Tag: spaceflight

The wind-carved north edge of Mars’ largest volcanic ash field

3:37 pm

The wind-carved north edge of Mars' largest volcanic ash field
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on February 26, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists label as the “relation between flutes and flows”.

The flood lava plain in the northern part of this picture represents the flows. At some point in the distant past some event, either a volcanic eruption, or a large impact, caused lava to spew out across this terrain, leaving behind a smooth plain that has only partly been marked by later crater impacts.

The many parallel ridges pointing to the northeast in the southern part of the picture represent the flutes.

One other very important flow is not directly visible. The prevailing winds that blow to the southwest are what carved these flutes, slowly pushing the material southward while carving out the many gaps between the ridges.
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Scientists propose three scenarios for the creation of Dinkinesh’s contact-binary moon Selam

10:23 am

Three scenarios for creating Dinkinesh and Salem
Click for original graphic.

Dinkinesh's contact binary moon
Click for original image.

Scientists have now used the data obtained during Lucy’s close fly-by of the asteroid Dinkinesh in November 2023 to propose three scenarios to explain the existence of its contact-binary moon Selam, as well as the trough and equatorial ridge on Dinkinesh.

The image to the right shows Selam to the right of Dinkenesh. The graphic above shows the three scenarios proposed for Selam’s creation. This is figure 4 from the paper published today. From the caption:

Asteroids with diameters less than approximately 10 km are subject to spin-up by the YORP effect [changes to rotation and motion due to solar radiation impacting the asteroid’s surface]. Rapid spin of the primary and the associated centrifugal force eventually trigger a structural failure that leads to sudden mass shedding. This event might also have created the trough seen on Dinkinesh through the mass movement of a portion of the body. The shed material forms a ring, with some material coalescing into a satellite(s) and closer material eventually falling back to the surface at the equator to form the ridge. The formation of the contact binary may be the result of a merger of two satellites formed either in a single mass-shedding event (a) or in two separate events (b). An alternative scenario (c) is that Selam formed as a single object that subsequently underwent fission owing to spin–orbit coupling.

Of course, none of this is confirmed, though these hypotheses fit the available facts.

Lucy is presently heading to a fly-by of Earth in December 2024. It will then zip past another main belt asteroid in April 2025 before arriving in August 2027 among the Trojan asteroids in Jupter’s orbit. Once there it will visit at least eight different asteroids.

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The “Vulcan” exoplanet discovered in 2018 now refuted

9:52 am

In 2018 astronomers had thought they had detected an exoplanet orbiting the star 40 Eridani A — which is where in Star Trek the home world Mr. Spock was supposed to be located.

That discovery has now been refuted by much more precise observations.

[T]he planet signal is really the flickering of something on the star’s surface that coincides with a 42-day rotation – perhaps the roiling of hotter and cooler layers beneath the star’s surface, called convection, combined with stellar surface features such as spots and “plages,” which are bright, active regions.

In other words, this exoplanet does not exist. For once at least life did not imitate art.

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Chang’e-6 to attempt landing on Moon’s far side on June 1st

9:42 am

Chang'e-6 landing zone

After spending almost a month in lunar orbit, the lander on China’s Chang’e-6 sample return mission will attempt a soft touchdown on Moon’s far side on June 1, 2024 at 8:00 pm (Eastern).

If successful, the lander will go through initial checks and setup. It will then begin drilling and scooping up materials from the surface. These samples, expected to weigh up to 2,000 grams, will be loaded into an ascent vehicle. The ascender will then launch the precious cargo back into lunar orbit for rendezvous and docking with the orbiter. Surface operations will last about 48 hours.

The map to the right indicates the landing zone by the red box, on the southern edge of Apollo Crater, indicated by the wavy white circle. The black circle marks the perimeter of South Aitken Basin, the largest impact basin on the Moon.

Once the ascender docks with the orbiter, the sample will be transferred into the sample return capsule, which will bring that sample back to Earth in late June.

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Botswana approves Starlink

9:32 am

After first denying SpaceX the right to sell Starlink in Botswana in February, government officials have now done a sudden about-face and approved Starlink.

