Family Tree Nuts – Annie Moore, Ellis Island’s first immigrant
An evening pause: A bit of history to usher in the weekend.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
February 27, 2026 Quick space links
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.
- Lunar Trailblazer failed because the software pointed the solar panels *away* from the Sun
Apparently Lockheed Martin failed to test the solar panel pointing software before launch. The NPR article the tweet links to of course advocates more money for NASA, even though comparably budgeted commercial lunar missions have succeeded just fine.
- Changes in leadership at NASA’s commercial crew and space operations programs
The changes appear linked to Starliner report, which put some blame on those in charge at the time.
- The Starship header tank from test flight 9 has washed up in Madagascar
SpaceX sent out two contractors to inspect it. If SpaceX doesn’t reclaim it, the locals want to turn it into a monument.
- The January 22nd tank failure on Rocket Lab’s Neutron rocket attributed to manufacturing defect by 3rd party contractor
Rocket Lab has made changes in the design, and is now building the tank in-house. Neutron’s maiden launch is now targeting the fourth quarter of this year.
- Senate version of NASA re-authorization bill bans NASA from buying more than 50% of its launches from one provider
The bill also allows NASA to seek waivers. Considering that the options other than SpaceX are presently few, expect this rule, if passed into law, to be waived frequently.
- On this day in 1966 a Saturn-1B rocket launched Apollo capsule/service module on its first unmanned test flight
The suborbital flight was a test both of the Saturn-1B rocket and the Apollo capsule.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Mars’ fast moving gigantic lava floods
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, and reduced to post here, was taken on December 12, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The science team labels this a “crater interrupted by flow.” And what a flow! This unnamed 1.4-mile wide crater was not only filled and partly buried by the flow, that flow was so strong it cut through the crater’s rim at two points, refusing to let that rim block it in any way.
The flow in this case is lava, coming down from the Tharsis Bulge where four of Mars’ biggest volcanoes arose. And that flow was quite vast, as the nearest of those volcanoes, Arsia Mons, is almost 800 miles away. Because of Mars’ relative light gravity, about 39% that of Earth’s, lava on Mars can flow across large distances in a very short time. It might have only taken a few weeks for that flow to cover that 800 miles.
» Read more
Early notes of Galileo discovered in margins of Ptolemy’s most famous book
A researcher reviewing the text of a 16th century printing of Claudius Ptolemy’s most famous book, The Almagest (in which he outlined his theory that the Earth stood at the center of the universe), was astonished this January to discover previously unidentified notes in the handwriting of Galileo in the book’s margins.
As [historian Ivan Malara flipped through the pages, he spotted something out of place. Someone had transcribed Psalm 145 on an otherwise blank page—in handwriting reminiscent of a very, very famous Tuscan astronomer.
That book, Malara came to realize, had been extensively annotated by none other than Galileo Galilei. Malara’s discovery, described in a paper now under review at the Journal for the History of Astronomy, promises new insights into one of the most famous ideological transitions in the history of science: the moment when Earth was thrust from the center of our universe.
The article at the link tries to makes the absurd and false claim that “many historians’ typical portrayal of Galileo as being motivated by philosophy or even political savvy, not careful math. ‘He has been presented as a big-picture sort of guy—not interested in the nitty-gritty technical details of astronomy,’ says James Evans, a historian of astronomy at the University of Puget Sound.” The article does this to suggest these newly discovered notes will profoundly change that interpretation.
That interpretation is wrong however. Anyone who has read any histories or biographies of Galileo (as I have) knows this portrayal is false. It is very clear from all his work that Galileo was very evidence-based, focused on the data and facts — the nitty-gritty technical details — to determine the larger picture. And these newly discovered notes confirm this:
Galileo’s notes, perhaps written around 1590, or roughly 2 decades before his groundbreaking telescope observations of the Moon and Jupiter, reveal someone who both revered and critically dissected Ptolemy’s work. And they imply, Malara argues, that Galileo ultimately broke with Ptolemy’s cosmos because his mastery of the traditional paradigm’s reasoning convinced him that a heliocentric system would better fulfill Ptolemy’s own mathematical logic.
