NASA's exoplanet hunter TESS spots a record-breaking 3-star system

Using NASA's exoplanet-hunting spacecraft, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), scientists have spotted a record-breaking triple-star system so tightly bound that it could fit comfortably between the sun and its closest planet, Mercury. The system, designated TIC 290061484 contains twin stars that race around each other once every 1.8 Earth days as well as a third star that orbits this pair once every 25 Earth days. This triple star system's super-tight orbit, located just under 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the swan, makes it a record-breaker. The previous record-holder for the tightest three-star system orbit is Lamba Tauri, which set the record in 1956 with its third star taking 33 days to orbit its inner twin stars. The discovery team included citizen scientists who met as part of the now-closed Planet Hunters project, which ran from 2010 to 2013. The amateurs joined with professional astronomers to form the Visual Survey Group collaboration, which has been operating for a decade. "Thanks to the compact, edge-on configuration of the system, we can measure the orbits, masses, sizes and temperatures of its stars," team member Veselin Kostov from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and part of the SETI Institute said in a statement. "We can study how the system formed and predict how it may evolve."

Three's company

The team thinks the star system TIC 290061484 is highly stable because the stars orbit each other in nearly the same plane. If the stars' orbits were tilted in different directions, their gravitational influences would disrupt their orbits, making the system unstable.

This stability won't last forever, though — maybe a few million years. Though that's a long time to us, it's a blink of an eye in our 13.8 billion-year-old cosmos. And as Visual Survey Group team member Saul Rappaport, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), reminds us, referring to the fate of the TIC 290061484 stars: "No one lives here."

As the twin stars at the heart of this triple star system age, they will expand outward and ultimately merge. This will trigger a massive supernova explosion in around 20 to 40 million years. Fortunately, this is unlikely to impact any life on planets around the three stars as there don't seem to be any planets close enough to the stars to support life (as we know it, at least).

"We think the stars formed together from the same growth process, which would have disrupted planets from forming very closely around any of the stars," Rappaport said.

It is possible, however, that a very distant planet could exist in the TIC 290061484 system, orbiting the three stars as if they were one.

The Roman Telescope's promise

The team spotted the record-breaking triple star system because of strobing starlight caused by the stars crossing in front of each other, as seen from our position on Earth.

The team turned to machine learning to analyze vast amounts of data from TESS to spot a pattern indicating these eclipses. They then called upon the aid of citizen scientists to further filter this data to spot interesting signals.

"We're mainly looking for signatures of compact multi-star systems, unusual pulsating stars in binary systems, and weird objects," Rappaport said. "It's exciting to identify a system like this because they're rarely found, but they may be more common than current tallies suggest."

The team thinks many more systems like this are likely to be spread across the Milky Way, waiting to be discovered. Some may even exhibit shorter orbits than the stars of the TIC 290061484 system. Current technology may be insufficient to spot these tightly bound triple stars, but help is on the way.

Set to launch no earlier than May 2027, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, or just "Roman," will provide vastly more detailed images of space than those gathered by TESS.

An illustration of the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. (Image credit: NASA)

NASA's exoplanet hunter takes a wide view of the cosmos, while Roman will take a "zoomed-in" view. To put this into perspective, an area of space that is covered by a single pixel in an image from TESS will have a whopping 36,000 pixels in an image from Roman. This will, in fact, allow Roman to gaze deep into the heart of the Milky Way, where stars are tightly packed together.

"We don't know much about a lot of the stars in the center of the galaxy except for the brightest ones," team member and Goddard data scientist Brian Powell said. "Roman's high-resolution view will help us measure light from stars that usually blur together, providing the best look yet at the nature of star systems in our galaxy."

One of Roman's main missions will be to monitor the light from hundreds of millions of stars, which should help astronomers spot the strobing effect that revealed the TIC 290061484 system.

"We're curious why we haven't found star systems like these with even shorter outer orbital periods," Powell explained. "Roman should help us find them and bring us closer to figuring out what their limits might be."

Roman may even enable scientists to spot tightly packed star systems with more than three stars, perhaps as many as six, buzzing around each other like bees in a hive.

"Before scientists discovered triply eclipsing triple star systems, we didn't expect them to be out there," team member Tamás Borkovits of the Baja Observatory in Hungary said in the statement. "But once we found them, we thought, well, why not?

"Roman, too, may reveal never-before-seen categories of systems and objects that will surprise astronomers."

James Webb Space Telescope finds 'puffball' exoplanet is uniquely lopsided

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered that a "puffy" planet is asymmetric, meaning there is a significant difference between one side of the atmosphere and the other. The extrasolar planet or "exoplanet" in question is WASP-107 b, which orbits an orange star smaller than the sun located around 210 light-years away. Discovered in 2017, WASP-107 b is 94% the size of Jupiter but only has 10% of the mass of the solar system gas giant. This means it is one of the least dense exoplanets ever discovered, far "puffier" than expected. Earlier this year, scientists determined this is likely the result of the interior of WASP-107 b being much hotter than predicted, and the planet is also thought to possess a rocky core that is larger than what was previously modeled. These strange characteristics were explained by a scarcity of methane in its atmosphere. Now, scientists have another WASP-107 b mystery to solve. The curious asymmetry of WASP-107 b presents astronomers with a conundrum. "This is the first time the east-west asymmetry of any exoplanet has ever been observed from space as it transits its star," Matthew Murphy, a graduate student at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory, said in a statement. Murphy and colleagues studied WASP-107 by recording light from its host star as it passed through the atmosphere of the planet as it crossed or "transited" the face of its star. "A transit is when a planet passes in front of its star — like the moon does during a solar eclipse," Murphy said, adding that "observations made from space have a lot of different advantages versus observations that are made from the ground."

An illustration of the inflated exoplanet WASP-107 b orbiting its star. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI))

WASP-107 b is unbalanced

WASP-107 b orbits its star at a distance of around 5 million miles, or about 6% of the distance between Earth and the sun. This means that the planet completes an orbit in around five Earth days. In addition, the exoplanet is tidally locked to its star. This results in one side, the "dayside," permanently facing the star, while the other, the "nightside," faces out to space in perpetuity.

