Jerry Lee Lewis – No headstone on my grave
An evening pause: Performed live 1982.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Posted so late because I spent the weekend doing taxes (yuch), and forgot I needed to schedule evening pauses.
Tag: commercial
Norway awards the German rocket startup Isar Aerospace a two-satellite contract
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
In what appears to be a concerted effort by Norway to cement the establishment of its Andoya spaceport on its northwest coast, last week it awarded a two-satellite launch contract to the German rocket startup Isar Aerospace, launching from that spaceport.
The launch is scheduled until 2028 and will take place from Andøya Spaceport, Europe’s first operational spaceport on the mainland. The agreement between the Norwegian Space Agency and Isar Aerospace involves launching two Norwegian satellites as part of the AOS program, a national maritime surveillance system.
Isar is now gearing up for the very first orbital test launch of its Spectrum rocket, which will also be the very first from Andoya, and the very first from the four proposed spaceports in Europe. Regulatory filings from Norway suggest it will occur during a ten-day launch window beginning on March 20, 2025, but Isar has not yet confirmed this.
Unlike the two UK spaceports, which have been delayed years due to government red tape, Norway’s government has apparently worked hard to cut red tape and help Isar get off the ground quickly. It also appears that Norway’s government is acting to stymie Sweden’s Esrange spaceport, releasing a report last week that suggested it will not give permission for launches over its territory from Esrange.
Varda’s third capsule begins orbital operations
Varda’s first capsule on the ground in Utah.
The in-space commercial company Varda on March 15, 2025 confirmed that its third capsule has successfully begun orbital operations after its launch on a Falcon 9 rocket, carrying an Air Force payload that will test measuring the capsule’s re-entry speeds in connection with military hypersonic research.
W-3’s payload is an advanced navigation system called an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) developed by the US Air Force and Innovative Scientific Solutions Incorporated (ISSI). This payload will be tested at reentry speeds it was designed to withstand but has never encountered before.
This payload is part of a $48 million Air Force contract awarded to Varda in December. The company also notes in the press release that it is aiming for a monthly launch rate for its capsules, which provide customers an opportunity to do all kinds of in-space testing and manufacturing. Since this launch took place only fifteen days after the landing of its second capsule, it appears Varda is moving swiftly in that direction, thus providing more business for American rocket startups.
The capsule includes a service module built by Rocket Lab, and will stay in orbit several weeks before it returns to Earth, landing at the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia, operated by the Australian commercial spaceport startup Southern Launch.
Norway questions Sweden’s plan to launch orbital rockets from Esrange spaceport
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
In the capitalist competition between Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom to establish Europe’s prime launch site, Norway’s government has now issued a long study questioning Sweden’s plan to launch orbital rockets from its Esrange spaceport, since polar launches heading north from there will have to cross Norway.
You can read the report here [pdf]. For Esrange to conduct orbital launches it will need the permission of Norway for each launch, and it appears Norway is not satisfied with Sweden’s assessments that say launches can occur safely. The report concludes:
Norway recommends that the relevant Norwegian authorities conduct an assessment of the risks a launch will pose to the people in Norway and Norwegian interests, and determine whether this risk is acceptable, taking into account the interests and safety of the Norwegian people and the severity of the risk.
…Due to the significant economic costs associated with the impact on oil and gas production in
the Barents Sea, CAA Norway recommends that no launches be permitted in areas where there
is any risk to Norwegian oil and gas installations.
The release of this report illustrates Norway’s geographic advantages. The German rocket startup Isar is gearing up to do its first launch from Norway’s new spaceport, Andoya, possibly before the end of this month. It will have a clear path to space. Meanwhile, the American rocket startup Firefly, which wants to launch from Esrange, faces serious regulatory hurdles from neighboring countries, like Norway, because any rocket must fly over their territories.
Four more launches, two by SpaceX, following manned launch
Following SpaceX’s successfully launch of four astronauts to ISS yesterday afternoon, the launch industry upped the pace by completing four more launches in the next few hours, two by SpaceX, one by Rocket Lab, and one by China.
Beginning with SpaceX, it first launched another one of its Transporter missions, carrying about three dozen smallsat payloads, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg. The first stage completed its thirteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The two fairings completed their eighth and eleventh flights respectively.
Five hours later the company launched another 23 Starlink satellites, the Falcon 9 lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, with the first stage completing its eighteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
Rocket Lab meanwhile successfully placed the first of eight commercial radar satellites into orbit for the Japanese satellite company iQPS, its Electron rocket launching from one of its two launchpads in New Zealand.