Fascinating stuff. I can’t wait to read the final paper.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Japanese rocket startup Space One to attempt third orbital launch this weekend
Japanese spaceports indicated by red dots
UPDATE: Launch scrubbed due to weather. No new launch date as yet been announced.
The Japanese rocket startup Space One has now scheduled the third launch attempt of its Kairos rocket for this coming Sunday, March 1, 2026, lifting off from its private Spaceport Kii launchpad.
Space One said Friday that it would launch the No. 3 unit of its Kairos small rocket carrying artificial satellites on Sunday morning. The Tokyo-based space development startup canceled the initially scheduled launch on Wednesday, citing a forecast for unfavorable weather conditions.
According to Space One, the Kairos No. 3 unit is set to lift off from the company’s Spaceport Kii launch site in the town of Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, between around 11 a.m. and 11:20 a.m. on Sunday. The rocket will carry five satellites, including one developed by the Taiwan Space Agency.
The two previous launch attempts, in March and December 2024, both failed almost immediately after launch.
A success now by this private company is crucial for Japan, as its government-owned H3 and Epsilon rockets are both grounded due to launch failures.
China outlines plans for manned space program
China’s state-run press today outlined a short update on the status of its manned space station program as well as its planned manned lunar landing, still targeting a 2030 launch.
For the space station, these are its upcoming plans:
China is scheduled to launch two crewed missions and one cargo spacecraft mission for its space station operation in 2026, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA). An astronaut from the Hong Kong or Macao special administrative region is expected to carry out a space station flight mission as early as this year, the CMSA noted.
One astronaut from the Shenzhou-23 crew will conduct a year-long in-orbit stay experiment, the CMSA said.
I am willing to bet that China is planning an even longer station mission that will break Valeri Polyakov’s 14.5 month record mission, set in the 1990s on Mir.
As for China’s lunar landing plans, nothing new was announced:
China is targeting a crewed lunar landing by 2030. The development of major flight products, including the Long March-10 carrier rocket, the Mengzhou crewed spacecraft, and the Lanyue lunar lander, is proceeding smoothly. Key tests have been completed, including the zero-height abort test for the Mengzhou spacecraft, the landing and takeoff test for the Lanyue lunar lander, the static fire test and the low-altitude demonstration and validation test for the Long March-10 rocket system, and the maximum dynamic pressure escape test for the Mengzhou spacecraft system.
In 2026, the country will intensify efforts to advance the construction of supporting facilities and equipment for the lunar mission at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in southern Hainan Province, as well as the development of ground support systems.
China has not yet outlined a program of missions leading up to that lunar landing. Like Apollo and now Artemis, it makes sense to do low orbit rendezvous and docking tests of these various spacecraft before heading to the Moon. It also makes sense to do these same tests first in lunar orbit, before landing. Expect China to announce such a program soon, for launch in the 2027-2029 timeframe.
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
Isaacman announces major reshaping of Artemis program
The program is being changed
During a update press conference today on the status of SLS, NASA administrator Jared Isaacman announced some major changes to the next three Artemis missions.
Isaacman began his remarks by blasting the slow launch cadence of the SLS rocket, noting that all previous NASA launch vehicles averaged about three months between launches, not three years. In order to shorten the SLS cadence to as short as ten months, he has eliminated the upgraded upper stage for SLS, required for the Artemis-3 lunar landing mission. They will standardize the equipment now being used for all further missions. It also suggests the upgraded mobile launcher — needed for that upgraded upper stage — is being canceled, though the officials refused to confirm this. It is far behind schedule and over budget.
Second, Artemis-3 will no longer be a lunar landing. It will instead fly in ’27 as a manned low-Earth-orbit mission to test rendezvous and docking with one or both of the lunar landers being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin. The flight will also test the spacesuits the astronauts will use on the later lunar mission, including possibly a spacewalk.
This change also appears to eliminate the need for Lunar Gateway, though this decision was not stated. Without that upgraded first stage, SLS cannot reach lunar orbit as intended. It appears the plan is to launch crew in Orion and transfer them to the lander in Earth orbit, and transport them to the Moon in those vehicles.
