Tag: spaceflight

More glaciers on Mars

12:41 pm

Overview map

More glaciers on Mars
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on September 26, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The scientists label this image “Moraine-like assemblage exposed by ice retreat.” I say: If anyone still doubts the extensive presence of near-surface ice on Mars, this picture should put that doubt to rest.

The white dot on the overview map above marks the location, deep within the 2,000-mile-long strip in the Martian northern mid-latitudes that I label “glacier country,” because practically every picture taken there shows glacial features. This picture is just one more example. As the inset in the overview above shows, this flow is coming down from the exterior rim of an unnamed, partly obscured ancient 17-mile-wide crater, dropping about 7,000 feet from the rim’s peak. This particular section shows the last 3,000 feet of that descent, as the glacier worked its way through a gap in a ridge paralleling that rim.

The image label refers to the flow features that appear to be corroding away. It appears the full data set suggests that corrosion is exposing the material pushed downward by that glacier, what on Earth we call a moraine.

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European Space Agency faces reality: Its partnerships with NASA are fading

10:48 am

The European Space Agency

It appears that the European Space Agency (ESA) is now recognizing that two of its major partnership deals with NASA are likely going to fall apart, and it has therefore begun putting forth new proposals to repurpose those projects during a meeting in Germany this week of its member states.

The two projects are ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter intended to bring Perseverance’s Mars samples back to Earth, and its service module for NASA’s Orion capsule. In the former case, NASA’s decision to cancel the Mars Sample Return Mission leaves that orbiter in limbo. NASA might still fly a sample return mission, but it will almost certainly not do it as originally planned, involving numerous different components from many different sources in a complex Rube-Goldberg arrangement. ESA is now considering repurposing this orbiter as a research spacecraft studying the Martian atmosphere while also being a Mars communications satellite for other missions.

As for the Orion service module, ESA is now recognizing that it is unlikely NASA will continue funding Orion after it completes its presently scheduled missions, totaling at most four. ESA has contracted to build six service modules, and is now studying options for using the last few in other ways, such as a cargo tug in low Earth orbit.

ESA officials are also reviewing its entire future at the conference, considering how private enterprise has completely outrun it in all ways. Its expendable Ariane-6 rocket is a long term financial bust, being too expensive to compete in the modern launch market of reusable rockets. Its proposed IRIS2 satellite constellation will cost too much and launch far too late to compete with the private constellations already in service or being launched by SpaceX, AST-SpaceMobile, Amazon, and China.

To counter this trends, ESA has already made some major changes, shifting ownership and control of its rockets back to the private companies that build them. However, its bureaucracy has appeared resistant to this change, and is apparently lobbying for more funding and control at this week’s meeting, asking the member nations to increase their funding to the agency, giving it a total budget of 22.2 billion euros. There has also been lobbying by ESA supporters for a new Space Law that would supersede the individual space laws of its member states, and also attempt to impose its regulations on non-member nations, beyond its sovereign authority. That law is strongly opposed by the U.S., the private sector, and even some of ESA’s member nations.

The bottom line however is that the nature of the European Space Agency is undergoing major changes, with its work increasingly shifting to its member nations instead of being part of a cooperative effort. While ESA bureaucrats continue to push to protect and strengthen their turf, ESA’s member nations have been increasingly pushing back, and winning that battle.

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South Korea successfully launches its Nuri rocket for the third time

9:37 am

South Korea today successfully launched its government-built Nuri rocket for the third time, placing in orbit one large satellite to study the Earth’s aurora and a dozen cubesats.

This was the first Nuri launch since 2023. In the interim the government has made some moves suggesting it was transferring control of the rocket from its space agency KARI to one of its larger aerospace companies, Hanwah Aerospace. That transfer so far appears mostly superficial, as KARI appears to still control ownership.

As this was South Korea’s first launch in 2025, there is no change to the 2025 launch race leader board:

154 SpaceX
73 China
15 Rocket Lab
14 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 154 to 123.

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Vast signs preliminary astronaut deal with the Maldives

8:01 am

Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule
Artist rendering of Haven-1 with docked
Dragon capsule

Continuing a string of international agreements during the past few weeks, the space station startup Vast yesterday announced it has signed what appears to be a preliminary deal with the Maldives to fly astronauts to its proposed Haven-1 space station.

