Tag: spaceflight

Bright material on the high points of a Martian mountain

12:29 pm

Bright material on top of a Martian mountain
Click for original image.

Today’s cool image is mostly an example of the present unknowns of Mars. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on April 2, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The science team quite rightly labels this vaguely as “bright materials,” referring to the bright rim of that crater as well as the scattered bright patches on the surrounding plain. This vagueness tells us that the scientists don’t have enough data yet to definitively identify this stuff, though they know it is distinctly unique because of its inexplicable bright albedo compared to everything around it.

That the crater rim (as well as all the crater rims in the full picture) exhibit this same brightness suggests this material was excavated from below when the impacts hit. The surrounding patches suggest that erosion has exposed this buried material at these points.
» Read more

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Israeli non-profit suspends its effort to build a second Beresheet lunar lander

11:35 am

The Israeli non-profit, SpaceIL, has now suspended its effort to build a second Beresheet lunar lander, citing an inability to raise funds for the project.

SpaceIL had built Beresheet-1, which in 2019 successfully reached lunar orbit, only to crash when it attempted to soft land.

The project’s budget was expected to be similar to that of Beresheet 1, which cost approximately $100 million. Most of the funding came from a group of donors led by Patrick Drahi and Morris Kahn, the primary backer of the original mission. However, in mid-2023, the donor group announced it would no longer support the project. SpaceIL launched an urgent effort to find alternative funding, but the outbreak of war on October 7, 2023, made fundraising even more challenging.

The organization’s board of directors repeatedly extended deadlines to secure funding, but by the final deadline—March 2025—the necessary funds had not been raised, forcing the suspension of the project.

A number of SpaceIL’s engineers on Beresheet-1 left the company after its failure to instead form their own Isreali company that partnered with Firefly to build the successful lunar lander Blue Ghost. I suspect their departure was a major reason why the original investors left, and no others could be found.

SpaceIL continues to do non-profit educational work in Israel. Though it claims its lunar lander project is not dead but merely suspended, it is almost certain it will never fly.

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Update on Vast’s space station plans

10:19 am

Haven-2
Haven-2 station once completed

Link here. The article provides a very detailed look at Vast’s short and long range plans, including its overall strategy to win NASA’s full space station construction contract by first building, launching, and occupying its small scale Haven-1 station and thus demonstrating it is the right company for NASA to finance its full scale Haven-2 rotating space station (shown in the graphic to the right).

The article notes that Vast intends to complete Haven-1’s primary structure in July, and do environmental and vibration ground testing from January to March 2026, with its planned launch on a Falcon 9 rocket in May 2026. Once launched it plans to put crews on board for a total of 30-days (though it is unclear at this moment whether that will be a single mission or a series of shorter flights).

In addition, the article reveals that the company also hopes to do two spin tests of Haven-1, testing its ability to rotate and create an artificial gravity. That aligns with the goal of Vast’s full scale Haven-2 station, which it wants to rotate as well. Since the plan is to assembly Haven-2 from upgraded Haven-1 modules, these spin tests are essential for proving the larger station’s design.

Based on this new information, I think we can now map out the evolving but still subject-to-change manned operations at Haven-1, comprising several short 3-5 day manned missions. The first will the crew test the module’s operation. The next two will be to do these spin tests, with people on board.

Vast’s strategy is fundamentally different than the other proposed stations (all listed below). Instead of taking a small NASA development grant to create designs on paper, it is spending its own money to actually launch a demonstration station. If successful, this strategy will make it very easy for NASA to pick it when the time comes to award the larger station construction contracts.

My present rankings for the four proposed commercial stations:

  • Haven-1, being built by Vast, with no NASA funds. The company is moving fast, with Haven-1 to launch and be occupied in 2026 for an estimated 30 days total. It hopes this actual hardware and manned mission will put it in the lead to win NASA’s phase 2 contract, from which it will build its much larger mult-module Haven-2 station..
  • Axiom, being built by Axiom, has launched three tourist flights to ISS, with a fourth scheduled for early June, carrying passengers from India, Hungary, and Poland. Though there have been rumors it has cash flow issues, development of its first module has been proceeding more or less as planned.
  • Starlab, being built by a consortium led by Voyager Space, Airbus, and Northrop Grumman, with an extensive partnership agreement with the European Space Agency. It recently had its station design approved by NASA.
  • Orbital Reef, being built by a consortium led by Blue Origin and Sierra Space. Overall, Blue Origin has built almost nothing, while Sierra Space has successfully tested its inflatable modules, including a full scale version, and appears ready to start building its module for launch.
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The French startup, The Exploration Company, ships its next cargo capsule prototype for launch

9:50 am

The Exploration Company, a French startup aiming to provide cargo services to both ISS and the future space stations that will replace it, has completed construction and testing of its next cargo capsule prototype, dubbed “Mission Possible,” and has shipped it to Vandenberg in California for launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in June 2025.