China in turn used its Long March 2D rocket to place two satellites into orbit, lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China. Its state-run press provided little information about either satellite. Nor did it provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages — using very toxic hypergolic fuel — crashed inside China.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
31 SpaceX
12 China
3 Russia
3 Rocket Lab
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successfully launches, 31 to 22.
SpaceX launches new crew to ISS
Falcon 9 first stage barreling home to Florida tonight.
After a scrub two days ago due to a ground equipment issue, SpaceX tonight successfully launched a new crew of four to ISS, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Kennedy in Florida.
The Dragon capsule is Endurance, on its fourth flight. The first stage completed its third flight, landing back in Florida.
This launch will allow the two-person crews launched by Boeing’s Starliner capsule in June and SpaceX’s Freedom capsule in September to come back home on Freedom.
When it was decided not to allow the Starliner astronauts to come home on Starliner because of thruster issues on the capsule, NASA decided to keep its ISS launch schedule as normal as possible, thus forcing that crew to complete a mission of about eight months, with a planned return in February 2025. Initially their Starliner mission was expected to last anywhere from two weeks to two months-plus, depending on how well Starliner functioned while docked to ISS.
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Dovydas – Dreams
An evening pause: Actually Dovydas is a street performer who provides the background music and asks passersby if they want to sing something. Diane was listening to this across our house and I asked her if that was Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. Nope, but about as good. The singer’s name is Brielle Anderson, as per the first comment on the youtube page.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
Ghana hires Axiom to help it develop its space industry
Ghana and the American space station startup Axiom yesterday signed a deal whereby Axiom would provide Ghana’s Space Science and Technology Institute (GSSTI) advice and help in developing its own space projects.
The deal does not involve flying any astronauts into space, likely because Ghana simply can’t afford it. However, Axiom’s long experience working with NASA and flying astronauts to ISS gives it enough value that it can still make money providing advice and aid to poorer countries.
Whether Ghana will really benefit remains unclear. The government recently approved a national space policy, but that policy was mostly designed to establish a government bureaucracy, not encourage private enterprise. If this Axiom deal will provide educational aid than it might produce something. If instead the deal has Axiom working only with that bureaucracy don’t expect much.
Axiom however will welcome this extra cash. It illustrates another profit center for all American space companies.
Pick a perfect March Madness bracket and SpaceX will award you a trip to Mars
College basketball fans now have a second motivation for predicting perfectly the team results during the March NCAA championship finals: SpaceX will award a perfect bracket a trip to Mars.
In a post from X’s business account, the platform officially announced their bracket challenge, partnered with their sponsor Uber Eats, announcing that anyone with a perfect bracket would win a trip to Mars as a part of the SpaceX program.
Those who are at least 18 years old and submit their bracket on X between March 16, after the CBS Selection Show, and the first game of the Round of 64 on March 20 will be eligible for the prize.
For those who don’t wish to travel to Mars, anyone who fills out a perfect bracket in the challenge could alternatively accept a prize of $250,000 and additional perks involved with the SpaceX program. This includes 1 year of free residential Starlink service, the chance to train like a SpaceX astronaut for a day, an opportunity to send a personal item of choice to space on a Falcon 9 launch, VIP viewing of a Starship launch.
If no one picks a perfect bracket (which is normally the case) a $100,000 prize was be awarded to the best non-perfect bracket.
Launch window for first launch of German rocket startup Isar rocket revealed
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
According to filings from the Norway’s Andoya spaceport, the launch window for Germany’s rocket startup Isar Aerospace for the first test orbital launch of its Spectrum rocket is now from March 20, 2025 to March 30, 2025.
On 12 March, Andøya Space, the mostly government-owned commercial entity that operates Andøya Spaceport, published a launch period notice covering 20 to 30 March. In relation to a maritime danger-area warning, the notice specifies launch windows between 12:30 and 16:30 CET throughout the 11-day period.
While the notice does not explicitly mention Isar Aerospace, as the company is currently the launch site’s sole customer, it can only refer to Isar. The company itself has yet to make a formal announcement regarding the published launch window.
In general Isar has been very closed-mouthed about its launch plans, so this supposition is not uncertain. The article however is right that there is no other rocket entity at Andoya that the launch window could refer to.
If Isar succeeds at this launch, it will win the race among about a half dozen European rocket startups to get an orbital launch off the ground first. Rocket Factory Augsburg had hoped to launch last year, but a fire during the one of the last rocket engine tests destroyed the rocket.
Regardless of whether Isar’s launch is successful, Norway meanwhile will win the race to be the first European spaceport to achieve an orbital launch. Though it shifted to orbital commercial operations much later than the two UK spaceports, years of regulatory red tape has prevented those UK spaceports from launching.