The agreement outlines that Vast and the MSRO [Maldives Space Research Organisation] will commit to exploring ways to engage the Republic of Maldives space sector. Through the partnership, the organizations will pursue astronaut flight opportunities aboard Vast space stations for agency astronauts, such as Haven-1, the world’s first commercial space station or Vast-provided private astronaut missions to the International Space Station. Both organizations will also collaborate on the development of educational programs and outreach activities, including projects conducted by MSRO astronauts onboard the ISS or Haven-1. These programs are aimed at specifically engaging schools, universities, and other educational institutions in the Republic of Maldives. [emphasis mine]

Vast has similar agreements with Uzbeckistan, Colombia, and the Czech Republic, as well as the European Space Agency. In every case, the agreement hints at Vast providing a space station visit for each country’s or organization’s astronauts, but no firm commitments. I now suspect that these are all preliminary agreements, pending the successful launch of Haven-1 in the first half of next year. Vast plans to keep Haven-1 in orbit for three years, during which it wants to fly four 30-day manned missions, using a Dragon capsule as the ferryboat.

At the moment the company has not announced any passengers or crews for those manned missions. Once Haven-1 is in orbit and operating, however, we should expect astronaut flights to be announced from one or more of these countries.

In a sense, Vast is doing the same thing that Axiom did with India, Poland, and Hungary, signing up each to fly astronauts to ISS. Both space station startups are simply hunting for passengers. And both know that every single third world nation in the world wants to fly its own astronauts in space. Vast, like Axiom before it, is now offering them a cheap way to do it.

Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.

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Predicting dust storms in the Starship candidate landing zone on Mars

1:30 pm

View of dust storm one
Click for original figure.

Scientists using the UAE’s Al-Amal Mars orbiter were able to track two near-identical dust storms that occurred in the northern lowland plains of Mars and near the candidate landing zone for SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft.

The image to the right comes from figure 2 of the paper, and was taken by Al-Amal approximately 25,000 miles above the red planet’s surface. By comparing the growth and evolution of both storms, the scientists now think they have a method for predicting when such storms occur in this region. From their abstract:

Our observational case study constrains scenarios presented by Ogohara (2025). We show the first scenario, summarized in Section 5 of Ogohara (2025), [explains] dust storms 1 and 2. This scenario is as follows. Dust storms form in the later morning hours through combined effects of the warm sector of a low-pressure system and daytime phenomena. The low-pressure system is associated with wavenumber 3 baroclinic waves.

There is no doubt that dust storms 1 and 2 start to form and develop in the late morning hours, in or near the warm sector of a low-pressure system. Also, combined effects of this low-pressure system and daytime convection are possible. This is supported by evidence for daytime convection, such as the dust devil number in MY 28 and planetary boundary layer height estimates from the Mars Climate Database.

In other words, future SpaceX colonists should be prepared for late morning dust storms when a low-pressure system moves in.

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The smooth and extremely calm methane lakes of Titan

12:17 pm

The Cassini radar track on Titan
Click for full image.

Using archival radar data obtained by the Saturn orbiter Cassini from one of its many fly-bys of the moon Titan, scientists now believe that most of the high northern latitude lakes on Titan are mostly made of pure methane, not ethane, and that their surface is remarkably calm and smooth. From the abstract:

During its 119th flyby of the moon, the Cassini spacecraft conducted a bistatic radar experiment observing a group of seven lakes in Titan’s Northern Lake District located between (72°N, 143°W) and (77°N, 131°W). The orbiter transmitted a continuous-wave signal at a wavelength of 3.56 cm (X-band) toward Titan’s surface, targeting the moving specular reflection point between the spacecraft and Earth. As the antenna footprint intercepted the liquid surfaces of the lakes, distinct specular reflections were detected on Earth by the 70-m antenna at NASA’s Canberra Deep Space Network complex. Analysis of these reflections shows that all seven lakes exhibit similar dielectric properties—linked to their composition—and surface roughness, suggesting they are methane-dominated and may have a few millimeters of surface roughness. [emphasis mine]

The highlighted phrase underscores what previous data had shown, that the methane lakes of Titan are remarkably calm, almost to the point of absurdity.