The exoplanet isn't as hot as many worlds so close to their stars. Its temperature is 890 degrees Fahrenheit (477 degrees Celsius), which puts it between the hottest exoplanets and the relatively chilly planets of the solar system. WASP-107 b is uniquely light in terms of density, which gives rise to weak gravity and results in a highly inflated atmosphere.

"We don't have anything like it in our own solar system. It is unique, even among the exoplanet population," Murphy said.

Because elements absorb and emit light at characteristic wavelengths, the spectrum of light passing through an atmosphere can reveal what that atmosphere is made of via a technique called transmission spectroscopy. Because the JWST was able to observe WASP-107 b as it passed in front of its star, scientists were able to determine the composition of its atmosphere.

The transmission spectrum of WASP-107 b showing the composition of its atmosphere. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI) Science: L. Welbanks (ASU) and the JWST MANATEE team)

The JWST's high precision also allowed the team to get "snapshots" of the exoplanet and separate signals emerging from its east and west sides. This allowed them to better understand the processes happening in the atmosphere of WASP-107 b.

"These snapshots tell us a lot about the gases in the exoplanet's atmosphere, the clouds, the structure of the atmosphere, the chemistry, and how everything changes when receiving different amounts of sunlight," Murphy continued. "Traditionally, our observing techniques don't work as well for these intermediate planets, so there's been a lot of exciting open questions that we can finally start to answer.

"For example, some of our models told us that a planet like WASP-107b shouldn't have this asymmetry at all — so we're already learning something new."

The team now plans to examine the data they collected with the JWST more closely to build a better picture of WASP-107 b and pinpoint what is causing the asymmetry in its atmosphere.

"For almost all exoplanets, we can't even look at them directly, let alone be able to know what's going on one side versus the other," Murphy concluded. "For the first time, we're able to take a much more localized view of what's going on in an exoplanet's atmosphere."

Samara Aerospace claims SpaceWERX contract

Startup Samara Aerospace won a SpaceWERX contract to develop a unique approach to satellite pointing. Under a $1.25 million direct-to-phase two contract awarded in late August, Samara Aerospace will work with an Earth-imaging company to improve pointing accuracy for a 200- to 500-kilogram spacecraft. “This is a huge win for us,” said Patrick Haddox, Samara Aerospace co-founder and CEO. The innovation that prompted aerospace engineers Haddox and Vedant to found Samara Aerospace is called Multifunctional Structures for Attitude Control (MSAC). Vedant patented MSAC with James T. Allison, director of the Engineering System Design Laboratory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory supported the technology development, said Vedant, who holds a PhD in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois. “MSAC allows us to put small piezoelectric actuators in the hinges of deployable solar panels,” Haddox told SpaceNews. “By actuating those very precisely and in rapid succession, we can induce little circular vibrations into the panels. When you vibrate a mass in a circle, you get the same effect as spinning a wheel in a circle.” In fact, rather than inducing jitter, MSAC promises active noise cancellation, Haddox said.

Samara Aerospace is focused on Multifunctional Structures for Attitude Control, technology that includes small piezoelectric actuators in the hinges of deployable solar panels to improve satellite pointing accuracy. Credit: Samara Aerospace

“For any jitter detected at a sensitive payload, we do equal and opposite vibration with the solar panels to make the platform as steady as possible,” Haddox said. As a result, MSAC could improve pointing accuracy for Earth-observation and optical-communications satellites, he added.

“Traditionally, there’s been a fight between guidance, navigation and control engineers, who want satellite maneuverability, and power system engineers, who want large solar panels,” Vedant said. “We literally flip the trade. A larger solar panel comes with its own agility.”
Rapid Scaling

Samara Aerospace, established in 2022, completed the TechStars Los Angeles accelerator earlier this year. And in January, the National Science Foundation announced a $275,000 Small Business Technology Transfer award to Samara Aerospace and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to produce a “flight capable” MSAC demonstrator.

“The result of this Phase 1 award will be a more reliable, efficient, and industry-ready MSAC system, as well as the opportunity for a $1.5M Phase 2 grant from NSF,” Samara Aerospace posted on LinkedIn. “This would allow Samara to launch our spacecraft into orbit, providing critical data and flight heritage.”

Samara Aerospace recently opened an office in San Francisco for its staff, which is expected to double from five to 10 employees by the end of the year.

“We’re scaling rapidly and getting started on creating our first hummingbird technology demonstrator,” Haddox said.

Hummingbird is the name of Samara’s thin spacecraft bus. Thanks to MSAC, “we’re able to build our satellites flat, basically on a plate,” Haddox said.

Canopy wins Air Force contracts to develop thermal protection systems

The U.S. Air Force awarded Canopy Aerospace two contracts with a combined value of $2.8 million to develop thermal protection systems (TPS). One contract focuses on Canopy’s transpiration-cooled TBS. Under a second contract, Canopy will embed high-temperature sensors in the TPS material. Denver-based Canopy was founded in 2021 to develop manufacturing processes that rely on software, automation and 3D-printing to supply heat shields for spacecraft and hypersonic vehicles. “We’ve since expanded our vision significantly to solve thermal management across all industries including space, defense, power generation, power electronics and computer systems,” Matt Shieh, Canopy co-founder and CEO, told SpaceNews. Canopy’s latest contracts were awarded in August through AFWERX in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate’s Atomic Long-Range Systems Branch. The Air Force Materiel Command’s Arnold Engineering Development Complex is supporting the work. The Air Force contracts “help inform and influence our work with commercial partners,” Shieh said. “We see the government as validating the technology that needs to be developed and the problems that need to be solved in this industry.”

Canopy's high-heat flux testing of thermal protection system materials. Credit: Canopy Aerospace

Transpiration Cooling

Canopy is additively manufacturing ceramic materials for transpiration-cooled TPS under one of the contracts. Hypersonic vehicles can cool themselves by expelling pressurized fluid from the leading edge. The evaporating fluid forms an insulation layer, protecting the vehicle from extreme heating during atmospheric reentry.

