Tag: quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Gravitics webpage touts the modules it is building for Axiom’s space station
  No new news, just a link to the company’s webpage.

• Landspace touts upgrades it is planning for its Zhuque-3 rocket
  It hopes to do the first three launches in 2025 using the older version, and then upgrade. A comparison of its Zhuque-2 and Zhuque-3 rockets can be viewed here. Zhuque-2 has launched three times successfully, though nothing in the past year. Zhuque-3 will attempt to reuse its first stage.

• Mockup of China’s Lanyue manned lunar lander
  China hopes to use it to send astronauts to the Moon in 2030.

• News article describing India’s planned Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS)
  Nothing new, but provides a good short summary of the overall project.

• European government apparatchiks and officials from Europe’s big space companies whine about Trump
  The article describes the comments made during a panel made up of mostly such officials. Their general solution: “Give us more money!” Few said anything about energizing a competitive and free private industry.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Blue Origin’s CEO touts an image of New Glenn’s two upper stage engines, just prior to intergration with the stage
  The imagery once again suggests the company is finally getting close to launch, but also suggests it is still taking its time doing so.

• Scientists detect what they think is sulfur in an exoplanet atmosphere, and immediately suggest this might mean volcanoes on the planet
  A lot of maybes making any conclusion so uncertain as to be science fiction.

• Coast Guard issues a “Notice to Mariners” for Starship’s 6th test flight on November 18, 2024
  All signs point to this launch happening, as planned, and only a month after the last test, proving once again that all previous delays were largely the fault of FAA red tape.

• Video of a static fire test of Raptor-3 engine suggests something not quite right occurred shortly after ignition
  The test was at SpaceX’s MacGregor engine test facility.

• Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy hints it will use electromagnetic catapult as part of a future launch system
  The proof is in the pudding, but if this pseudo-company does this it will a rare original achievement from China, not a copycat idea.

• Assembly of NASA’s next big telescope boondoggle, the Roman Space Telescope, is about to begin
  Project officials claim it is on schedule and on budget, but that claim is based on a revised budget and schedule after things went overbudget and behind schedule during the COVID panic,

• On this day in 1980 Voyager-1 made its closest approach of Saturn
  The distance was 78,290 miles.

• On this day in 2014 the Philae lander of Europe’s Rosetta probe touched down on Comet 67P/C-G
  This link provides a nine-minute video outlining the mission highlights.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

Some of these stories would have normally gotten a full post. I post them now for completeness.

• NASA extends ISS cargo contracts through 2030
  The companies involved are SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and Sierra Space.

• Smithsonian discovers the many Juno images processed by citizen scientists
  Some great stuff, similar to the many Juno images I’ve posted here for years.

• Brazil and China negotiating a deal to allow a Chinese satellite pseudo-company to work in Brazil
  No deal has yet been signed.

• A look at Russia’s new proposal to build a copycat SpaceX Grasshopper
  As I noted last week, this project is hardly to be taken seriously, as are all new Russian space projects. Almost none are ever built or flown.

• Graphic of the propulsion system planned (key word) for Russia’s Orel next-generation capsule
  It might fly, but it is years behind schedule.

• Next Ariane-6 launch delayed from December to February 2025
  The press release hides the real reason: the upper stage on the first flight failed to complete its mission, failing to fire for a controlled re-entry.

• Animation of the proposed cargo capsule from a Chinese pseudo-company
  The capsule is a copycat revision of either Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser or Boeing’s X-37B.

• Chinese pseudo-company Landspace claims a launch cost for its Zhuque-2 and Zhuque-3 rockets will be less than RMB50k/kg and 30k/kg (about $7k/kg & $4k/kg)
  Jay: “Falcon-9 is still cheaper at $3k/kg and Falcon heavy is below $2k/kg.”

• Several powerpoint slides describing China’s Chang’e-8 mission to the Moon
  The slides are not translated, and provide a limited amount of information.

