Tag: engineering

Russia launches classified military payload

8:40 am

Russia today successfully launched a classified military payload comprising “multiple military spacecraft”, its Angara-1 rocket lifting off from its Plesetsk spaceport in northeast Russia.

This was Russia’s second launch in two days, something it rarely does any longer. It was also the fifth launch of this version of Russia’s new family of Angara rockets, using a modular design that can be configured for different size payloads. Launched into a polar orbit, the lower stages crashed in the ocean in the Arctic and Pacific.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

101 SpaceX
47 China
11 Rocket Lab
11 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 101 to 82.

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Russia launches returnable capsule for month-long biology research mission

10:44 am

Russia today successfully launched the first Bion-M returnable capsule in more than a dozen years, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan.

The capsule will remain in orbit for about a month doing weightlessness and radiation experiments with a variety of biological samples, 1,500 fruit flies, and 75 mice. Though similar to the commercial capsules recently launched by Varda, Bion-M is different in that it appears the research has no marketability. As a government-run project by Russian Academy of Science, no effort was made to use weightlessness to produce a product for sale on Earth.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

101 SpaceX
47 China
11 Rocket Lab
10 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 101 to 81.

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Spinlaunch raises $30 million for its Meridian broadband satellite constellation

9:51 am

Spinlaunch prototype launcher
The Spinlaunch prototype launcher

Spinlaunch, the startup that began by proposing launching payloads into space using a giant vertically oriented spinning centrifuge (as shown to the right), has now raised $30 million in private investment capital for its proposed Meridian broadband satellite constellation, designed to compete directly with Starlink and Kuiper.

The funding includes new investment from existing investors, including lead investor ATW Partners, as well as the previously announced strategic investment from Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.

Kongsberg had previously invested $12 million, and is building 280 micro-satellites for this constellation.

It is very unclear from the press release when Spinlaunch will launch its first satellite, though it claims its “first customer link” will take place in second half of 2026. Considering the level of blarney the company exhibited in its initial spin-launch concept, we should remain very skeptical about its satellite constellation claims. Though the company has signed a deal to build a full scale spin launcher in Alaska, it increasingly appears it is shifting its effort from that to satellites.

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Webb discovers another “oldest black hole”

12:34 pm

The uncertainty of science: Using the Webb Space Telescope, astronomers now claim they have detected a super-massive black hole at a new record-setting distance that puts it far closer to the Big Bang that cosmologists have predicted.

A global team of astronomers, led by The University of Texas at Austin’s Cosmic Frontier Center, has confirmed the discovery of the most distant black hole ever observed. This black hole resides within a galaxy known as CAPERS-LRD-z9, which existed only 500 million years after the Big Bang.

In other words, the light we see from it has traveled 13.3 billion years, revealing the universe at just 3% of its current age.

The black hole, estimated to have the mass of 300 million suns, sits in the center of one of the mysterious “little red dots” that Webb has discovered in the early universe that remain a mystery. This black hole suggests each is an early galaxy with its own super-massive black holes.

I must note that there is great uncertainty in the claim of a black hole discovery. It is based on the spectroscopic emissions detected by Webb, which had features generally seen only in super-massive black holes in the recent universe. Thus, the scientists are making some large assumptions in concluding those emissions also indicate a super-massive black hole in this little red dot.

We must also note that if this black hole really exists, it confounds the theories of cosmologists as to the formation of the universe. It is too soon after the Big Bang for such a black hole to have formed, according to those theories.

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Student suborbital rocket fails in first student attempt to reach space

10:09 am

The first rocket launch from Quebec and the first attempt by a student-built rocket to reach suborbital space unfortunately failed soon after lift-off on August 15, 2025 when the second stage separated prematurely.

The launch was part of a program by the rocketry division of a Canadian educational organization, Space Concordia.

While the launch appeared to start smoothly, it was approximately 23 seconds into the launch that the team reported that “vehicle split apart into 2 pieces.” Space Concordia said “the nosecone (came) tumbling to the ground” and that the airframe coasted “briefly before following suit.”