Blue Ghost watches the Earth eclipse the Sun from the Moon
Click for original image.
Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander last night successfully recorded images and data as the Earth slowly over hours crossed the face of the Sun, producing an eclipse.
The image to the right, cropped and reduced slightly to post here, is one such image. From the Firefly update page:
Captured at our landing site in the Moon’s Mare Crisium around 3:30 am CDT, the photo shows the sun about to emerge from totality behind Earth. This marks the first time in history a commercial company was actively operating on the Moon and able to observe a total solar eclipse where the Earth blocks the sun and casts a shadow on the lunar surface. This phenomenon occurred simultaneously as the lunar eclipse we witnessed on Earth.
The company has the right to tout its success, since it is the first of five private companies to actually succeed at a landing on the Moon. However, this is not the first such eclipse captured by a lander on the Moon. Surveyor 3 did it in April 1967, while Japan’s Kaguya orbiter did it also in 2009. (Watch this great lecture outlining the entire Surveyor program, presented during the 50th anniversary of its success. Hat tip reader Richard M.)
It is now past noon on the Moon, the temperatures will begin dropping, and Firefly will begin reactivating some instruments for the final week of operations before lunar sunset and shutdown for the long very cold lunar night.
John Fogerty – Have You Ever Seen the Rain?
An evening pause: Performed live 2010.
Hat tip Doug Johnson.
ULA pinpoints reason a nozzle fell off a Vulcan rocket side booster during last launch
During a press briefing earlier this week, ULA’s CEO Tory Bruno noted that a manufacturing defect was the reason a nozzle fell off one of the two solid-fueled strap-on boosters during the second launch of the company’s new Vulcan rocket.
In a March 12 media roundtable, Tory Bruno, president and chief executive of ULA, said the anomaly was traced to a “manufacturing defect” in one of the internal parts of the nozzle, an insulator. Specific details, he said, remained proprietary. “We have isolated the root cause and made appropriate corrective actions,” he said, which were confirmed in a static-fire test of a motor at a Northrop test site in Utah in February. “So we are back continuing to fabricate hardware and, at least initially, screening for what that root cause was.”
The company however still awaits approval by the Pentagon to begin Vulcan commercial military launches. That delay has forced it to shift its first launch in 2025 from Vulcan to an Atlas-5 launch of Amazon’s first set of operational Kuiper satellites. Bruno also revealed during the press briefing that the company has scaled down the number of launches it hopes to complete in 2025 from 20 to 12, with the reduction caused almost entirely by fewer Vulcan launches.
NASA releases Blue Ghost movie landing while Firefly prepares lander to observe solar eclipse of the Moon by Earth
NASA today released a fantastic movie of Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander as it touched down on the Moon on March 2, 2025, taken by four cameras mounted on the underside of its Blue Ghost lunar lander.
I have embedded the movie below.
The compressed, resolution-limited video features a preliminary sequence that NASA researchers stitched together from SCALPSS 1.1’s four short-focal-length cameras, which were capturing photos at 8 frames per second during the descent and landing.
The sequence, using approximate altitude data, begins roughly 91 feet (28 meters) above the surface. The descent images show evidence that the onset of the interaction between Blue Ghost’s reaction control thruster plumes and the surface begins at roughly 49 feet (15 meters). As the descent continues, the interaction becomes increasingly complex, with the plumes vigorously kicking up the lunar dust, soil and rocks — collectively known as regolith. After touchdown, the thrusters shut off and the dust settles. The lander levels a bit and the lunar terrain beneath and immediately around it becomes visible.
Engineers will use this imagery to better anticipate and possibly reduce the amount of dust kicked up during future landings.
Meanwhile, Firefly engineers are preparing the lander to observe tomorrow night’s lunar eclipse, but from a completely different perspective. On Earth we will see the Earth’s shadow slowly over five hours cross the Moon. On the Moon Blue Ghost will see the Earth cross in front of the Sun. Because of our home world’s thick atmosphere, there should be a ring remaining during totality.
Because the Moon will be in shadow during the eclipse, the challenge will be power management, operating the spacecraft solely on its batteries.
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SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites but scrubs manned Dragon launch
SpaceX yesterday attempted two launches from its Florida launchpads, but only got one off. First the company placed another 21 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral. The first stage completed its 22nd flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
In the second launch from the Kennedy Space Center, SpaceX had to scrub the launch because of a problem with the hydraulic system operating a support clamp arm. The flight is now rescheduled for no earlier than tomorrow at 7:03 pm (Eastern).
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
28 SpaceX
11 China
3 Russia
2 Rocket Lab
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world, including American companies, in total launches, 28 to 20.