Under a second award, Canopy is embedding sensors in the TPS to monitor the environment. The goal is to “extend the design envelope for future systems development and reduce downtime needed for maintenance and inspection of strategic nuclear reentry systems,” according to the Sept. 5 news release.

While the research campaigns are distinct, the technologies – transpiration-cooling and embedded sensors – could be combined in future TPS designs, Will Dickson, Canopy chief commercial officer, said by email.

Canopy is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony Sept. 5 for its new facility south of Denver. The 6,096-square-meter facility is designed for the company’s manufacturing and materials development activities.

To date, Canopy has won $7.5 million in government contracts and raised $4 million in venture capital.

Why the 7 worlds of TRAPPIST-1 waltz in peculiar patterns

The stability of the TRAPPIST-1 system is the result of a more unstable past. Scientists may have finally revealed the history of the tantalizing TRAPPIST-1 system, an intricate collection of seven worlds that sit about 40 light-years away from us. These worlds, many astronomers and astrobiologists say, may offer us a promising chance of finding life outside the solar system — but they also exhibit peculiar orbital patterns. The newly outlined history of TRAPPIST-1 may, at last, explain how those patterns came to be. When planets form around a young star, their orbital periods often enter "resonances" with each other. An everyday example of a resonance has to do with pushing someone on a playground swing — if you time the push to coincide with the natural frequency of the swing, such as when the swing is just about to go back down, your push would amplify the size of the swing's arc. Similarly, planets often find themselves in resonances with each other. For example, an inner planet can orbit exactly twice for every one orbit of an outer planet. This is a 2:1 resonance, and like pushing a child on a swing amplifies how fast they swing, the exchange of gravitational energy between resonant planets usually makes their orbits unstable, amplifying orbital periods until the planets eventually move out of resonance with one another. Another common planetary resonance is 3:2.

A line-up of the worlds of TRAPPIST-1 are shown in this artist’s impression. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech)

For the above reason, planetary resonances often become unstable over time, such as in our solar system — but not always. Some planetary systems manage to keep their resonance patterns, and TRAPPIST-1 is one of those systems.

Systems with stable resonances are no doubt aided by how compact the system is; TRAPPIST-1's seven worlds are spread across less than 8 million kilometers, and they would all easily fit inside the orbit of Mercury multiple times over.

TRAPPIST-1's outer three planets — designated f, g and h — are in a chain of 3:2 resonances.

"The outer planets behave properly, so to speak, with the simpler expected resonances," said Gabriele Pichierri, who is a planetary scientist at Caltech, in a statement. "But the inner ones have resonances that are a bit spicier."

For example, the orbital periods of the two innermost planets, b and c, are in an 8:5 resonance, meaning planet b orbits eight times for every five orbits of planet c. Meanwhile, planets c and d are in a 5:3 resonance.

So, how did these complex arrangements arise?

Pichierri is the lead author of a new research paper that delves into the early history of TRAPPIST-1 to discover how its planets wound up in this delicate configuration. The crew found a story of a shifting protoplanetary disk of gas and dust combined with powerful torques that pushed the planets around.

The innermost planets would have formed first, so Pichierri and his team divided the TRAPPIST-1 system into two sub-groups — the inner planets b, c, d and e, and the outer planets f, g and h. (Unlike our solar system, in which the outer planets are gas giants, the outer planets of TRAPPIST-1 are rocky worlds.) Their modeling identified three phases in the evolution of the system.

Here's what the team found.

In the first phase, the four innermost planets all start life in 3:2 resonances with each other, so b and c are in a 3:2 orbital resonance, as are c and d, and d and e. As the inner planets formed out of material from the protoplanetary disk, and their burgeoning red dwarf star ignited nuclear fusion in its core and produced radiation that began to dissipate the disk, the inner edge of the disk would have receded outwards.

In the second phase, planet e, anchored in the receding inner edge of the disk, would have found itself being dragged outwards, away from planets b, c and d and towards the worlds forming in the outer part of the system. This had the effect of causing the orbits of planets b, c and d to waver, and they crossed through the 8:5 and 5:3 resonances as their orbital periods widened, but were then pushed back via a gravitational torque (a twisting, rotational force) from the outer system, until they settled into the 8:5 and 5:3 resonances that they have today.

What of planet e, though? By the final phase, the three outer worlds had formed. Often, when planets form in a protoplanetary disk, they shed orbital angular momentum, exchanging this angular momentum with the disk that they are accreting material from in order to grow. This results in them migrating towards the inner edge of the disk. In the TRAPPIST-1 system, this likely had the effect of pushing planet e back, until the inner and outer parts of the planetary system settled into the configuration that they are in today.

"By looking at TRAPPIST-1, we have been able to test exciting new hypotheses for the evolution of planetary systems," said Pichierri. "TRAPPIST-1 is very interesting because it is so intricate: it’s a long planetary chain, and it’s a great exemplar for testing alternative theories about planetary system formation."

The research was published on Aug. 20 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Boeing needs to improve quality-control work on SLS moon rocket, NASA Inspector General finds

A scathing report from NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) has highlighted several critical issues related to the development of the next version of the agency's Space Launch System megarocket, which will likely delay Artemis moon missions. The report, released by NASA's internal watchdog on Aug. 8, focuses on the gigantic Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1B and its Exploration Upper Stage (EUS). Block 1B is designed to increase the amount of cargo SLS can carry to the moon. The upgraded version is key to NASA's long-term lunar plans and will be used for Artemis 4, currently scheduled to launch in 2028. The OIG found that work being done by Boeing — the prime contractor for the SLS core and upper stages, as well as the rocket's flight avionics suite — at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans does not meet international standards or agency requirements. This has led to numerous Corrective Action Requests (CARs) issued by the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA). A CAR, which can vary in level of severity, indicates that work has not conformed to specific contract requirements.

