Tag: competition

Apple joins T-Mobile’s project to use Starlink satellites as orbiting cell towers

12:52 pm

In releasing a new update on its Iphone operating system, Apple quietly revealed that it has joined T-Mobile’s partnership with SpaceX to use a subconstellation of Starlink satellites with direct-to-cellphone capability, thus acting as orbiting cell towers to fill in gaps in T-Mobile’s service.

Originally spotted by Bloomberg, it seems that Apple has secretly worked with SpaceX and T-Mobile U.S. to provide an alternative satellite service. This is quite a surprise, as T-Mobile had previously specified Starlink as an option for Samsung phones, like the Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 6. Meanwhile, Apple has an in-house Satellite connection service due to a partnership with Globalstar Inc.

However, the Bloomberg report states that a select number of iPhone users have been able to enable the Starlink beta through T-Mobile. While we don’t know which models will be compatible as of yet, T-Mobile told Bloomberg that the full release will support the vast majority of iPhones.

The system is being tested right now, but still requires FCC license approval.

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Musk posts a silly tweet saying Trump wants SpaceX to rescue the Starliner astronauts and the press goes stupid again

10:51 am

Yesterday Elon Musk posted what appeared to be a completely silly tweet stating that Trump “has asked SpaceX to bring home the 2 astronauts stranded on the Space_Station as soon as possible. We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.”

Since a Dragon capsule for bringing these astronaut back to Earth is already docked to ISS and is scheduled to return in April, there is nothing really new about Musk’s tweet. Moreover, that April return was delayed an extra two months because of SpaceX, not Boeing or Biden. The company had requested that extra time to prepare the next crew capsule for launch, because it is a new capsule never used before.

It is of course possible that Trump requested SpaceX and NASA to reconsider this extra two month delay, and move the crew return back to February, but that change would either require SpaceX to find a different older capsule for the next crew, fly the new capsule sooner than planned, or have the total number of NASA astronauts on ISS reduced to just one until the new capsule launches with the new crew in March. None of these options seems wise.

I suspect nothing will change, and Musk was merely trolling the press. And the press mostly fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

Most of these stories fail to outline the reasons for the most recent delays, having nothing to do with Biden. The last four especially make it sound as if SpaceX has suddenly been enlisted for a rescue mission, a claim that is utterly false.

None have been able to get any confirmation of any change of schedule from NASA or SpaceX, suggesting that Musk’s tweet was entirely blarney that a smart press would have ignored without that confirmation. Our stupid mainstream press however could not do that. It went whole hog based on nothing.

Until NASA announces a change in schedule there simply is no story here, and that’s what I am reporting.

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United Kingdom awards rocket startup Orbex $25 million

9:29 am

The government of the United Kingdom has made a sudden and unexpected $25 million grant to the British rocket startup Orbex, which recently announced it was abandoning its launchpad at the Sutherland spaceport and switching to the Saxavord spaceport on the Shetland Islands.

While the UK Government has supported Orbex through grants awarded via the European Space Agency’s Boost! programme, the £20 million investment appears to represent the state acquiring a stake in the company and its future. This signals a significant show of support from the government as the company gears up to compete in the European Launcher Challenge.

Channeling former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle declared that the government’s backing of Orbex would enable the launch of “British rockets carrying British satellites from British soil.”

It seems to me that this cash award is less an investment in the company and more a kind of guilt payment by the United Kingdom government because the red tape of its bureaucracy, the Civil Aviation Authority, prevented Orbex from launching at Sutherland for almost three years, delays that eventually forced the switch to Saxavord, which after its own long red tape delays finally has its license approvals not yet issued to Sutherland.

Orbex has probably indicated to the government that these delays have caused it significant cash flow problems, similar to what happened to Virgin Orbit where red tape delays eventually drove it to bankruptcy. The company also probably told the government it needed extra cash to prepare the launchpad at Saxavord for its rocket, money it had already spent at Sutherland and no longer had.

Thus, this $25 million government grant. The UK government realized that if a second rocket company went belly-up due to its red tape, it would likely end forever any chance of getting any rocket company from considering launching from the United Kingdom.