In a 6 May update, The Exploration Company announced that it had completed Mission Possible’s pre-shipment review on 2 May and subsequently shipped the capsule to its launch site in the United States. The spacecraft will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 as part of the Transporter-14 rideshare mission, which is expected to lift off no earlier than June 2025.

Once launched, the Mission Possible capsule will remain attached to the Falcon 9 upper stage until after the stage completes its deorbit burn. This approach is necessary because the capsule lacks sufficient propulsion to independently deorbit itself. After separation, it will carry out a series of reorientation manoeuvres as it begins atmospheric reentry.

This capsule is 2.5 meters in diameter, smaller that its proposed commercial Nyx capsule that is the company’s eventual commercial freighter. It is also larger than the company’s first prototype, which flew on the first launch of Ariane-6 in 2024 but was unable to test its re-entry designs because of a failure in that rocket’s upper stage engine that prevented its planned controlled de-orbit.

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Europe and India sign agreement to work together on manned space flight

9:35 am

The European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday announced that it has signed an agreement with the Indian government that will lay the groundwork for them to work together on manned space exploration, first in connection with their future space station plans and later on lunar exploration.

ESA and ISRO declared their intent to work together on the interoperability of rendezvous and docking systems to allow their respective spacecraft to work together in low Earth orbit. They will also examine further activities related to astronaut training, analogue space missions – where teams test aspects of space missions in ground-based simulations – and parabolic flight activities.

…Future cooperation possibilities include ESA astronaut flight opportunities to the planned Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) and early scientific utilisation, as well as developing infrastructure in low Earth orbit. The two space agencies are also discussing alignment on payloads and robotic scientific missions to the Moon.

Faced with the decommissioning of ISS in 2030, as well as the likely end to several major Artemis components (Orion and Lunar Gateway) that ESA has had a major part, it appears Europe has quickly begun looking for other alternatives. It already has partnered with the American consortium building the Starlab space station, but this new agreement with India gives it more options.

India meanwhile gets aid and support from Europe. It could even be that both are negotiating transferring some of Europe’s Lunar Gateway modules to India’s space station.

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Russia signs space agreement with Venezuela

9:23 am

The losers unite! Russia’s state-run press today announced that its government have signed a bi-lateral agreement with Venezuela to work together in space.

Moscow and Caracas have agreed to enhance cooperation in the peaceful use of outer space, including by building a Glonass ground station in Venezuela, according to a bilateral cooperation treaty.

Because of the bankruptcy at both nations, this agreement really doesn’t involve much real space development. All it really does is allow Russia to build a ground station in Venezuela for operating its orbiting Glonass GPS-type constellation, which Russia in turn has been struggling for decades to bring back into full operation after the fall of the Soviet Union.

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SpaceX gets approval to sell Starlink in India

9:18 am

Almost immediately after India’s government issued this week new tightened regulations for allowing private satellite constellations to sell their services in India, it also apparently completed negotiations with SpaceX to allow it to sell Starlink in India based on these rules.

According to sources, the DoT [Department of Transportation] granted the LoI [Letter of Intent] after Starlink accepted 29 strict security conditions, including requirements for real-time terminal tracking, mandatory local data processing, legal interception capabilities, and localisation of at least 20% of its ground segment infrastructure within the first few years of operation.

Starlink’s nod came amid heightened national security sensitivities, coinciding with India’s pre-dawn Operation Sindoor strikes on terror camps across the border in response to the Pahalgam massacre. However, DoT officials clarified that the decision to approve Starlink was independent of these military developments.

At the moment SpaceX’s chief competitors, OneWeb and Amazon’s Kuiper constellation, have not yet obtained the same permissions. This allows SpaceX to grab a large portion of the market share in India before either of these other companies.