NASA's Space Launch System rocket launches the Artemis 1 mission, Nov. 16, 2022. (Image credit: Josh Dinner)

According to the OIG report, these quality-control lapses at Michoud are "largely due to the lack of a sufficient number of trained and experienced aerospace workers at Boeing." The report criticizes Boeing's inadequate training and supervision efforts, which fail to mitigate these deficiencies, thereby raising serious concerns about the safety and reliability of the SLS components.

The report also notes growing cost estimates and suggests that Artemis 4 may not hit its expected September 2028 launch date due to such issues.

"We project SLS Block 1B costs will reach approximately $5.7 billion before the system is scheduled to launch in 2028. This is $700 million more than NASA's 2023 Agency Baseline Commitment, which established a cost and schedule baseline at nearly $5 billion," the OIG report states.

"EUS development accounts for more than half of this cost, which we estimate will increase from an initial cost of $962 million in 2017 to nearly $2.8 billion through 2028."

It states that Boeing's delivery of the EUS to NASA has so far been delayed from February 2021 to April 2027. These issues, when combined with other factors, suggest further delays, which would impact Artemis 4.

Boeing's response to these issues has also been found to be ineffective, particularly regarding recurrent quality-control problems.

The OIG's recommendations include developing a compliant quality management training program for Boeing and issuing financial penalties for Boeing's noncompliance with quality standards. A detailed cost overrun analysis on Boeing's EUS development contract is also suggested. NASA agreed with three of four recommendations, but did not agree to institute financial penalties for Boeing's noncompliance with quality-control standards.

The report is another blow to Boeing, whose Starliner spacecraft is currently under scrutiny following its unscheduled, extended stay docked at the International Space Station (ISS) while tests related to problematic reaction control thrusters continue.

It is also another issue for NASA's Artemis program. The Artemis 2 and Artemis 3 missions — the latter being the planned first return of humans to the moon's surface — have this year already been pushed back to September 2025 and September 2026, respectively.

Meanwhile, Artemis' Orion spacecraft, which is built by Lockheed Martin, also faces some trouble. The NASA OIG issued a report in May on Orion heat shield issues, which could further impact the readiness for the Artemis 2 mission, which will send astronauts around the moon.

China’s Space Pioneer pushes towards launch despite static-fire debacle

Chinese commercial launch firm Space Pioneer appears to be moving towards a first launch of its Tianlong-3 rocket despite a disastrous static-fire test in June. Space Pioneer suffered a serious setback in its plans to debut the Tianlong-3 kerosene-liquid oxygen rocket later this year following a static-fire test anomaly June 30. That test saw the first stage escape its test bench and climb into the sky before falling to the ground and exploding. The explosion occurred on a mountainside but was perilously close to inhabited areas, leading to the event being filmed by bystanders. The company was conducting its test as a buildup to an orbital launch of the Tianlong-3, which is benchmarked against the SpaceX Falcon 9. The incident drew widespread attention and no little criticism within China. Space Pioneer initially released a short report on the incident the same day. However, it did not apologize for the event until July 2. Meanwhile, Space Pioneer appears to be proceeding with its plans. Chinese social media posts on July 30 showed a pathfinder article erected at an undisclosed location.

An assembled Tianlong-3 first stage. Credit: Space Pioneer

The test model will be used for integration testing, and procedures required for handling, transporting and erecting a flight rocket.

It is however unclear how Space Pioneer will be able to proceed from this point to an orbital launch attempt. Not only did the company lose its intended flight hardware, but may face regulatory hurdles.

A July 4 post from state media Xinhua on the incident noted that, “the process of climbing to the top of the science and technology industry is not a smooth journey. It is inevitable that there will be setbacks or even failures.” However, a full health check of the commercial sector and assessment and approval processes were mooted.

China opened its space sector to private capital in late 2014 and now boasts around 20 companies focused on launch. Space Pioneer notably became the first Chinese commercial launch company to reach orbit with a liquid propellant rocket with its Tianlong-2 in 2023.

It so far remains unclear if the Space Pioneer incident will significantly slow the company or its competitors. Earlier this year China’s central government designated commercial space as a key industry for support. Reusable medium-lift launchers are also needed to deploy China’s planned low Earth orbit communications megaconstellations.

Competitors Landspace and Deep Blue Aerospace are understood to be preparing for their next vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) tests. These will be for their respective Zhuque-3 and Nebula-1 orbital rockets.

Landspace is all set to follow up its first, 350-meter-altitude VTVL test, conducted in January, with a higher altitude test in August. The new Zhuque-3 test article appears to include grid fins which were absent on the first hop test.

Deep Blue Aerospace is meanwhile preparing for potentially a full duration first stage flight and recovery test. The company aims to carry out its first orbital Nebula-1 launch before the end of the year. China’s highest altitude hop test so far is 12 kilometers, set by state-owned SAST in June.

The Nebula-1 rocket will initially be capable of carrying 2,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit (LEO). It aims to become China’s first reusable orbital rocket.

Astranis fully funds Omega with $200 million fundraise

Astranis has raised $200 million to fully fund its Omega program up to the launch of the first next-generation broadband spacecraft in 2026, the geostationary satellite maker announced July 24. The venture has raised $750 million since it was founded in 2015 to provide more cost-effective satellites that, around the size of a dishwasher, are much smaller than classic, school bus-sized geostationary broadband spacecraft. While Omega would be slightly bigger than previous Astranis generations to deliver five times more throughput, CEO John Gedmark said it could still fit up to 12 on a medium-class rocket such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz co-led the Series D funding round with investment firm BAM Elevate. Andreessen Horowitz’s growth fund first invested in Astranis in 2023 when it led a $200 million equity and debt funding round. Investment management firms Blackrock, Fidelity and Baillie Gifford also participated in the Series D fundraise. Astranis, which operates the satellites it builds and leases the capacity over their roughly eight-year design life, declined to discuss any potential customers for Omega. The company has only launched one spacecraft so far: Arcturus in April 2023. Arcturus was initially slated to provide broadband services over Alaska for local telco Pacific Dataport, but suffered a failure of two onboard solar array drive assemblies shortly after deployment.