The image to the right, figure 1 of the paper, shows the track of this radar observation. Based on this data as well as data obtained during a later fly-by of another nearby lake, the scientists posit that all the lakes in this region are likely similar, mostly filled with methane having a surface with barely no ripples at all.

This information is crucial for the planned Dragonfly mission, that will fly over and onto Titan’s methane lakes, though not in the high latitudes but in its equatorial regions. Knowing the conditions as best as possible will increase the odds that this very risky mission will succeed.

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New radar data shows no evidence of liquid water under Mars’ south pole ice cap

11:51 am

New data using the Sharad radar instrument on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) appears to disprove the 2018 observations that suggested a lake of liquid water might exist under the Martian south pole ice cap.

From the abstract:

Due to a novel spacecraft maneuver, SHARAD has now obtained a basal return associated with the putative body of water. Modeling of the radar response is not consistent with the liquid water explanation, instead suggesting a localized, low roughness region of dry rock/dust beneath the ice could explain the SHARAD response. Reconciling the divergent responses of SHARAD and MARSIS remains essential to determine the nature of this anomalous south polar region.

In other words, this reflectively bright area is caused not by liquid water, but by a very smooth patch in the south pole’s many underlying layers. What remains unknown is the cause of that smoothness. The scientists posit that “a crater floor with sediment or impact melt fill” could be the cause. Another study in 2022 suggested it could be volcanic rock, while a 2021 study claimed clay could be the cause.

At the moment no one has the ability to find out. The only certain way would be to drill deep cores, but that won’t happen until there is a thriving colony on Mars.

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Russia launches classified military satellites

10:12 am

Russia today successfully launched a set of classified military satellites, its Angara-1.2 rocket lifting off from its Plesetsk spaceport in northeast Russia.

Russia’s state-run press provided no further information, not even confirming the number of satellites launched. The rocket’s path was north over the Arctic, to put the satellites in a polar orbit.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

154 SpaceX
73 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
14 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 154 to 122.

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NASA releases images during Osiris-Apex’s fly-by of Earth in late September

9:42 am

Earth as seen by Osiris-Apex
Click for original image.

NASA today released photos taken by the asteroid probe Osiris-Apex (formerly Osiris-Rex) as it swung past the Earth on September 23, 2025 at a distance 2,136 miles, on its way to the asteroid Apophis.

The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was one of about 424 images taken by the spacecraft during the fly-by. From those, scientists compiled a movie, which you can view here. As this picture shows, South America was in view on the right side of the Earth.

Osiris-Apex, which had already completed its prime mission by returning samples from the asteroid Bennu, is scheduled to arrive at Apophis shortly after that asteroid’s close fly-by of the Earth on April 13, 2029. The Trump administration had threatened to shut it down for budget reasons, but Congress restored those funds in ending the government shut down.

At that time Apophis will zip past only 20,000 miles from Earth. There will be no chance of collision. Nor is there much chance Apophis will hit the Earth in the next two centuries. Its orbit however makes it a potentially dangerous asteroid, and that 2029 fly-by could change these calculations.

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Twin Escapade Mars orbiters take first images to test instruments

9:21 am

Escapade camera test
Click for original image.

The two twin Escapade Mars orbiters, built by Rocket Lab, that were launched last week by Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket have both successfully activated and tested their optical and infrared cameras.

The optical picture to the right, reduced to post here, shows the side of one solar panel on one of the orbiters.

The images prove the cameras are working well. The visible-light image also suggests that the spacecraft should have the sensitivity to image Martian aurora from orbit. The infrared camera will be used at Mars to better understand how materials on the surface heat up and cool down during Mars’ day-night cycle and over the planet’s seasons.

The second ESCAPADE spacecraft also successfully took its first photos, but it was targeted toward deep space, so the images were simply black.

The NASA press release did not explain why the second spacecraft’s camera was pointed in that manner. One would think the engineers would want it to look at the spacecraft in order to test its pointing and resolution. It could be it is placed in this manner and cannot be changed, or it could be there is a problem not mentioned by the release.

The two spacecraft are taking a different path to Mars than normal. Both will remain as Lagrange Point 2, a million miles from Earth until November 2026, when they will then be sent back towards Earth to slingshot past to arrive at Mars in September 2027. This plan allowed the spacecraft to be launched with greater flexibility, rather than be tied to the launch windows that occur every two years that all other Mars probes have used.

