When You Wish Upon A Starliner…

NASA considers extending Starliner’s astronauts to 2025, Chinese space debris makes itself at home in LEO, and everything else that’s trapped in space this week.

Hello Celestial Citizens and Continuum readers,

Hope you had a wonderful and earthquake-free week. Or if you are like me and a Los Angeles resident, then you might have spent most of Monday afternoon googling emergency survival kits in preparation for the “big one.” Anyway, I’ve mostly recovered and have been planning some fun space content for you this fall. And in the spirit of that, I was hoping that you all could help me with that by taking another community-wide poll.

And now, the space beat you came here for…

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This edition of Continuum is brought to you by the Space Resources program at the Colorado School of Mines.

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Top Headlines

Matthew Dominick, the ISS’s resident photographer, captured a timelapse of this week’s aurora from space. Credit: X/Matthew Dominick

50 Ways to Leave the ISS  – This will be fun, they said. This was always meant to be a test, they said. It’s true that NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test was always intended to be a developmental mission, but Starliner’s blemished performance so far – which has led to an extended stay on the space station for mission astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore – has inevitably captured the world’s attention. With the anticipated week-long mission now crossing the two month line, NASA continues to punt the astronauts’ return date as engineers examine concerns surrounding Starliner’s thrusters and helium leaks.  Of course, a safety decision such as this demands time and attention, and the agency is committed to weighing all options. While it might be slow, it’s ultimately better than “unilateral decision-making,” a phrase NASA used to describe itself in the age of the Columbia tragedy. One possibility is for the agency to throw the Starliner astronauts a life raft in the shape of a SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle. Essentially, NASA would send the Crew-9 mission – scheduled to launch in September – with two astronauts instead of the usual four who participate in six month-long stints at the station. Those two astronauts would absorb Williams and Wilmore into their crew, and the foursome would fly home together in February of next year. It could be a tough pill to swallow for both the Starliner astronauts and for Boeing, which would have to watch its rival play savior in its botched mission.

Boeing Outta Luck – We really hate to kick a figurative horse when it's down, but sadly Starliner is not the only headache for Boeing. A NASA “watchdog” – not unlike the dreaded restaurant health inspector – recently visited a New Orleans facility where Boeing has been conducting work on a new version of NASA’s Space Launch System, which the agency defines as the “backbone for deep space exploration and Artemis.”  And let’s just say, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) did not come out with an “A” rating for the operation. In fact, the investigation of Boeing’s work on the launch vehicle’s core and upper stage – intended for Artemis 4 – churned up 71 corrective action requests (CARs), largely stemming from a lack of adequate staff training. The OIG also estimated the project to be roughly $700 million over budget, signaling probable delays for the mission scheduled for 2028. 

VIPER? I Hardly Know Her! – When it’s not serving searing reviews, NASA is giving away spacecraft. Word on the street is (and by that we mean NASA’s website) the agency is offering up its VIPER rover – but not exactly for free. After canceling the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) mission in July, the agency put out a request for interested parties – or, “partners” – to explain how they would use the rover. It seems the agency’s for a commercial rescue, to carry out the VIPER’s originally intended mission – and then some – ideally at “no additional cost to NASA.” Responses are due by September 2nd.

Thousand Sails Pieces of Debris – Everyone wants to compete with Starlink, but at what cost? Despite completing a successful satellite deployment, a recent Long March 6A launch left behind a distressing trail of debris. The Chinese mission was the first contribution to the nation’s Qianfan mega-constellation, delivering 18 flat panel satellites to low Earth orbit. However, a breakup of the rocket body resulted in “over 300 pieces of trackable debris” as per the US Space Command. It could even be more, according to SSA specialist LeoLabs, which has noted “at least 700 debris fragments and potentially more than 900.” Regardless of the exact total, concern for other LEO spacecraft is certainly warranted. Particularly at an altitude with less atmospheric drag, satellites will be at risk for years into the future. We should add that Qianfan means “Thousand Sails,” assuring that the country plans to launch many more. With Long March 6A’s messy track record this year, it doesn’t seem implausible that future launches could yield the same destruction. Here’s hoping ADRAS-J is up for the task – but that’s a lot of debris for one junk-hunting robot.

The Vibe I Bring to the Conjunction – Believe it or not, Mark Zuckerberg’s blue statue of his wife was not the wildest thing on social media this week. In the early hours of Wednesday, August 14th, Jupiter and Mars shared a small corner of the sky, their orbits aligning in what’s known as conjunction. To Earth dwellers, the brightly lit planets appeared to touch within the constellation Taurus, a phenomenon that will not happen again until 2033. Between the Mars-Jupiter conjunction, the Perseid meteor shower, and CME-fueled auroras – it’s certainly been an eventful week for space-watchers. 