After the launch, and during the webcast, a representative said the “second stage separated early” and mentioned MaxQ, which is when the rocket will be under maximum aerodynamic pressure. Space Concordia said in a press release, “The team is continuing to review data to find the root cause of the anomaly.”

This student rocketry division has had some success over the years with smaller rockets, winning first prize in 2018 in the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition. This failure simply means it must try again. Either way, it appears it is training a new cadre of Canadian rocket engineers.

Note too that a similar student educational organization in Great Britain, Surrey Space, eventually upgraded its student-built cubesats into a profitable and very successful commercial cubesat manufacturing operation. It is very possible Space Concordia could do the same in Canada with rockets.

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Psyche snaps picture of Earth-Moon system

9:42 am

Earth and Moon, as seen by Psyche
Click for original image.

In a successful test of its cameras and pointing capabilities, the science team operating the probe Psyche — on its way to the asteroid Psyche — were able to snap a picture of Earth-Moon system from about 180 million miles away.

On July 20 and July 23, the spacecraft’s twin cameras captured multiple long-exposure (up to 10-second) pictures of the two bodies, which appear as dots sparkling with reflected sunlight amid a starfield in the constellation Aries.

One of those pictures is shown to the right. The scientists had previously taken similar calibration images of Jupiter and Mars.

To determine whether the imager’s performance is changing, scientists also compare data from the different tests. That way, when the spacecraft slips into orbit around Psyche, scientists can be sure that the instrument behaves as expected. “After this, we may look at Saturn or Vesta to help us continue to test the imagers,” said Jim Bell, the Psyche imager instrument lead at Arizona State University in Tempe. “We’re sort of collecting solar system ‘trading cards’ from these different bodies and running them through our calibration pipeline to make sure we’re getting the right answers.”

The spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the metal asteroid Psyche in 2029, and will then spend at least two years flying in formation with it.

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Scientists link near Earth asteroids Bennu and Ryugu to much larger main belt asteroid

9:29 am

Ryugu and Bennu

Scientists comparing the spectroscopy of samples returned from the near Earth asteroids Bennu and Ryugu have found they closely resemble the much larger main belt asteroid Polana, suggesting all three formed at the same time and place.

You can read the paper here [pdf] From the press release:

The study compared spectroscopy data from Polana with spacecraft and laboratory data from Bennu and Ryugu samples, discovering similarities in their near-infrared spectrum sufficient to support the theory that they originate from the same parent asteroid. “Very early in the formation of the solar system, we believe large asteroids collided and broke into pieces to form an ‘asteroid family’ with Polana as the largest remaining body,” said SwRI’s Dr. Anicia Arredondo, lead author of the study. “Theories suggest that remnants of that collision not only created Polana, but also Bennu and Ryugu as well.”

While the similarities are great, the paper notes there are differences, possibly from “space weathering, particle size, surface texture, or different compositions.” The scientists believe the differences were caused by the asteroids’ different environments, with the 33-mile-wide and much older Polana in the asteroid belt beyond Mars, and Ryugu and Bennu, both less than a mile wide, orbiting the Sun inside Mars.

It is also possible the asteroids have little to do with each other, and the similar spectroscopy only informs us of some of the more common components of the early solar system.

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Proposed Australian commercial spaceport signs land lease

8:56 am

Proposed Australian spaceports
Proposed Australian spaceports.
Click for original image.

After being forced to change locations because of red tape and the refusal of the local aborigine authorities to sign an agreement, the Australian commercial spaceport startup Space Centre Australia has now obtained a land lease for its new location, dubbed Atakani, on the eastern shore of Cape York.

Space Centre Australia Pty Ltd (SCA) has secured a spaceport land lease, signing a multi-decade agreement with the local Traditional Landowners for approximately 300 km² at Billy’s Lagoon, Cape York. The agreement paves the way for the development of the Atakani Space Centre (ASC).