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Blue Ghost makes second orbital burn, setting up transfer from Earth to lunar orbit

9:14 am

Blue Ghost's first view of the Moon
Blue Ghost’s first view of the Moon.
Click for original image.

Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander has successfully completed its second orbital burn, raising its Earth orbit in preparation for its shift into lunar orbit in the coming weeks.

Routine assessments while Blue Ghost is in transit show that all NASA payloads continue to be healthy. Firefly and NASA’s payload teams will continue to perform payload health checkouts and operations before reaching the Moon, including calibrating NASA’s Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager (LEXI), continued transit operations of the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE), and analysis of radiation data collected from the Radiation Tolerant Computer (RadPC) technology demonstration.

The picture to the right looks across the top of Blue Ghost, with the small bright object beyond its first image of the Moon. The actual landing is at least four weeks away.

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Arianespace to launch Ariane-6 five times in 2025, with the first launch targeting February 26th

9:27 am

Arianespace now plans to launch the Ariane-6 rocket five times in 2025, with the first launch scheduled for February 26, 2025.

On 13 and 14 January, the Ariane 6 core stage stack and two solid-fuel boosters were successfully brought together on the ELA-4 launch pad. While this process was occurring, an Antonov transport plane touched down at Felix Eboué Airport carrying the rocket’s payload, the CSO-3 reconnaissance satellite.

This will be the first commercial payload launched by Ariane-6, a military reconnaissance satellite for France.

In addition, the Vega-C rocket is scheduled for six flights, though some of those flights might be arranged and controlled by the rocket’s Italian builder, Avio, not the European Space Agency’s commercial arm, Arianespace. Sometime in the next two years Arianespace’s responsibiilty for Vega-C is being phased out, so that Avio will own and sell all further launches.

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Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 test plane breaks the sound barrier

9:09 am

UPDATE: The XB-1, using the exact same air corridor used by Chuck Yeager when he became the first pilot to break the sound barrier in 1947, has successfully become the first privately funded and constructed airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound, doing it three times for about six minutes total.

Original post:
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The airplane startup Boom Supersonic is hoping to complete its first manned supersonic flight today, piloted by chief test tilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg.

The flight will be manned, using its prototype XB-1 test plane.

Since March 2024, Boom has carried out 11 test flights as it gradually pushed the envelope toward breaking the sound barrier. [Today’s] flight of the 68-ft-long (21-m) XB-1 prototype will be conducted in a special air corridor reserved for supersonic aircraft. During the 38-minute flight at an altitude of 34.000 ft (10,000 m), the aircraft is expected to reach Mach 1.1, which is half of the ultimate goal of Mach 2.2.

Once the company completes test flights of XB-1 it will begin building its Overture commercial supersonic plane for sale to airline companies, capable of carrying up to 80 passengers. It already has contracts and financial support from a number of major airlines, including United and Japan Airlines.

I have embedded the live stream below. It has already started.
» Read more

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Firefly planning five launches from Vandenberg in 2025

9:00 am

In announcing its plans to begin launches from both Wallops Island in Virginia and Esrange in Sweden in 2026, Firefly has also said it is planning five launches from Vandenberg in 2025.

Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea

The company is also building a launchpad at Cape Canaveral, so if these plans reach fruition it will eventually have four different launch sites. One issue for all these sites remains red tape. For example:

[Firefly VP Adam] Oakes said Firefly is continuing to work on regulatory issues for launches from Esrange. “The regulatory piece can really put you back if you want to let it,” he said. “We have a lot of paperwork in place. We’re not quite there on everything but things are moving in the right direction.”

One serious problem for Esrange is its interior location in Sweden. Any orbital launch will have to cross land, with most crossing significant territory of other countries. While the site has been used for decades for suborbital test launches, no orbital launches have ever taken off from there, and getting clearance will not be easy for orbital rockets to cross either Norway, Finland, or Russia. And unless the lower stages are reusable they will have to crash inside those territories, or inside Sweden itself.

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SpaceX launches another 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities

3:13 pm

SpaceX today successfully launched another 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its 20th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. At this time the first iteration of the direct-to-cell Starlink sub-constellation is largely complete, and the company has begun beta testing using these satellites directly with smartphones on Earth.

