Tag: government

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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Oh by the way, the FAA has approved the August 24th launch of Starship/Superheavy

12:07 pm

Increasingly irrelevant in the right places
Increasingly irrelevant in the right places

My headline reflects the sense of utter irrelevance of the FAA in announcing its approval of the launch licence for the tenth test launch of Starship/Superheavy (now scheduled for August 24, 2025) as well as its “closing” of its “investigation” into the failure during test flight nine.

As per the FAA in its statement, “There are no reports of public injury or damage to public property. The FAA oversaw and accepted the findings of the SpaceX-led investigation. The final mishap report cites the probable root cause for the loss of the Starship vehicle as a failure of a fuel component. SpaceX identified corrective actions to prevent a reoccurrence of the event.”

The FAA did not “oversee” SpaceX’s investigation. No one at the FAA has the slightest qualifications for doing so. All its bureaucrats did is sit in and watch, and when SpaceX’s engineers completed their work and “identified corrective actions,” the FAA paper-pushers pushed some paper to rubber stamp those conclusions.

Moreover, unlike during the Biden administration, the FAA did not waste any time or money retyping the SpaceX investigation. They simply approved it as is, and issued the launch license. And they apparently instantly agreed to the schedule proposed by SpaceX. In fact, it appears almost as if SpaceX announced the date before the FAA announced the license approval.

Elections matter. And they would matter less if we had had the sense in the past century to not cede so much power to an unelected federal bureaucracy that is really unfit to do the work we gave them. The goal now should be to take that power away from them, and to do it as quickly as it is humanely possible.

It appears at least when it comes to FAA launch licenses, Trump has made some significant progress towards this goal.

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Kazakhstan looking for commercial rocket startups outside Russia to launch from Baikonur

9:01 am

The Kazakhstan government is now hoping to convert portions of its Baikonur spaceport not leased by Russia so that international rocket startups, or maybe its own commercial rocket startup, could launch from there.

While much of the site is still under Russian lease, Kazakhstan acquired the 100 km² Zenit launch site and assembly centre in 2018, and earlier this year took over the former “Gagarin” launch pad, which is now a tourist attraction. This opens the door for Astana [Kazakhstan’s capital] to negotiate directly with foreign operators.

… To give itself an edge and capitalise on the site’s potential, Kazakhstan plans to set up a special economic zone for “national space projects and foreign start-ups.” Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov has already confirmed talks with India’s Skyroot, China’s Deep Blue Aerospace, and several European firms. “We briefly discussed options for launch pads or joint grant applications,” confirmed Christian Schiemer, CEO of Germany’s HyImpulse. Other interested parties include Germany’s OHB and Rocket Factory Augsburg, as well as Airbus Defence & Space and Luxembourg’s SES.

China has also held talks about using Baikonur.

All of this however is very speculative, with sources expressing skepticism.

Kazakhstan however increasingly needs to do something to save Baikonur. At the moment the Russians have only one active launchpad, for its Soyuz-2 rocket. Two other launchpads for its Proton rocket are listed as active, but that rocket is largely retired. A fourth launchpad for Russia’s proposed new Soyuz-5 rocket remains unfinished, its future uncertain. With Russia increasingly shifting launches to its new Vostochny spaceport in the far east, it is very possible that it will eventually abandon Baikonur.

Kazakhstan has other reasons to make deals with foreign startups. Such deals will make it more independent from its untrustworthy neighbor to the north.

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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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California’s Coastal Commission again rejects an increase in SpaceX’s launch rate at Vandenberg

9:21 am

Wants to be a dictator
Wants to be a dictator

As expected, the California Coastal Commission yesterday again rejected the proposed doubling of launches by SpaceX at the Vandenberg Space Force Base, from 50 to 100 launches per year, claiming this time it would destroy the environment.

“The sonic booms and their impacts on California’s people, wildlife and property are extremely concerning,” Commissioner Linda Escalante said at a hearing Thursday in Calabasas. “The negative impacts on public access, natural resources and environmental health warrant our scrutiny under California as a standard of review.”

