Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

Swift, more formally named the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, is a gamma-ray observatory that was launched twenty-two years ago with a two-year expected life. Needless to say, the science community have more than gotten their money's worth out of it. Sadly, its orbit has decayed to the doomsday point where it will re-enter the atmosphere later this year and that will be that for Swift.

But wait! What is that I hear? Hoofbeats of the cavalry coming over the horizon?!

Less than a year ago, NASA awarded a contract to Katalyst Space Technologies to try to mount a rescue mission. They got $30 million to try to save the observatory, which cost around half a billion dollars when it launched in 2004, almost $900 million in today's dollars. That is a good investment.

Katalyst's spacecraft, named Link, launched in early July. It's described as being about the size of a refrigerator, has three robotic arms, maneuvering thrusters, solar panels, and enough fuel to boost Swift into a higher orbit. And things went great - initially. Then something went wrong, and Link started spinning uncontrollably. Two of the three reaction wheels stopped working, along with a couple of lesser problems. They tried to literally reboot the craft, but apparently that did not improve the situation.

(Reaction wheels are like gyroscopes: heavy wheels that rotate at high speed that point in different axes. By braking and accelerating different ones, you can more easily re-point the spacecraft to different directions without spending as much fuel, or do it more quickly while burning more fuel.)

And now NASA has pronounced the mission a loss. And Swift will die.

That doesn't mean that the money has been wasted: it was a very high-risk gamble and it didn't quite pay off. Still, a lot has been learned from the production and launch of Link, and it means a lot to a subset of the space industry that is trying to develop platforms that can boost satellites to higher orbits to extend their operational lifetime. They're also hoping that, given time, these service satellites will be able to refuel and effect repairs and possibly updates on satellites.

That's a lot of ambition, and I wish them success. It'll take them a while to achieve it, but it's better than all of this crap up there de-orbiting on a regular basis and polluting the upper atmosphere.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/nasa-calls-off-mission-to-rescue-swift-gamma-ray-observatory/

The James Webb Space Telescope strikes again! Wooties!

This planet, Wasp94A B (I have no idea about the naming convention and why it earned a B), when viewed by Hubble, gave an averaged reading because Hubble is much lower resolution than the JWST, and it just could not produce better data. The primary scientist on this project, David Sing, has been studying cloudy exoplanets for 20 years. When he gained access to the Webb, and started receiving data on Wasp94A B, Webb showed them that the technique of averaged data from the Hubble just isn't a good technique. Looking at in more detail, they can determine that it isn't the full story.

The planet has clouds, and as they traverse the planet's visible face, and they are not water, specifically the clouds are magnesium silicate, a compound commonly found in rocks on our planet! It's not raining men, it's raining rocks! When the trailing edge of the clouds pass, the night cycle begins.

Neat stuff! Not only is the universe weirder than we imagine, it's weirder than we can imagine!

https://www.earth.com/news/astronomers-find-unusual-exoplanet-wasp-94a-b-with-cloudy-mornings-clear-evenings/

In 2022, the bill that funded NASA extended funding for the International Space Station to 2030, and that was it. NASA started researching ways to end the life of the ISS at that point, and decided that a controlled deorbit was the best bet: lower it to a planned orbit where the increased friction with Earth's atmosphere will eventually cause re-entry and for it to crash into the Pacific Ocean's "space graveyard". That way it's controlled and theoretically won't hit land, potentially causing some really significant damage. The station would be shut-down in 2030 and the deorbit burn would happen in 2031, I'm a little unclear when it would actually re-enter the atmosphere.

Well, that plan might end up being scratched because of an effort being led by California Democratic Representative George Whiteside.

He's on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (vice-ranking member) and on the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics (according to Wikipedia). His career has involved a lot of the space industry, and he's worked at NASA, but the roles seem to be in management and as a director. His Masters degree is in GIS and remote sensing, not in engineering.