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Vast signs deal with Colombia’s space agency

8:01 am

Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule
Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule

The space station startup Vast last week signed an agreement with the space agency of the South American country of Colombia to do cooperative research, linked to Vast’s planned space stations.

The agreement suggested it would be used mostly to encourage educational and research opportunities for Colombia’s universities and schools. However, the press release added this tidbit:

Both organizations intend to work together to identify joint initiatives that leverage Vast’s spacecraft, including Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station, with AEC’s [Columbia’s space agency] growing ecosystem of data analytics, connectivity, and science education programs.

Vast already has similar agreements with Uzbeckistan, the Czech Republic, and the European Space Agency. Its Haven-1 single module station, set to launch next year for a three-year mission during which it will be occupied four different times for several weeks, still has no confirmed passengers or crews. One can’t help wondering if these international deals hint at the possibility that one or all of these international partners will fly astronauts there.

It is also possible Vast has been hunting for passengers, and as yet has not been able to convince anyone to buy a ticket. I expect everyone is waiting to see the condition of Haven-1, after it launches.

There is one problem that might make any final deal with Colombia difficult: Its Marxist president does not have a very good relationship with the Trump administration.

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China launches unmanned Shenzhou-22 capsule to its Tiangong-3 station

9:23 pm

UPDATE: The capsule successfully docked with Tiangong-3 as planned, thus giving its three astronauts a lifeboat again.

China tonight (November 25, 2025 Chinese local time) successfully launched an unmanned Shenzhou-22 capsule to its Tiangong-3 station, its Long March 2F rocket lifting off from its Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China.

China moved very fast to get this rocket and capsule integrated and stacked and ready to launch, less than three weeks. This speed was essential because the three-person crew on Tiangong-3 had no usable lifeboat capsule which they could use should something go wrong and they needed to evacuate. Their capsule, Shenzhou-21, had been used by the previous crew to get back to Earth because that crew’s capsule, Shenzhou-20, had been damaged by “space debris,” according to China’s state-run press.

The capsule is scheduled to dock with Tiangong-3 later in the day, about six hours after launch.

No word by China’s press where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

154 SpaceX
73 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
13 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 154 to 121.

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NASA trims $768 million from Boeing’s Starliner contract

9:08 pm

Starliner docked to ISS
Starliner docked to ISS in 2024.

According to one story late today, the modifications NASA announced today on its Starliner contract with Boeing will trim $768 million from the total contract, assuming the two later optional manned missions never fly.

Originally valued at $4.5 billion, Boeing’s contract under the Commercial Crew Program envisioned six operational astronaut flights. NASA’s latest modification cuts that number to four, including up to three crewed missions and an uncrewed cargo flight set for April 2026. Two additional flights remain optional. With the changes, the contract’s value has dropped by $768 million to $3.732 billion; NASA has already paid $2.2 billion to date.

Boeing can still earn that additional money if if somehow manages to convince NASA to do all six flights. It will have great difficult achieving this, however, since there probably won’t be enough time to get all six flights up before ISS is retired. That fact is partly why NASA has made this change.

This report however suggests that NASA is not paying Boeing extra money for the unmanned cargo mission in April 2026. Instead, it is treating it as if it were the first operational manned Starliner flight, paying Boeing its purchase price as if it had achieved all its milestones during the manned demo flight last year.

It really pays in today’s America to be a big giant corporation that does lots of business with our bloated and very corrupt federal government. That government is then quite willing to bend over backwards to help you, even if you are like Boeing and incompetent (Starliner), corrupt (737-MAX), or routinely go over-budget and fail to deliver on time (Air Force One). That certainly appears to be the case here with Boeing.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

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Blue Origin’s Blue Ring orbital tug gets a customer

3:40 pm

Blue Origin today announced that the orbital situational awareness company Optimum Technologies (OpTech) has purchased payload space on the first flight of its Blue Ring orbital tug.

Blue Ring’s first mission is expected to launch in 2026 with initial injection into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) and additional services performed in Geostationary Orbit (GEO). The Blue Ring vehicle will demonstrate its ability to simultaneously support the GEO tracking and custody mission as well as space object characterization, leveraging dynamic maneuverability to support high-resolution characterization.