The 2025 launch race:

12 SpaceX
6 China
1 Blue Origin

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Strap-on booster of Long March 3B launched yesterday crashed next to home

9:53 am

Long March 3B
Long March 3B

One of the four strap-on boosters used by a Long March 3B rocket that was launched yesterday from the Xichang spaceport in southwest China ended up crashing right next to a home.

The TJS-14 satellite launched on a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Thursday at 10:32 a.m. EST (1532 GMT; 11:32 p.m. local time). The satellite is safely on its way to geostationary orbit, but one of the rocket’s four strap-on side boosters fell to Earth in a populated area of Zhenyuan County in Guizhou province.

Security camera footage posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo captured the scene of two family members reacting to an explosion near their home that lit up the night sky. Fortunately, the booster, which exploded on impact, fell in what appeared to be hills above the house.

The video can be viewed here. While the booster apparently missed the house, any remaining hypergolic fuel in the booster posed a very serious health threat, especially if it was released as a gas. That fuel is extremely toxic, and can dissolve skin if it makes contact. I would expect that until a major clean-up occurred at the crash site, the people that lived in that home will have to evacuate.

China has said that it intends to replace all of its hypergolic-fueled rockets with liquid-fueled, and is expanding operations at its Wenchang coastal spaceport as well. When however these rockets stop launching from its interior spaceports remains unknown. It is likely in fact that toxic stages will continue to fall on the heads of Chinese citizens for years to come.

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European rocket startups team up to send letter to ESA outlining their priorities

11:18 am

In a surprising joint action, six European rocket startups have sent a detailed letter to the European Space Agency (ESA) outlining several recommendations about policy required by these rocket startups in order for their industry to prosper.

The companies involved were HyImpulse, Latitude, MaiaSpace, Orbex, Rocket Factory Augsburg and The Exploration Company. The letter’s recommendations were wide-ranging and appeared focused on getting ESA to free up the industry from traditional European red tape.

  • Provide funding in the range of €150 million to a limited number of rocket companies, not all. The companies say that funding will make it possible for the winning companies to raise another €1 billion in private investment capital. Limiting the number of companies getting awards will also force competition and achievement. The awards should also be granted only after specific milestones are achieved, not based on promises of eventual achievement.
  • Ease access to launchpads both at French Guiana and in Norway and the United Kingdom. Right now French rule-making at French Guiana is hindering that access, and ESA rules about launches make it harder to use the new commercial spaceports in Norway and the UK.
  • Red tape must be reduced. For example, ESA should not set rules on the size of payloads, but give companies “the freedom to determine their payload capabilities, allowing market dynamics to drive innovation rather than imposing artificial requirements.”

That the German rocket startup Isar Aerospace did not sign this letter is interesting, especially since it is now only a few months from completing its first orbital test launch of its Spectrum rocket from the new spaceport in Andoya, Norway. It also has a twenty-year lease for that launchpad.

It is also interesting that the letter did not include the newly proposed orbital spaceport Esrange in Sweden. That launch site has been used for decades for suborbital tests. It is now attempting to make itself available for orbital tests as well. Its interior location however is likely the reason these rocket companies left it out. Too many issues for them to consider launching from there.

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China and SpaceX complete launches

10:02 am

Both China and SpaceX successfully completed launches since last night.

First, China placed a classified technology communications test satellite in orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China. No further details about the satellite were released. Nor did China’s state-run press provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters, all using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China. UPDATE: One of the four strap-on boosters crashed next to a home.

Then SpaceX this morning launched 23 more Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California. The first stage completed its 23rd flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The 2025 launch race:

11 SpaceX
6 China
1 Blue Origin

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Space Perspective needs new investors

9:50 am

According to this news article today, the high altitude balloon company Space Perspective is in need of new investment capital, and its apparent lease default in the Cape Canaveral area is because the company has apparently shifted operations about ninety miles south because costs there are lower.