During a business summit in the United States earlier in May, President Mokgweetsi Masisi met with Ben MacWilliams, the Director of Starlink’s Global Licensing and Activation, who expressed interest in obtaining a license to operate in Botswana. Following this meeting, President Masisi decided to approve Starlink’s licensing and instructed the regulator to expedite the application process within two weeks.

I could speculate on what caused the president to change his mind after this meeting, but I’ll leave that to my readers.

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SLIM goes dark

9:14 am

SLIM's landing zone
Map showing SLIM landing zone on the Moon.
Click for interactive map.

The Japanese lunar lander SLIM has failed to respond to ground commands sent soon after dawn, ending the lander’s fourth night on the Moon.

SLIM was never expected to survive the harsh conditions of even a single 14-day-long lunar night after landing on the Moon in January 2024. Its primary mission had been to test precision autonomous landings, which it did successfully (though it landed on its side when one nozzle fell off just before touchdown). Yet, it then survived three lunar nights, resuming communications at dawn.

Its failure now is therefore no surprise, and actually marks a magnificent engineering success. The spacecraft’s hardware was proven robust enough to survive the very cold temperatures during lunar night, and suggests that future Japanese lunar landers using SLIM designs will function as well.

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Avio completes static fire test of the upper stage of its grounded Vega-C rocket

9:03 am

The Italian company Avio yesterday completed a full static fire test of the solid-fueled upper stage of its grounded Vega-C rocket, proving that the second redesign of its nozzle now works.

The initial post-test review indicates that the new nozzle assembly performed as expected throughout the scheduled 94 seconds burning time of the test, simulating a nominal in-flight performance.

The Zefiro-40 is a 7.6 m tall rocket motor, loaded with over 36 tonnes of solid propellant. For this test the motor was installed on its horizontal test bench. Zefiro-40 is developed and manufactured by Avio in their Colleferro factory near Rome, Italy.

A second firing-test will be conducted after the summer to confirm the data collected today. Avio engineers will review the data from the first test to prepare for a second test in October that will then qualify the second stage Zefiro-40 solid rocket motor for a return-to-flight by end 2024 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.

The nozzle — originally built in the Ukraine — had failed during a launch in December 2022. Then Avio’s first redesign failed in a ground test in July 2023.

With this launch, the Vega-C is poised to resume operations by the end of the year. Those operations will be different however in one major respect. While previously the rocket was built by Avio but owned and controlled by the European Space Agency’s commercial arm, Arianespace, its ownership has been transferred back to Avio. Arianespace is now merely a “launch service provider” according to the press release. I suspect this means that Arianespace handles the launch in French Guiana, something that will also soon be taken from it because control of that spaceport is also being returned to the French space agency CNES.

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China launches four satellites from sea platform

8:45 am

China's spaceports

The Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy today launched four satellites, its Ceres-1 rocket lifting off from its sea platform stationed off the coast of Shandong province, as shown on the map to the right.

As is usual now for China’s state-run press, the news report made no mention of the company, though unlike previous reports it did mention that the rocket was “commercial.” Since it does nothing without the full permission of the Chinese government, however, this is not a real independent company, with full ownership of its rocket. At any time the communists who run China can grab it for their own uses.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

57 SpaceX
24 China
7 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise still leads the world combined in successful launches, 65 to 37, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including other American companies, 57 to 45.

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SpaceX launches European/Japanese climate satellite

11:44 pm

SpaceX today successfully launched a joint European/Japanese satellite designed to study the climate, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.

The first stage completed its seventh flight, landing safely back at Vandenberg. This was also SpaceX’s second launch today, from opposite coasts.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

57 SpaceX
23 China
7 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads the world combined in successful launches, 65 to 36, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including other American companies, 57 to 44.

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A Martian lava flow so strong it eats mountains

1:34 pm

A Martian lava flow so strong it eats mountains
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, sharpened, and annotated to post here, was taken on March 19, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows a crater that appears to sit on top of a plateau that was created by a flow of material coming from the northeast that — as the flow divided to get around that crater — it wore away the ground to leave the crater sitting high and dry.