• On this day in 1981 the space shuttle Columbia was launched on its second flight

• On this day in 1966 Buzz Aldrin during the last Gemini manned mission took a picture of himself and Earth behind, telling everyone to smile as he did so.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

My posting continues to be light for numerous reasons. Though all is generally well, the present condition of my eyes sometimes makes reading and writing difficult. Today was a particularly bad day, the double vision and blind spot making if very hard to see the words I put on the screen. Sorry.

Note too that next week posting will also be light, because I have relatives visiting from Israel and I am taking them to see the Grand Canyon for their first time. I might be able to post, but can make no guarantees.

My apologizes to my loyal readers for all this. but sometimes life gets in the way.

• New theories suggest fast radio bursts come from high mass galaxies with a lot of star forming regions
  The data however remains sparse, so these conclusions can only be viewed as tentative.

• Rough outline of China’s proposed Tianwen-4 mission to Jupiter and its moon Callisto
  The mission also will also release a separate probe to fly past Uranus in 2045.

• Chinese pseudo-company Deep Blue touts development status of its Nebula-1 rocket
  It hopes to begin vertical hops of the prototype soon.

• Maxar orbital image of China’s X-37B copy
  A clearer example of the image is available here. The data suggests it is an “exact” copy of X-37B.

• Russia says it is picking landing sites for doing flights of its version of SpaceX’s Grasshopper
  As noted sarcastically at the tweet, “The only things left to do is to build a launch pad, to develop a flight demonstrator, to do the “hop” tests and then to build a real rocket.”

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Blue Origin gets permit for its New Glenn launchpad deluge system at Cape Canaveral [pdf]
  The permit is effective through 2029. From Jay: “I hope it is not potable water! Oh the humanity!” I hate to tell him but it is potable water, according to the permit.

• Nice map showing who is launching where at Cape Canaveral [jpg]
  It is a screen capture taken from a NASASpaceflight.com forum.

• ISRO is proposing India’s own manned lunar space station
  Launch date 2040. I do not think this project has as yet been approved by the Indian government. I suspect that approval will largely depend on the launch success of India’s Earth-orbit station to be completed by 2030.

• NASA officials are today providing an update on Artemis program
  Expect news to show up by tomorrow.

• Fifteen years ago today the Cassini Saturn orbiter photographed the elongated shadow of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, on Saturn itself
  A really cool image.

Posting today will continue to be light. I am wearing bandaging on one wrist that makes typing very slow and extremely difficult. All will go back to normal tomorrow.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Is that a dent on China’s manned Shenzhou capsule, immediately after landing?
  If so it suggests the landing was harder than intended. I remain unsure however if that isn’t a normal indentation.

• SpaceX is congratulated for its 400th Falcon launch, taking cargo to ISS
  The tweet says the company is targeting 30 more launches this year.

• China to inaugurate flights of its Long March 10A in 2026, claiming it is for lunar landings and will have a reusable first stage
  Jays says it is a knock-off of New Glenn. I have great doubts it will fly by 2026.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Another Chinese pseudo-company proposes another copycat New Shepard suborbital tourist spacecraft
  There are a lot of these pseudo-companies popping up in China. Who knows how many are real.

• Cargo Dragon just launched will test using Draco thrusters to reboost ISS
  This test will change the station’s telemetry almost not at all, but its goal is to eventually find multiple options for replacing this task presently done by Russian Progresses.

• Twin ESA satellites arrive in India for intergration into PSLV rocket
  Launch is presentlhy scheduled for November 29, 2024.

• On this day in 2013 India launches its first interplanetary probe, the Mars Orbiter Mission or Mangalyaan
  It operated in Mars orbit for about eight years.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• China reveals another copycat rocket of SpaceX’s Superheavy/Starship
  This version is a government rocket called Long March 9. China has revised that design multiple times in the past, first to copy SLS, now to copy Starship/Superheavy.

• Video of return today of Shenzhou manned capsule, including ground-based footage showing the breakup of its service module

• Rocket Lab’s next launch is set now for tomorrow, 5:30 am Eastern
  Liftoff will be from New Zealand.