Third, the goal will then be to do two lunar landings in ’28 on Artemis-4 and Artemis-5. It was also clear that this is merely a target, and things could change after the ’27 mission.
These changes all make great sense and face basic reality. It never made sense to attempt the lunar landing after only one manned Artemis mission. The changes also shift focus from SLS and Orion to the rockets and spacecraft being made by the private sector. It attempts to meet Trump’s goal of landing on the Moon by ’28, but also gives the last three budgeted SLS missions a better and more realistic program. Whether SLS as designed can do this remains unclear, but no matter what, this clearly lays the groundwork for that shift from SLS to the private sector.
The officials also made it clear that this plan is still in flux, and will change depending on what happens in the next year or so.
Europe’s Jupiter probe Juice releases its first image of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas
Click for original image.
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) probe Juice, presently on its way to Jupiter, yesterday released its first image of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas from the data it gathered in November 2025 but only now has been able to send back to Earth.
That picture is to the right, cropped and reduced to post here. From the press release:
[T]he science camera on ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) shows interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS spewing dust and gas. The tiny nucleus of the comet (not visible) is surrounded by a bright halo of gas known as the coma. A long tail stretches away from the comet, and we see hints of rays, jets, streams and filaments. The inset in the image shows the same data, but processed to highlight the coma structure.
As also noted in the release, though this comet is from outside our solar system, “its behaviour is completely in line with that expected from a ‘normal’ comet.”
The picture was taken on November 6, 2025, just seven days after the comet made its closest pass to the Sun. At that time Juice took 120 images, which could not be sent back until now because the Sun was in the way. The science team is presently analyzing that data, and plans a full release of its work next month.
SpaceX launches 29 Starlink satellites; another booster reaches thirty flights
SpaceX early this morning successfully launched another 29 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
The first stage (B1069) completed its 30th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. With this flight, B1069 becomes the fourth SpaceX first stage to fly thirty times:
39 Discovery space shuttle
33 Atlantis space shuttle
33 Falcon 9 booster B1067
31 Falcon 9 booster B1071
31 Falcon 9 booster B1063
30 Falcon 9 booster B1069
28 Columbia space shuttle
The 2026 launch race:
25 SpaceX
8 China
2 Rocket Lab
2 Russia
1 ULA
1 Europe (Arianespace)
As it did in both ’24 and ’25, SpaceX in ’26 so far has more launches than the entire rest of the world combined.
Rocket Lab’s suborbital launch from two days ago had been scrubbed due to weather, and is now scheduled for later today, lifting off from Wallops Island in Virginia and carrying an Australian hypersonic test vehicle. This won’t count in the totals above, but I will report the results after launch.
Happy Childhood Dance Ensemble – Kalinka
An evening pause: MORE young talent. Performed live 2020.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
February 26, 2026 Quick space links
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.
- A graphic of the crew ejection system on the Soviet Union’s Buran shuttle
The copycat of the American shuttle only flew once, unmanned. For all we know this was never installed or even built.
- None of the Soyuz equipment at French Guiana will be preserved as rocket startup MaiaSpace takes over the launchpad
Some want it put in a museum. The director of the spaceport: “I’m not of that mindset.”
- Australia’s space agency touts its support for India’s Gaganyaan manned mission
India’s space agency ISRO has installed a tracking antenna at one of Australia’s facilities.
- On this day in 1972 the Soviet Union’s 2nd lunar sample return mission, Luna 20, returned a core sample to Earth
The sample came from the Moon’s Sea of Fertility. The tweet shows a 2010 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Luna 20 on the lunar surface.
NASA’s corrupt Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel: NASA must be bigger and have more control!
Orion’s damaged heat shield after 2022 flight.
ASAP “Move along! Nothing to see here.”
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) today released its annual report, and once again it demonstrated why I have been calling it corrupt and a waste of money for years.
The report can be read here [pdf], but let me warn you that its findings have nothing to do with ASAP’s original purpose (created after the 1967 Apollo 1 launchpad fire that killed three astronauts), to look at NASA projects to make sure the agency is not ignoring specific safety issues.