What was the material in that flow? The location is at 9 degrees north latitude, in Mars’ dry tropics, so it is highly unlikely that the flows here are glaciers, even though they have some glacier-like features.

Instead, this is frozen lava, but Martian in nature in that its ability to push the ground out of its way suggests it was moving very fast, far faster than lava on Earth.
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Chinese pseudo-company files plans for 10,000 satellite constellation

9:39 am

A Chinese pseudo-company has now filed plans for launching a 10,000 satellite constellation, the third such Chinese constellation planned.

A Chinese firm linked to commercial rocket maker Landspace has filed a notification with the ITU for a constellation comprising 10,000 satellites. Shanghai Lanjian Hongqing Technology Company, also known as Hongqing Technology, filed an Advance Publication Information (API) with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) May 24. The filing outlines plans for a constellation named Honghu-3. It is to total 10,000 satellites across 160 orbital planes.

…The Honghu constellation plan appears to be the third 10,000-plus satellite megaconstellation planned by Chinese entities. It follows the national Guowang plan and the Shanghai-backed G60 Starlink proposal, both of which have been approved by China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). First batches of satellites for the pair are expected to launch in the coming months.

This new plan will likely not start launching satellites before 2025. Nonetheless, with these three large Chinese constellations plus both Starlink and Amazon’s Kuiper constellation, low Earth orbit is going to begin to get very crowded.

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Dry ice and carbon monoxide detected on asteroids beyond Neptune

9:31 am

Based on new infrared observations by the Webb Space Telescope, scientists have detected for the first time carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide on asteroids beyond Neptune. From the abstract of their paper:

Out of 59 [trans-Neptunian objects] and centaur [asteriods] observed by the James Webb Space Telescope and the NIRSpec Integral Field Unit as part of the DiSCo-TNOs project, we report the widespread detection of CO2 ice in 95% of the sample and CO ice in 47% of the sample.

It appears dry ice is ubiquitous in the outer solar system. Since it is believed these asteroids are very primitive, this data suggests there was a lot of it in the early solar system when the planets were forming.

The discovery of so much carbon monoxide is however more puzzling, as it is expected to sublimate away even in the very cold environment so far from the Sun and is therefore likely not from the early solar system. The scientists posit that it might have been produced when radiation transformed the other carbon-bearing ices.

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Scientists confirm 2023 data that suggested active volcanism on Venus

9:20 am

Active lava flows on Venus
Click for original video

Scientists have now confirmed a 2023 paper that had found evidence in archival data from the Magellan orbiter that there was active volcanism on Venus. From the abstract of the new paper:

To investigate more widespread alterations that have occurred over time in the planet’s surface morphology, we compared radar images of the same regions observed from 1990 to 1992 with the Magellan spacecraft. We found variations in the radar backscatter from different volcanic-related flow features on the western flank of Sif Mons and in western Niobe Planitia. We suggest that these changes are most reasonably explained as evidence of new lava flows related to volcanic activities that took place during the Magellan spacecraft’s mapping mission with its synthetic-aperture radar.

The image to the right is a screen capture, annotated to post here, from a video computer animation created by the science team based on that Magellan data. The red areas are where the scientists detected lava flow changes on the flanks of the volcano Sif Mons. From the press release:

Using flows on Earth as a comparison, the researchers estimate new rock that was emplaced in both locations to be between 10 and 66 feet (3 and 20 meters) deep, on average. They also estimate that the Sif Mons eruption produced about 12 square miles (30 square kilometers) of rock — enough to fill at least 36,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The Niobe Planitia eruption produced about 17 square miles (45 square kilometers) of rock, which would fill 54,000 Olympic swimming pools. As a comparison, the 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, Earth’s largest active volcano, produced a lava flow with enough material to fill 100,000 Olympic pools.

There is uncertainty of course with this result, due to the difficulty of analyzing radar data properly. Nonetheless, this result reinforces last year’s results, which saw evidence of changes between the two Magellan data sets in a different region near the volcanoes Ozza Mons and Maat Mons. It also reinforces previous work going back decades that has repeatedly suggested Venus was volcanically active.