An Omega satellite would be around 600kg, compared with 400kg for earlier Astranis generations and conventional spacecraft weighing thousands of kilograms. Credit: Astranis

Instead, Astranis moved the spacecraft to a geostationary orbital slot over Asia to help Israeli satellite operator Spacecom meet a regulatory deadline for bringing the position into use.

A following batch of four Astranis satellites were due to fly on a Falcon 9 last year but were delayed after the Arcturus issue.

Astranis said it has fixed the issue on these upcoming satellites, collectively Block 2, for a Falcon 9 launch this year but has not provided more details.

A replacement for Pacific Dataport is one of the four Block 2 satellites. They are due to be followed by five Block 3 satellites slated to launch in 2025 on an undisclosed dedicated rocket.

These nine upcoming satellites are designed to provide 10-12 gigabits per second of throughput for their customers. Integral to an Omega design to provide 50 Gbps of throughput is a large deployable reflector from Louisville, Colorado-based Tendeg.

Larger geostationary broadband satellites can provide significantly more throughput because they have more room for transponders and power — and are also typically designed to be in service twice as long.

However, Astranis and other small geostationary specialists such as Switzerland’s Swissto12 see growing demand for cheaper, more regionally focused spacecraft.

Block 2 also includes a satellite for capacity reseller Orbits Corp of the Philippines and two spacecraft for U.S.-based connectivity specialist Anuvu.

Block 3 comprises another satellite for Orbits Corp, one for Thai fleet operator Thaicom, one for Argentina-based remote connectivity provider Orbith and a pair of spacecraft for Mexican telco Apco Networks.

Mars Odyssey celebrates 100,000 orbits, captures epic view of solar system's largest volcano

NASA's Odyssey spacecraft, the longest-running mission at Mars, circled the Red Planet for the 100,000th time today, the mission team announced in a statement. To celebrate the milestone, the space agency released an intricate panorama of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system; Odyssey captured the view in March. The volcano's base sprawls 373 miles (600 kilometers) near the Martian equator while it soars 17 miles (27 kilometers) into the planet's thin air. Earlier this month, astronomers discovered ephemeral morning frost coating the volcano's top for a few hours every day, offering fresh insights into how ice from the poles circulates throughout the parched world. In Odyssey's latest image of the volcano, the bluish-white band seen grazing Olympus Mons shows the amount of dust floating in the Martian air when the image was taken, according to NASA. The thin coat of purple just above likely hints at a mixture of atmospheric dust with bluish water-ice clouds. The blue-green layer at the top-edge of the world marks where water-ice clouds reach up about 30 miles (48 kilometers) into the Martian sky, scientists say.

On March 11, 2024, NASA's Odyssey orbiter captured an intricate panorama of Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in our solar system. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)

To capture the latest panorama, scientists commanded Odyssey to slowly rotate such that its camera pointed toward the Martian horizon, capturing views similar to the kind International Space Station dwellers take of Earth."Normally we see Olympus Mons in narrow strips from above, but by turning the spacecraft toward the horizon we can see in a single image how large it looms over the landscape," Jeffrey Plaut, who is Odyssey's project scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, said in the recent news release. "Not only is the image spectacular, it also provides us with unique science data."

By snapping similar images at different times during the year, scientists can study how the Martian atmosphere changes over the planet's four seasons, which last from four to seven months each.

Scientists say the groundwork for the latest image began as early as 2008, when another NASA mission named Phoenix landed on Mars. When Odyssey, which served as a communication link between the lander and Earth, pointed its antenna at the lander, scientists noticed its camera was able to view Mars' horizon.

"We just decided to turn the camera on and see how it looked," said Steve Sanders, who serves as Odyssey's mission operations spacecraft engineer at Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, Colorado. "Based on those experiments, we designed a sequence that keeps [the camera's] field-of-view centered on the horizon as we go around the planet."

The Odyssey mission launched in April 2001 and is managed by JPL. It was NASA's first successful mission to Mars after a pair of failures two years earlier. In 1998, the Mars Climate Orbiter reportedly burned up in Mars' atmosphere after mission engineers mixed up translations between two measurement systems. A year later, the Mars Polar Lander smashed onto the Martian surface due to its engine abruptly shutting off prior to touchdown. Odyssey was therefore widely viewed as a mission of redemption.

Odyssey slid into an orbit around Mars in October 2001, and has since revealed previously hidden water-ice reservoirs just beneath the planet's surface, which may be within reach of future Mars astronauts. The spacecraft also mapped vast swaths of the planet's surface, including its craters, which have helped astronomers decode Mars' history.

The spacecraft's recent milestone of 100,000 orbits means it has covered over 1.4 billion miles (2.2 billion kilometers). The sun-powered spacecraft does not have a fuel gauge, so the mission team relies on their math skills to estimate leftover fuel that keeps the 23-year-old mission running. "Physics does a lot of the hard work for us," said Sanders. "But it's the subtleties we have to manage again and again."

Recent calculations suggest Odyssey has about 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of propellant remaining, which is sufficient to last the legacy mission until the end of 2025.

"It takes careful monitoring to keep a mission going this long while maintaining a historical timeline of scientific planning and execution — and innovative engineering practices," said Joseph Hunt, Odyssey's project manager at JPL. "We're looking forward to collecting more great science in the years ahead."