He attached a rider to the new NASA funding bill, currently in committee, for them to study boosting the ISS to a parking orbit rather than deorbiting the thing. He thinks it can have a longer life.
( Read more... )

This is bad, for both Russia and the USA.

There was a successful launch Thursday from Pad 31 in Kazakstan of a Soyuz rocket carrying two Russian cosmonauts and one American astronaut to the ISS. But there was a problem on the ground.

One of the launch tower's moving platforms that is used to inspect and service the rocket was not properly secured prior to launch. The blast from the rocket passing the platform blew it down into the flame trench, causing a lot of damage to the pad, probably the tower, and presumably destroying the platform - which weighed 20 tons. Roscomos, the agency that runs the Russian space program (roughly the equivalent of NASA) claims that the damage will be repaired shortly. However, so many materials in manpower, money, and actual physical materials have been diverted to their failing war effort against Ukraine that this might not happen. One specific example of how Roscomos is being squeezed is that they used to send four crews to the ISS annually, now they're sending three.

While Russia has many launch facilities through its countries and neighbors, i.e. former USSR countries, Pad 31 is currently the only launch pad that can be used to send Soyuz and Proton rockets to the ISS. Pad 1 at the Kazakstan facility - where Uri Gregarin launched from - could be used, but it's been decommissioned and is being turned into a museum.

The Soyuz launches are used for crew/supply missions, the Proton launches are solely supply runs but also used to boost the ISS into a higher orbit. Fortunately NASA can also use SpaceX Dragons and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnusfor boost and also for supply.

This will also put some pressure on SpaceX as they've been having some problems with their super-heavy booster, trying to get it reliable enough to get people to the Moon and allegedly to Mars, not to mention their lunar lander being so far behind schedule that NASA is sending out an SOS contract for someone else to come up with another lander, otherwise SpaceX's tardiness will delay the USA going back to the Moon.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/11/russian-launch-pad-incident-raises-concerns-about-future-of-space-station/

It landed at 3:34am EST Sunday morning, Russet and I watched the stream. It was pretty cool. It was a very smooth orbital insertion and braking, the only problem with the landing was that only three of the four landing pads reported contact, which is curious. They didn't have real-time control with the lander as there's a 15-second delay between the control center and the lander.

There's one amazing thing to be noted - this is THE FIRST COMMERCIAL LANDING ON THE MOON! I believe it's five countries that have landed on the moon: USA, Russia, China, India, and Japan. And now a commercial corporation.

This is especially important for Russet as it has yet another retroreflector for her to shoot her laser at! But it's going to be a little trick for two reasons. First, they don't know 100% where the lander is. So it's going to take a little walking the laser around the area it was expected to land at to get a return. But the big problem is that the reflector is on an antenna that is raised and lowered, like at right angles through a 90 degree arc, but Russet's NASA co-workers don't know if they'll be able to get solid information as to what orientation the antenna mast will be in before they start lasing!

Jerks.

;-)

The lander does not have a heater, so it probably won't last through a lunar night. If they leave the antenna elevated before it enters night, then the reflector can be used indefinitely. However, they timed their launch and landing so that it touched down at the beginning of the Moon's two-week day, so kudos there!

But the cool thing is that this is the first mission for Firefly! Amongst the missions planned is one similar to the Chinese mission where there will be an orbiter for relaying telemetry from landers back to Earth.

The launch that shot the Firefly to the Moon actually contained two landers - a Japanese lander took a different orbital trip to the Moon and will be landing in about 5 days.

But it doesn't have a retroreflector and is therefore much less interesting.

;-)

https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2025/03/02/nasa-science-touches-down-on-moon-aboard-firefly-aerospace-lander/

Saturday saw the launch of the Crew Dragon that will bring home the two stranded astronauts from the ISS early next year. Everything went according to plan - mostly. The capsule has docked with the ISS, the first stage booster landed on its recovery ship safely. But the second stage booster did not land within the planned recovery area at sea. As a result, SpaceX is temporarily suspending launches until the get a better understanding as to why this happened.