• On this day in 1957 the Soviet Union launched its second Sputnik satellite, carrying the dog Laika
  The dog died in orbit, as they had made no arrangements for bring it back alive.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Sierra Space claims it is in the final steps to getting its LIFE inflatable module approved by NASA
  This module will be about the only thing in the Orbital Reef station that is moving forward aggressively.

• Interview with NASA’s deputy manager supervising SpaceX’s contract for building the manned lunar lander based on Starship
  Essentially, he outlines why a fixed-price contract and letting the company run the show, makes things happen. It also appears his office is doing things right.

• NASA’s corrupt and useless safety panel scolds SpaceX for not being perfect
  This panel should have been disbanded years ago, when it claimed fueling the Falcon 9 with crew on board would be more dangerous. It is all politics, and it actually knows very little about modern rocketry.

• ULA’s Vulcan rocket wins 2024 Dr. Wernher von Braun spaceflight Trophy Award
  This is essentially a participation award for a big contractor in the Huntsville area.

• Chinese pseudo-company claims it will build a rocket which will land using its own chopstick tower, and do it by ’26 at the latest
  All they have right now is a short video animation essentially redrawing the actual Superheavy landing SpaceX did last month, plus about $14 million in funding.

• On this day in 1993 the space shuttle completed a two week mission, then the record for the longest shuttle flight

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Goldstone antenna touts its part in detecting Voyager-1’s signal, suddenly coming from a frequency not used in more than four decades
  Truly something to tout, as this is amazing engineering detective work.

• Next launch of Mitsubishi’s H3 rocket for JAXA is now scheduled for November 2, 2024
  The rocket will place a Japanese military communications satellite in geosynchronous orbit, the first time it has done so.

• The pseudo-commercial division of a Chinese space agency now aims to market itself to the international launch market
  The pseudo-company is CAS Space, and its rocket is Kinetica-1 (which has launched four times so far). It also has its not-yet-flown Kinetica-2 rocket.

  How it hopes to garner any business having any links to American aerospace technology I have no idea. There are many strict laws and State Department ITAR regulations prohibiting any American business from working in or with China.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Blue Origin rolls the first stage of the first New Glenn rocket to launchpad
  The upper stage still needs to be stacked. Also, a dress rehearsal countdown with static fire test needs to be done. Still no word on launch date, though it finally appears within sight.

• Chinese pseudo-company AZSpace plans first launch of its cargo capsule to Tiangong-3 in November
  It also has unveiled its own New Shepard copycat suborbital capsule. I will consider both real, when they fly.

• Thailand’s government approves signing Artemis Accords
  If this happens (it remains unconfirmed from NASA), Thailand would be the first nation to sign on to both Artemis and China’s lunar base project. I wonder if that will fly with the next president.

• Lockheed Martin completes acquisition of smallsat manufacturer Terran Orbital
  The final acquisition price was $450 million. Lockheed has been a major investor of Terran since 2017, so the deal made sense in many ways.

• According to Russian officials, Europe has returned its ExoMars lander, minus European components
  ESA kicked Russia off the mission to land the Franklin rover on Mars when it invaded the Ukraine. That decision however delayed the rover’s launch now until 2028.

• Short video panning across what the tweet claims is the sharpest image yet taken of the Andromeda galaxy
  I think this is a Hubble image, but the tweet provides no information.

• Watch Comet ATLAS (C/2024 S1) evaporate in its close approach to the Sun
  This is not Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which has provided a nice show for viewers, but a different comet that astronomers hoped would be even brighter. Instead, the Sun destroyed it.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• China narrows its choice for manned lunar rover to two
  Both are proposed by different agencies, with one to be selected for the actual mission

• China awards two space station cargo supply contracts to different pseudo-companies
  If successful, it will give the Chinese multiple options for getting cargo up to its station.