At long last: Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket set to debut on July 9

Europe's new Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket is set to launch for the first time on July 9 after a series of delays. The European Space Agency's (ESA) Ariane 6 rocket, developed by ArianeGroup, will lift off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. The date of the rocket's long-awaited inaugural flight was announced at the ILA Berlin air show on June 5; however, a specific launch time or window has not yet been released. "Ariane 6 marks a new era of autonomous, versatile European space travel," Josef Aschbacher, ESA's director general, said in a statement from the space agency. "This powerful rocket is the culmination of many years of dedication and ingenuity from thousands across Europe and, as it launches, it will re-establish Europe's independent access to space." Ariane 6 is Europe's next-generation heavy-lift launch vehicle, consisting of a main and upper stage and two or four solid rocket boosters. Its reignitable upper stage will allow it to launch multiple missions on different orbits on a single flight, ESA officials said in the statement. The new rocket will replace the venerable Ariane 5, which was retired last July after 27 years of service and more than 100 successful launches. Europe's original plan was to have the Ariane 6 up and running by 2020, allowing for a smooth transition between the two launch vehicles. However, Ariane 6 suffered a series of delays caused by technical issues, COVID-19 and design changes.

 

"I would like to thank the teams on the ground for their tireless hard work, teamwork and dedication in this last stretch of the inaugural launch campaign," Aschbacher said in the statement. "Ariane 6 is Europe's rocket for the needs of today, adaptable to our future ambitions."

With a scheduled launch date officially on the books, ESA and its partners are completing the final steps for liftoff, including a fueling test and practice countdown known as a wet dress rehearsal, which is slated for June 18.

Europe's new Ariane 6 rocket still has to complete several milestones before it can be cleared for its debut flight. (Image credit: ESA-Manuel Pedoussaut)

"This flight will mark the culmination of years of development and testing by the teams at ArianeGroup and its partners across Europe," Martin Sion, CEO of ArianeGroup, said in the statement. "It will pave the way for commercial operations and a significant ramp-up over the next two years. Ariane 6 is a powerful, versatile and scalable launcher that will ensure Europe's autonomous access to space."

While the inaugural Ariane 6 launch is primarily a demonstration flight, it will carry various payloads, which have already been integrated on the rocket's payload carrier. If successful, Ariane 6 could launch on a second flight by the end of the year, with the goal to eventually complete about 10 launches each year.

 

NASA confirms Dragonfly mission despite doubled costs

NASA has approved for development a mission to Saturn’s moon Titan despite a cost that has doubled since the agency selected the mission nearly five years ago. NASA announced April 16 that the Dragonfly mission had passed its confirmation review. Passing the review allows Dragonfly, a nuclear-powered rotorcraft that will travel to various locations on Titan to study the moon’s habitability, to move into full-scale development. The mission went through part of its confirmation review last fall, but the agency said in November that it would defer a final decision on the mission until the spring, after the release of the fiscal year 2025 budget proposal. NASA also announced then that the launch of the mission, previously scheduled for July 2027, had slipped a year to July 2028. The confirmation review sets a formal commitment by NASA to the cost and schedule for a mission. NASA said that it confirmed a July 2028 launch for Dragonfly and a total mission cost of $3.35 billion. That cost is far higher than what NASA approved when it selected Dragonfly in June 2019 as its latest New Frontiers mission. At that time, the mission had a cost cap of $850 million for what NASA designates as Phases A through D, which excludes launch and operations after launch. NASA, in its announcement about the confirmation, acknowledged the total lifecycle cost, which does include launch and operations, was double from what that earlier estimate. The agency blamed several factors, including replanning due to budget constraints, impacts of the pandemic and supply chain challenges, and an “in-depth design iteration.”

NASA's Dragonfly mission is now scheduled to launch in 2028 and arrive on Saturn's moon Titan in 2034. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

In a statement to SpaceNews April 19, NASA said the costs included in that original cap increased from $1 billion in “real year” dollars, adjusted for inflation, to $2.1 billion, hence the statement that costs had doubled.

“In each of the three fiscal years following Dragonfly’s selection, NASA imposed a cost cap in the current year due to budget constraints. The cumulative impact of these early NASA-directed replans, and another after the Preliminary Design Review (PDR), are responsible for nearly two thirds of the increase in Phase A-D costs,” NASA stated.

“The Dragonfly project also conducted an in-depth design iteration prior to PDR,” NASA added. “The increased costs of that, combined with COVID-driven increases in labor rates and the costs of parts and materials, are responsible for the balance of the increase in Phase A-D costs.”

Those increases are apparent in NASA’s fiscal year 2025 budget proposal. NASA is requesting $434.6 million for Dragonfly in 2025, compared to a projection of $355.5 million for the mission in the agency’s 2024 budget request. For fiscal years 2025 through 2028, NASA is now projecting spending $1.68 billion on Dragonfly, double the projection for the same period in its 2024 proposal.

NASA also anticipates spending more on Dragonfly’s launch. NASA said it will procure a heavy-lift launch vehicle for the mission later this year that will allow Dragonfly to arrive at Titan in 2034. That is the date planned when NASA selected the mission in 2019, despite a two-year delay in its launch since then.

They agency remains supportive about the mission despite the cost challenges. “Dragonfly is a spectacular science mission with broad community interest, and we are excited to take the next steps on this mission,” Nicola Fox, NASA associate administrator for science, said in the statement about Dragonfly’s confirmation. “Exploring Titan will push the boundaries of what we can do with rotorcraft outside of Earth.”

Those cost increases, along with broader budget pressures on NASA in general and its planetary science programs in particular, have implications for future programs. Dragonfly is the fourth mission in the New Frontiers line, after New Horizons, Juno and OSIRIS-REx. NASA had planned to release a call for proposals for the fifth New Frontiers mission in 2023, but has delayed that to no earlier than 2026.

The agency has also warned of likely delays in calls for future missions in the Discovery line of planetary science missions, with lower cost caps than New Frontiers, as well as a line of planetary smallsat missions called SIMPLEx. “We have very few knobs that we can turn in order to respond to these short-term challenges in the budget,” said Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division, on delays in future calls for mission proposals during an April 15 town hall.

The budget constraints have also affected NASA’s ability to start work on a future flagship planetary science mission, a Uranus orbiter and atmospheric probe that was recommended by the most recent planetary science decadal survey.

“In the current budget environment, we’re unable to begin the studies and activities we think would be required” to start work on the mission, Glaze said at the town hall. NASA had hoped to start work on that this year or next year. “Right now, the current funding situation does not seem to support that.”

