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.
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.
Our tech overlords all have problems, and they want to buy the solutions.
SpaceX noted that for this seventh Starship flight test, “a significant number of tiles will be removed to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle.”
We don’t know if that had anything to do with the vehicle experiencing “a rapid unscheduled disassembly during its ascent burn,” but the aftermath of its destruction was visible to at least a few tourists in Turks and Caicos.
Qantas airlines airline has delayed some flights to avoid the rockets’ splashdown in the Indian Ocean, reports The Guardian. Some at the last minute, says Ben Holland, head of Qantas’s operations center:
“While we try to make any changes to our schedule in advance, the timing of recent launches have moved around at late notice which has meant we’ve had to delay some flights just prior to departure.”
Following yesterday’s launch attempt being scrubbed, the NG-1 launch was first pushed to “no earlier than Tuesday” and now “no earlier than Thursday”
The rocket launch has been kicked down the road several times because of unfavorable conditions, including “ice forming in a purge line on an auxiliary power unit” during Monday’s attempt.
Citing conditions at sea that “are still unfavorable for booster landing,” the company posted that it’s pushing the mission back 24 hours to a three-hour launch window starting Monday at 1AM ET.
It’s the second delay since its January 10th target. Blue Origin will likely livestream the launch on its website and YouTube channel. See our write-up below for more mission details.
“This is going to be a function of the new administration in order to fund this,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said during a press conference today, according to Ars Technica. But will Jared Isaacman, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the agency, take up the challenge? Check out Georgina Torbet’s feature from last year to learn why bringing back the first samples from the Red Planet is more difficult than it sounds.