The Binding Term Sheet, signed with the support of Mokwiri RNTBC, marks the first time an Australian-based spaceport has secured a lease and opportunity of this scale. It ensures Traditional Owner access to country for cultural and ceremonial purposes, governance participation through the soon-to-be-established Luthiggi Corporation, and direct involvement in environmental management, cultural heritage monitoring, and operational activities. A royalty framework will deliver long-term economic benefits in addition to the spaceport’s operational revenue.

At the moment it appears the spaceport’s focus will be attracting suborbital launch companies, with the eventual goal to bring orbital rockets to the site.

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China launches seven classified satellites

8:45 am

China today successfully placed seven satellites into orbit, its Kinetica-1 (or Lijian-1) rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

No word on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. Its state-run press provided almost no information about the launch, except for trumpeting the fact that it lifted off from the launchpad at Jiuquan that China has built for its pseudo-commercial companies. The rocket itself however is built by pseudo-company CAS Space, which is simply a division created by the government-run Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

101 SpaceX
47 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 101 to 80.

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Colorful spiral galaxy

9:25 am

A colorful spiral galaxy
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of a survey of nineteen nearby galaxies. The galaxy, NGC 2835 and 35 million light years away, has been imaged many times in the past, but the new image contacts new wavelength data designed to identify nebulae. From the caption:

This image differs from previously released images because it incorporates new data from Hubble that captures a specific wavelength of red light called H-alpha. The regions that are bright in H-alpha emission can be seen along NGC 2835’s spiral arms, where dozens of bright pink nebulae appear like flowers in bloom. Astronomers are interested in H-alpha light because it signals the presence of several different types of nebulae that arise during different stages of a star’s life. Newborn massive stars create nebulae called H II regions that are particularly brilliant sources of H-alpha light, while dying stars can leave behind supernova remnants or planetary nebulae that can also be identified by their H-alpha emission.

Compare this image with the 2020 photo. The spiral arms are now alive with red and blue features not seen previously.

This survey hopes to find 50,000 nebula in the galaxies being observed.

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Japanese rocket startup Interstellar signs five customers for first orbital launch

8:46 am

The Japanese rocket startup Interstellar, which is being backed largely by Toyota, has announced that it has gotten five customer payloads for the first orbital launch of its Zero rocket.

This milestone mission will include cubesats from four organizations, Ocullospace, Wolfpack, Osaka Metropolitan University and Tokyo City University, and a fifth participant, DALRO Aerospace, that will supply the separation system for the universities’ cubesats. These 5 customers have already signed each a Launch Service Agreement with Interstellar. This launch highlights Interstellar’s growing global partnerships and commitment to expanding access to orbit.

These payloads are typical for a first launch. Three of these payloads are for educational institutions, while the remaining two are smallsat startups that have not launched yet, with one supported by the South Korean government. None have much money, so are willing to take the risk of a first launch.

As for when that first launch will take place, this is unclear. The company had previously targeted a launch in 2025, but based on the present status, this seems highly unlikely. The company itself was largely inactive from 2018 (when it did some suborbital test launches) until this year (when both Toyota and the Japanese government stepped in to provide financing). Expect it therefore to take time to get back into operation.

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China completes two launches today

2:10 pm

China today completed two launches using two different rockets from two different spaceports.

First, its Long March 4C rocket lifted off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China, placing what its state-run press described as a satellite designed to do “space environment exploration and related technology tests,” No other information was released.

Next, its Long March 6A rocket lifted off from its Taiyuan spaceport in north China, placing the ninth set of Guowang satellites into orbit for a planned 13,000 constellation designed to compete with Starlink and Kuiper. This launch placed five satellites into orbit, bringing the total launched so far to 72.