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Seepage coming from under an ancient Martian flood lava flow?

12:13 pm

Seepage at edge of lava flow?
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and enhanced to post here, was taken on April 3, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

I have enhanced the image to make it easier to see the details. It appears we are looking at three layers. At the base (on the left side of the picture) is a relatively smooth bottom layer with the highest number of scattered craters. On the top (on the right side of the picture) is a somewhat rough layer with fewer craters.

In between is a middle layer that appears to be seeping out from under the top layer.

The science team seems to agree with my last guess, as they label this image “Possible basal seepage at flow boundary.” The flow boundary is the edge of a lava flood that scientists believe covered a distance of about 1,400 miles at speeds ranging from 10 to 45 miles per hour.
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India tightens its satellite regulations for foreign companies

9:27 am

In what is a likely response to the increased military conflict with Pakistan, India’s government has announced new satellite regulations for foreign companies that will likely impact the operations of both Starlink and OneWeb.

The country’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) announced 29 additional regulations May 5, citing national security interests, which also apply to companies that already hold licenses for providing space-based communication services directly to users.

The rules include a requirement for call logs and other user data to be stored in India, and new obligations for interception and monitoring under national law. Satellite operators must also show how they plan to source at least 20% of their ground infrastructure equipment from India within five years of commercial launch.

The article at the link suggests that these new regulations will have a greater impact on OneWeb than Starlink. Yet, OneWeb already has approval to sell its services in India, while Starlink has not.

The article also included one interesting tidbit from a Starlink official, noting that the company expects to have 6.5 million subscribers by the end of this year. Based on the company’s subscriber fees, that translates into many billions in revenue. Very clearly SpaceX no longer needs NASA to develop Starship.

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Ispace’s Resilience lander successfully enters lunar orbit

9:15 am

Map of lunar landing sites
Landing sites for both Firefly’s Blue Ghost and
Ispace’s Resilience

Ispace today announced that its lunar lander Resilience, launched in January by SpaceX, has now been successfully inserted into lunar orbit,

Ispace engineers performed the injection maneuver from the Mission Control Center in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan in accordance with the mission operation plan. The orbital maneuver required a main thruster burn lasting approximately 9 minutes, the longest to date during Mission 2. RESILIENCE is now maintaining a stable attitude in its planned orbit above the lunar surface. Mission operations specialists are now preparing for final orbit maneuvers after reaffirming Ispace’s ability to deliver spacecraft and payloads into lunar orbit. A lunar landing is scheduled for no earlier than June 5, 2025 (UTC) (June 6, 2025, JST).

If all goes right, Resilience will touch down in Mare Frigoris in the northern latitudes of the Moon’s near side, as shown on the map to the right.

This is Ispace’s second attempt to soft land on the Moon. Its first attempt, Hakuto-R1, got within three kilometers of the surface in Atlas Crater (also shown on the map), but then its software mistook its altitude, thinking it was only a few feet above the surface and shut down the engines prematurely, causing it to crash.

This second landing is critical for the company’s future. It has contracts for future landers from both NASA and Japan, but a failure now might cause both governments to reconsider those deals.

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NASA cancels VIPER solicitation

9:06 am

NASA today announced that it has canceled its solicitation from the private sector, asking for proposals for launching its overbudget and as yet unfinished lunar rover VIPER to the Moon.

NASA announced Wednesday it is canceling its Lunar Volatiles Science Partnership Announcement for Partnership Proposals solicitation, which sought opportunities to send VIPER to the Moon at no cost to the government.

The announcement, which was very short and lacking in any details, stated also that the agency “will announce a new strategy for VIPER in the future.”

Some background: VIPER was originally budgeted at $250 million. When cancelled in 2024 its budget had ballooned to over $600 million, and that wasn’t enough to complete the rover for launch.

This decision suggests the agency did not get any worthwhile proposals. Apparently, no one was interested in paying the cost to get VIPER finished (about $100 million) and launched. It is also likely that the planned Trump budget cuts had an impact on this decision. NASA management probably recognized that there was no way they could con the administration into forking over any money to finance any private proposal.