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SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites

8:42 am

The bunny never stops. SpaceX this morning successfully placed another 23 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.

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

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

56 SpaceX
23 China
7 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads the world combined in successful launches, 64 to 36, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including other American companies, 56 to 44.

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North Korea’s orbital Chollima-1 rocket explodes shortly after launch

2:48 pm

North Korea’s third launch of its orbital Chollima-1 rocket, supposedly carrying a spy satellite, failed today when the first stage exploded shortly after launch.

North Korea’s official state news agency said it launched a spy satellite aboard a new rocket from its main space centre tonight. But it added that the rocket blew up during a first-stage flight soon after liftoff due to a suspected engine problem.

Video of the explosion showed up on social media almost immediately. I have embedded that video below.

Based on when the explosion occurred — early in the flight — and the planned flight path east from North Korea’s west coast Sohai spaceport, the rocket debris very likely crashed inside North Korea, its toxic hypergolic fuels pouring down possibly in habitable areas.
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Visiting a galactic bar

9:27 am

Visiting a galactic bar
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of a research project studying the flow of gases inside barred galaxies. It shows a spiral galaxy, NGC 4731, edge on, located about 43 million light years away. From the caption:

Barred spiral galaxies outnumber both regular spirals and elliptical galaxies put together, numbering around 60% of all galaxies. The visible bar structure is a result of orbits of stars and gas in the galaxy lining up, forming a dense region that individual stars move in and out of over time. This is the same process that maintains a galaxy’s spiral arms, but it is somewhat more mysterious for bars: spiral galaxies seem to form bars in their centres as they mature, accounting for the large number of bars we see today, but can also lose them later on as the accumulated mass along the bar grows unstable. The orbital patterns and the gravitational interactions within a galaxy that sustain the bar also transport matter and energy into it, fuelling star formation.

Astronomers don’t really understand why these barred structures develop, since you would expect the overall gravity of the galaxy would promote a spiral or spherical shape. There must are factors not yet understood or completely identified (such as the magnetic fields of such galaxies).

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South Korea establishes its own version of NASA

9:08 am

The South Korean government today announced the establishment of its own version of NASA, dubbed the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), with what appears to be a focus on establishing a long term space program and using this to foster an aerospace commercial sector.

KASA was established under a special law passed by the National Assembly in January to unify government organizations in charge of space policy and projects. Based in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, KASA has an annual budget of 758.9 billion won ($556 million) this year. The agency currently has around 110 employees and will eventually have a total of 293.

In March, the government established the 2024 Space Development Promotion Action Plan and set five major missions — including space exploration, space transportation, space industry, space security and space science.

In line with the government’s policy, KASA will establish a roadmap for Korea’s space exploration and plans to promote reusable launch vehicles, development of the country’s own global positioning system (GPS) and a lunar lander program. In particular, it plans to develop a lunar lander with a goal of landing on the moon in 2032, and to design and develop engines to enter the commercial launch service market.

A second South Korea news report quotes the head of this new agency as follows:

“Until now, the country’s space development projects have been led by the government,” Yoon Young-bin, KASA’s inaugural chief, said earlier. “The most important role of the space agency will be supporting the private sector to lead space development.”

He pointed out that the world’s space industry is moving toward the so-called “new space” era, where private companies are actively leading innovation in space technologies with more economic feasibility. “The global paradigm is shifting,” Yoon said, noting that top space companies, such as SpaceX, have developed reusable space rockets and launched a group of small satellites with capabilities similar to medium- and large-sized satellites.

If KASA maintains this approach, then South Korea’s future as a space power is bright. If instead KASA moves to control all space development, including the design and ownership of its rockets and spacecraft, then that program will be stifled, as America’s was by NASA for forty years after the 1960s space race.

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China’s X-37B releases object in orbit

8:55 am

China’s copy of the U.S.’s military’s X-37B reusable mini-shuttle, dubbed Shenlong apparently released an object during its ongoing third orbital mission.