In both cases, no word was released on where the rockets’ lower stages crashed inside China. This is especially significant for the Long March 4C rocket, which uses very toxic hypergolic fuels and lifted off from a spaceport much more inland than the Long March 6A.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

100 SpaceX
46 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 100 to 79.

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A protest of boats now intends to violate the range and prevent the next Starship/Superheavy test launch

1:15 pm

Protest announcement.
Protest announcement. Click for original.

A Mexico activist group now plans to launch a fleet of boats that plan to violate the range and prevent the next Starship/Superheavy test launch.

A translated version of the protest announcement can be seen to the right. From the first link above:

A Mexican environmental group, Comité Global A.C., said it plans to protest the launch by sending boats into the Gulf of Mexico near Starbase. If they enter designated safety areas during the planned launch period, they could delay the mission.

The group’s leader said the Matamoros Port Authority gave permission for the protest dubbed “Operación Golfo de México.” It will also include protesters on Playa Bagdad, a Mexican beach just south of the Rio Grande where people often gather for Starship launches.

I have not yet gotten confirmation that the local port authority has approved this protest as the organization claims, but it also appears that this activist group intends to show up in boats regardless. If so, this protest could easily cause the next test launch, now scheduled for August 24, 2025, to be delayed endlessly.

It seems this is a matter for Trump and the Coast Guard. Someone must move in and remove these boats, arresting and fining the occupants for violating launch range restrictions that apply to all international waters.

Hat tip to reader Richard M.

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Space Force preps for the next X-37B mission

9:44 am

The Space Force yesterday released a short press release, outlining its preparations and plans for the next X-37B mission, scheduled to launch on August 21, 2025.

The eighth mission of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, designated USSF-36, with a wide range of test and experimentation objectives. These will include demonstrations of high-bandwidth inter-satellite laser communications technologies and enhanced space navigation using the highest performing quantum inertial sensor in space.

Unfortunately, the military is no longer telling us which of its two X-37B’s is being launched. In fact, it is not clear whether both spacecraft are still operational. According to Wikipedia, this upcoming mission will be flown by the first of these vehicles, OTV-1, on its fourth flight. The other X-37B, OTV-2, has flown four times already, including the last mission of 434 days. I can find no confirmation of Wikipedia’s conclusions however.

Nonetheless, this spacecraft is one of the few projects built by Boeing in recent years that has done exactly what it was intended to do. If only Boeing’s other projects, such as Starliner, would run as smoothly.

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Upper stage of Chinese rocket fails during launch

8:45 am

According to China’s state-run press, the Chinese pseudo-company Landspace experienced a failure yesterday during the launch of its Zhuque-2E rocket from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

A later update by the pseudo-company said the failure involved the rocket’s second stage, though little other information was provided.

In 2023 the Zhuque-2 rocket was the first to reach orbit using methane fuel, during the rocket’s second launch attempt. Overall it has launched six times, with two failures, on its first launch and yesterday.

Landspace hopes to launch its Zhuque-3 upgrade next year, designed to eventually land the first stage and reuse it. This failure could very well delay that plan.

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Slope streaks within Mars’ largest mountain region

1:51 pm

Overview map

Today’s cool image revisits Lycus Sulci, the largest mountain range on Mars, about 1,400 mile wide and 1,800 miles long. The overview map to the right gives a sense of the roughness and chaotic nature of this region, extending north from Mars’ largest volcano, Olympus Mons.

At present scientists are unsure of the geology that formed Lycus Sulci, and how it is linked with Olympus Mons. The wide view to the right suggests it is the remains of a very ancient lava flow descending from the volcano that over time has become eroded to produce this wildly knobby terrain. That hypothesis remains unproven however. There is also evidence that the material here might instead be volcanic ash, deposited in many layers and eroded away with time.

The location of the cool image below is marked by the white dot, with the inset providing us a wider view of the surrounding terrain. Note the two craters to the north and west. Both appear to have been partly filled by flows coming from the south and east, respectively, adding weight to the theory that this region formed from lava flow.
» Read more

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SpaceX donates $4.4 million to upgrade beach access at Boca Chica

10:31 am

Even as leftist politicians and anti-Musk haters rage incoherently against SpaceX’s growing facility at Boca Chica, the company this week donated $4.4 million to upgrade the beach access and facilities at South Padre Island, near Starbase at Boca Chica.