It is also possible that this cancellation now is part of the typical game NASA managers always play to get Congress to fund bloated programs like this. Cancel it, get the propaganda press to cry about how the cancellation is so terrible, which in turn gets Congress outraged and willing to approve the extra funds.

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Sunspot update: Activity rises slightly in April

1:06 pm

It is the start of the month, so it is of course time for my monthly report on sunspot activity, based on the update that NOAA posts each month to its own graph of sunspots activity. As I have done since the start of Behind the Black in 2010, I take that graph each month and annotate it with extra information to illustrate the larger scientific context.

Sunspot activity in April did nothing to tell us anything about the Sun’s future activity. It rose slightly, but not by enough to suggest that the prediction put forth last month by NOAA scientists that the ramp down to solar minimum has begun is wrong.
» Read more

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FAA approves SpaceX request to increase Starship launch rate at Boca Chica

11:40 am

The FAA today by email announced that it has released the final environmental reassessment that approves SpaceX’s request to increase the number of yearly Starship/Superheavy launches at Boca Chica to as many as 25.

The assessment is now available for public comment, and could still be revised. However, the FAA’s conclusions are clear, as indicated by the highlighted phrase:

The FAA is announcing the availability of the Final Tiered Environmental Assessment and Mitigated Finding of No Significant Impact/Record of Decision (FONSI/ROD) for the SpaceX Starship/Super Heavy Vehicle Increased Cadence at the SpaceX Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas (Final Tiered EA and Mitigated FONSI/ROD).

Under the Proposed Action addressed in the Final Tiered EA, the FAA would modify SpaceX’s existing vehicle operator license to authorize:  Up to 25 annual Starship/Super Heavy orbital launches, including: Up to 25 annual landings of Starship (Second stage); Up to 25 annual landinqgs of Super Heavy (First stage). The Final Tiered EA also addressed vehicle upgrades.

You can read the executive summary of this announcement here [pdf]. The full reassessment can be read here [pdf]. Its conclusion is quite blunt:

The 2022 PEA [Preliminary Environmental Assessment] examined the potential for significant environmental impacts from Starship/Super Heavy launch operations at the Boca Chica Launch Site and defined the regulatory setting for impacts associated with Starship/Super Heavy. The areas evaluated for environmental impacts in this EA [environmental assesssment] included air quality; climate; noise and noise‐compatible land use; visual resources; cultural resources; Department of Transportation Section 4(f); water resources; biological resources (terrestrial and marine wildlife); land use; hazardous materials; natural resources and energy supply; and socioeconomics, and children’s health. In each of these areas, this EA concludes that no significant impacts would occur as a result of SpaceX’s proposed action. [emphasis mine]

As I’ve noted repeatedly, this has all been self-evident for years, as proved by the environmental circumstances at the American spaceports at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy in Florida and Vandenberg in California. Spaceports help the environment by creating large wildlife refuges where no development can occur. We have known this for decades. That the FAA and the federal bureaucracy has in the past five years suddenly begun demanded these long reassessments time after time that simply restate these obvious facts can only be because that bureaucracy wants to justify its useless existence with make-work.

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Update on launch schedule for India’s manned space program

10:59 am

According to the head of India’s space agency ISRO, V Narayanan, the first unmanned Gaganyaan orbital mission is now targeting a launch in the last quarter of this year, followed by two more unmanned test flights in 2026 and the manned mission of one to three days flying in the first quarter of 2027.

This schedule appears more firm than any previously announced. When first proposed back in 2018, ISRO’s goal was to launch the first manned mission in 2022. And like all government projects, the launch date kept getting pushed back again and again. ISRO officials will blame the COVID panic for these delays, but that’s hogwash. While ISRO shut down for almost two years out of fear of a only slightly more potent illness than the flu, others did not, and ended up stealing almost all of ISRO’s commercial business as a result.

The delays in Gaganyaan also stem from the unrealistic goals first put forth by ISRO. For example, initially the program did not include these unmanned test flights, a lack that was foolish and later corrected.

Based on all reports in the past year, however, it appears that this newest schedule probably reflects reality, and will take place more or less as described.

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Astronomers measure the vibrations of a star 21 light years away

10:22 am

Using an instrument on the ground-based Keck telescope in Hawaii, astronomers have been able to measure the internal vibrations of a star 21 light years away, the equivalent of recording a star’s seismology.