• Pentagon increases its budget for commercial satellite internet services 13-fold, to $13 billion
  The military has found it pays to buy such services from the private sector, rather than trying to build it itself.

• Another study posits another underground ocean, this time within the Uranus moon Miranda
  Based on a computer model, so take the claim as serious as you want.

• ISRO revises its proposed Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV)
  It has reduced the number of rocket configuations from four to three.

• On this day in 1998, John Glenn returned to space on the space shuttle Discovery
  For those who studied politics at the time, it seemed obvious that Glenn got this flight because he did such a good job acting as Bill Clinton’s attack dog in the Senate.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

This is late today because I was attending an event at the local Tucson rocket startup Phantom Space. More on that tomorrow.

• China touts the operation of its Quequiao-2 relay satellite orbiting the Moon
  The tweet says it has a planned lifespan of eight years.

• Chinese pseudo-company Ispace says it has completed its investigation into the launch failure of its Hyperbola-1 rocket
  No details were disclosed. The rocket has failed 4 times out of 7 launches.

• NASA official says that it has found the root cause to the Orion heat shield damage on Artemis-1
  According to the tweet, the official also declined to disclose that root cause.

• On this day in 2009 NASA completed a test suborbital launch of its Ares-1-X rocket
  Only one in a long list of non-achievements during the never-ending Ares/Constellation-SLS/Artemis program

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Chinese pseudo-company Deep Blue Aerospace will attempt a high altitude vertical hop test with a Nebula-1 first stage next month
  It hopes to do a much larger test of its Nebular-2 in ’26, but several observers note the rocket does not yet have landing legs.

• This is a laugh: China’s state security accuses western companies of stealing its technology.
  “It did not name any specific countries but claimed some had ‘carried out infiltration and stealing activities in China’s aerospace field’.” Since there is amply evidence of China stealing such technology, this claim is a bit absurd. Why should the West steal back the technology it already as and that China had stole from it.

• NASA delays decision of cutting budgets for both Chandra and Hubble
  No surprise, The announced cuts were originally announced to apply pressure on Congress to fund both telescopes. With the election upcoming the agency wants to get Congress on their side. Cutting these popular telescopes just before the election will not servie its insterets.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Pentagon’s Space Development Agency certifies 19 space companies to bid on development contracts
  The list covers almost every low orbit satellite and rocket company.

• Space News op-ed calls for new effort to defend against attacks on GPS
  It claims little has been done, but Jay disputes this: “We, the USA, have been researching and testing this for over fifteen years.” He notes that his own company has participated in installing systems for detecting and blocking attacks.

• Blue Origin proudly shows off first stage of first New Glenn rocket, its seven BE-4 engines finally installed
  Still no word on when the launch will occur.

• An animation showing the spread of debris in geosynchronous orbit from the breakup of Intelsat 33E satellite
  It appears the debris could threaten almost every satellite in geosynchronous orbit, though the odds of impact probably remain slim.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Chinese pseudo-company is accepting reservations for suborbital flights on its New Shepard copycat spacecraft
  They are targeting commercial tourist flights by 2027, with test flights beginning next year.

• Astra gets Defense Department contract worth $44 million to develop its Rocket-4 launch system
  It appears the Pentagon wants Astra to survive, and has given it this contract for that purpose.

• NASA unveils prototype of its proposed LISA orbiting gravitational-wave telescope
  LISA has been under development for almost two decades, has been delayed numerous times and now is not expected to launch until the 2030s. Great work if you can get it.

• NASA negotiating with China about research access to Chang’e-5 lunar samples
  The law requires NASA to bring in the FBI in such negotiations to make sure the talks will not release American technology to the Chinese. According to NASA’s administrator Bill Nelson, NASA has not yet done this, but intends to before any samples are delivered to the U.S. In other words, he is violating not only the letter but the spirit of the law, designed to keep China away from American space assets.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Next American unmanned lunar mission is Firefly before end of year, landing in early ’25, with Intuitive Machines next attempt launching and landing at about the same time
  If both go off as promised the end of the year will be quite interesting.