The commissioners and its staff also argued that the launches were not related to national security or military purposes, but instead acted “to expand SpaceX’s commercial telecommunications network rather than serve federal agencies.” See the staff report [pdf] issued prior to the meeting.

The simple fact remains that it is a privately owned company engaged in activities primarily for its own commercial business. It is not a public federal agency or conducting its launches on
behalf of the federal government. It should therefore be regulated accordingly. [emphasis mine]

How dare SpaceX try to make a profit as a private company in America? And how dare the Space Force act as a servant of the people to provide this private company service? What have we come to?! Is communism and top-down authoritarian rule no longer America’s fundamental purpose?

Nor are the claims of the commission about the environment valid. » Read more

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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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Jared Isaacman proves in an op-ed today why Trump dumped him

4:03 pm

Jared Isaacman
Jared Isaacman has now proven he was
the wrong man for NASA administrator

In an op-ed posted today by Jared Isaacman and Newt Gingrich, the two men pushed the idea that NASA should lead a new “mini-Manhattan Project” to develop “nuclear-electric-powered spaceships” in order to conquer the heavens.

The President’s budget calls for an eventual pivot away from NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS)—leaving the heavy-lift rocket business to a capable commercial industry. That pivot should be toward something no other agency, organization, or company is capable of accomplishing: building a fleet of nuclear-electric-powered spaceships and extending America’s reach in the ultimate high ground of space.

The NASA centers, workforce, and contractors that manage, assemble, and test SLS are suited to take on this inspiring and necessary challenge. NASA Center at Michoud, for example, built landing craft during WWII, the Saturn V during the space race, the Space Shuttle, and the SLS. It is now waiting for the next logical evolution to ensure the competitiveness of our national space capabilities.

Oy. What piffle. » Read more

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Trump orders the federal agencies regulating space to review and streamline regulations

9:47 am

Trump defiant after being shot
Trump’s war with the swamp continues

Fight! Fight! Fight! In a new executive order issued yesterday, President Trump tasked NASA and the Transportation, Commerce, and Defense departments to work together to review and streamline the present regulations that have been hindering the American space industry for the past four years.

A summary of the order can be found here.

The order specifically tasks Transportation secretary Sean Duffy to review and streamline the regulations related to launches and re-entry, as well as the environmental requirements that were imposed during the Biden administration requiring numerous environment impact statements for practically any new project and even when an established project gets revised slightly. It has been these new rules that squashed the efforts of almost all the new American rocket companies during the Biden administration.

The order also demands that Commerce, Transportation, Defense, and NASA review the laws relating to coastal management that have allowed the states to block “spaceport infrastructure development.” All these agencies are also required to review their licensing rules to eliminate duplication while also eliminating rules that impede “novel space activities (missions not clearly or straightforwardly governed by existing regulatory frameworks).”

Finally, the order establishes a new position at the FAA but reporting directly to the Transportation secretary who will be expressly focused in following through on these regulatory reforms, with the primary goal to aid the commercial space industry.

While this order changes no specific regulations, it now forces the bureaucracy toward change, with deadlines set for action ranging from two to six months. Expect whole swathes of regulations and licensing requirements to disappear in the coming months. We might even see new rocket companies finally resume launches, something that ceased during the Biden years.

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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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Virginia’s politicians whine about a NASA plan to close the visitor center at Wallops

10:09 am

Chicken Little on the march! Virginia’s representatives are now in a panicked tizzy because it appears NASA is considering closing the visitors center at the Wallops Island spaceport on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Members of Virginia’s congressional delegation were shocked by news of the potential closure of the NASA Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center and worry it will negatively impact the Eastern Shore’s economy.

Employees at Goddard Space Flight Center and Wallops received word last week that management planned to close several facilities, including NASA Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center — and federal workers asked for congressional support to preserve the local landmark.