Artemis 2 Orion spacecraft starts testing ahead of moon mission with astronauts in 2025

NASA's next moon spacecraft for humans made one small leap into an altitude chamber for vital testing before it brings astronauts on board. The Orion spacecraft for Artemis 2 is slated to fly around the moon with four astronauts no earlier than September 2025 — but first, engineers with NASA want to make sure it is ready for the job. Testing in a vacuum chamber at NASA's Kennedy Space Center began Wednesday (April 10) to assess Orion for "electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility," NASA officials wrote in a statement. The aim is to make sure the spacecraft can continue working well amid these fields, both spacecraft-generated and space-generated, ahead of the big launch day. The four Artemis 2 astronauts who will fly around the moon aboard Orion are NASA commander Reid Wiseman, NASA pilot Victor Glover (who will become the first Black person to leave low Earth orbit, or LEO), NASA mission specialist Christina Koch (the first woman to go beyond LEO) and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen (the first non-American to achieve the feat). Their spacecraft, now at KSC's Neil A. Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, is inside a chamber with a lot of moon heritage. It was used to "test environmental and life support systems on the lunar and command modules during the Apollo program" that brought nine astronaut crews to the moon between 1968 and 1972, NASA officials wrote.

The Artemis 2 moon spacecraft lifts into an altitude chamber at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on April 4, 2024. The Orion spacecraft will undergo electromagnetic compatibility and interference testing inside the chamber at the Operations and Checkout Building. (Image credit: NASA/Amanda Stevenson)

The Artemis 2 moon astronauts pose in the well deck of the USS San Diego during recovery exercises on Feb. 25, 2024. From left: Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen, NASA mission specialist Christina Koch, NASA pilot Victor Glover and NASA commander Reid Wiseman. (Image credit: NASA/Isaac Watson)

There are multiple altitude chambers available at KSC; Orion is in the west chamber, which was upgraded to "test the spacecraft in a vacuum environment that simulates an altitude of up to 250,000 feet (76.2 km)," NASA wrote.

Technicians hoisted Orion into that chamber on April 4 using a newly installed 30-ton crane in the building, which can move the stacked Orion crew and service modules into the chamber, manipulate the lid of the chamber and carefully transfer the spacecraft in the building's high bay.

While Orion spacecraft have flown to space twice before, this mission will be the first with astronauts on board. It will also test new systems, such as life support. (The spacecraft model's previous journeys were the Artemis 1 uncrewed mission to lunar orbit in late 2022 and a brief trip to Earth orbit in 2014.)

Artemis 2's Orion has more work in store after the altitude chamber. It will next be sent to another zone, called Final Assembly and Systems Testing, in the same KSC building. Then, more altitude testing will happen "to conduct a test that simulates as close as possible the conditions in the vacuum of deep space," NASA wrote. Those altitude tests could begin as soon as this summer.

Artemis 2 will kick off the larger crewed Artemis program, which plans to put boots on the moon again with Artemis 3 as soon as 2026. Both missions were delayed in January 2024 due to technical issues; Artemis 2 was pushed back about nine months while Artemis 3 is forecast to wait an extra year.

The NASA-led Artemis program is eventually slated to put a settlement at the moon's south pole, near water resources that exist there.

The Artemis Accords include 35 countries committing to peaceful space exploration norms led by NASA; a subset of those countries, including Canada, are providing hardware for moon missions. Japan, another signatory to Artemis, committed to a pressurized lunar rover for astronauts and will be the first country other than the United States to land an astronaut on the moon, NASA and Japan announced on Wednesday (April 10).

Scout Space eyes military customers for space domain awareness sensor

Scout Space, a startup based in Reston, Virginia, is developing a space domain awareness sensor aimed at the military market as the U.S. seeks new ways to monitor and protect its assets in orbit. The company on April 4 announced it won a $1.8 million Small Business Innovation Research contract under the SpaceWERX Tactically Responsive Space challenge, in partnership with the Space Systems Command’s Space Safari program office. Scout’s chief executive Philip Hover-Smoot said the company is using a portion of the funding to accelerate the development of Owl, an optical telescope designed to track objects in space with great detail. This can be valuable for the military in situations where they need to identify a specific type of satellite or even its functionality. “The space domain awareness capabilities of the Owl sensor enable flexibility and our ability to quickly respond to meet the mission need,” said Capt. George Eberwine, program manager at Space Safari. “This partnership with Scout is an example of Space Safari’s efforts to accelerate innovation to support future TacRS operations.” Since it was founded in 2019, the company has developed smaller sensors for space traffic management and other applications in low Earth orbit. The Owl sensor is designed for “more exotic deployment opportunities,” said Hover-Smoot, including geostationary satellites and lunar missions. “It is a large sensor and it has substantial power requirements.”

Illustration of Scout Space Owl on an orbital transfer vehicle spacecraft. Credit: Scout Space

The Space Force is going to seek new types of space domain awareness technologies, he added, as the U.S. military is prioritizing space surveillance to defend its assets against potential threats from rivals like China and Russia.

“There is a lot of competition and there is a lot of need as every platform that goes to space needs sensors — for safety and security applications as space becomes more congested,” said Hover-Smoot.

China launches first of a new series of Yaogan reconnaissance satellites

China launched its first Yaogan-42 satellite late Tuesday, adding to the country’s growing military satellite reconnaissance capabilities. A Long March 2D rocket lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 6:56 p.m. Eastern (2256 UTC) April 2. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) announced launch success within the hour. CASC’s statement also revealed the previously unknown payload to be Yaogan-42 (01) (“remote sensing-42 (01)”). The satellite was later tracked by the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron (SDS) in a roughly 500-kilometer-altitude orbit inclined by 35 degrees. Both Yaogan-42 (02) and its Long March 2D launcher were developed and provided by CASC’s Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST). Neither CASC nor Chinese state media provided any details regarding the classified satellite. These statements omitted the usual general description of Yaogan satellites. Some Yaogan satellites are described as being for purposes including land survey, crop yield estimation, environmental management, meteorological warning and forecasting, and disaster prevention and reduction. Uses of others include “electromagnetic environment detection and related technical tests.”