Space Perspective co-founder Jane Poynter told OBJ in a Zoom interview in December that although Port Canaveral “is our home port” and “we’re very committed to the community we work in” the company had been operating out of Fort Pierce, nearly 90 miles south, for several months. “They are having to struggle with how they balance what’s happening with the cruise industry and space industry growing like gangbusters,” she said of the Space Coast. “It’s so congested that we can’t actually stay there.”

While the company claims it is still moving forward, it has had to lay off most of its staff as it tries to find more investment capital. While it also claims it will return to full staffing when that investment arrives, the question is whether it will arrive. At this moment the default of $90,295 in rent to Titusville-Cocoa Airport Authority is not a good look at all.

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AST SpaceMobile raises $400 million in capital

9:33 am

The direct-to-cell satellite company AST SpaceMobile has raised another $400 million in investment capital, giving it a total of $900 million in cash on hand for building its full constellation of its much larger second generation Bluebird satellites.

The operator now has more than $900 million of cash on its balance sheet to shift production of its Block 2 BlueBird satellites into a higher gear this year, after deploying five smaller Block 1 spacecraft to low Earth orbit (LEO) in September.

At about 223 square meters when fully deployed, a Block 2 satellite is significantly larger than Block 1, which spans 64 square meters, enabling 10 times the capacity to support up to 120 megabits per second (Mbps) peak data rates.

It has plans to launch 45 of these larger satellites in the next two years.

At the moment AST SpaceMobile and SpaceX are the only two companies offering direct-to-cell service. One component of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation has this capability, and the company has a deal with T-Mobile to use it to fill in gaps in its cell tower ground network. AST in turn has a deal with AT&T.

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Report predicts both Boeing and Airbus will sell off their space divisions this year

9:23 am

According to an analysis of industry trends by the company Space Capital, it predicts that both Boeing and Airbus will sell off their space divisions this year.

According to Space Capital’s latest investment trends report released Jan. 23, these aerospace giants are struggling to maintain pace with the rapidly evolving space sector. “These divestitures by entrenched government contractors marks a pivotal moment in the space economy, as it changes the competitive landscape, establishes a new power broker system, and creates new opportunities and risks in the government’s extended capabilities in space,” the report states.

This prediction for Boeing is not a surprise, especially as the company has also recently announced it expects to take a $1.7 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2024 from five different program in its Defense, Space and Security business unit.

Most of those charges will go towards two programs: $800 million for the KC-46A tanker and $500 million for the T-7A trainer aircraft. That leaves $400 million in charges for Starliner as well as the VC-25B presidential aircraft and MQ-25 drone.

Airbus’s space division is likely in trouble because of the failure of its Ariane-6 to compete successfully in the modern launch market. It has obtained some launch contracts, but not as many as expected because, as an expendable rocket, it costs too much to launch.

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Rocket Lab wins launch contract with German satellite constellation

8:58 am

Rocket Lab has won a launch contract with the German satellite constellation Orora Technologies,with the launch to occur only four months hence and place eight satellites into orbit.

The constellation is focused on monitoring wildfires for fire-fighting teams, and will eventually have 100 satellites in orbit.

OroraTech is developing a constellation of satellites with thermal infrared cameras that can provide 24/7 monitoring of wildfires globally, supporting better and faster wildfire response to protect forests, people, and infrastructure worldwide. The mission will deploy its latest plane of satellites called OTC-P1 to their current constellation, further expanding OroraTech’s capabilities to first responders, governments, and industry partners. The company will expand their constellation with up to 100 satellites in total by 2028.

If this launch goes as planned, expect Rocket Lab to win launch contracts for the rest of the constellation, a minimum of 11 more launches.

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China launches 6th group of 18 satellites for its Spacesail internet constellation

8:52 am

China late yesterday successfully launched the sixth group of 18 satellites for its Spacesail internet constellation, its Long March 6A rocket lifting off from the Taiyuan spaceport in northeast China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. The state-run report however touted proudly how the rocket uses liquid oxygen and kerosene, both of which are “non-toxic and pollution-free”. Apparently it has recognized the bad press it has gotten from crashing stages inside China that use very toxic hypergolic fuels.

The article noted that China plans at least ten launches in 2025 of the Long March 6A, likely as part of building this constellation of more than 1,200 satellites.