Congresswoman Jen Kiggans, a Republican who represents Virginia’s 2nd District, said the proposed closure came as a shock. In a statement, she said was committed to supporting NASA Wallops staff. “This is an unacceptable and drastic step that will have a significant impact on local employees, residents, and visitors,” Kiggans said. “My staff and I are in contact with NASA to better understand the reasoning behind this reported decision as it is contradictory to the proposed House budget. Wallops has long been a vital part of our community, and we will do everything we can to support the work that’s done there and the people who work there.”

Nor is Kiggans the only politican whining. The article includes similar quotes from Democrat senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, as well as local state representative Rob Bloxom. All make the absurd claims that closing this one visitor center will destroy American civilization in Virginia.

And as usual for our propaganda press, no alternative opinions are offered. The only side that gets pushed is the pro-spending side.

What crap. NASA’s job is to foster a vibrant American space industry, by either developing or encouraging the development of actual technologies that can be used for this purpose. A visitor center has nothing to do with this job.

Moreover, such a visitor center employs a relatively small number of people. The economy of the Eastern Shore is not going to collapse by its closure. In fact, the economy won’t really notice it is gone in any significant way.

If we can’t cut the budget in this small way, we will never cut anything, and the country is doomed.

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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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Two companies to study ways for extending the life of the Gehrels Swift space telescope

9:15 am

NASA yesterday announced that it has awarded two companies, Cambrian Works in Virginia and Katalyst Space Technologies in Arizona, each $150K study contracts for reviewing whether it makes sense to send a robotic servicing mission to Gehrels Swift space telescope to raise its orbit and extend its life.

Since its launch in 2004, NASA’s Swift mission has led the agency’s fleet of space telescopes in investigating changes in the high-energy universe. The spacecraft’s low Earth orbit has been decaying gradually, which happens to most satellites over time. Because of recent increases in the Sun’s activity, however, Swift is experiencing additional atmospheric drag, speeding up its orbital decay. This lowering orbit presents an opportunity for NASA to advance a U.S. industry capability, while potentially extending the science lifetime of the Swift mission. The concept studies will help determine whether extending Swift’s critical scientific capabilities would be more cost-effective than replacing those capabilities with a new observatory.

According to this paper [pdf], the telescope’s orbit will decay before the end of 2029, so speed is of the essence. Why NASA is thus spending time and money on a “study” contract from companies that don’t do orbital servicing or have orbital tugs is very curious. Wouldn’t make more sense to request bids from the many orbital servicing and tug companies that now exist (D-Orbit, Astroscale, Northrop Grumman, Firefly, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Impulse) to see if any can do the job at a reasonable cost and are willing?

Gehrels Swift has proven to be one of the most valuable and useful high energy space telescopes ever launched. First of all its cost was relatively low. Second, it is designed to quickly observe a gamma ray burst (GRB) location in multiple other wavelengths (optical especially). That ability helped solve the mystery of GRBs, as well as numerous other high energy events. It would be a tragedy to lose it.

It would also be far more expensive to build a replacement.

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FCC eliminates red tape for both satellite companies and space stations

9:29 am

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week announced [pdf] that it has changed a number of regulations to streamline its licensing in connection with satellite constellations, ground stations, and new space stations.

Today’s reforms intend to boost the nascent Ground-Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) business model that allows multiple satellite systems to share the same ground station. The new rules eliminate needless paperwork and clear regulatory barriers to GSaaS, a business model that gives satellite operators—especially startups and emerging growth companies—the ability to send and receive signals without having to build their own ground infrastructure.

…The Order establishes a new process for ground station operators to receive a baseline license without first identifying a specific satellite point of communication. For each new point of communication, only a simple FCC notification will be needed. This one change would eliminate approximately 49% of earth station modification applications.

Today’s action further streamlines and expedites the application process for space stations and earth
stations by moving away from regulations that require FCC approval for making even the smallest
changes to a satellite system.

The direction of regulation has shifted 180 degrees since Trump’s election. Under Biden, federal agencies were constantly tasked to increase oversight so that it often took years to get approvals. Under Trump, those same agencies are now beginning to eliminate regulation across the board.

