Verge Science is here to bring you the most up-to-date space news and analysis, whether it’s about the latest findings from NASA or comprehensive coverage of the next SpaceX rocket launch to the International Space Station. We’ll take you inside the discoveries of new exoplanets, space weather, space policy, and the booming commercial space industry.
With less than an hour to go on the countdown, NASA announced tonight’s launch attempt to send a capsule to the ISS on a Falcon 9 rocket is off. There is a backup lunch opportunity already scheduled for tomorrow night, on March 13th at 7:26PM ET, but it hasn’t been confirmed yet.
The agency is axing the Office of the Chief Scientist and the the Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy.
NASA contributes significantly to research on climate, weather, air quality, and the environment. Joe Biden appointed chief scientist Katherine Calvin, who was recently stopped from joining a meeting of the United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Science reports.
SpaceX recently listed some explanations for how its seventh Starship flight test ended, and now another report is coming. Flight 8’s launch and Super Heavy booster rocket separation was successful, with the booster returning to the pad.
However, before reaching the engine cutoff point nearly nine minutes into the flight, the Starship began to tumble, then exploded (according to SpaceX, “...experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly and contact was lost”) without attempting its planned payload deploy demo.
The resulting debris field caused the FAA to issue a ground stop order at several Florida airports until 8PM ET.
Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël has said that Ariane 6 is key to “giving Europe an autonomous access to space,” despite delays that pushed its debut from 2020 all the way to 2024.
Now it’s made a second successful launch, with the VA 263 mission carrying CSO-3, an optical spy satellite for the French military.
The footage is so crisp that it almost looks like CGI. Check out the incredible shot of the Firefly Aerospace lander’s shadow coming back into focus after the Moon dust settles.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick plans to make an internet infrastructure investment program “technology-neutral,” according to The Wall Street Journal, meaning Elon Musk’s Starlink could more easily benefit. The program currently favors investment in fiber.
SpaceX called off Starship’s eighth flight test yesterday after the countdown timer was put on hold at T-minus 40 seconds to resolve issues with the Super Heavy booster. The new launch will happen as soon as Wednesday, March 5th.
Reuters has a good summary of what’s going on. The Department of Justice initially sued SpaceX in 2023 over alleged hiring discrimination.
[reuters.com]
Elon Musk, the US’s would-be dictator, isn’t content with lying about the Boeing Starliner astronauts, who unexpectedly spent much longer in space than they planned after the Boeing craft had thruster failures. When Andreas Morgensen, a Danish astronaut, called the lies what they were, Musk replied with offensive name-calling.
According to Android Police, T-Mobile has added Google’s latest phones to its beta test of direct-to-cell satellite service powered by SpaceX’s Starlink. iPhones and a select few Samsung phones were already in the beta.
The Pixel 9 series also has Google’s own Satellite SOS, which is only designed for emergency messaging. T-Mobile’s beta adds full SMS support, with voice and data planned in the future — while Europe might get full satellite broadband this year.
[androidpolice.com]
Ars Technica explains why even as off-the-cuff maybe-trolling, Musk’s recent comments about the ISS crew put a strain on NASA. Here’s the crux:
The “stranded” astronauts on the space station probably could come home as early as next week. But if they were to do so, it would create a lot of headaches for NASA, its international partners, and probably even for Musk’s human spaceflight team at SpaceX.
According to Bloomberg and user reports, T-Mobile’s list of eligible devices for beta testing Starlink direct-to-cell connections now includes iPhones. While only a few Samsung Galaxy devices were supported at first, now iPhone owners with the most recent update can reportedly connect, as well as some people with Android 15 devices.
That gives those owners an alternative to Apple’s Globalstar-connected service while off the grid that works without pointing their phone at the sky first.
The Minor Planet Center (MPC), which tracks and reports minor planet discoveries, recently removed a new listing of a near-earth object after the amateur astronomer who found it realized it was just the Tesla Roadster that was stuck to a rocket that SpaceX launched in 2018, according to Astronomy Magazine.
Such misidentifications are common, the outlet writes, highlighting a growing issue of unregulated manmade stuff junking up space.
[Astronomy Magazine]
It’s “going to look a little different” as it migrates to a more general science site, according to NASA. President Donald Trump has called climate change a “hoax,” and researchers have been archiving environmental data in case it starts to disappear from federal websites.
The Biden administration’s climate and economic justice screening tool, a federal website on reproductive rights, and NASA’s diversity and inclusion pages appear to be down.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit, who has taken some of the best photos of the stars and Earth ever captured aboard the International Space Station, recently shared a video on X highlighting how easy it is to juggle and swap big camera lenses in zero gravity. Keeping dust out of lenses is still an issue, but accidentally dropping one is not.