The 2025 launch race:

10 SpaceX
5 China
1 Blue Origin

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Blue Ghost completes first main mid-course correction engine burn

10:22 am

Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander has not only successfully completed its first major engine burn, raising its Earth orbit as it slowly moves towards the Moon, but successfully used a joint NASA-Italian instrument to pinpoint its location using Earth-orbiting GPS-type satellites.

Jointly developed by NASA and the Italian Space Agency, the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) technology demonstration acquired Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals, and calculated a navigation fix at nearly 52 Earth radii: more than 205,674 miles (331,000 kilometers) from Earth’s surface. This achievement suggests that Earth-based GNSS constellations can be used for navigation at nearly 90% of the distance to the Moon, an Earth-Moon signal distance record. It also demonstrates the power of using multiple GNSS constellations together, such as GPS and Galileo, to perform navigation.

These results suggest that if all lunar orbiters had this instrument on board, they could all pinpoint their positions precisely and thus eliminate the chance of collision. It also suggests that it might not be necessary, at least immediately, to build a separate GPS-type constellation around the Moon. Earth’s systems could do the job.

Blue Ghost will spend 25 days in Earth orbit, when it will transfer to lunar orbit for several more weeks before attempting a landing.

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South Korea’s space bureaucracy attempts to encourage private sector development

9:38 am

South Korea’s space agency, the Korea Aerospace Administration, has announced a new effort to encourage that country’s private sector in developing rockets and satellites.

[A] plan will be established to link the National Space Council, the highest policy decision-making body overseeing government space policy, with the Aerospace Development Policy Review Committee. Systems will also be established for workforce training in aerospace and the designation of a space development mission center.

To establish an aerospace economic ecosystem, the participation of the private sector in the development and utilization of launch vehicles and satellites will be expanded. In the aviation sector, future aircraft technologies, including urban air mobility (UAM), will be secured, and localization of aircraft materials and components will be supported. To encourage smooth research and development (R&D) investments in aerospace corporations, the aerospace fund will be revitalized with improvements to regulations and support for overseas expansion.

Overall, a lot of this sounds like meaningless bureaucratic gobbledygook. The goal might be to expand the private sector, but the program still has the space agency running everything, from its new government-built Nuri rocket to its other satellite development programs.

Nonetheless, the desire to encourage the private sector is good. It could simply be that South Korea’s private sector is not mature enough yet to take the lead, and the agency by this announcement is working to push it forward.

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General Atomics successfully tests fuels to be used in an in-space nuclear propulsion system

9:16 am

The company General Atomics announced yesterday that it has successfully tested the fuels it wants to use in an in-space nuclear propulsion system for transporting ships to the Moon and beyond much faster and more efficiently than is presently possible with chemical engines.

[General Atomics] executed several high-impact tests at NASA’s MSFC in Huntsville, AL. The nuclear fuel was tested with hot hydrogen flow through the samples and subjected to six thermal cycles that rapidly ramped-up to a peak temperature of 2600 K (Kelvin) or 4220° Fahrenheit. Each cycle included a 20-minute hold at peak performance to demonstrate the effectiveness of shielding the fuel material from erosion and degradation by the hot hydrogen. Additional tests were performed with varying protective features to provide further data on how different material enhancements improve performance under reactor-like conditions.

It has been known since the 1960s the nuclear propulsion is more efficient that chemical engines. It can burn for longer time periods at higher levels, thus making it possible to get to other planets more quickly, in some cases bypassing the need to depend on orbital mechanics.

The problem however has been political. Getting these nuclear engines into orbit has been too much of a political hot potato. The fear of such engines and radioactivity, largely irrational, has made it impossible to get them built. NASA is now trying again.

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Japan’s government wants its private sector to do all its future space station work, not its space agency JAXA

9:05 am

In a major shift of power away from its government, the Japanese science and technology ministry is presently drafting a policy that would have that country’s private sector lead all work that Japan does on any of the future commercial private space stations being built, not its space agency JAXA as has been done now for decades.

The draft policy specifies how Japan will be involved with the next space station. According to the draft, “the private sector will have such responsibilities as managing [the new space station], and JAXA will support its use.”