Instead, as it has done repeatedly in recent years, the panel focused on management goals and larger strategic issues, and as usual concluded that the best way to do things is to make NASA bigger with more control over the entire space industry.
» Read more
Europe tests a new engine design aimed at nothing
The European Space Agency:
home of dead-end projects
The European Space Agency (ESA) today announced that it has successfully completed a static fire test program of a new rocket engine, dubbed Greta, that uses alternative fuels in order to save the environment.
Greta uses hydrogen peroxide and ethanol as propellants, a more sustainable alternative with a lower carbon footprint compared to monomethyl hydrazine propellant used by most traditional rocket engines in this thrust range.
Greta was ignited multiple times from July to November 2025 and showed stable operations, including controlled shutdowns. During the test campaign the engine fired continuously for over 40 seconds at a time. Greta was tested on a new, low-cost and versatile mobile test stand with instruments measuring data such as pressure and temperature, which will be used to further optimise the engine.
The problem is that this engine is not being built for any specific rocket or spacecraft. As the press release notes vaguely, “This type of engine could be used on lunar landers or on kick stages, such as Astris that is being developed for Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket.”
In other words, this is a test program only, and could very well end up on the scrap heap once completed, because it belongs to no private company aimed at making profits.
NASA did these kinds of projects for decades, all for naught. The agency would make a splash with its press release, the propaganda press would extol blindly the wonders that have been achieved, and then the project would complete and get quietly shelved, stored somewhere in the government archives (possibly in the same place they put Indiana Jones’ Ark of the Covenant).
ArianeGroup is building this engine for ESA, so there is a small chance the company might decide to use it in a future rocket or spacecraft, but only if it makes sense financially. And there is no indication that this engine’s development is tied to financial concerns, in the slightest. For example, the program only calls for another round of static fire engine tests — using “parts for the flight-like motor design” — in 2027, more than a year hence. At that pace the engine will be obsolete before tests are completed.
New analysis suggests Moon’s magnetic field shifted multiple times from weak to strong to weak
The uncertainty of science: A new analysis of Apollo lunar samples suggests that the Moon’s magnetic field actually shifted back and forth from strong to weak, with it being weak most of the time.
The problem scientists have had since the Apollo missions is that the Apollo samples, which all came from the relatively flat mare regions, tended to exhibit evidence of a strong past magnetic field, even though the Moon’s size and make-up suggested its field should have always been weak. This new research offers a solution:
The research team analysed the chemical makeup of a type of lunar rock – known as the Mare basalts – and found a new correlation between their titanium content and how strongly magnetised they are. Every lunar sample which had recorded a strong magnetic field also contained large amounts of titanium – and the samples containing less than 6 wt.% titanium were all associated with a weak magnetic field.
This suggests that the formation of high-titanium rocks and the generation of a strong lunar magnetic field are linked. The researchers believe that both were caused by melting of titanium-rich material deep inside the Moon, temporarily generating a very strong magnetic field.
Because the Mare basalts were an ideal landing site for the Apollo missions, due to being relatively flat, the astronauts brought back far more of the titanium-rich basalts (containing evidence for a strong magnetic field) than are representative of the lunar surface. As a result, large numbers of these rocks have been analysed by scientists back on Earth, and this was previously interpreted to mean that the lunar magnetic field was strong for long periods of its history.
Instead, the limited number of samples, all from the same regions, biased the conclusions. The scientists predict that future missions to more places on the Moon will confirm their findings.
SLS is back in the Vehicle Assembly Building
Last night NASA yesterday successfully completed the roll back of its SLS rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).
The SLS (Space Launch System) rocket and Orion spacecraft for NASA’s Artemis II mission arrived at the Vehicle Assembly Building from Launch Pad 39B at approximately 8 p.m. EST Feb. 25, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. While in the assembly building, technicians will troubleshoot the helium flow issue to the rocket’s upper stage, replace batteries on the rocket’s upper stage, core stage, and solid rocket boosters as well as service its flight termination system.