OpTech’s Caracal sensor is designed to provide actionable insights on resident space objects and orbital activity and includes onboard image storage, object detection algorithms, and passive thermal control. The payload is designed to operate flexibly across dynamic orbits over a year-long mission profile. Caracal will fly with Scout Space’s Owl sensor, along with internally developed payloads, all demonstrating Blue Ring as the ideal platform for supporting future GEO space domain awareness missions.

This instrument is designed to inspect what else is in orbit. It could be that the mission will have Blue Ring fly close to other satellites, both foreign and domestic, so that Caracal can gather imagery and data. Such capabilities are things both the Chinese and Russians have tested repeatedly and the Pentagon needs as well.

This announcement once again indicates that under CEO David Limp, Blue Origin is finally beginning to actually do things.

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NASA downgrades Boeing’s Starliner contract

12:36 pm

Starliner docked to ISS
Starliner docked to ISS in 2024.

NASA today announced a major revision to its contract for Boeing’s manned Starliner capsule, changes that will require it to fly one more unmanned cargo mission to ISS before putting people on it again, while also reducing the total number of later purchased manned flights.

As part of the modification, the definitive order has been adjusted to four missions, with the remaining two available as options. The next Starliner flight, known as Starliner-1, will be used by NASA to deliver necessary cargo to the orbital laboratory and allow in-flight validation of the system upgrades implemented following the Crew Flight Test mission last year.

NASA and Boeing are targeting no earlier than April 2026 to fly the uncrewed Starliner-1 pending completion of rigorous test, certification, and mission readiness activities. Following Starliner certification, and a successful Starliner-1 mission, Starliner will fly up to three crew rotations to the International Space Station.

It has been rumored for months that NASA would require Boeing to fly another unmanned mission before certifying Starliner for manned flights. The question that this press release does not answer is whether NASA is paying for this unmanned flight. The original contract was fixed price, and required Boeing to meet certain milestones before further payments. Another cargo flight to ISS was not in that original deal.

I therefore suspect this is NASA’s way to get Starliner certified. Boeing has likely refused to pay for another demo flight, threatening instead in negotiations to cancel the project entirely. NASA however needs to get cargo to ISS. By buying a cargo mission from Boeing (possibly instead of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus capsule, which is presently hindered because it lacks its Antares launch vehicle), NASA gets that cargo while also saving Starliner.

The bottom line remains fundamental: Will Boeing finally be able to do a successful problem-free Starliner flight in April 2026? We shall have to see. The fact that NASA appears to be reducing the total number of eventual Starliner missions to ISS indicates its own lack of confidence.

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Who was Cornelius Vanderbilt?

12:03 pm

The First Tycoon

I ask the question in my headline because I am quite sure it is a question most Americans can no longer answer, with any firm knowledge. I myself didn’t know who Vanderbilt really was until I read a wonderful biography of him, The First Tycoon: The epic life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T.J. Stiles, about two months ago.

Beforehand, all I really knew about Vanderbilt was that he had been a big deal somehow in the 1800s, and as a result there was a statue of him on the south side of Grand Central Station in New York, visible only by drivers going past on the overpass that circles the station.

What I learned from Stiles book however was astonishing. Not only did Vanderbilt build Grand Central Station, it was part of a transportation empire he created that by the end of his life covered most of the eastern United States. For Americans in the 1800s, if you needed to get from one place to another, you almost certainly rode on a Vanderbilt steamship or railroad.

Even more interesting to me however were the remarkable similarities in style, approach, and success between the Cornelius Vanderbilt of the 1800s and the Elon Musk of the 2000s. Both focused on taking new technology and making it profitable. Both built their empires on transportation.

And most of all, both focused on the product they were building to make money, not on speculating its value to make a quick buck.
» Read more

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Two Middle Eastern startups sign deal to build a mini-shuttle dubbed Oryx

9:15 am

LEAP71's aerospike test engine
Leap71’s smallscale aerospike engine during testing.
Click for original image.

A rocket startup in the UAE, Aspire, has signed a partnership deal with a rocket engine startup in Dubai, Leap71, to build a fully reusable mini-shuttle dubbed Oryx, not unlike the Dream Chaser mini-shuttle that Sierra Space has been trying to launch now for more than a decade.

