space

Starship Test 11

Starship Flight Test 11 on Monday was pretty much perfect. Despite continuing to push the booster and the ship to their limits in multiple ways, not only did nothing blow up,* but both performed precision, controlled soft landings. After some bumps in the road (i.e., explosions) in earlier test flights, with 2 fantastic successes in a row, SpaceX seems to have gotten its mojo back, and Starship's future looks bright indeed.

Moon/Mars, here we come!

You can watch a video of the controlled ocean landing of the ship here: https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1978905901344907726, and read more about the details of the test flight here: https://spacenews.com/starship-successfully-completes-11th-flight-test/

Photo by John Kraus: https://x.com/johnkrausphotos/status/1977883695651467447

*Okay, the ship DID ultimately blow up when it fell over into the ocean (after executing a perfect landing maneuver and hover), but that happens every time and is totally expected, so it doesn’t count. Soon, the MechaZilla chopsticks will be catching the ship, enabling reusability.

Binary Black Holes

This is our clearest look at two supermassive black holes in orbit around each other. The primary one is 18 billion times the mass of the Sun. The image was created using a space-based antenna that created, in effect, a radio telescope 190,000 km wide.

Incredible. Just 6 years ago we directly imaged a black hole for the first time - now here we are casually snapping pics of binary black holes. ...Okay, maybe not "casually." I'm sure it was a ton of work. But these days, we can just do things.

Learn more here: https://www.utu.fi/en/news/press-release/scientists-capture-an-image-of-two-black-holes-circling-each-other-for-the-first

2026 Space Art Calendars

I know, I know - wall calendars are so last century. But what if they have gorgeous space art on them....?

I just thought I'd briefly pimp 2 calendars from 3 amazing astrophotographers (2 are a married couple), Catherin Machin and Ian Lauer, and Andrew McCarthy. These are as beautiful as they come. I'm not an affiliate, and no perks come to me from sharing these. I just suspect that some of you, like me, are suckers for a collection of space art you can justify hanging on your wall.

Machin/Lauer: https://catmachin.com/products/2026-calendar

McCarthy: https://cosmicbackground.io/products/2026-cosmic-calendar?variant=46400264405161

Star Trails

Astronaut Don Petit is back on Earth now, but while he was on the ISS, he took thousands of incredible pictures and videos from orbit, and many of them are only now being catalogued and shared. Visit his X feed regularly to see a constant stream of beautiful images.

In his words: “High resolution star trail from the SpaceX Crew 9 Dragon, marked by a fleet of flashing Starlink satellites, glowing atmosphere, soon to rise sun, and arcing stars. Captured over the Pacific Ocean with Nikon Z9, Sigma 14mm f1.4 lens, effective 24 minute exposure compiled from individual 30 second frames, f1.4, ISO 1600.”

Source

Sunshine

Ace astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy captured a banger of a photo of the ISS against the sun recently (see it here). Now he’s released an incredible bonus shot from the session. This is one hell of an optical illusion!

Source

P.S.: The title of this post is a reference to a quirky but excellent 2007 movie, “Sunshine,” about a team of astronauts sent on a mission to reignite the dying Sun with a nuclear fission bomb.

Two Worlds, One Sun

This stunning visual was created by NASA, the Curiosity rover, and photographer Damia Bouic.

The Sun appears slightly smaller from Mars than from Earth, since Mars is 50% further from the Sun than Earth. More striking, perhaps, is that the Martian sunset is noticeably bluer near the Sun than the typically orange colors near the setting Sun from Earth. The reason for the blue hues from Mars is not fully understood, but thought to be related to forward scattering properties of Martian dust.

The terrestrial sunset was taken in 2012 March from Marseille, France, while the Martian sunset was captured in 2015 by NASA's robotic Curiosity rover from Gale crater on Mars.

Destination Mars

On Thursday, Elon Musk shared SpaceX's plans for Mars over the next 8 years (and a permanent moon base, since it's on the way ) - and beyond, to make humanity a multiplanetary species.

It is ambitious, perhaps even audacious. But the suite of technologies Elon has built are, it turns out, all positioned to make this a reality. Rockets, robots, autonomous and hardy vehicles, tunnel diggers, a space-based communications system, battery packs, cutting-edge astronaut suits...it's almost like he had a plan all along.

There will be challenges and setbacks along the way, but I am so here for this.