A new object (59884/2023-195G) has been cataloged associated with the Chinese CSSHQ spaceplane in a 602 x 608 km x 50.0 deg orbit. It seems to have been ejected about 1900 UTC May 24.

It is possibly this object is to test recapture maneuvers, as was done by during the mini-shuttle’s previous flight. It is also possible this release is preliminary to the end of the mission and the return of Shenlong to Earth. It is also possible it has a completely different purpose, since China has released practically no information about this spaceplane or any of its missions.

The present mission began a little more than seven months ago, releasing six small satellites a few days after launch. The previous two lasted two days and 276 days respectively. As with everything else, we have no idea how much longer it will remain in orbit.

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North Korea notifies Japan of planned orbital launch

8:40 am

North Korea

North Korea today notified Japan that it plans a new orbital launch sometime between today and June 3, 2024, indicating several potential drop zones for the rocket’s lower stages.

It designated three areas where debris will fall — two west of the Korean Peninsula and the other east of the Philippines’ island of Luzon, according to the news outlet.

Pyongyang has made public a plan to launch three more satellites this year following its first military reconnaissance satellite launch in November.

The launch will apparently take place from North Korea’s Sohai spaceport on its west coast, and will fly over the country heading east. The payload will also likely be a reconnaissance satellite of some kind, similar to what the country launched in November 2023.

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Rocket Lab launches NASA climate satellite

10:41 pm

Rocket Lab today successfully launched the first of two NASA PREFIRE climate satellites, its Electron rocket lifting off from its launchpad in New Zealand.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

55 SpaceX
23 China
7 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads the world combined in successful launches, 63 to 36, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including other American companies, 55 to 44.

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NASA/Boeing/ULA confirm new June 1st launch date for Starliner

9:36 am

In a press briefing this morning officials from NASA, Boeing, and ULA confirmed the new June 1, 12:25 pm (Eastern) launch date for the first manned flight of Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule.

The officials provided a more detailed explanation of the helium leak in a valve that effects the capsule’s service module attitude thruster system, noting that it is not a design flaw but some specific issue in this particular valve. Because of this, they are confident the system can function safely even with the leak, which is relatively small.

However, the officials also noted that during their reviews in the past two weeks they discovered a new software issue in the spacecraft’s de-orbit engines that — under very unusual and unlikely circumstances — could actually cause those engines to fail to operate. They have figured out a work-around, whereby they fire the engines at a lower thrust in two stages rather than once.

Should the launch on June 1st be scrubbed for weather, they have back up dates on the next few days, though by June 4th ULA might have to swap out batteries on its Atlas-5 rocket that will require a longer stand down of several additional days.

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SpaceX tentatively announces a June 5, 2024 Starship/Superheavy launch date

9:20 am

Starship/Superheavy flight profile
Click for original image at high resolution.

SpaceX today tentatively announced a June 5, 2024 launch date for the fourth Starship/Superheavy orbital test launch.

Before going into any details of the flight plan, as shown in the flight profile above, it is important to quote the first sentence in the announcement:

The fourth flight test of Starship could launch as soon as June 5, pending regulatory approval. [emphasis mine]

SpaceX has not yet gotten a launch permit from the FAA. It is likely it has inside information from the agency suggesting that permit will be issued by this date. It is also likely that SpaceX by making this announcement is applying pressure to the FAA to either get its paperwork done or waive the need so its red tape doesn’t delay the flight unnecessarily.

As for the flight itself, the flight profile is essentially the same as the previous test flight, with the Starship’s orbit designed for safety to bring it down in the Indian Ocean.

The fourth flight test turns our focus from achieving orbit to demonstrating the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy. The primary objectives will be executing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster, and achieving a controlled entry of Starship.

To accomplish this, several software and hardware upgrades have been made to increase overall reliability and address lessons learned from Flight 3. The SpaceX team will also implement operational changes, including the jettison of the Super Heavy’s hot-stage following boostback to reduce booster mass for the final phase of flight.

All in all, this announcement is good news. SpaceX is ready to launch.