Elections matter. Anyone who says all politicians are the same is either ignorant or lying.

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Starlink now available in Israel

9:20 am

After a year of regulatory paperwork, the Israel government has finally allowed SpaceX to offer Starlink to customers in Israel proper, but not in the West Bank or Gaza.

The company received an operating license from the Communications Ministry last year, following lengthy negotiations and regulatory procedures, but its launch was delayed until now. The restriction on coverage in the West Bank and Gaza is likely due to security concerns over potential use by hostile actors.

Expect the usual leftist anti-Semites to accuse Israel of bigotry for excluding access to Palestinians, but until those Palestinians show some willingness to live with Israel in peace (something they so far show no signs in doing, especially in Gaza), this policy makes perfect sense.

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China launches another 11 satellites for one of its mega-constellations

12:42 am

China's spaceports

China today successfully placed another 11 satellites into orbit for one of its internet satellite constellations designed to compete with Starlink, its Smart Dragon-3 rocket lifting off from a launch platform off the eastern coast of China.

This was the fourth launch of satellites for Geely constellation. Though the rocket’s lower stages dropped into the South China Sea as well as the Pacific, doing no harm to habitable areas (as China routinely does when it launches from its interior spaceports), earlier this week the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., complained about China’s habit of not giving its neighbors sufficient warning prior to its coastal launches.

Marcos issued the statement after China launched its Long March 12 rocket on Monday [from its coastal Wenchang spaceport], which left debris within Philippine maritime territory. During an interview with the Philippine media delegation covering his state visit to India, the President said this was not the first time suspected Chinese rocket debris had ended up in Philippine waters.

“Well, it’s not the first time that this has happened. And, actually, if you look at the incidents, they did not commit any violations. There have been no casualties,” Marcos said. “We just wish that perhaps they could warn us a little earlier so that we know the path of the rocket, where the path is, and if they will release stages, where they will fall,” he added.

All par for the course for China. It not only doesn’t really care if it crashes rocket stages on the heads of its own people, it cares even less about dropping stages on neighboring countries.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

97 SpaceX
43 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 97 to 74.

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Indian rocket startup Skyroot tests solid-fueled motor

12:53 pm

The Indian rocket startup Skyroot has successfully tested the solid-fueled motor it plans to use in its three-stage solid-fueled Vikram-1 rocket. From the press release issued by India’s space agency ISRO:

First Static Test of the KALAM 1200 Motor – the first stage of Vikram – 1 Launch Vehicle of M/s Skyroot Aerospace Pvt. Ltd. (SAPL), Hyderabad is accomplished successfully at Static Test complex of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, ISRO, Department of Space at 09:05 hrs on 08.08.2025. This is a major milestone in the configuration and realization of the systems for Vikram – 1 Launch Vehicle. The motor is a 11 m long, 1.7 m dia monolithic composite motor with a Propellant Mass of 30t. Based on the design inputs, this longest monolithic motor is prepared at the Solid Propellant Plant, Sriharikota. Similarly, ISRO team has provided the design for the Test Stand, which is used for the static test of the motor.

This is in line with the Government of India initiative on Space Policy, 2023 for providing the necessary technical infrastructure and managerial guidance for the Private Sector players to contribute for the space economic growth. The performance of the test bed and the associated systems is normal as predicted.

The last paragraph is the most important. The Modi government has tasked its space agency to provide its facilities and expertise to help rocket startups like Skyroot. It appears from this test and press release the resistance within ISRO to this policy — which cuts into ISRO’s turf — is fading.

Skyroot had said it wants to do the first orbital test flight of Vikram-1 before the end of 2025. It remains unclear whether it will meet that schedule.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

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Sending Juno to fly past interstellar comet 3I/Atlas?

10:42 am

3I/Atlas as seen by Hubble on July 21, 2025
Hubble’s most recent image of comet 3I/Atlas.
Click for original image.

