launch of its Endeavour capsule carrying four astronauts to ISS because of weather at Kennedy in Florida, SpaceX proceeded to successfully launch 19 more Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.

The relatively low number of Starlink satellites on this launch appears related to the higher orbit in which they were placed. The first stage completed its 27th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. SpaceX now has four boosters that have flown more than 25 times, respectively 29, 27, 26, and 26.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

95 SpaceX
41 China
10 Rocket Lab
9 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 95 to 71. Meanwhile, the manned Endeavour launch has now been rescheduled for tomorrow morning.

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July 31, 2025 Quick space links

3:18 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, including the exoplanet piece I posted earlier today. 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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New data raises doubts about exoplanet having chemicals that on Earth come from life

1:02 pm

The uncertainty of science: Using new data from the Webb Space Telescope, scientists now conclude that the identification on an exoplanet in April 2025 of the molecules dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) — both of which on Earth are only associated with the presence of life — is now uncertain and that these molecules likely aren’t there.

The new work uses [Webb] data to better qualify what is going on. The work confirms the presence of an ocean on this peculiar exoplanet, although it can’t confirm if there is a thick or thin atmosphere. They couldn’t find water vapor in the atmosphere, suggesting that there is an efficient cold trap, keeping evaporation to a minimum on this temperate sub-Neptune world.

Those potential biosignatures were all below the threshold for an undeniable detection, and their model suggests that a possible presence of DMS could be explained by sources unrelated to life. They advise considering more and different molecules to use as biosignatures. Astronomers are studying worlds that are very different from our own, and the chemical signatures that seem obvious here on Earth might not fit well with those exoplanets.

In other words, they simply don’t have enough data to know, one way or the other. No surprise, The science of studying exoplanets is in its infancy, and right now can only tease out the smallest of details based on our limited technology and the distances involved.

You can read the new paper here [pdf]. It notes further that using these molecules as a sign of life is also a mistake, as they can be created in other ways having nothing to do with biology.

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California Coastal Commission to reconsider SpaceX’s Vandenberg launch proposal

10:12 am

The California Coastal Commission has now scheduled a meeting on August 14, 2025 to reconsider SpaceX’s request to double its launch rate at Vandenberg Space Force Base from 50 to 100 launches per year.

Though it has no real authority over the base, and though the Space Force has indicated it has no objections to SpaceX’s proposal, the commission rejected that increase in a 6-4 vote in October 2024, but did so not because the commissioners thought it would harm California’s beaches, but because they did not like Elon Musk’s endorsement and campaigning for Donald Trump during the election campaign.

SpaceX has subsequently sued, with a judge ruling two weeks ago that the suit can go forward. Based on the statements made by commissioners in October, SpaceX has an excellent case, and will likely win in court.

It appears the commission is now acting to possibly stave off that suit. The article at the link also notes that the make-up of the commission has changed since that October meeting, with at least one of the commissioners who expressed the most hate against Elon Musk, Gretchen Newsom, is no longer a member.

At the same time, the hostility to Musk and SpaceX for environmental reasons appears to still exist within the commission. Either way, in the end SpaceX’s launch rate at Vandenberg is going to increase, since the military is agreeable to the change.

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Russians: Air leak on ISS reduced but still on going

9:48 am

According to a report in Russia’s state-run press today, the repairs to the air leak in the Russian Zvezda module on ISS have reduced the rate of air lose significantly, but have failed to eliminate it.

Long-term observations have shown that the leak in the interstitial chamber of the Zvezda module of the International Space Station, which was reported to have been fixed in June, is still ongoing, though its rate has slowed significantly, Roscosmos Executive Director of Manned Space Programs, special presidential envoy for international space cooperation Sergey Krikalyov said.

“The leak is ongoing. We continue our efforts to find and fix it, with the recent repairs having seriously reduced the rate of air leakage. For some time we even thought that we had found the last crack and sealed it, though long-term observations have shown that it (air loss – TASS) continues,” he told a press conference ahead of the launch of the Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft carrying the Crew-11 mission crew.

Even if Russia succeeds eventually in sealing the leak entirely, this does not solve a more fundamental problem, the existence of stress fractures in the hull of Zvezda that have caused the leaks. That module, built in the 1990s and the second oldest module on ISS, remains at serious risk of catastrophic failure due to these fractures. That the leak has not yet been sealed suggests that new cracks are steadily forming even as Russian astronauts patch older cracks.

Though they do not say so, officials at both Roscosmos, NASA, and their partners in Europe and Japan are all praying that the station can last until 2030, when they plan to retire and de-orbit it. They all know however that there is a great risk that Zvezda will not cooperate, and cause an unplanned shut down much earlier.

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