• Intuitive Machines picks Cobalt-60 as fuel for new spacecraft electrical power source
  This appears to be the first time Cobalt-60 has ever been used. From Jay: “It is easy to make Co-60, just bombard iron with neutrons. It happens all the time at nuclear reactors when stray neutrons hit steel, but it has a short half life of five years. It puts outs beta decay, that is what they are using for heat, but the gamma rays it puts out worries me with the electronics. They probably licked that problem or else they would not do it.”

• Vast unveils a new website
  Nicely done. Simple and easy to navigate.

• Long March 2F and Shenzhou capsule now at launchpad for eighth manned mission to China’s Tiangong-3 space station
  The video provides a lot of visual shots of the rocket, the stacked spacecraft, and the launchpad. The grid fins on what I think is the rocket’s upper stage are most intriguing. That stage takes the capsule into orbit. Is China trying to bring it back to Earth for reuse?

• A picture of Laika, the first dog in space, launched November 3, 1957 on Sputnik 2
  The Soviets made no plans to bring her back to Earth, and so she died in space.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Amazon requests temporary authority from FCC to operate one of its two Kuiper test satellites in a lower orbit for six month [pdf]
  The original plan was to lower the orbits of both satellites just prior to de-orbiting. Amazon now wants to do additional orbital communications testing with one satellite at this lower orbit for six months.

• Stoke Space touts its new vertical engine static fire test stand
  The company is doing final tests of the stand before actual engine tests.

• Russia touts mock-ups of its Oryol manned capsule intended to replace Soyuz
  Note that these are “mock-ups”, not the real thing. Oryol was first proposed in 2009 and isn’t supposed to launch until 2028. In other words, Russia is taking about as long as it took NASA to create a new manned capsule. And both are demonstrating their incompetence as they do so.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Varda has gotten okay from Australia to land its capsules at the commercial Southern Launch range/spaceport
  The company did this I am sure because of the hassles the FAA and Army gave it in returning its capsules in the U.S.

• Another pseudo-Chinese rocket company appears, dubbed “CosmoLeap”
  The graphic is hilarious. They plan to use this new idea of using launch tower chopsticks to catch their first stage. What originality! And I’m sure they have this working in no time!

• Someone takes a close look at the cost overruns by Bechtel in failing to build the SLS 2nd mobile launcher
  His conclusion: “With the right attitude and cost plus contract structures there are no limits to how expensive something can become.”

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• NASA officials hint it might no longer maintain a continuous human presence in space after ISS
  They say this is because they are unsure the commercial stations will be ready for continuous occupation when ISS is retired. While that is likely a factor, a more important factor is NASA itself. When those commercial stations are flying private customers, NASA’s presence — which for decades has accomplished far less than it should have — will become increasingly irrelevant. A permanent human presence in orbit might not be continuous initially in the 2030s, but that gap won’t last long, as long as freedon and competition is allowed to flourish.

• The countries who have signed the Artemis Accords are compaigning for new countries to join
  These comments were made by representatives from Estonia, Canada, Italy, Australia, and NASA. While expanding the alliance has advantages, the comments all indicate no interest in the accords’ initial purpose, to get around the limitations to private ownership imposed by the Outer Space Treaty. Instead, they seem focused on “building on the treaty,” a very bad sign for the future of capitalism and private enterprise in space.

  And to prove my analysis, NASA’s official even said that China could sign the accords if it wished. So much for defending freedom, capitalism, and private ownership.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who also let me know about today’s Chinese launch. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• China’s long term space science plan also calls for a “Venus atmospheric sample return mission”
  The link is in Chinese. Jay provided a translation which mentioned the Venus mission with few details.

• Chinese pseudo-company Landspace hopes to attempt landing and recovery of first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket in 2025
  Landspace has been using a Grasshopper-type engineering test vehicle to do vertical landing tests.

• Blue Origin donates New Shepard capsule and booster to Air & Space Museum
  Yawn.