Keck Observatory’s KPF instrument precisely measures the motion of the stellar surface towards and away from the observer. Over four consecutive nights, the team used KPF to collect over 2,000 ultra-precise velocity measurements of the star — enabling them to catch the star’s vibrations in action. This is the first asteroseismic inference of the age and radius for a cool star using KPF.

The astronomers next claim that this data allowed them to date the star’s age as 10.2 billion years old, and that it was about 4% smaller in diameter than measured by other observations. Both these conclusions carry uncertainties, but the former has implications if true for the present theories of stellar evolution, since this star appears to be behaving differently than expected for a star this old.

Astronomers have been doing this kind of stellar seismology for the Sun for several decades. To now have instruments sensitive enough to detect it on stars light years away is truly astonishing.

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Stratolaunch completes first hypersonic test flight for Pentagon

9:58 am

The military this week confirmed that Stratolaunch had successfully completed its first two hypersonic test flights for the Pentagon in December and March.

The hypersonic vehicle named Talon A2 exceeded Mach 5—the threshold for hypersonic speed—in two Pentagon-backed test flights conducted in December 2024 and March 2025, the Defense Department confirmed May 5.

The flights mark the first time since the X-15 program, which ended in 1968, that the U.S. has conducted reusable hypersonic testing.

At the moment the military’s hypersonic test program is really getting its money’s worth from private enterprise. Stratolaunch is doing tests using a reusable vehicle. Rocket Lab is doing suborbital flights using a revised version of its Electron rocket’s first stage. Varda will do hypersonic tests with its capsule when it returns from orbit. And startups Ursa Major and Radian have won contracts to do their own test flights.

For literally decades the military’s hypersonic test program had limped along, barely able to do tests more than once every few years. Then however it was run entirely by the government. Now that the military has stopped trying to be the designer and builder but simply a customer, it is getting what it needs fast and with a great deal of variety.

Ain’t freedom and competition and private enterprise wonderful?

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Australia’s first rocket company continues to be blocked by red tape

9:40 am

Australian commercial spaceports
Australia’s commercial spaceports. Click for original map.

The first rocket launch by Gilmour Space, Australia’s first rocket company, from its Bowen spaceport on the east coast of Australia has apparently been blocked by continuing bureaucratic regulatory red tape.

In February the company had announced a planned launch date in March, based on what appeared to be the issuance (after more than a year’s delay) of its launch licence. That launch however never happened, with no public explanation, until now. From the link above:

In an update on Sunday, the Queensland-based firm said it had received approval from CASA and is now waiting for final clearance from the Australian Space Agency.

…It had planned for an inaugural blast-off in April 2024 but faced a lengthy delay in obtaining its final permit from the Australian Space Agency.

In other words, the launch license had only been promised, but then was not issued, leaving the company stranded for several more months, with that license still buried in the government’s byzantine operations.

The article at the link says the Australian government is now moving to streamline its space regulatory system, but don’t believe it. The elections this week saw a resounding victory for the leftist coalition with the conservative party defeated handily. With the left now in firm control, expect the regulation to increase, not decrease. Leftwing governments almost never reduce regulation. It goes against their power-hungry genetics.

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ESA’s issues a non-reaction to Trump’s proposed NASA cuts

9:23 am

The European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday issued its first reaction to Trump’s proposed cuts to NASA’s Artemis program, including cancellation of the Orion capsule and Lunar Gateway station that ESA is building major components, and essentially said nothing.

NASA has briefed ESA about the Budget Request, and while some questions still remain about the full repercussions, follow-up meetings are already taking place with NASA. ESA remains open to cooperation with NASA on the programmes earmarked for a reduction or termination but is nevertheless assessing the impact with our Member States in preparation for ESA’s June Council.

ESA and NASA have a long history of successful partnership, particularly in exploration – a highly visible example of international cooperation – where we have many joint activities forging decades of strong bonds between American and European colleagues. Space exploration is an endeavour in which the collective can reach much farther than the individual. Thus, ESA has strong partnerships with space agencies from around the globe and is committed to not only being a reliable partner, but a strong and desirable partner.

Basically ESA is holding off any major response until they get more information from NASA and the Trump administration. It also notes that any more detailed response must wait until it holds its own meetings scheduled for June and later.