As part of the plan, Leap71 will develop two types of engines for Oryx, including one using an aerospike nozzle.

Building on their ongoing cooperation, Aspire Space is now contracting LEAP 71 to develop the rocket engines powering the Oryx’s second stage. Each engine will produce 20 tons (200 kN) of thrust, and the partners are pursuing two parallel propulsion paths: a conventional engine and a novel aerospike configuration.

The aerospike concept, long studied but never flown, offers superior efficiency across both atmospheric and vacuum flight regimes — making it particularly well suited for reusable launch systems. LEAP 71 gained international recognition in December 2024 for successfully testing a 5 kN aerospike engine, validating key aspects of its design.

The picture to the right shows the LEAP aerospike engine during those 2024 tests. As I noted then, “The spike in the center acts as one wall of the nozzle, and the changing pressure of the atmosphere acting as the other side of the nozzle, allowing the nozzle size to change as the rocket rises, thus making its thrust as efficient as possible.”

Those tests were done in the United Kingdom, suggesting the company relied on British engineers using financing from Dubai. Even so, to go from that smallscale test to a full engine launching both a rocket and a reusable mini-shuttle will be a major challenge. Or to put it another way, to say their plans are aspirational is an understatement.

Hat tip BtB’s stringer Jay.

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A company that wants to shoot payloads into orbit with a cannon

9:23 am

Link here. The company is called Longshot. It isn’t the only company attempting to do this. I reported on another company, Green Launch, in 2022, but have heard little from it since then.

I leave it to the engineers in my readership to tell me if this company has any chance of success. It seems to me that any payloads it launches would likely have to be dead weight, like water or oxygen or fuel, as the speeds involve would damage delicate instrumentation.

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SpaceX launches 28 Starlink satellites; 1st stage flies for first time

9:14 am

UPDATE: When I wrote this post, several sources stated that the first stage was flying for its thirtieth time. I relied on those sources. As it turns out, they were wrong. The first stage on this launch was flying for its first time. The post below has been rewritten to correct this error.

———————–
SpaceX early this morning successfully placed another 28 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The first stage completed its first flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

154 SpaceX (a new record)
72 China
15 Rocket Lab
13 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 154 to 120.

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Startup B2Space launches rocket from balloon

10:21 am

The startup B2Space has completed a test flight using a balloon to lift a solid-fueled rocket to high altitude, where the rocket was then launched.

In a 17 November update, the company announced that it had completed a test of its integrated rockoon launch system using a “rocket of lower power than that planned for the commercial version of the system.” The test was conducted from the Port of Vueltas in Valle Gran Rey in the Canary Islands. Its aim was to validate key elements of the company’s rockoon launch system, including the rocket rail alignment and ignition subsystems.

The balloon was launched at 4:00 CET and carried the small rocket to an altitude of 21.5 kilometres, at which point the rocket was launched. Speaking to European Spaceflight, B2Space CTO Valentin confirmed that the ignition system had been successful but did not share any details about the state of the rocket itself. In a 17 November update, the company confirmed that all elements of the launch system had been successfully recovered following the test.

Calling this company a startup is not quite accurate, as it has been around for almost a decade, pushing the idea of a a balloon-launched rocket, dubbed a “rockoon”. The idea itself is not new. If my memory serves me right, it had been tested intermittently in some form as early as the 1950s.

The company hopes to test a larger suborbital version in 2026, followed by an orbital test.

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SpaceX issues 1st statement regarding Superheavy test explosion

9:27 am

Damaged Superheavy
Click for original image.

SpaceX yesterday issued its first update regarding the explosion in the lower half of the Superheavy booster that it had planned to fly on the next orbital test flight.

Booster 18 suffered an anomaly during gas system pressure testing that we were conducting in advance of structural proof testing. No propellant was on the vehicle, and engines were not yet installed. The teams need time to investigate before we are confident of the cause. No one was injured as we maintain a safe distance for personnel during this type of testing. The site remains clear and we are working plans to safely reenter the site.

That no propellant was involved explains why the booster and test pad experienced relatively little damage. They were likely pumping nitrogen through the system to test it, and while something exploded, the gases were not volatile.