A Long March 2D lifts off from Xichang spaceport on April 2 (UTC), 2024, carrying the Yaogan-42 (01) satellite. Credit: Ourspace

Outside observers assess Yaogan series satellites to be designated for military and civilian purposes.

The various series of Yaogan satellites are understood to include optical imaging, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and electronic intelligence (ELINT) satellites. This combination provides high-resolution imagery and all-weather and all-day and night imagery, along with the collection of electronic signals from radar, communication systems and other electronic devices, with coverage of both land and sea.

The vast majority of Yaogan satellites operate in a series of low Earth and sun-synchronous orbits. Some groups of Yaogan satellites, such as Yaogan-31, could be analogous to U.S. Department of Defense Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) satellite triplets. Other groups, in orbits with inclinations of 35 degrees, ang spaced 60 or 120 degrees apart, provide near constant surveillance over areas of security concern close to China.

Additionally China launched the Yaogan-41 satellite towards geosynchronous orbit in late 2023. That satellite launched on a Long March 5, China’s largest operational rocket. The mission A used a new, elongated 18.5-meter-long, 5.2-meter-diameter payload fairing.

Tuesday’s launch was China’s 15th orbital mission of 2024. The country is aiming to launch around 100 times across 2024. Around 70 will be conducted by CASC, with China’s commercial launch service providers planning around 30 launches.

Commercial activity will include the new Tianlong-3 from Space Pioneer. The 71-meter-long rocket will be capable of lifting 17 tons of payload to low Earth orbit, or 14 tons to 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit, according to the firm. The rocket would become China’s second most capable rocket, behind the Long March 5. It is intended to have a reusable first stage in the future.

SAST plans to launch its new, 3.8-meter-diameter Long March 12, previously referred to as the “XLV,” during 2024.

SpaceX launches Eutelsat 36D, lands booster on seventh reuse anniversary

SpaceX launched Eutelsat’s latest geostationary satellite March 30 on a trip due to take around half a year to a geostationary orbit slot over Africa and Eurasia. A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the roughly 5,000-kilogram Eutelsat 36D lifted off 5:52 p.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, and placed the satellite into a geostationary transfer orbit 34 minutes later. Eutelsat 36D is based on the all-electric Airbus Eurostar Neo platform and equipped with 70 physical Ku-band transponders for providing TV and government connectivity services from 36 degrees East. The satellite has a steerable antenna and is set to replace French fleet operator Eutelsat’s aging Eutelsat 36B satellite. Eva Berneke, Eutelsat’s CEO, said Eutelsat 36D is on track to start commercial services in the second half of 2024, after reaching position and completing health checks. The satellite would be co-located with Ekspress-AMU1, also known as Eutelsat 36C, which Russia’s RSCC operates. Ekspress-AMU1 is one of the satellites Eutelsat leases capacity from to have been caught up in sanctions amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

SpaceX launched a geostationary satellite for Eutelsat in its 30th mission so far this year. Credit: SpaceX

Reuse anniversary

The rocket’s first stage landed as planned on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean post-launch, marking the 273rd time SpaceX has returned a Falcon 9 booster for reuse.

SpaceX launched its first reused Falcon 9 booster for a customer seven years earlier in a mission for SES of Luxembourg March 30, 2017.

The Eutelsat 36D launch also marked SpaceX’s 30th mission this year.

But less than four hours later, SpaceX launched a batch of satellites for its Starlink low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband constellation from a nearby pad at the Cape.

SpaceX had planned to launch another set of Starlink satellites March 30 from Vandenberg, California, but scrubbed this mission because of poor weather.

Alongside 35 geostationary satellites, Eutelsat operates a network of more than 600 LEO satellites after buying OneWeb last year.

The company expects to have completed 90% of the ground network OneWeb needs for full global services by the end of June.

According to Eutelsat, multi-orbit capabilities will give it an edge over Starlink and other single-orbit constellations by offering enterprise and government customers extra network redundancy and flexibility.

NASA optimistic about resolving Voyager 1 computer problem

A NASA official says he is optimistic that a problem with the Voyager 1 spacecraft that has kept it from transmitting intelligible data for months can be resolved. Speaking at a March 20 meeting of the National Academies’ Committee on Solar and Space Physics, Joseph Westlake, director of NASA’s heliophysics division, said it appeared possible to fix the computer problem on the nearly 50-year-old spacecraft that has disrupted operations since last November. “I feel like we’re on a path now to resolution,” he said. “They’re on the right path and I think we’re going to get to a point where Voyager 1 is going to continue, alive and kicking in space.” Spacecraft controllers first noticed a problem with the spacecraft in November, when the data transmitted by the spacecraft was unusable. Engineers concluded that the problem was with an onboard computer called the flight data system (FDS), which collects data from the spacecraft’s instruments and other spacecraft telemetry. Several factors have hampered efforts to correct the problem. Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is now more than 24 billion kilometers from Earth, which means it takes 22.5 hours for signals to travel between Earth and the spacecraft. None of the people who developed the FDS in the early to mid 1970s are available to assist now, so the project has had to turn to documentation to help identify the problem.

NASA is optimistic engineers can fix the computer problem that has kept Voyager 1 from transmitting usable data for months. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA announced March 13 progress in fixing the FDS when a command called a “poke” was transmitted to Voyager, and the spacecraft responded by sending back a readout of its memory. The agency said at the time it will compare that readout to one transmitted before the problem to help identify the issue.

Westlake said at the committee meeting that the problem appears to be a corrupted memory unit on the spacecraft. “It’s a part failure on one of the memories and they’re looking for a way to move a couple hundred words of software from one region to another in the flight computer,” he said. A word is two bytes.

He did not estimate how long it would take to make those software changes. NASA, in its latest statement about the spacecraft, said that using the FDS memory readout “to devise a potential solution and attempt to put it into action will take time.”