ESA’s problem is that it tied its manned space effort to NASA’s Orion capsule and Gateway station. On Orion it is building the service module, and has a number under construction that now might be unneeded if only two more Orions fly. As for Gateway, Europe is building major components of the station’s central habitation module. It is also building, in partnership with Japan, a second habitation module for their use. The cancellation of Gateway leaves these modules hanging with nowhere to go.

Though we should expect some pushback from Europe in an attempt to save Lunar Gateway, I expect these events will end up doing more for Europe’s nascent commercial launch industry. What the continent really needs is a private competitive aerospace industry making money in space. If it gets that, it will no longer have to rely on NASA, or ESA for that matter.

And based on the recent policy actions by ESA’s major partners (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK) to shift from a government-run centralized space program run by ESA’s Arianespace to encouraging the development of an independent competing private launch industry, I predict Europe will shift even more focus in this direction when they finally respond to the Trump cuts.

Expect European to call for more autonomy and European-built rockets and spacecrafts that do not rely on NASA or American proposals. This will not necessarily end its space partnership with the U.S., but it will be less beholden to it.

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NASA engineers complete 17-day balloon flight, testing a new “super pressure” technology

8:54 am

Map of flight
Click for original map

NASA engineers have decided to end a flight test of a new “super pressure” balloon after flying for seventeen days and circling Antarctica.

While the mission successfully met its minimum requirements for qualification of the balloon, the team had been monitoring minor performance issues and suspected that the system had a small leak. The balloon was maintaining its predicted float altitude during daytime hours; however, it started to show considerable drops in altitude, especially as it passed through areas of colder temperatures like storm systems.

…Teams continued to closely monitor the health and performance of the balloon as it continued flight, and its ability to safely make it to the next predicted land crossing in South America for recovery of the balloon and payload. However, at approximately four additional days until land, all ballast expended to manage altitude stability, and recent altitude excursions during night periods down to 60,000 feet, continued flight became unlikely. NASA ultimately decided to terminate the flight to ensure the greatest level of control and safety during descent. “Due to the mission’s trajectory coupled with system performance, termination and recovery at the next land over flight was not possible due to unacceptable public risk,” said Garde.

This first flight is part of a two-flight test program this season, with the second super pressure balloon already in flight. Like the first, it is aiming for a 100 day flight circling the globe at the high mid-latitudes comparable to its launch site in New Zealand. You can track its flight in real time here.

As with all NASA test programs like this, the real question will be whether this technology will be used for any practical purpose once the program is completed, or whether it will be shelved away and forgotten. For most such programs, it is the latter that occurs. In this case however there are a number of companies attempting to make money selling tourists flights on less sophisticated high altitude balloons, and those companies might be interested in adopting this technology. There are also several balloon companies that provide surveillance data for the military which might be interested as well.

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It only took $22 billion and 19 years: Lockheed Martin proudly announces the completion of the first Orion capsule capable of manned flight

10:56 am

Orion's damage heat shield
Damage to Orion’s heat shield caused during re-entry in 2022,
including “cavities resulting from the loss of large chunks”.
Nor has this issue been fixed.

My heart be still. On May 1, 2025 Lockheed Martin proudly announced that it had finally completed assembly and testing of the first Orion capsule capable of taking human beings into space.

Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] has completed assembly and testing of NASA’s Orion Artemis II spacecraft, transferring possession to NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) team today. This milestone is a significant step for NASA and the Artemis industry team, as they prepare to launch a crew of four astronauts to further the agency’s mission in establishing a human presence on the Moon for exploration and scientific discovery. It will also help build the foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.

Orion is the most advanced, human-rated, deep space spacecraft ever developed. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor to NASA for Orion and built the crew module, crew module adaptor and launch abort system. “This achievement is a testament to our employees and suppliers who have worked tirelessly to get us to this important milestone,” said Kirk Shireman, vice president of Human Space Exploration and Orion program manager at Lockheed Martin. “The Orion spacecraft completion for Artemis II is a major step forward in our nation’s efforts to develop a long-term lunar presence. It’s exciting to think that soon, humans will see the Earth rise over the lunar horizon from our vehicle, while also traveling farther from Earth than ever before.”

What disgusting hogwash. First of all, Lockheed Martin was issued the contract to build two capsules, one for testing and one for manned flight, in 2006. It only took the company 19 years to build both. Second, that 2006 contract was supposed to only cost $3.9 billion. Instead, NASA has forked out more than $22 billion.