Honorable Mentions

Our final notable nuggets.

Fram2 – What do Elon Musk and crypto bros have in common? Probably a lot. But one thing is for sure: they’ll be sharing a ride to space. A cryptocurrency entrepreneur just bought a private SpaceX Dragon flight, which will be the first human space flight to pass over Earth’s poles.

Going Nowhere FAA-st – Speaking of SpaceX, the FAA postponed a set of hearings scheduled for this week to discuss environmental impacts of Starship launches from Texas, the cadence of which SpaceX plans to increase. While the agency did not explicitly make this connection, the hearings were punted on the same day that CNBC reported on repeated cases of unregulated wastewater from Starbase. Maybe that deluge system wasn’t a flawless solution for the rocket, after all.

SCALPSS – Via its CLPS program, NASA will hitch a camera system to Blue Origin’s lunar lander mission, scheduled to launch as early as next spring. The Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies (SCALPSS) will study how engine plumes affect Moon dust on the surface of the South pole – or, lunar “regolith,” if you’re fancy. 

Palomar, No More – It looks like astronomers at Palomar Observatory will have to commit to a life of Red Vines to power them through a long night with the “Big Eye,” now that the historic Palomar restaurant has closed its doors.

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The JWST Download

Webb’s NIRCam has painted a picture of dust and gas at the center of Messier 106, their temperatures reflected in color. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Glen

• Webb's NIRCam just captured a new image of Messier 106 as part of a study to examine the spiral galaxy’s “active galactic nucleus,” according to ESA. In it, red, orange and teal tones show off the central region’s diverse range of dust and gas. 

• Thanks to the JWST, researchers have been able to take a closer look at some hot, hot dust around the galaxy called ESO 428-G14.  While astronomers previously assumed the dust was heated by radiation from the galaxy’s central black hole, the source of the energy may actually be collisions of super fast gas, also known as “shocks.” 

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This edition of Continuum is supported by the Open Lunar Foundation. Open Lunar's work sets precedents, creates pathways, and builds projects that enable a peaceful, cooperative lunar presence. Learn more about Open Lunar's work by joining their upcoming events.

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A Global Space

Students at the University of Western Australia equip a Jeep to receive high-speed laser signals from space. Credit: ICRAR

Australia – Last month, a team of Australian researchers organized a demonstration involving lasers and a tricked-out Jeep. While that may sound too cool to be true, the experiment was a great success. Designed to test optical communication, the team set out to receive a laser signal from a German satellite with TeraNet, its network of three ground stations situated across Western Australia. One of those ground stations is a modded Jeep, making it a uniquely mobile option. This is a helpful trait for a laser-focused (pun intended) station, as clouds and other weather can interfere with optical transmissions. The TeraNet demonstration proved that within fifteen minutes of arriving at a clear-skied site, the Jeep could be set up to receive a signal. By solving the weather problem of laser communication – which is 10 to 100 times faster than transmitting data through radio waves – Australia could really change the game not just for itself but for the world.

Canada – The government of Canada is doing all they can to launch their Lightspeed constellation at, well…lightspeed. Beyond the federal government committing 2.14 billion Canadian dollars ($1.6 billion) to the flagship constellation in March, the satellite operator Telesat now expects to receive 400 million Canadian dollars from the government of Quebec. With its future 198-satellite constellation, Telesat plans to stand out against SpaceX’s Starlink by establishing the network as “enterprise-class,” and catering its services to government customers. 

Russia – This week saw a shuffling of Russian cargo freighters at the ISS. After one Progress cargo craft departed the space station on Monday, August 12th, another launched atop a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur on Thursday, August 15th. As is usual, the latest Progress mission is a robotic mission, carrying a few tons of food and supplies for the astronauts on board. Here’s hoping there was an extra pair of clothes for Suni and Butch, who may still be operating off of a week’s worth of underwear. 

China – Its debris scandal aside, China’s recent launch of eighteen inaugural “Thousand Sails” satellites does bode well for the nation from a geopolitical perspective. With Starlink’s dominance in LEO, China – along with any other nation at odds with the US – finds itself with a military disadvantage. With a first step towards a sovereign LEO network, China could soon stand on equal footing with Starlink-friendly countries, particularly when it comes to wartime communication. The nation is similarly developing a lunar communication relay system to avoid a dependence on other countries’ ground stations. And hey, if it’s not these new systems giving China its edge, it’ll be the debris from their respective launches knocking out rival spacecraft.

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And that’s a wrap on this week in space news! 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 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