JAXA is currently responsible to the management and maintenance of the ISS and serves as the point of contact for its commercial use. However, the government will select a Japanese private-sector company to be the point of contact for the next space station. When JAXA, research institutes or other companies plan to use the ISS, they will have to contact the next station’s point of contact.

While Japan wants to have one of its own modules on one of the commercial stations, as it presently has on ISS, it appears the government does not want JAXA to lead this project. Instead, it wants Japan’s private sector to run the show by working out its own deals with the private commercial stations. At present the Japanese company Mitsui is partnering with Axiom on its station, so this is likely the first station where a deal could be worked out.

It seems that Japan is trying to poke its private sector out of its doldrums. Right now that sector seems unable to take any action on its own. It sits and waits for guidance from the government before acting, and even then acts timidly, waiting to see if the government approves of each step. What the Japanese government now wants instead is some independent action, not linked to government policy.

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Trump picks Janet Petro of Kennedy to be acting NASA administrator, not Jim Free of headquarters

8:41 am

In a surprise move, the Trump administration announced yesterday that the expected person to take over as acting administrator of NASA until Jared Isaacman is approved by the Senate would not be Jim Free. the present associate administrator at NASA headquarters, but Janet Petro, who is presently director of the Kennedy Space Center.

NASA had so much assumed Free had the job that it had already listed him as acting administrator today on the NASA webpage.

There has of course been speculation as to why Trump made this unexpected choice. My guess is that Trump wants to reduce significantly the size of NASA headquarters, and thus wants someone from outside to run it for the present. Petro has been at Kennedy since 2007. Before that she was in the private sector.

Free has been a working out of DC for several years, and thus has stronger ties to the workforce there.

The decision also makes it clear to the NASA bureaucracy who is in charge. Decisions will no longer be made by that bureaucracy without strong input from Trump.

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Did a high altitude Grasshopper rocket test last week by China fail?

9:18 am

According to this report from Space News, a high altitude grasshopper-type vertical ascent-descent rocket test that China attempted on January 18, 2025 appears to possibly have been a failure.

Longxing-2 is thought to be a test article for the Long March 12A reusable launcher being developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST). The rocket was designed to replicate the first stage of a reusable flight, reaching around 75 kilometers before performing a reentry burn and making a powered descent and splashdown into the Yellow Sea.

Amateur footage captured from near the launch area showed the rocket rise very slowly from the tower and perform an ascent phase with no apparent anomalies. The test was intended to build on a successful 12-kilometer-altitude vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) test performed in June 2024.

SAST published results and footage from the June test, but has so far remained silent on the 75-km attempt, being yet to publish any results or details of the flight more than 24 hours after liftoff. The lack of official updates raises questions about the success of the test, which could indicate challenges during reentry or landing phases.

It is also possible that the soft splashdown landing was a success and China is simply being its normal secretive self and refusing to release any information.

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Chinese pseudo-company completes launch

9:09 am

The Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy today completed its first launch in 2025, its solid-fueled Ceres-1 rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China. It place five satellites in orbit, four for weather and one for Earth observation.

Meanwhile SpaceX yesterday had to scrub a Starlink launch from Vandenberg yesterday at T-11 seconds because an airplane had entered the launch range by mistake. It will try again in a few hours [UPDATE: Now scrubbed till tomorrow], and then follow up with another Starlink launch just after midnight tonight from Kennedy.

The 2025 launch race:

8 SpaceX
4 China
1 Blue Origin

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Has the tourist balloon company Space Perspective gone belly-up?

1:28 pm

Space Perspective's Neptune Capsule
Space Perspective’s Neptune balloon capsule

According to the local paper Florida Today, the high altitude tourist balloon company Space Perspective owes more than $90K rent on its facility at Florida’s Space Coast Regional Airport, and has apparently ceased activity in mid-December.

Activity appears to have largely ceased at Space Perspective’s “Mission Control” office building at the Titusville airport, where the facility has appeared largely unoccupied the past two weeks. Nobody answered the doorbell during a trio of FLORIDA TODAY visits since Jan. 6, and no vehicles were in the parking lot just before 1 p.m. Wednesday.