NASA officials have not said what will happen next, once that helium flow problem is resolved. I suspect NASA administrator Jared Isaacman will insist on another wet dress rehearsal to not only test the rocket’s troublesome fueling system, but to also test the helium system used to drain the tanks afterward.
If so, it is very unlikely a launch can occur prior to April 6th, when the present launch window closes. The odds of there being no issues on the next dress rehearsal are slim, based on SLS’s past record, and even if all goes well, the time margins are very very tight, allowing for no delays of any kind.
Space Force suspends use of ULA’s Vulcan rocket
Space Force officials yesterday made it official, that it has suspended all further military launches using ULA’s Vulcan rocket, due to the nozzle failure in one of the rocket’s solid-fueled strap-on boosters during the last launch on February 12, 2026.
The Space Force is pressing pause on all military launches on United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket as officials investigate a recent anomaly they say could take “many months” to resolve.
That means launch plans for a GPS III satellite slated to fly on the brand new rocket next month are in flux, according to Col. Eric Zarybinsky, program executive officer for assured access to space. “I’m going to look for every flexibility I have to make sure that I can deliver warfighter capability as quickly as possible,” Zarybinsky told reporters at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium here. “I’ve got a number of tools in my toolkit to do that, but until this anomaly is all over, we will not be launching National Security Space Launch missions on Vulcan.”
Though the rocket was able to get the payload to its proper orbit, despite the problem, this was the second Vulcan launch where a strap-on booster, built by Northrop Grumman, experienced a nozzle failure. In addition, another nozzle failure had occurred during a static fire test in 2025.
Prior to the February launch the Space Force had already shifted two launches from ULA’s Vulcan to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. At the moment ULA has seven military Vulcan launches scheduled for this year. Expect a considerable number to shift to SpaceX.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket might also become an option, but the company must complete two more launches before the Space Force will certify it for national security launches. Considering that company’s slow pace in doing anything, it does not appear it will be able to take advantage of this situation.
ULA meanwhile had hoped to complete 18 to 22 launches in 2026, the majority using Vulcan. This decision by the Space Force likely means the company won’t complete more than five launches this year, most of which using its soon-to-be-retired Atlas-5 rocket.
February 25, 2026 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Jude Kofie – Rock The Casbah
An eveing pause: More young talent. This is different in that he improvises his own piano version based on only hearing a portion of the original.
Hat tip Cotour.
February 25, 2026 Quick space links
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.
- DIRECTV and SKY Brasil sign deal with Amazon Leo to offer satellite internet across South America
I suspect that Amazon is offering great deals in order to attract customers, since it is way behind Starlink in market share and operations.
- On this day in 1969 Mariner 6 was launched on a Mars flyby mission
Aimed at the Martian southern cratered highlands because that region was thought to exhibit seasonal changes, the images instead showed a lifeless and cratered Mars, much like the Moon, a very mistaken impression.
The shoreline of Pluto’s frozen nitrogen sea
Click for full resolution. For original
images go here and here.
Cool image time! In my continuing exploration of the New Horizons’ image archive, I keep finding things that I do not remember ever seeing before. The two New Horizon pictures used to create the panorama to the right (here and here) were taken by the spacecraft only thirteen minutes before its closest approach to Pluto at 7,800 miles on July 14, 2015. It shows the Al-Idrisi mountains — thought to be made up of frozen ice as hard as granite — and the frozen nitrogen sea that pushes against those mountains and squeezes them into their jumbled shape. For scale, the image is estimated to be fifty miles wide.
In December 2015 the science team released a small section of one of two images, focused specifically at that nitrogen sea shoreline, noting:
Great blocks of Pluto’s water-ice crust appear jammed together in the informally named al-Idrisi mountains. Some mountain sides appear coated in dark material, while other sides are bright.
The team however did not release this wider panorama produced by both images, which I think gives a better perspective of what we are looking at.
I posted an even wider shot of this shoreline on January 29, 2026. If you look closely at that picture, you can spot the features to the right, but much smaller seen from a greater distance.
For the larger context, below is a wide shot of Pluto indicating the part of the planet where this image is located.
» Read more