Three’s a Party
Starship’s third test flight goes (mostly) to plan, ISRO reveals early imagery from its 3D weather satellite, and all the other reasons the best things come in threes.
Hello Celestial Citizens and Continuum readers,
Happy Birthday to me and William Shatner! Only accepting birthday wishes in the form of live long and prosper today — in case you were wondering. And definitely not in the form of champagne showers raining down all over my profound ponderings of humanity’s place in the universe. Y’all it’s been two years, and I STILL can’t let this go — maybe on my next trip around the sun.
Here’s my celestial birthday wishes for the year ahead:
Start building something truly innovative for space.
Spend a moment every day remembering why I love space in the first place.
Block out all other noise.
Apologize less and say what I actually think.
Surround myself with people that inspire me and have my back.
Trust the process.
You didn’t ask, but now you know! And here’s the space beat you came here for…
Top Headlines
Good Things Come In Threes – Apparently, the third time was the charm for SpaceX, who reached near orbit with their third test flight of Starship on March 14th, checking off a key milestone for the demonstration. While the rocket was unable to achieve all of its objectives, such as a planned relight of one of the Raptor engines and a “soft splashdown” in the Gulf of Mexico – the Super Heavy booster breaking apart around 46 minutes after takeoff, over 460 meters above the water – the latest Starship test still marks significant progress. In fact, its shortcomings were largely related to the rocket’s reusability; Starship’s performance as an expendable rocket was relatively good. The rocket was able to pull off a propellant transfer demonstration as well as opening and closing a payload bay door – or “pez dispenser,” as SpaceX likes to call it – which will be later used for deploying Starlink satellites. How much later remains the question on everyone’s mind. Rumors that Starship’s next, or fourth test flight would carry Starlink satellites were put to rest by the company’s COO Gwynne Shotwell at the SAT24 conference in Washington D.C. this week. The next Starship flight – which Shotwell announced could launch as soon as May assuming timely FAA approvals – and probably subsequent demonstrations will focus on “getting reentry right,” before any prize payloads are introduced to the rocket. But surely, a Starlink delivery system is top of mind for the Shotwell-run – er, Musk-run (but, really) – company. Because while SpaceX shoots for the Moon – specifically, with NASA’s Artemis program which hopes to utilize the spacecraft for a human lunar landing in a few years time – they have to consider short-term revenue opportunities in the interim. According to space writer and author of The Six, Loren Grush, SpaceX’s newest V2 Starlink satellites have the size and power to drastically boost performance of Starlink service. And those puppies need a powerhouse like Starship to lift them to the stars. So, yeah, Starship’s latest progress is definitely exciting for NASA and Artemis. But it’s probably most exciting to SpaceX, who could really make bank off of an improved Starlink constellation. And that’s jazz capitalism!
Making The Cut (Space Edition) – Like the high school theater teacher posting the cast bulletin for this year’s musical, Congress served the space community with the long-awaited FY24 government spending decisions two weeks ago. Most notably, with $24.875 billion allocated to NASA, the bill leaves the agency with 8.5% less funding compared to what was requested, and 2% less than what they received last year. While some programs received explicit support from the U.S. government – like the Near Earth Object Surveyor, Dragonfly missions, and Habitable Worlds Observatory office – others, particularly efforts related to planetary science, will have to face reductions. According to the Planetary Society, “the $483 million cut to the planetary division’s topline effectively ensures that MSR remains on ice for the remainder of the fiscal year.” While two NOAA weather satellite programs landed their full requests, other NOAA missions weren’t so lucky, such as the Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON), which received just over half of its request. The Office of Space Commerce – hosted by the NOAA – also took a $5 million pay cut relative to its previous year. The FAA, on the other hand, received its full request, as well as pressure “to dedicate resources to improve [launch and reentry] processes.” Budget cuts aside, the commerce, justice and science (CJS) and transportation agencies can at least move forward with structure instead of guessing games. With clarity on FY24, FY25 requests are also in – such as those from NASA, the Space Force, the FAA and from the Space Development Agency. Seeing the writing on the wall in regards to planetary and Earth science squeezes, NASA consolidated their Earth System Observatory budget for the FY25 request by breaking larger missions into smaller pieces and incorporating on international partnerships. Somehow, amidst the slashing, the people’s favorite Venus mapper mission known as VERITAS is back from the dead!