Beachgoers visiting South Padre Island will soon be able to enjoy a surfside park with a smorgasbord of family-friendly amenities paid for by a $4.4 million contribution from Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Previously, MySA reported that the project was expected to cost $4.5 million, according to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation records.

Cameron County Beach Access #3, a currently undeveloped pedestrian beach access located just outside the South Padre Island city limits, will soon begin construction on the latest phase of a multimillion-dollar improvement project that will transform it into a destination beach access. To that end, Cameron County leaders celebrated with a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, August 11, at the access, located at 28495 State Park Road 100-North, on South Padre Island.

In other words, SpaceX is paying almost the entire bill for this work. It might now have the power to close these beaches when necessary, but it is also acting like a good citizen, improving those beaches for everyone when they are open.

It is expected this work will be completed by next year.

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Update on next Starship/Superheavy launch

10:06 am

Superheavy after its flight safely captured at Boca Chica
Superheavy after the October 2024 flight,
safely captured during the very first attempt

Link here.

SpaceX now appears to have completed the prelaunch testing of Starship prototype #37, having tested the ship again after swapping out an engine after the first static fire test. It is now moving to put Superheavy on the launchpad for its own static fire tests.

The bottom line is that SpaceX appears moving successfully towards a launch of the next test flight of Superheavy/Starship, its tenth, for sometime between August 22nd and August 28th.

The report also describes the company’s work to preserve Superheavy prototype #12, the first to be captured and recovered during the fifth orbital test flight in October 2024.

The picture to the right shows that Superheavy booster, hanging from the chopsticks just after it was captured.

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SpaceX completes two launches, reaching 100 successful orbital launches in 2025

9:15 am

Having successfully completed two Starlink launches last night, putting a total of 52 satellites into orbit, SpaceX has now accomplished 100 successful orbital launches in 2025.

First, in the early evening last night the company launched 24 satellites from Vandenberg in California, its Falcon 9 rocket first stage completing its fifth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

Seven hours later it placed another 28 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The first stage on this flight completed its tenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

100 SpaceX
44 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 100 to 77.

SpaceX’s launch rate has become so routine that it is important to note the truly amazing nature of its achievement. Until 2018, the entire world had trouble completing 100 launches in a year. In fact, prior to SpaceX’s arrival it only happened because the Soviet Union in the ’70s and ’80s launched many short term small reconnaissance satellites that only stayed in orbit for a few months. When the Soviet Union fell the launch rate fell below 100 and did not recover until SpaceX began increasing its launch rate.

In other words, this one American private company has fueled a renaissance in space exploration. And it has done so by being efficient, innovative, and most important of all, profitable. And it all happened under the banner of freedom.

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When Martian lava meets a Martian mountain

12:17 pm

When Martian lava meets a Martian mountain
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 24, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and was posted yesterday by the science team to illustrate the vast lava flows that cover much of Mars. From the caption:

This image captures the edge of a lava flow that partially buries older terrain in the Martian Southern Highlands. Where the edge of the lava flow made contact with the higher-standing topography, it formed a rumpled and ridged surface.

This lava flow is one of many massive flows that extend southwest from Arsia Mons, one of the largest shield volcanoes on Mars.

The mountain to the south rises about 3,700 feet above that rumpled lava ocean at its base.
» Read more

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Axiom completes first set of underwater tests of its commercial spacesuit

10:19 am

Axiom's moonsuit
Click for original image.

Axiom, in partnership with the company KBR, has successfully now completed its first set of manned underwater tests of its commercial spacesuit, being built for NASA but owned by Axiom and available for use by others.