• NASA touts the advantages of the halo lunar orbit of Lunar Gateway
  Ah, but will it ever get launched, and at what cost?

• More video of Superheavy’s tower catch, plus a graph illustrating how much SpaceX has lowered the cost to orbit
  The video is incredibly fun to watch, but the graph is far more important. While everyone else has done only a little to lower the cost, SpaceX has smashed the floor.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who also sent me the Vast Haven-2 story earlier today. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Rocket Factory Augsburg calls for changes in how Europe’s space bureaucracy operates
  It’s only a slightly long tweet, but this is the key quote: “Europe has ambitious private space players, with innovative ideas, courage and a vision. Unfortunately, they are being held by the long arm and are in danger of withering away while old structures, processes and mindsets are maintained.” The company wants that bureaucracy to stop running things and instead simply become “customers” (their word) investing in the private sector.

• Rumors in China suggest its new Long March 12 rocket will attempt to vertically land its first stage on its maiden flight next year
  It is entirely likely that China will achieve this goal soon, as they have been investing a lot of research on the subject by their space government agencies as well as their pseudo-companies, which all share their data. And that doesn’t include any information obtained by China through computer hacking.

• French satellite startup gets $10 million in investment capital from a state-bank investment organization
  The money will be used to design the first two test satellites for a constellation of 1,500 satellites providing internet access.

• On this day in 1947 Chuck Yaeger became the first person to fly faster than sound
  His plane was the Bell X-1.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, except for the first, which came from several readers. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• FAA ends its grounding of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, allowing launches to proceed
  No word yet on whether the FAA will issue a launch license for a Starship/Superheavy launch on October 13th. There will be a lot of Falcon 9 launches however beginning that day to catch up.

• Amazon’s Kuiper constellation appears to be negatively impacting the company’s recent profit margins
  If only the company had moved with some speed and gotten these things launched quickly rather than dither for years while SpaceX grabbed the market.

• The consortium building Starlab space station completes a full scale mockup to test its design and usability
  It is bringing in astronauts from the U.S. and Europe to give advice and suggestions.

• China successfully recovers a reusable Shijian capsule
  Similar in concept to Varda’s commercial capsule, Shijian was used to test a variety of manufacturing technologies in weightlessness that could then be used on Earth.

• ISRO has booked all the remaining flights of its GSLV rocket
  To quote the tweet: “Within the next decade, both PSLV & GSLV are going to retire, after which India’s launch demands are to be met by SSLV, LVM3, NGLV & private launchers.” The best plan would be to replace all the government launchers with private ones, but that seems unlikely considering the political strength of India’s bureaucracy.

• Today in 1846, Neptune’s largest moon Triton was discovered.
  The tweet includes a photo of the moon taken by Voyager 2 in 1989.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who also deserves thanks for cluing me on the Vast, EPA, and Chinese launch stories posted earlier. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Hubble and New Horizons look at Uranus from opposite directions
  By doing simultaneous observations like this, astronomers get data covering the planet’s entire globe.

• Impulse’s new Deneb rocket engine ready for testing
  The company wants to use it on its Helios orbital tug as a fast way to get payloads to different locations in Earth orbit and beyond.

• Sierra Space is now targeting a May 2025 launch for its Tenacity mini-shuttle on a ULA Vulcan rocket
  Only a year later than originally announced, and years behind schedule overall.

• Space Force: X-37B in orbit will next use aerobraking to change its orbit as well as “safely dispose … service module components.”
  At present the mini-shuttle is in a highly elliptical orbit. By using the atmosphere during its close fly-bys of Earth to lower that orbit’s high points it save fuel for other purposes, which can extend its mission considerably.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• New computer models suggest Ceres has an icy crust and was once covered with muddy ocean
  Everyone say after me: “The uncertainty of science!”

• Graphic showing all rockets developed by India’s space agency ISRO, past, present, and future
  This will be more exciting when the list shows rockets from private Indian companies.