Destroyer of Worlds – In some sort of devastating poetry, the United States and Japan stood firm together this week against nuclear weapons in orbit. According to Reuters, the two nations – once on opposing sides of the use of nuclear weapons – proposed a United Nations Security Council resolution that urges countries (lookin’ at you, Russia) not only to avoid launching a nuclear weapon into orbit but to also avoid developing them, the latter of which is not necessarily stipulated in the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Because as Nolan’s Oppenheimer reminded us, there is a sad and slippery slope from having the weapon to using it. And while a nuclear anti-satellite weapon might not have as drastic or direct of an effect on humans as the catastrophic atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the repercussions are still substantial. Usage of such a wide-reaching weapon could create a sort of “cascade” of debris – known as Kessler syndrome – effectively rendering space inaccessible to humans for decades. That goes for all humans, including Russians. While that may seem counterintuitive, the Putin-led nation understands that cutting off space will, according to security risk expert Andrew Reddie, “asymmetrically affect the Americans.”
Anything But Ordinary – A new 63-page report from the Pentagon does its best to quell the American public’s demand for UFO/UAP transparency from the government. The document claims that any unknown flying objects encountered and reported by the military over the years came down to “misidentification” – not aliens. The report went on to suggest that poor image quality is to blame for any sightings that the defense department can’t certainly identify at present. With clearer imagery, those U.A.P. “could be identified and resolved as ordinary objects or phenomena,” according to the report. If you say so? While Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder assures the Pentagon approached this task with an open mind, we’re not sure a government-sponsored report will do much to convince anyone concerned with government cover-ups.
Honorable Mentions
Our final notable nuggets.
The Return of Crew 7 – After six months on the International Space Station, Crew-7 returned to Earth early on the morning of March 12th, splashing down in a Crew Dragon capsule off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.
NRO’s Hybrid Approach – Another update from this year’s Satellite 24 conference comes from the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), who is saying when it comes to satellites, size doesn’t matter! We’re legally obligated to say that those are our words, not theirs. The agency plans to utilize modern LEO smallsats in addition to more traditional – often heftier – spacecraft to achieve a more diverse and robust multi-orbit spy satellite architecture.
Remembering Thomas Stafford – Earlier this month, acclaimed NASA astronaut Thomas Stafford passed away at age 93. Stafford was instrumental in the United States’ first moonwalks; flying with Apollo 10, he paved the way for Armstrong and Aldrin with Apollo 11. Stafford also played a pivotal role in the first international mission between the U.S. and Russia, connecting an Apollo capsule to a Soyuz spacecraft in an impressive rendezvous effort. You may read more about Stafford’s lasting impact on human spaceflight in his memoir, titled We Have Capture.
Space Workforce 2030 – On March 18th, two nonprofits – the Aerospace Corp and the Space Foundation – announced that they’d be supporting a 2022 initiative known as Space Workforce 2030. The initiative intends to promote a more diverse and inclusive, well, space workforce – as the name aptly suggests. Tapped to lead the coalition when it kicks off in 2030 is former Slingshot Aerospace CEO Melanie Stricklen.
“I’m Not Dead Yet!” – A new signal from Voyager 1 may have NASA flippin'-and-reversing’ on their fatal conclusions about the faraway spacecraft from a couple weeks ago.
The JWST Download
The JWST’s NIRCam recently captured a long-studied Nebula, known NGC 604 – the most mega-star-packed nebula that astronomers currently know about. The colossal stars are so hot and powerful that their winds carve bubble-like cavities in the nebula’s gas emissions.
The Extremely Large Telescope is coming for the JWST’s money. But not quickly.
Everything we thought we knew about space physics is – wrong? A recent study used data from the JWST and Hubble telescopes to draw new conclusions about the “Hubble Tension,” which is just, oh, a little snag – that the universe appears to be expanding at wildly different rates. Essentially, the study eliminated measurement error as a potential cause of the discrepancy, propelling the science community to relearn the physics we thought we knew so well.
Researchers are using the JWST to look into the “disk winds” of our universe’s gas giants. Is it just us, or does “disk wind” sound like a term an ultimate frisbee bro would use?
A Global Space
Japan – A privately built rocket from a Japanese company ended abruptly in an explosion on March 12th. A mere five seconds after launch from Spaceport Kii in Honshu, the small-lift Kairos rocket burst into fragments, which reportedly did not cause any injuries or serious damage to the launch infrastructure. Built by Space One, Kairos would have been the first rocket to launch to orbit developed solely with private funding – such as from electronics expert Canon and rocket developer IHI Aerospace – and without JAXA backing. That being said, the Japanese government is looking to start a $6.7-billion (1 trillion yen) JAXA fund to commercialize more space efforts and boost the industry.