These initial crewed tests involved an astronaut being fully submerged in the NBL’s 6.2-million-gallon pool while wearing Axiom Space’s next-generation spacesuit, the AxEMU, which is being developed for use on NASA’s Artemis III mission. The goal was to evaluate the suit’s integrity in an environment that closely simulates the weightlessness of space.

Throughout the tests, the suit remained completely sealed and airtight, signifying it’s ready for more advanced evaluations, and ultimately, future missions.

For Axiom, having its own spacesuit makes its space station project more viable. None of the other proposed stations presently have suits, though Vast’s Haven project is closely tied with SpaceX, and thus would likely work with that company to upgrade SpaceX’s spacesuit used on Jared Isaacman’s last private orbital mission.

The four commercial stations under development, ranked by me based on their present level of progress:
» Read more

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Founder of SaxaVord spaceport passes away

10:04 am

Frank Strang, who first proposed the SaxaVord spaceport on the island of Unst in the Shetland Islands in 2017, died yesterday at 67 from cancer, having never seen a single launch from the spaceport almost entirely due to the odious red tape of the United Kingdom.

When Strang announced last month that he had cancer, he also said he hoped to live long enough to see the first launch. The German rocket startup Rocket Factory Augsburg plans its first launch later this year, though this schedule is not firm. Its launch attempt last year was cancelled when the first stage failed during its last static fire test on the launchpad. Whether the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority will issue a launch permit on time remains decidedly unclear.

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China completes eighth launch of its Guowang internet satellite constellation

9:53 am

China yesterday successfully placed 10 more Guowang satellites into orbit, its Long March 5b rocket lifting off from its coastal Wenchang spaceport.

The Guowang constellation, also called Satnet, will eventually have 13,000 satellites in orbit, providing services comparable to Starlink and Kuiper. At present it has completed eight launches since December 2024, placing 67 satellites into orbit.

Because the Long March 5B, China’s most powerful rocket at present, used a new more powerful upper stage, its core stage did not reach orbit, and thus fell harmlessly into the ocean soon after launch.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

98 SpaceX (with another Starlink launch scheduled for later today)
44 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 98 to 77.

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New developments at Canada’s two competing spaceport projects

9:40 am

Proposed Canadian spaceports
Proposed Canadian spaceports

It appears things are beginning to happen at the two proposed Canadian spaceports, as shown on the map to the right.

First, the long struggling Nova Scotia spaceport project by Maritime Launch Services, first proposed in 2016, has finally sealed its $1.7 million deal with the Canadian rocket startup Reaction Dynamics. That deal was first announced in October 2024, but apparently was not finalized until now. Reaction will not only do a suborbital launch from the spaceport, it will invest about $1 million in the spaceport itself.

Whether this Nova Scotia spaceport finally begins operating remains to be seen. It has been promising orbital launches since 2016, without any actually happening.

Second, the Canadian rocket startup Nordspace announced that it has begun construction of its own launch site, dubbed the Atlantic Spaceport Complex, in Newfoundland.

The Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) is a cornerstone of NordSpace’s mission to deliver sovereign and assured space access for Canada through an end-to-end space missions capability. The initial $10M phase of development for the Atlantic Spaceport Complex will feature two sites. SLC-01 will feature two launch pads for orbital missions including NordSpace’s Tundra vehicle and international launch partners from the U.S. and Europe. SLC-02 will consist of at least one smaller launch pad for suborbital missions, radar systems for vehicle tracking and space domain awareness, and other ground support equipment to enable all launch operations at the ASX.

The company hopes to complete a suborbital launch with what it calls its Taiga rocket later this month.

Nordspace only announced its existence in July 2024, almost a decade after the Nova Scotia project. Yet it appears it will be first to complete a commercial suborbital launch. Nova Scotia did have a suborbital launch in 2023, but it was a student project, not a commercial rocket.