FLORIDA TODAY has left messages unsuccessfully attempting to contact Space Perspective executives. One vehicle was parked in the Mission Control lot Tuesday afternoon, and an employee answered the doorbell. A FLORIDA TODAY reporter passed along a written message seeking comment from company officials.

Another source notes that numerous former employees in recent weeks have been looking for new jobs in the Florida region.

The Florida Today article also documents several other cases where the company had had problems paying its bills.

It is possible the company is dead. There is also the possibility that it remains alive, but has decided to skip town because it is now setting up operations in the Middle East. In one of its last major announcements in November 2024 it revealed it is in negotiations with a number of Middle Eastern nations for flying balloon flights there.

All in all this story is very puzzling. The company had already built its Florida factory for making its balloons, and had done one test flight of a prototype manned capsule for tourist flights. It seemed poised to begin commercial operations. To shut down so suddenly now suggests a lot of things, some of which could indicate some very dishonest motives indeed.

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U.S and Norway sign deal to allow U.S. companies to launch from Andøya

10:18 am

Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea

The U.S. and Norway have now signed an agreement that will make it possible for American rocket and satellite companies to launch from Norway’s Andøya Spaceport, easing State Department rules that up until now made such launches difficult if not impossible.

[The Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA)] will ensure the protection of U.S. technology, enabling the transfer of commercial launchers to Norway. Similar agreements have been established between the U.S. and other allied nations, including Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Right now Andoya has only two rocket customers, the German startup Isar Aerospace and a Polish suborbital startup, SpaceForest. Both hope to do launches sometime this year. Unlike the red tape that the United Kingdom has imposed on its new spaceports, Norway appears to be doing everything it can to grease the wheels so that launches can occur quickly and on schedule.

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Starship lost near end of its orbital burn; Superheavy successfully captured by chopsticks

4:06 pm

Superheavy captured for the second time
Superheavy captured for the second time

In today’s seventh test flight of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy large rocket, the results were decidedly mixed.

First the success: Superheavy once again performed perfectly, getting Starship up to speed and releasing it for its orbital flight. It then successfully returned to the tower at Boca Chica, where the chopsticks arms caught it. This was the second catch in three attempts. While we should all expect SpaceX to continue to refine Superheavy, right now it appears to be largely ready to go.

Next the failure: Shortly after stage separation Starship fired its own engines and proceeded upward towards orbit. At one point close to when it was suppose to shut off its engines to begin its orbital coast phase, something went wrong. Some engines cut off, but one did not, at least according to data projected on the screen. At that point all telemetry from the ship ended.

After another ten minutes of analysis flight controlers declared the ship lost. What happened remains unclear, but it is certain SpaceX engineers are digging hard to find out.

One unfortunate question remains that must be asked: Where is the ship, and is there a chance it will come down somewhere unexpected? Its orbit is such that it will naturally fall in the Indian Ocean, but the engine issues might have changed that orbit somewhat.

UPDATE: Locals in the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean post videos on X (here and here) of Starship breaking up overhead. It appears that if any debris reaches the ground it will land in the Atlantic.

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Rocket Factory Augsburg gets conditional licence for launching at Saxavord

11:00 am

Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea

After years of delays and multiply approvals that in the end turned out to be meaningless, the United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) announced today that it has finally issued a launch license to the German rocket startup Rocket Factory Augsburg to do an orbital test launch from the Saxavord spaceport in the Shetland Islands.

The license however is not entirely without strings.

The licence is effective immediately, but a number of conditions need to be met before a launch can take place — including insurance arrangements and international agreements. The company is also required to give the CAA 60 days’ notice before launching.

Rocket Factory had hoped to launch last year, but it lost its RFA-1 rocket during a static fire test in August. It was planning a subsequent launch on the assumption the CAA would approve its licence in 2024. That assumption was wrong however. Even if the rocket had not been destroyed and was ready to go, the CAA was not, and continued to twiddle its thumbs until 2025. It is this twiddling that caused another German rocket startup, Hyimpulse, to abandon its plans to do launches from Saxavord, and switch to a new spaceport in Australia.

Rocket Factory now says it will attempt its first launch before the end of this year. Let’s see if the CAA lets that happen.

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