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SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites

10:09 pm

More bunny action. SpaceX tonight successfully launched another 23 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

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

Increasingly, SpaceX is treating its rockets and launchpads like the airlines treat their airplanes: They only have value if they are flying, and SpaceX is trying to keep both rockets and launchpads flying at all times.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

55 SpaceX
23 China
7 Russia
5 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads the world combined in successful launches, 62 to 36, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including other American companies, 55 to 43.

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Astronomers discover nearby Earth-sized exoplanet only slightly hotter than Earth

10:49 am

Using the TESS space telescope as well as a number of ground-based telescopes astronomers have discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet only 40 light years away that has a surface temperature estimated to be about 107 degrees Fahrenheit, assuming it has no atmosphere.

The host star, called Gliese 12, is a cool red dwarf located almost 40 light-years away in the constellation Pisces. The star is only about 27% of the Sun’s size, with about 60% of the Sun’s surface temperature. The newly discovered world, named Gliese 12 b, orbits every 12.8 days and is Earth’s size or slightly smaller — comparable to Venus. Assuming it has no atmosphere, the planet has a surface temperature estimated at around 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius).

At the moment however scientists do not yet know if the exoplanet has an atmosphere or not. Follow-up observations using the Webb Space Telescope are planned to find this out. Based on the data presently available, the exoplanet could either be like Venus, too hot to sustain life, or like Earth, cooler with water and an atmosphere and thus very habitable.

Gliese 12 b could therefore become one of the primary targets for the first interstellar missions once humanity begins such exploration.

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Euclid releases new images and first science results

10:37 am

Euclid image
Click for original image.

The Euclid science team today released five early science images in connection of the publication of ten papers.

The picture to the right is one of those images, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here. From the caption:

In this image Euclid showcases NGC 6744, an archetype of the kind of galaxy currently forming most of the stars in the local Universe. Euclid’s large field-of-view covers the entire galaxy, capturing not only spiral structure on larger scales but also exquisite detail on small spatial scales. This includes feather-like lanes of dust emerging as ‘spurs’ from the spiral arms, shown here with incredible clarity.

Scientists are using this dataset to understand how dust and gas are linked to star formation; map how different star populations are distributed throughout galaxies and where stars are currently forming; and unravel the physics behind the structure of spiral galaxies, something that is still not fully understood after decades of study.

Euclid is a wide-field space telescope that has instruments that observe in both visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Its primary mirror at 1.2 meters is half the width of Hubble’s. More details about these early images and links to the new science results can be found here.

Unlike Hubble, it appears Euclid will not be used as a general observatory, at least initially. Its primary goal is to do a survey of one third of the sky, focusing on extragalactic sources outside the Milky Way. Once this is complete however it is possible the space telescope will be made available for other observations.

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Psyche gets clean bill-of-health after completing six-month checkout since launch

10:13 am

Psyche's flight path to the asteroid Psyche
Psyche’s flight path to the asteroid Psyche.
Click for original image.

The probe Psyche has successfully completed its six-month checkout since its launch in October 2023 and is now using its ion engines to steadily increase its speed as it heads to a 2029 rendezvous with the metal asteroid Psyche.

The orbiter is now more than 190 million miles (300 million kilometers) away and moving at a clip of 23 miles per second (37 kilometers per second), relative to Earth. That’s about 84,000 mph (135,000 kph). Over time, with no atmospheric drag to slow it down, Psyche will accelerate to speeds of up to 124,000 mph (200,000 kph).

The spacecraft will arrive at the metal-rich asteroid Psyche in 2029 and will make observations from orbit for about two years. The data it collects will help scientists better understand the formation of rocky planets with metallic cores, including Earth. Scientists have evidence that the asteroid, which is about 173 miles (280 kilometers) across at its widest point, may be the partial core of a planetesimal, the building block of an early planet.

The graphic to the right shows the path Psyche will take to get to the asteroid.

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SpaceX to FAA: Let us launch Starship/Superheavy before you complete the red-tape for the previous flight

9:55 am

Superheavy/Starship lifting off on March 14, 2024
Superheavy/Starship lifting off on March 14, 2024

According to the FAA, SpaceX has officially asked the FAA to allow it to launch the next Starship/Superheavy test orbital launch before the agency officially completes its mishap investigation into the previous flight in March.