The picture to the right is a screen capture from aerial drone flights performed by RGV Aerial Photography and posted on nasaspaceflight.com. I have enhanced it to bring out the details. Note the lack of damage on all sides of the booster at its base. The explosion was clearly confined to the booster, and appears to have occurred from within.

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SpaceX launches 29 more Starlink satellites

1:02 am

SpaceX early this morning successfully launched another 29 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its 9th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

153 SpaceX (a new record)
72 China
15 Rocket Lab
13 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 153 to 120.

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What might be the weirdest crater on Mars

12:44 pm

What might be Mars' weirdest crater
Click for original.

Cool image time! The picture to the right is taken from a global mosaic created from images taken by the wide-view context camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The original source image was probably a photograph taken on February 15, 2020.

I normally begin with an image from MRO’s high resolution camera, but the only images that camera took of this crater did not show it entirely. This context camera shows it in all its glory, what to my eye appears to be one of the weirdest craters I’ve seen on Mars.

First, note its oblong shape — 5.5 miles long and 3.7 miles wide — which appears to narrow to the southeast. It certainly appears that if this crater was caused by an impact, the bolide came in at a very low angle from the northwest, plowing this 700-foot-deep divot as it drove itself into the ground. Research has shown that an impact has to come in almost sideways to do this. Even at slightly higher angles the resulting craters will still appear round.

But wait, there’s more!
» Read more

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Superheavy intended for next test flight damaged during static fire test

9:57 am

Damaged Superheavy
Click for source.

According to video taken by the Labpadre live stream of SpaceX’s operations at Boca Chica, the Superheavy booster that the company was preparing for the next orbital test flight was damaged while it was being fueled for a static fire test.

The video, which I have embedded below, suggests a tank rupture occurred in the booster’s lower section, where its main oxygen tanks are located. Another post-incident image from different source on social media and to the right, shows the hull of that section badly deformed, with the far side not visible apparently blown out. It also appears the test stand experienced no or little damage.

This incident will likely delay the next orbital Starship/Superheavy test flight, but not significantly. SpaceX has more prototype Superheavys in the queue. While it might need to do some quick additional work preparing one, that should’t slow things down by much.

Figuring out what happened to cause this burst tank is more likely to cause a delay. The company needs to identify and fix the issue before it can proceed.
» Read more

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China launches a “communications technology test satellite”

9:33 am

China today successfully launched what its state-run press called a “communications technology test satellite,” its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.

No other details about the satellite were released. Nor did that state-run press provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

152 SpaceX
72 China (a new record)
15 Rocket Lab
13 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 152 to 120.

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Moss placed on the outside of ISS for nine months was still capable of reproducing

9:27 am

Graphic from research paper
Graphic from paper.

Scientists have now demonstrated that moss, a bryophyte, can still reproduce despite spending nine months exposed to the harsh vacuum and radiation environment of space on the outside of ISS.

In fact, the researchers found that more than 80% of the spores survived and were able to germinate. You can read their peer-reviewed paper here [pdf].

That the moss could survive is in itself not as surprising as you might think. When the Apollo 12 astronauts brought back pieces from the unmanned Surveyor-3 lander scientists found a single bacterium that survived in space for more than two years. What makes this new result more significant is that moss isn’t simply bacteria, but plant life far more complex. More important, the results found that the moss was far more tolerant of that harsh environment than other lifeforms. From the paper:

In contrast, desiccation-tolerant animals such as tardigrades (Hypsibius dujardini and Ramazzottius varieornatus) and UV-resistant insects’ hydrated larvae undergoing anhydrobiosis (Polypedilum vanderplanki) failed to match the UVC tolerance observed in P. patens spores. Similarly, spores of bacteria and fungi, such as Bacillus subtilis and Aspergillus niger, showed only limited UVC resistance. Thus, these patterns highlight that certain plant structures, namely spores and seeds, tend to exhibit superior UV resistance, likely due to the presence of specialized UV-screening pigments such as flavonoids and carotenoids, which help protect DNA and cellular structures from UV-induced damage.

As the paper notes in its conclusion:

As pioneer plants, bryophytes have the potential to transform regolith into fertile soil, facilitating ecosystem development on other planets, similar to peat moss improving soil fertility on Earth.

That moss isn’t bother significantly by radiation means any greenhouse on Mars need not be shielded as aggressively as previously thought, at least in the initial stages.