Billy F Gibbons, ZZ Ward, & Orianthi – Sharp Dressed Man
An evening pause: Performed live 2017.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
SpaceX inks Starlink deals with India’s two largest telecom operators
In a sign that suggests OneWeb is losing the competition to begin satellite internet access to India, SpaceX this week has signed two Starlink deals with India’s two largest telecom operators.
Jio Platforms, the subsidiary of India’s conglomerate Reliance Industries and the country’s largest telecom operator, Wednesday announced a partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to offer Starlink’s satellite broadband internet services to its customers in India. Under the agreement, which is subject to regulatory approvals, Jio and SpaceX will explore using Starlink to extend the telco’s offerings, while Jio will sell Starlink equipment through its retail outlets and online storefronts, the telco said in a press statement.
…Earlier Wednesday, Airtel, India’s second-biggest telco, announced a similar partnership with SpaceX to offer Starlink through its channels. The Airtel partnership is also subject to SpaceX’s regulatory approvals in the country, which are in process with IN-SPACe and the Department of Telecommunications.
SpaceX had previously tried to bring Starlink to India by selling subscriptions directly to customers but was forced to pull back when the government denied it regulatory approval. These two deals suggest that the government wanted SpaceX to partner with Indian companies, keeping some of its profits in-country.
These deals also suggest that OneWeb is failing to provide good service to the Indian market, even though it is half owned by a major Indian investor and got regulatory approval several years ago. The design of OneWeb’s system requires the construction of ground stations to link its satellite constellation with the ground operations, and it appears this added step is causing delays that is forcing the telecom industry to look elsewhere. For example, the same thing has happened in the Falkland Islands, which signed first with OneWeb (which is also half owned by the UK government) but has now approved Starlink because OneWeb wasn’t able to provide its service on time.
SpaceX launches NASA space telescope plus four solar satellites; China launches 18 communication satellites
Two launches to report: First, China yesterday successfully completed its first Long March 8 launch from its new launchpad at its coastal Wenchang spaceport, placing 18 satellites for SpaceSail internet constellation, the fifth group so far launched.
China’s state run press noted that the launchpad is designed to allow the Long March 8 rocket to launch every seven days, a pace needed to place these giant Chinese satellite constellations into orbit.
Next, in the early morning hours today SpaceX successfully launched two different NASA science missions, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.
The prime payload was SPHEREx, a space telescope designed to make an all-sky survey. The secondary payload was PUNCH, four satellites forming a constellation to study the Sun.
The rocket’s first stage completed its third flight, landing back at Vandenberg.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
27 SpaceX
11 China
3 Russia
2 Rocket Lab
As happened last year, SpaceX handily leads the rest of the world, including American companies, in total launches, 27 to 20. This lead will be extended tonight should the company’s next manned Dragon launch to ISS go off as planned.
Liz Callaway – Meadowlark
An evening pause: Performed live 2007.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
Relativity provides detailed video update on the development of its Terran-R rocket
The rocket startup Relativity yesterday uploaded a 42-minute long video on Youtube describing in great detail the status of its Terran-R rocket, providing a great deal of information about its design, construction, and goals, including the significant changes the company has made from its much smaller Terran-1 rocket.
I have embedded that video below.
Several take-aways: First, the video devotes a long segment explaining why the company has abandoned its long expressed goal of making a rocket entirely 3D printed. It found with Terran-1 that 3D printing the rocket’s body and fairing was not cost effective. It took too long and was too expensive. Using aluminum is faster and cheaper, especially as Relativity is no longer doing this in-house. Instead, it appears they are partnering long term with specific outside vendors for the rocket shells, tanks, and domes, as well as the fairings.
Second, the company is aiming to make the rocket’s first stage reusable from the start, making the first landing attempts on the first launch. They also recognize that success will take time and many attempts, similar to SpaceX’s experience a decade ago.
Third, they are pushing to go into major production of the rocket by 2026, so that when they launch the first time they will have more rockets ready to quickly follow up with more launches. This schedule is extremely fast, as they only started rocket development in the spring of 2023.
Finally and most important, the video provides no dates for that first launch. Previous releases from the company had suggested a 2026 first launch, and officials in the video implied that they might be ready by 2026, but no one said so directly. My guess is that 2026 is no longer realistic (not that it ever was), and they are beginning to prepare the public for a later launch date.
One other new development at Relativity not mentioned in the video. The company has named former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as its new CEO, with the company’s founder, Tim Ellis, stepping down as CEO to transition to the company’s board of directors. This change could be related to rumors last year that the company was having problems.
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