Space

Alongside the beautiful shots I’m seeing across social media, NASA has a photo album for yesterday’s launch that’s well worth checking out even if you tuned into the livestream. The album is hosted on Flickr, making America’s mission to the moon feel even more nostalgic.

That’s according to Reuters sources, but I wonder what it might reveal about Elon Musk’s combination of companies now that papers for a public offering have apparently been filed.

The Financial Times reports that Amazon is in talks with Globalstar about an acquisition to help boost its low Earth orbit satellite business, but Apple’s 20 percent stake in Globalstar is forcing negotiations between the three companies.

You can watch a livestream on NASA’s channel on Twitch or follow along with NASA’s liveblog on its website. The launch is currently expected to happen at 6:35PM ET.

Providing all goes to plan, NASA’s Artemis II mission will launch later today and carry astronauts around the moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The launch window is targeted for 6:24PM ET, with the onsite countdown officially underway.

Now we know why Delta Airlines has been holding fast to its sluggish in-flight connectivity providers while seemingly everyone else has jumped into Elon Musk’s lap: it was holding out for Amazon Leo. Amazon’s still busy building out its satellite constellation so we’re talking 2028 before Delta can start offering the service on about 500 domestic aircraft.

JD Vance is no stranger to, let’s say, unique takes on things. On a recent episode of noted plagiarist Benny Johnson’s podcast, Vance said he wants to get to the bottom of the whole UFO thing, adding, unprompted, “I don’t think they’re aliens, I think they’re demons.”

Amazon Leo, the company’s satellite internet initiative, says it’s on track to more than double its annual launch rate with over 20 missions, while shuttling more satellites to space per launch with new heavy-lift rockets. So far, Amazon Leo has deployed more than 200 satellites to its constellation, and its next mission is set for March 29th.

Elon Musk says he’s planning to open a “Terafab” chip plant in Austin, Texas, jointly run by Tesla and SpaceX, as we approach dire risk levels of “tera” ceasing to have all meaning.

That seems like a fair reaction to a six-pound chunk of space rock crashing through your roof and landing in your child’s bed. NASA says the meteor that exploded over Houston was roughly one ton, and three-feet across. Something similar happened less than a week ago over Ohio.

Blue Origin is seeking permission from the FCC to deploy nearly 52,000 solar-powered satellites into space that will handle artificial-intelligence computing, following similar applications from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and start-up Starcloud. The aim is to bolster terrestrial data centers, but experts are skeptical.

Local news delivers again.

We knew that DART changed the orbit of Dimorphos, but that was orbiting another larger asteroid called Didymos. Now, scientists have determined that the mission actually changed the heliocentric orbit of the entire binary system. Granted, it’s just 10 micrometers per-second, but it’s proof humanity could potentially change the trajectory of a world killer.

Fincke expressed gratitude to his crewmates and clarified that, while it was determined the best course of action was to return early for medical imaging, it was not an emergency. He said he’s “doing very well” now and going through standard post-flight recovery at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Artemis 2, slated to launch four astronauts around the Moon in just a few weeks, has been delayed due to a helium supply issue in the SLS rocket’s upper stage. The mission, originally scheduled for 2023, has now been delayed to April, at the earliest.

Following a successful wet dress rehearsal on Thursday plagued only by ground communications glitches, NASA says March 6th will be the earliest launch date for the long-delayed Artemis II mission that will send four astronauts on an approximately 600,000-mile trip to circle the moon and return to Earth.

That’s the message from NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Thursday as the agency released a 311-page redacted report (pdf) on what went wrong during the Boeing Starliner’s first crewed flight test in 2024.

The first Southwest Airlines plane with Starlink will enter this service this summer, and Starlink is set to be available on “more than 300 aircraft” by the end of the year, Southwest says.

Amazon’s Leo now has FCC approval for about 7,700 low Earth orbit satellites. So far it’s only launched about 150, well short of its FCC requirement to deploy 1,600 by July 2026 (it’s seeking an extension). SpaceX has launched over 11,000 Starlink satellites into LEO with about 9,600 still active.

“SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon,” Musk said on Sunday, just a week after merging SpaceX and xAI. It’s a notable change in plans from a little over a year ago when Musk insisted that, “we’re going straight to Mars. The Moon is a distraction.”

The first Super Bowl ad from SpaceX apparently didn’t have enough time left in production to mention its newly-joined X / xAI elements, but it is promoting the idea of global satellite internet.

Maybe combining Musk’s companies is really about space AI data centers. But reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal indicate that SpaceX’s IPO pursuit includes a push to have major index providers find a way around the usual waiting periods before they’ll add newly listed companies.

The partnership will allow AT&T to use Amazon Leo — the ecommerce giant’s low Earth orbit satellite network — to deliver fixed broadband services to businesses. Amazon launched its gigabit-speed Leo Ultra antenna last November, but it’s only available for commercial use for now.

I used to compare Elon Musk to an old boss of mine who would spin up a company division every time he found a new hobby, but this might be just as apt:

NASA’s overnight wet dress rehearsal of the SLS rocket surfaced a liquid hydrogen leak. A second wet dress rehearsal is now needed, pushing the earliest possible launch of the crewed mission around the moon to March.