• ISRO building third launchpad at its Sriharikota spaceport
  This is in addition to a second completely different spaceport being developed further south.

• ULA’s CEO touts video of release of fairings during last week’s Vulcan launch
  All I kept thinking is ULA is throwing those away, while SpaceX has been recovering and reusing its fairings now for years.

• Former NASA flight director during Apollo shares insights to Firefly engineers

• China completes main antenna installation of new 40 meter radio telescope in Shigatse, Tibet
  It appears this antenna is to increase China’s ability to detect things in orbit, though this is not certain.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

Having visited an eye doctor today and had my eyes dilated, posting this afternoon is difficult. Sorry thus for the lack of additional posts.

• Dawn Aerospace flies world’s only rapidly reusable rocket-powered aircraft twice in one day
  This remains a small scale engineering prototype focused on testing the engineering.

• Brightness of first Chinese broadband constellation satellites alarms astronomers
  My heart bleeds. All this paper really proves is that any effort to squelch the American satellite constellations will accomplish nothing but squelching the American satellite industry. It will do nothing to save ground-based astronomy. Astronomers should stop whining and focus on building telescopes in space.

• Debris from break-up of Long March 6A upper stage has spread to many altitudes
  There is no indication China cares one iota. It certainly does not appear they have taken any action to fix the problems with the Long March 6A upper stage, which has broken up at least twice.

• ViaSat-3 F1 satellite enters commercial service
  It is designed to provide internet access to airline customers over North America, including Hawaii. Whether its addition can stave off the competition from SpaceX’s Starlink remains questionable.

• Rocket Lab wins contract from NASA to study ways to bring the Perseverance’s core samples back to Earth
  Few details were released, but it appears the company with this study contrct has the inside post on getting the full contract to do this, replacing the complex NASA/ESA/Lockheed Martin proposal that is overbudget, behind schedule, and incoherent in design.

• How Did The Vulcan Rocket Survive This Booster Failure?
  Manley’s analysis is good, but he gets it very wrong when he says the FAA will likely ground Vulcan pending completion of its investigation. The FAA quickly announced no investigation was necessary, nor was Vulcan grounded.

• UAE announces a ‘Supreme Space Council’ that will oversee the country’s space activities
  It appears a lot of people with power in the UAE want a seat at the table, running the UAE space program. This council gives them this, and illustrates how this is definitely a top-down program with little independent outside competition by non-government entities.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• ASTSpaceMobile’s 1st Bluebird cell-to-satellite satellite in orbit is about to go operational
  The satellites are the largest commercial arrays ever placed in orbit, 700 square feet in area.

• German startup Polaris Spaceplanes raises €7.1 million in private investment capital
  It will use the funds to develop its “Aurora multipurpose spaceplane and hypersonic transport system.”

• On this day in 1957, the Soviet Union opened the space age by launching the first artificial satellite, Sputnik
  And as they say, the rest is history.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Axiom’s co-founder touts the nearly completed hull of its first space station module
  It is being built by Thales-Alenia in Italy, and will be shipped soon to Houston. The company has been posting pictures like this for the past year-plus, but for some reason that module never gets finished.

• Major solar flare in progress
  As Jay notes, “Regular news outlets are picking this up with the usual apocalypse chatter.” The big issue is how this might effect emergency communications using ham radio.

• Hera mission to Didymos/Dimorphos asteroid binary came in under budget by $20 million; still targeting October 7th launch, despite SpaceX grounding
  ESA used that $20 million to cobble together a mission to Apophis, using Hera architecture.

• Starlink free for 30 days for those impacted by Hurricane Helene or doing rescue work
  As always, private citizens and companies are acting faster and smarter than the government, which has actually moved to block such efforts, even threatening volunteers with arrest for providing aid.

• India approves joint India-Japan lunar project now dubbed Chandrayaan-5
  It will include a lander built by India and a rover built by Japan.

• Today in 1985 the space shuttle Atlantis launched on its first mission