While the sea is a large space, there are 'space graveyard' zones in it that deorbiting things are supposed to hit and that are no-go zones during certain times, such as this. To miss such a scheduled window imperils shipping and is no bueno.

https://www.space.com/spacex-pause-launches-crew-9-falcon-9-issue

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/engineers-investigate-another-malfunction-on-spacexs-falcon-9-rocket/


In other ISS news, there's a bit of a concerning problem. There is a crack in the tunnel connecting the Russian module to the Soyuz docking port, and it is leaking air.

Now, the air leak actually isn't that big of a deal. They allow for this, and have known about it since it was first detected in September 2019. But things have gotten worse.

From the article: "...in February of this year NASA identified an increase in the leak rate from less than 1 pound of atmosphere a day to 2.4 pounds a day, and in April this rate increased to 3.7 pounds a day."

Uh... people? Maybe you might want to do something about this?

For now, they're mitigating risk by keeping the hatch leading to the module closed. If they can't figure out a way to fix this, they'll have to keep the hatch permanently closed, reducing the number of docking ports from four to three.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/nasa-confirms-space-station-cracking-a-highest-risk-and-consequence-problem/

Its return was successful. That's the good news, but the flight was not without incident: "Flight controllers conducted more test firings of the capsule’s thrusters following undocking; one failed to ignite. Engineers suspect the more the thrusters are fired, the hotter they become, causing protective seals to swell and obstruct the flow of propellant. They won’t be able to examine any of the parts; the section holding the thrusters was ditched just before reentry."

So they've recovered the capsule, and now they have a theory about what caused the thruster malfunction. And it's not difficult to test thrusters under high temperature as they have test chambers that can easily simulate those conditions. So we may have some answers on the thrusters forthcoming.

But we still don't know about the helium leak. Helium is kinda tricky. It's a very small molecule and can leak easily, that's why rubber helium balloons shrink so rapidly. The mylar helium balloons keep their inflation because mylar is less leaky than rubber: harder for the gas to escape.

Included in the capsule were the two astronauts' space suits and some old lab equipment.

The article has a video of the capsule undocking from the ISS which is pretty cool, seeing the thrusters firing to change its orientation.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/astronauts-left-behind-boeing-starliner-capsule-returns_n_66dbe6e5e4b01c1d24fc405c

The software has been updated for Boing to take full remote control of the vehicle and attempt to undock it and bring it back to Earth, where it will land at Space Harbor at White Sands Missile Range, about a hundred miles from my house, around six hours later. If all goes to plan.

One disappointing thing about it is that the thrusters that are the center point of the problem will be lost. Once the capsule is properly oriented for atmospheric reentry, they are part of an assembly that is ejected from the craft and they burn up in the atmosphere. We'll never know precisely what was wrong with those helium thrusters and we'll have to hope that engineers can duplicate the problem with ground-based units and testing.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/boeing-will-try-to-fly-its-troubled-starliner-capsule-back-to-earth-next-week/

White Sands is a tough place. It is the world's largest gypsum desert, pull it up in Google Earth, it's pretty cool. Once the Space Shuttle landed in California at Edwards and was being flown back to Florida and landed at White Sands to avoid a storm. And the gypsum just utterly trashed the 747 transporter's brakes! It was supposed to be there for a day or two while the storm abated, it was there for a couple of weeks while a crew was brought out to check out and service the plane! But it was a very scenic backdrop for photos while it was there.


The Dragon capsule that will be flying in late September with Crew 9 has had the final crew decided. The crew has been reduced from the normal four to two to accommodate the return of the two astronauts stranded by Boing. The capsule has been modified with additional seats behind the four crew seats.

One issue has been that of space suits. NASA standard space suits, such as those used for the travelers in the Starliner, are not compatible with the fittings in the Dragon. SpaceX has much more modern suits which are more comfortable and flexible/maneuverable for travel, whereas the NASA suits are better for EVA work if needed. There is one spare SpaceX suit on-hand on the ISS right now that will fix one of the two stranded astronauts, NASA has not revealed which. And Crew 9 will be bringing another suit, presumably for the other astronaut, so everyone will be properly suited for their return in February.