In a statement sent to ValleyCentral, the FAA stated that on April 5, SpaceX requested the FAA make a “public safety determination” as part of the Starship flight test mishap. “If the FAA agrees no public safety issues were involved in the mishap, the operator may return to flight while the mishap investigation remains open, provided all other license requirements are met.”

With this modification in place, SpaceX would be able to launch the fourth Starship test flight while the mishap investigation of the third flight is still open.

When these requests are received, the FAA evaluates safety-critical systems, the nature of the consequences of the mishap, adequacy of existing flight analysis, safety organization performance and environmental factors, the statement added. The FAA stated it is reviewing the request and will be “guided by data and safety at every step of the process.”

What does this request tell us? First, as expected SpaceX has completed its own investigation into the March launch and installed the upgrades it considers necessary. Second, the FAA however has not, even though the FAA has absolutely no competence in this matter. It is merely retyping the SpaceX report.

Third, SpaceX now realizes that the FAA will not have finished that retyping when SpaceX is ready to launch sometime in the next three weeks. Rather than sit and wait, as it did on the previous two test launches, it wants the FAA to recognize reality and let it proceed. Why wait when the FAA is literally contributing nothing to the process?

Will the FAA do so? I suspect there are people in the FAA who would very much like to. I also know that there are others both in the FAA and higher up the command chain (mostly in the White House) that like the idea of slowing SpaceX down, mostly for petty political reasons. We should not be surprised if those higher ups use their clout and insist the FAA reject this request.

If so, the fourth test launch of Starship/Superheavy will likely be further delayed, though by how much is unclear. Shortly after the March test launch I predicted that the next flight would occur in the June/July timeframe, not early May as SpaceX was then predicting, and the delay will be mostly because of FAA red tape. It now appears that prediction will be correct.

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Boeing/NASA now targeting a June 1, 2024 launch of Starliner

9:28 am

In a brief update posted today by NASA, the agency announced that Boeing, NASA, and ULA have a new 12:25 pm (Eastern) June 1, 2024 launch date for the first manned flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule.

The announcement was incredibly obscure about what the issues are that have caused this additional week delay:

Work continues to assess Starliner performance and redundancy following the discovery of a small helium leak in the spacecraft’s service module. As part of this work, and unrelated to the current leak which remains stable, teams are in the process of completing a follow-on propulsion system assessment to understand potential helium system impacts on some Starliner return scenarios. NASA also will conduct a Delta-Agency Flight Test Readiness Review to discuss the work that was performed since the last CFT launch attempt on May 6, and to evaluate issue closure and flight rationale ahead of the next attempt, as part of NASA’s process for assessing readiness. The date of the upcoming Flight Test Readiness Review is under consideration and will be announced once selected.

It appears that engineers are worried the leak — which is linked to one of the attitude thrusters in the capsule’s service module — might impact the ability of Starliner to return to Earth safely. It also appears there is concern about the spacecraft sitting on the launchpad for more than a month, and an evaluation is on-going on whether this might be an issue as well.

I am guessing however. A more detailed explanation might be forth-coming after press update scheduled for 11 am (Eastern) tomorrow.

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Two of Voyager-1’s four instruments resume science operations

9:15 am

Engineers have resumed getting science data from two of Voyager-1’s four instruments for the first time since in November 2023, when corrupted computer memory caused the spacecraft to send only incoherent data.

The plasma wave subsystem and magnetometer instrument are now returning usable science data. As part of the effort to restore Voyager 1 to normal operations, the mission is continuing work on the cosmic ray subsystem and low energy charged particle instrument. (Six additional instruments aboard Voyager 1 are either no longer working or were turned off after the probe’s flyby of Saturn.)

Engineers hope to begin getting good data the other two instruments in the next few weeks.

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SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites

9:07 am

March on bunny! SpaceX last night successfully launched another 23 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

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

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

54 SpaceX
23 China
7 Russia
5 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads the world combined in successful launches, 61 to 36, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including other American companies, 54 to 43.

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