And what have we gotten? Two capsules, plus a handful of prototype test versions. Worse, this first capsule will be the first to ever carry the life support systems that keep humans alive, as Lockheed Martin admits in its press release:
» Read more

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SpaceX launches a record 29 Starlink satellites

9:53 am

SpaceX early this morning successfully launched 29 Starlink satellites (the most yet on a single launch), its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The first stage completed its 20th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

52 SpaceX
23 China
5 Rocket Lab
5 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 52 to 40.

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Local voters approve establishing the town of Starbase at Boca Chica

8:37 pm

By a vote of 212 to 6 (out of about 300 eligible voters), the residents at the previously unincorporated coastal land strip at Boca Chica have approved a proposal to create the town of Starbase, with a mayor and two city commissioners.

The three candidates were all running unopposed for those positions. All three either work at SpaceX now, have worked there in the past, or have relatives employed by the company.

The mayor will be Robert “Bobby” Peden, 36. He has worked for SpaceX for the past dozen years, first at its MacGregor engine test site and now at Starbase as a vice president of test and launch. The two council members are Jenna Petrzelka and Jordan Buss. Petrzelka, 39, worked for SpaceX from 2012 to 2024 as an engineer. Her husband, Joe Petrzelka, is presently a SpaceX vice president. Buss, 40, started working for SpaceX in 2023 as a senior director of environmental health and safety.

The vote shifts much of the civil management away from the larger local county to the residence who live in the town itself. It is quite evident they will establish this city with the needs of SpaceX in mind. It also appears that the residents are fully in support of this.

As for launches here, I will still refer to it as Boca Chica. The town might be named Starbase, but the actual location is still Boca Chica.

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FAA okays increase in SpaceX launches from Vandenberg from 36 to 50 per year

11:44 am

The FAA today approved an environmental reassessment at Vandenberg Space Force Base that permits SpaceX to increase its annual launches there from 36 to 50.

The reassessment determined (not surprisingly) that there was “no significant impact” on the environment caused by the increased number of launches.

We already have more than seven decades of empirical data at spaceports in both Florida and California that rocket launches do no harm to the environment, and in fact act to significantly protect wildlife and natural resources because they require the creation of large regions where no development can take place.

The real question should be this: Why is the federal government wasting taxpayer money on these reports? They are utterly unnecessary, and only serve to hinder the freedom of Americans while spending their taxes on make work that accomplishes nothing.

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Trump administration releases its proposed NASA budget for 2026

10:29 am

The Trump administration today released [pdf] its proposed federal budget for the 2026 fiscal year, calling for an overall reduction in federal spending by about 7.6%, with NASA getting a budget cut of about 24%.

A summary of the budget can be found in this NASA press release. The main bullet points are these:

  • SLS and Orion will be retired after flying the two more missions. Whether those flights will be manned or not however is left vague.
  • Lunar Gateway will be shut down
  • The Mars Sample Return mission will be cancelled.
  • The overall manned budget for interplanetary development is increased, and now includes a line item of $1 billion for “Mars-focused programs”.
  • Flights to ISS are reduced (cutting a half billion from this budget) to facilitate the “transition to a more cost-effective commercial approach to human activities in space as the space station approaches the end of its life cycle.”
  • Eliminates “low-priority climate monitoring satellites”, shifting the focus to getting such data from commercial sources.
  • Major budget cuts are proposed for many other departments, and also include a major restructuring of NASA’s entire operation to “streamline the workforce, IT services, NASA Center operations, facility maintenance, and construction and environmental compliance activities.”

Below is a screen capture from the budget proposal detailing these cuts.
» Read more

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Space Force awards twelve companies satellite development contracts worth $237 million

9:38 am

Capitalism in space: The Space Force yesterday announced that it has awarded twelve different aerospace companies contracts worth a total of $237 million for developing a variety of smallsat technologies to be used in future military satellite constellations.

The list of selected companies, announced May 1, includes defense and aerospace firms Lockheed Martin Corp. and General Atomics, as well as specialized space firms such as Blue Canyon Technologies, Loft Orbital Federal, Spire Global, Terran Orbital, and York Space Systems. Also named were Axient, Lynk Global, Orbit Systems, Turion Space, and the Utah State University-affiliated Space Dynamics Lab.