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Portugal issues spaceport license to Santa Maria Island

9:03 am

Santa Maria spaceport

Portugal today issued a spaceport license to the Atlantic Spaceport Consortium (ASC) that wishes to build an orbital spaceport on the island of Santa Maria in the Azores, located about 900 miles west of the mainland.

On 13 August, ASC and the Portuguese Space Agency announced in a joint statement that the consortium had received a licence to operate a launch site on the island. The licence was issued by the country’s Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações (ANACOM), the entity acting as Portugal’s space authority. The licence is valid for five years and does not cover the launch operations themselves, which will be subject to a separate licensing process on a per-launch basis.

ASC has already conducted two demonstration suborbital launches there. In addition, it has signed a deal with the Polish rocket startup SpaceForest for additional suborbital launches.

This location is excellent for orbital launches, though getting rockets to it is an extra cost that will at least initially limit its appeal. Either way, it appears the Portuguese government does not wish to stand in the way of progress, and has been moving fast to clear away the red tape.

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Two launches today less than 20 minutes apart

6:06 pm

Arianespace and ULA both successfully completed launches today, less less than 20 minutes apart.

First Arianespace placed in orbit a new European weather satellite, its Ariane-6 lifting off from French Guiana in South America on its second commercial launch and third launch overall.

Next, ULA launched a Space Force national security classified payload, its Vulcan rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. This was the Vulcan’s third launch, and the first in 2025. It is also its first commercial launch, and the first since the military certified the rocket for its use. It was also the first since a nozzle fell off a strap-on booster during its last launch in October 2024. On this launch it used four boosters, all of which functioned as planned.

For Arianespace (and Europe) this was its fourth launch in 2025 so it does not make the leader board for the 2025 launch race. Similarly, this was ULA’s third this year, so it also does not make the leader board.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

98 SpaceX (with another Starlink launch scheduled for later today)
43 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 98 to 76.

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France’s military awards orbital tug startup contract for transporting its “inspector” satellites

9:51 am

France’s Directorate General of Armament (DGA) has awarded the orbital tug startup Infinite Orbits a $58.3 million contract to develop a tug that can transport its military “inspector” technology to geosynchronous orbit when it can rendezvous and inspect other satellites.

Under the PALADIN framework agreement, Infinite Orbits will develop a dedicated spacecraft capable of delivering the geostationary orbit inspection and monitoring service that will be utilized by the country’s Commandement de l’Espace (CDE – Space Command). The spacecraft is expected to be ready for launch as early as 2027 and will be based on Infinite Orbits’ Orbit Guard offering.

Infinite Orbits is based in France, though it also has offices in the U.S. and Singapore. It has also flown one demo mission of its Orbit Guard tug, and won a contract for a later mission from France’s space agency CNES. It is also developing a satellite servicing robot dubbed Endurance.

Overall, Europe (and France surprisingly) has latched onto the capitalism model with amazing enthusiasm in the past two years, to a point that it might actually be doing it better than NASA. Europe doesn’t have a giant money-sucking government program like Artemis (though it is partnering on Artemis). Thus, it can spend its money in buying many different but needed space products from its private sector. And it has more money available for these purposes.

NASA can’t do this as effectively, because a much larger portion of its budget is trapped financing the ineffective SLS rocket and Orion capsule.

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Two Japanese shipping companies are developing floating landing platforms for rockets

9:25 am

Two different Japanese shipping companies are now developing floating ship platforms that rocket companies could use to land their rocket’s first stages.

Japan’s Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) is following compatriot Mitsui OSK Lines in targeting space exploration as a new source of revenues.

NYK has obtained an approval in principle from ClassNK for the conceptual design of an offshore recovery system for reusable rockets, an initiative developed through the Space Strategy Fund at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). NYK now aims to carry out a demonstration test of this new vessel type in 2028 working with multiple partners including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Since JAXA and Mitsubishi own and build Japan’s new H3 rocket, JAXA’s funding here suggests both are considering upgrading the H3 for reusability. It is also possible Mitsubishi is mulling plans to build its own new commercial rocket.

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