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Maritime Launch Services touts a second non-orbital launch from Spaceport Nova Scotia

8:51 am

Proposed Canadian spaceports
Proposed Canadian spaceports

The competition between Canada’s two proposed spaceports heated up yesterday when the owner of Spaceport Nova Scotia, Maritime Launch Services, announced that the second launch had taken place there, this time by a rocket startup named T-Minus Engineering.

The launch took place at 11:54 AM, and the mission marked an important milestone in advancing the operational readiness of Spaceport Nova Scotia, critical infrastructure that will provide Canada with sovereign launch capability. The launch was conducted from Spaceport Nova Scotia under approved regulatory and safety frameworks. The demonstration strengthened coordination among launch site teams and stakeholder partners, while refining launch operational procedures and the safety and security systems that govern all activities at the spaceport.

The press release provided no details about the launch itself, though this report noted that the rocket failed to reach its goal of 100 kilometers, the altitude considered by most as the edge of space. The rocket, dubbed Barracuda, is solid-fueled and was apparently designed by T-Minus to demonstrate its capability for hypersonic testing.

This was the second suborbital launch from this spaceport. The first, in 2023, was a student test flight. In both cases, the launches were mostly a PR effort to sell the spaceport, which was first proposed in 2016 but has been unable so far to draw any launch customers. Maritime now also faces competition from the Atlantic Spaceport being proposed by a different company, Nordspace.

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Firefly to provide the launch rocket for Kratos’ hypersonic test vehicles

8:36 am

The rocket/lunar lander startup Firefly yesterday announced that it has signed a partnership deal with the hypersonic test startup Kratos.

In August Kratos partnered with the Australian company Hypersonix to build 20 scramjet test vehicles for the Pentagon for hypersonic test flights. Firefly with this new deal will provide the launch vehicle for getting those scramjets into the air at the speeds required. In fact, it appears Firefly is now going to do with its Alpha rocket the same thing that Rocket Lab did with its Electron rocket, revising it for suborbital testing.

Rocket Lab has already completed six successful HASTE launches. It will be interesting how quickly Firefly can get Alpha reconfigured and launched in this manner. Some of that schedule will also hinge on Kratos’ ability to provide the scramjets. The press release makes no mention of schedule.

Firefly’s action here continues the recent shift by many American space startups from rocketry and space exploration to defense work that is only tangentially related to space. It appears they are all diversifying to grab the expected rich contracts the Pentagon is expected to hand out to develop Trump’s proposed Golden Dome defense system. It also appears that many are diversifying because they have doubts the civilian space industry can sustain them, by itself.

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Spanish rocket startup PLD unveils the first qualification unit of its Miura-5 rocket

8:01 am

1st Miura-5 qualification unit
The 1st Miura-5 qualification unit. Click for original.

The Spanish rocket startup PLD yesterday unveiled the first of two full-scale qualification units it is building to test the design of its Miura-5 orbital rocket, scheduled for a first launch sometime in 2026.

The QM1 unit will serve to qualify two key elements of the launcher. Firstly, the MIURA 5 second stage will undergo a destruction test in the United States to validate the functioning of the Flight Termination System. This test will verify the operation of the explosive charges onboard the vehicle, designed to destroy the launcher in the event of an in-flight anomaly.

Secondly, a Wet Dress Rehearsal will be carried out on the rocket’s first stage – a full propellant loading test that replicates all structural load scenarios during the fuelling and pressurisation phase. This test is essential to validate the behaviour of structures under real operational conditions.

By December (next month) the company hopes to complete a second qualification unit for further testing, followed by the flight rocket, which will be shipped to French Guiana for a launch sometime next year.

Right now PLD and Germany’s Isar Aerospace are in the lead in the race to become the first European rocket startup to reach orbit. Isar — which in March attempted one launch that failed — has already shipped the stages to Norway for its second attempt before the end of this year. PLD thus appears to be just behind, though all this could easily change. This is rocket science y’know.

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SpaceX launches 29 more Starlink satellites

8:48 pm

The beat never stops! SpaceX tonight successfully placed another 29 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The first stage completed its 23rd flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

152 SpaceX (a new record)
71 China
15 Rocket Lab
13 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 152 to 119.

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