There is a second purpose for the seat reconfiguration of the Dragon capsule. The norm for the ISS is that there is always a Soyuz capsule docked to be used as an emergency life boat in case the station has to be abandoned in the event of an emergency: a fire, a debris collision that can't be avoided, etc. There have been a few times over the station's life where the crew have taken shelter in the capsule. This seat reconfiguration will allow the Dragon to serve as a lifeboat while docked. I have no idea if the Russians are planning a launch to coincide with the departure of the Dragon in February to fill its emergency role.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/nasa-makes-a-very-tough-decision-in-setting-final-crew-9-assignments/

Seriously. This is a proof of concept that building materials can be made out of lunar regolith. They ground up a 4.5 billion year old asteroid chunk, mixed it with presumably some sort of epoxy slurry, and formed them into viable Lego bricks, and built some simple structures out of it. Genuine Lego - the Lego corporation was involved in making them.

The article shows fourteen 2x4 bricks in a case, the article wasn't clear how many bricks were made, though they'll be on display in fifteen cities, so we know the minimum. I REALLY hope they have a guard posted at the stores throughout their exhibition!

And yes, all the bricks are space gray.

The bricks are on display at Lego locations:
USA
The LEGO Store, Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota
The LEGO Store, Disney Springs, Florida
The LEGO Store, Water Tower Place, Chicago
The LEGO Store, Disneyland Resort, California
The LEGO Store, 5th Avenue, New York

Canada: The LEGO Store, West Edmonton

UK: The LEGO Store, Leicester Square, London

Germany:
The LEGO Store, München Zentrum
The LEGO Store, Cologne

Denmark:
The LEGO Store, Copenhagen
LEGO House, Billund

Spain: The LEGO Store, Barcelona
France: The LEGO Store, Paris
Netherlands: The LEGO Store, Amsterdam
Australia: The LEGO Store, Sydney

https://www.engadget.com/lego-made-bricks-out-of-meteorite-dust-and-theyre-on-display-at-select-stores-161440194.html

https://www.lego.com/en-us/space/article/lego-space-bricks-moon

This probe, the Chang-e 6, touched down successfully Sunday morning Beijing time. This is their second successful landing, the first, the Chang-e 4, landed in 2019.

The mission is multi-part, and complex. The lander is a robotic probe that is slated to gather 2 kilograms of soil and dust using a drill and scoop. It will package them and place them in a ascent rocket which will then rendezvous with an orbiting unmanned ship which will return to Earth, reenter the atmosphere, and hopefully land near the Chinese space complex in Mongolia.

The region they are in is believed to be high in frozen water and is a potential base site for a future manned base. Analysis of these samples will be helpful in planning for this.

Because everything is happening on the far side of the moon, the probe would normally be in a total communications blackout. To work around this, the Chinese launched a communications relay satellite in March, the Queqiao-2. They are planning two more Chang-e missions in preparation for manned missions in 2030.

Now I would like to refer you to a book, A City On Mars, by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith. Zack is a web cartoonist and author, Kelly is a PhD scientist. They spent four years deeply immersed in researching the literature of living in space, attending conferences, talking to scientists, astronauts, and enthusiasts. And overall, their conclusion is 'No, not at this time.' There are far too many unknowns to support rushing off and building bases on the Moon or Mars. While we have a large amount of people-years in near Earth orbit, we have a total of less than a month of people living on the moon. We need a methodical study of people living in orbit, conducting controlled experiments of what happens to people living in space, which has not been done. Are the Chinese going to do it? Doubtful.

It's a good book, some of the cartoons are amusing. Recommended. It's also available as an ebook through most sources.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/01/china/china-change6-moon-landing-intl-hnk-scn/index.html