…Under the contract, vendors will build and integrate small satellite buses capable of carrying a variety of military experiments and sensors. These buses, often the size of a microwave or small refrigerator, serve as standardized platforms that can be customized to carry diverse payloads.

These contracts are part of the Trump administrations push to get the military to rely on the private sector for its needs. Though the private sector would general build things in the past for the Pentagon, often the design, construction, and even ownership was held entirely by the government. The companies didn’t have anything they could sell elsewhere. Now the design work is being left entirely to the companies, so that what they develop they will own, and will have the ability to market it to others.

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Ursa Major wins contract for hypersonic test flight of its Draper rocket engine

9:29 am

The rocket engine startup Ursa Major has now won a $28.5 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to do a hypersonic test flight using its Draper rocket engine.

The contract, announced May 1, covers both the flight demonstration and integration of the engine into a test vehicle, with work scheduled through early 2027. The project aims to advance U.S. capabilities in hypersonic weapons, a category of defense systems that has become a top Pentagon priority amid competition with China and Russia.

The Draper engine is designed to produce 4,000 pounds of thrust and was developed by Ursa Major with U.S. Air Force funding. Its key differentiator is its use of storable, non-cryogenic propellants — specifically a kerosene and hydrogen peroxide combination — that remain liquid at ambient temperatures. This contrasts with traditional rocket engines that rely on liquid oxygen, which must be kept at ultra-low temperatures and handled with complex cooling infrastructure.

It certainly does appear that the Pentagon is ramping up its hypersonic research with a slew of contracts to many different new commercial space startups. In addition to this deal, Rocket Lab, Varda, and Stratolaunch have won contracts for similar hypersonic testing, with Rocket Lab winning the most. No wonder a new company like Radian (see previous post) is switching its focus toward this research.

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Rocket startup Radian now also building commercial reentry capsule

9:20 am

The rocket startup Radian Aerospace, which is attempting to build an orbital spaceplane that takes off and lands from a runway, has announced that it is also building a commercial reentry capsule that can be used for hypersonic testing.

The Seattle based company announced April 29 its intent to develop the Radian Reusable Reentry Vehicle (R3V), a spacecraft for hypersonics testing or returning payloads from space that also gives Radian flight experience in key technologies for its future Radian One spaceplane.

Livingston Holder, chief technology officer of Radian, said in an interview that the company was looking was ways to test Dur-E-Therm, the thermal protection system it is creating for Radian One. The company had recently completed tests of the system in a lab at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. “But, testing in a non-flight environment only gets you so far, so we were crafting how to test it in a more relevant environment.”

It appears the company has recognized that its spaceplane will take years to develop, and more years before it can bring in any revenue. An orbital capsule however can be developed much more quickly, and it also appears there are a lot of commercial and military customers for it.

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Giant galactic magnetic filament disturbed by pulsar

12:18 pm

A giant galactic filament disturbed by a pulsar
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The false-color X-ray picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, was released today by the science team for the Chandra X-ray Observatory, showing some interesting astronomical features about 26,000 light years away near the galactic center.

The press release attempts to catch the ignorant press’s interest by referring to the long white filament that crosses this image as “a bone”, implying that this is similar to a medical X-ray of a person’s bones. Hogwash. What we are looking at is a filament of energized particles forced into this long thin shape by the magnetic field lines that exist in the central regions of the Milky Way galaxy.

What makes this X-ray data of interest is shown in the inset. The pulsar appears to have disturbed that filament, pulling those energetic particles away to form a trailing cloud.

In the first composite image, the largely straight filament stretches from the top to the bottom of the vertical frame. At each end of the grey filament is a hazy grey cloud. The only color in the image is neon blue, found in a few specks which dot the blackness surrounding the structure. The blue represents X-rays seen by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

In the annotated close-up, one such speck appears to be interacting with the structure itself. This is a fast-moving, rapidly spinning neutron star, otherwise known as a pulsar. Astronomers believe that this pulsar has struck the filament halfway down its length, distorting the magnetic field and radio signal.

As big and empty as space is, there is still enough stuff within it to cause these kinds of interactions. It just requires the luxury of endless eons, something that we as short-lived humans have trouble conceiving.

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