It’s all clickbait! In what appears to be an example of silliness, a scientist, Avi Loeb of Harvard, has proposed repurposing the Jupiter orbiter Juno by using its remaining fuel and its main engine (unused since 2016 because it is feared it will explode if ignited) to send the spacecraft on a path allowing it to fly past the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas that is presently zipping through out solar system.

Not surprisingly, a politician, congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida), immediately latched onto this idea to garner her own publicity.

Loeb believes Juno, which is scheduled to plunge into Jupiter’s atmosphere at the end of its mission in Sept. 2025, could be repurposed. He suggests using its remaining fuel to redirect it toward 3I/ATLAS when the object passes within about 34 million miles of Jupiter in March 2026.

Florida Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has backed the proposal in a letter [pdf] to interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, urging the agency to explore extending Juno’s mission. “It is recommended that NASA conduct a study to assess how much fuel is left in Juno’s engine, and I support an extension of the Juno mission at least until mid-March 2026 at a cost of about $15M per 6 months from the current expiration date of mid-September 2025,” Luna wrote.

The problem with this idea is that it isn’t realistic. Juno really doesn’t have sufficient fuel, and as I mentioned, its main engine is suspect, so suspect that the science team decided in 2016 to never use it again, thus leaving Juno in a higher than planned orbit that required twice as much time at Jupiter to get the same work done.

There is also one more reason to doubt Loeb’s proposal. He has also proposed that 3I/Atlas is an alien probe, ignoring or dismissing the images and data that make if very clear that it is nothing more than a comet, albeit interstellar in origin. It appears therefore that he might very well represent the quality of scientists that Harvard is hiring these days.

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Azerbaijan officials hold cooperation talks with SpaceX

9:10 am

In connection with the visit of Azerbaijan’s president to the United States, he and other officials held a meeting with SpaceX vice president Stephanie Bednarek to discuss possible areas of cooperation. From Azerbaijan’s state-run press:

At the meeting, we noted Azerbaijan’s economic potential, strategic development directions, and favorable investment climate. We discussed prospects for cooperation with SpaceX, including partnership opportunities in the application of innovative and space technologies, artificial intelligence solutions, and knowledge and experience transfer.

In plain language, Azerbaijan is considering buying services from SpaceX. That it is doing so underlines once again the negative consequences of Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine. Azerbaijan now fears Russia, and is looking elsewhere for aid. It also senses Russia’s increasing weakness, economically, technologically, and militarily, making it more willing to forge alliances with others.

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Sources suggest major job layoffs and salary cuts about to sweep Russia

2:35 pm

According to various sources, major job layoffs and salary cuts are about to sweep Russia, affecting 800,000 people working for nine different large companies.

The cuts include layoffs, salary cuts, shortened work hours, and unpaid leave, with many involved in the aviation industry.

According to the tweet at the link, the blame goes to the Ukraine war and the collapse of the Russian economy because of it. That might or might not be true, but the speculation is certainly reasonable.

This collapse has been predicted now for several years. If it happens Putin’s future as head of Russia might finally be reaching its use-by date.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

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India’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter photographs Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander

2:27 pm

Athena as seen by Chandrayaan-2
Click for source.

India’s Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter has now produced a new high resolution image of Intuitive Machines’ Athena lander, sitting on its side inside a small crater near the Moon’s south pole.

The IM-2 ‘Athena’ lander attempted a soft touchdown near the Moon’s South Pole on 6 March, 2025. Although the lander remained intact, it failed to reach its intended landing spot and ended up tipping over on its side inside a crater.

In the … images taken by the OHRC instrument on board the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter, the Athena lander can be clearly seen lying on its side inside a crater.

This image, posted to the right, compares very favorably with the photos taken by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in March 2025. The lander’s legs can clearly be seen sticking out toward the top of the picture.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

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Hera photographs two main belt asteroids on its way to Didymos/Dimorphos

10:12 am

Asteroid Otero as seen by Hera
Click for original image.