China – Similarly experiencing bad launch luck was China. On March 13th, a Long March 2C upper stage anomaly likely lost two Chinese spacecraft, which according to state-run media failed to insert into their intended, or “preset orbit.” News of the failure came as a surprise, as the announcement was the first time the world had heard of the launch to begin with. The probable loss of China’s DRO-A and B satellites is – as far as we know – the first Long March issue since 2020. Nevertheless, China didn’t let the defeat slow them down much, launching the Queqiao-2 communications satellite on March 20th. The Queqiao-2 satellite sets the stage for May’s Chang’e 6 mission to the far side of the moon, during which the orbiting spacecraft will act as a signal relay, or bridge, between the mission and ground operations.
South Korea – Also on March 13th, President of South Korea Yoon Suk Yeol announced that he’d nearly double the nation’s space budget by 2027. With 836.2 billion won ($626.78 million USD) in government funding this year, the South Korean space industry can look forward to 1.5 trillion won ($1.14 billion USD) in only a few years time. This three-year funding goal is part of a larger, eight-year plan to launch the nation’s first mission to the moon in 2032, an effort that will ideally generate hundreds of thousands of new jobs. And the nation is well on their way, as the Ministry of Science just announced the ongoing recruitment of 120 new staff members for the debut of Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), opening on May 27th. Their philosophy is simple: high rates will attract the best talent (hey, must be the money!). With the agency’s future director and senior researchers potentially earning salaries of 250 million won and over-100 million won, respectively, KASA higher-ups could be raking in more than the country’s president – which would be a first.
ISRO – India has released the first images from a new ISRO weather satellite, known as INSAT-3DS. Like an onion – or Shrek – the atmosphere has a lot of layers, so to speak. What makes INSAT-3DS so special is its ability to capture multiple spectral wavelengths in order to produce a comprehensive look at the Earth and its meteorologic tendencies. The spacecraft’s six channel imager offers insight into clouds, aerosols, land temperature, water vapor and more, while its “Sounder” payload measures temperature and humidity levels vertically. The nation looks forward to spacecraft’s potential to offer not only meteorological observations but disaster prevention and communication.
ESA – Our favorite European dark-matter-seeker is experiencing some astral adversity, as of late. The team behind Euclid – a telescope tasked with observing dark matter in the deep dark bowels of space – is figuring out how to “de-ice” the spacecraft, which has been gradually losing its vision due to a collection of frozen water molecules on its mirrors that aid its sensitive optical system. However, with the spacecraft approximately 1 million miles away, doing so will be a precarious, remote task. The good news is: the spacecraft contains on-board heaters, which mission control will attempt to turn on in lower risk areas before moving on to its more critical optical parts. Woof! We don’t envy those in that pressure cooker of a mission control room, that’s for sure. Here’s wishing Euclid a speedy recovery – it has so much nothing to see.
Russia – Oh the Soyuz. We hate to drag you for the umpteenth time, but you just make it so easy. Of course, the classic rocket has had plenty of successes throughout its long lifespan. But today, we’re coming to you with another Soyuz whiff. Yesterday, three astronauts — NASA’s Tracy Dyson, Roscosmos’ Oleg Novitsky and Belarus’ Marina Vasilevskaya — boarded a Soyuz rocket at Baikonur in Kazakhstan. Twenty seconds from liftoff, the automatic safety system aborted the launch. According to Roscosmos chief Yuri Borisov, the cause of the stopdown “was a voltage drop in the chemical power source.” The trio is safe and sound, preparing for the mission’s next attempt on Saturday.
And that’s a wrap on this week in space news! Keep an eye out for a new Saturday Space Reads in your inbox tomorrow as well as this coming Monday for Moonshot, our paid subscriber newsletter covering the commercial space sector. A big thank you to Tess Ryan for writing this edition with me and for keeping up with the cosmos! We hope you enjoyed reading Continuum this week and will share it with your friends. And if you really, really like us, then consider making it official and becoming a paid subscriber or spreading the space gospel and gifting a subscription.
Keep it celestial people,
Britt
CEO of Celestial Citizen & Creator of Continuum