The science team for the European Space Agency’s Hera asteroid probe, on its way to the binary asteroid Didymos/Dimorphos in late 2026, has successfully taken images of two different main belt asteroids, demonstrating once again that its camera and pointing capabilities are operating as expected.

The image to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced, shows all the observations of Otero, the first asteroid observed, as it moved upward in the field of view. The result was that vertical line of dots.

On 11 May 2025, as Hera cruised through the main asteroid belt beyond the orbit of Mars, the spacecraft turned its attention toward Otero, a rare A-type asteroid discovered almost 100 years ago.

From a distance of approximately three million kilometres, Otero appeared as a moving point of light – easily mistaken for a star if not for its subtle motion across the background sky. Hera captured images of Otero using its Asteroid Framing Camera – a navigational and scientific instrument that will be used to guide the spacecraft during its approach to Didymos next year.

The second observation of asteroid Kellyday was even less spectacular visually, but because that asteroid was forty times fainter than Otero, the observation was more challenging, and thus its success more significant.

Hera will arrive at the Didymos/Dimorphos binary asteroid in 2026, where it will make close-up observations of the changes the asteroids have undergone following Dart’s impact of Dimorphos in 2022. Subsequent ground- and space-based observations have been extensive and on-going, but the close-up view will be ground-breaking.

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China completes landing and take-off tests of its manned lunar lander

9:49 am

China's manned lunar lander during landing and take-off tests
Click for original image.

China announced today that it has successfully completed landing and take-off tests of its manned lunar lander.

That lander is shown to the right, its engines firing as its likely descends, held up by cables to simulate the lunar gravity. From the caption:

This file photo shows a manned lunar lander during a trial at a test site in Huailai County, north China’s Hebei Province. China on Thursday announced that it has successfully completed a comprehensive test for the landing and takeoff of its manned lunar lander at a test site in Huailai County, Hebei Province.

The test completed on Wednesday represents a key step in the development of China’s manned lunar exploration program, and it also marks the first time that China has carried out a test for extraterrestrial landing and takeoff of a manned spacecraft, said the China Manned Space Agency.

History buffs will immediately notice the similarity of this lander to the Lunar Module (LM) that the U.S. used during the Apollo missions. What is not clear is whether the lander will have a separate descent and ascent stage, as the LM did, and if so, whether these flight tests included separate operations of each.

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Acting NASA head Duffy reshapes NASA’s space station plans

9:36 am

Sean Duffy
Sean Duffy, transportation secretary and interim
NASA administrator

Earlier this week NASA’s interim administrator Sean Duffy issued a new directive [pdf] that fundamentally reshaped the agency’s space station program in how it will fund and operate the private commercial space stations now under development.

Under the present plan, NASA had issued development contracts to three proposed commercial stations, with a major contract award expected next year to one of the four companies/consortiums that are bidding. Duffy instead wants NASA to fund all the stations in an open-ended manner.

Instead of moving forward in Phase 2 with a firm fixed price contract for [commercial station] certification and services, NASA will continue to support U.S industry’s design and demonstration of [commercial stations] with multiple funded SAAs [Space Act Agreements] for the next phase. NASA will shift the formal design acceptance and certification planning acceptance from this SAA phase to a follow-on certification phase.

Utilizing SAAs for the next phase better aligns with enabling development of US industry platforms. It provides greater resources for industry to align schedule with NASA’s needs. SAAs also provide more flexibility to deal with possible variations in funding levels without the need of potentially protracted and inefficient contract renegotiations.

SAAs are generally fixed price, but the structure Duffy is establishing appears to allow NASA to supplement these contracts endlessly, making them a kind of hybrid cost-plus deal. It also aims at supporting “a minimum of two, preferably three or more” of the private stations under development.

Duffy’s shift to SAAs will also give the private stations more design and operational freedom, as SAAs shift responsibility and ownership to the company, not NASA. The arrangement will also likely require a larger investment by the companies, though this is not clear in Duffy’s directive.
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