- First Starship to Mars planned for 2026

- Enlarging future generations of Starship

- Mars settlement in 2030s

- Robotic + human labor used

- Moon Base in planning

- 100s of Mars landings

Here’s the link to the entire presentation, if you'd like to watch it: https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1928185351933239641

Cosmic Tornado

Wow. Now THIS is the kind of imagery I am here for. Look at that crispness and clarity! And the galaxies in the background.... On behalf of amateur space aficionados everywhere, I declare that JWST was worth the time, trouble and money it took to build and deploy.

“NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured this beautiful juxtaposition of the nearby protostellar outflow known as Herbig-Haro 49/50 with a perfectly positioned, more distant spiral galaxy. Due to the close proximity of this Herbig-Haro object to the Earth, this new composite infrared image of the outflow from a young star allows researchers to examine details on small spatial scales like never before.

Herbig-Haro objects are outflows produced by jets launched from a nearby, forming star. The outflows, which can extend for light-years, plow into a denser region of material. This creates shock waves, heating the material to higher temperatures. The material then cools by emitting light at visible and infrared wavelengths.”

Blue Ghost's Farewell Message

On March 16, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander completed its mission as lunar night arrived. It was a spectacular success in every sense and marks a new era for commercial space missions.

As the craft shut down, it sent one final message home.

Don't worry, Blue Ghost. You'll have plenty of friends - human and robotic - to keep you company soon.

I have words on the moon!

It's a historic day for private space exploration. Early Sunday morning, Firefly Space's Blue Ghost stuck the landing, making it the first fully successful private, commercial moon landing!

On a tiny nanofiche onboard Blue Ghost reside two of my short stories, "Apogee" and "Solatium," as part of the Lunar Codex. All the thanks to Samuel Peralta for making so many writers' and artists' dream come true.

Blue Ghost is ALSO carrying a bucketload of science. Instruments will investigate the structure and composition of the moon’s mantle, the heat flow at different depths beneath the lunar surface, the interaction of solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field, and the impact of solar radiation on the lunar surface.

The lander also carries the Lunar PlanetVac, which is designed to collect regolith from the lunar surface that could be returned to Earth as part of a separate mission, and the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment, which will test the ability to use GPS signals at lunar distances.

Blue Ghost will operate for about 14 Earth days on the lunar surface. On March 14, Firefly expects to capture high-definition imagery of a total eclipse when the Earth blocks the sun above the moon’s horizon. How amazing is that going to be?

Athena Mission

That’s one heck of a selfie, Athena!

This image is from the Intuitive Machines Nova-C “Athena” lunar craft, which is currently headed toward the moon for a scheduled March 6 landing.*

* Wholly incidentially, with a digital recording of three of my short stories, Venatoris, Re/Genesis and Chrysalis, on board (along with hundreds of other stories, novels and art). I am super excited!

Are We Alone?

Nah.

The math of the universe is in our favor. Given the staggering number of planets, it's impossible that we're alone. Still, the more the merrier! Call me an optimist (if you've read my books, you already know I am), but I don't believe "The Dark Forest" theory is correct. And I don't like a future in which we have to hide, anyway.

"Are We Alone? Intelligent Life May Be More Common Than We Thought, New Penn State Study Suggests": https://thedebrief.org/are-we-alone-intelligent-life-may-be-more-common-than-we-thought-new-penn-state-study-suggests/

A Universe of Galaxies

100 years ago this week, Edwin Hubble proved that our galaxy is just one small island in a vast cosmic sea. It is absolutely wild to consider how we've only know about other galaxies for a hundred years. What a golden age of learning about our universe this century has been - but I can't help but wonder what is yet to be discovered.

Read more about Hubble’s discovery in Corey S. Powell’s essay on the anniversary: “The 100th Birthday of the Universe”

New Glenn

Blue Origin was successful on its first test launch of the New Glenn rocket! Official statement:

“New Glenn safely reached its intended orbit during today's NG-1 mission, accomplishing our primary objective. The second stage is in its final orbit following two successful burns of the BE-3U engines. The Blue Ring Pathfinder is receiving data and performing well. We lost the booster during descent. We knew landing the first stage on the first try was ambitious. We'll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch in the spring. We're thrilled with today's outcome.”

Learn more here: https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-glenn-ng-1-mission

To The Moon

Two of my short stories, APOGEE and SOLATIUM, are trying for the moon again! Overnight, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket carrying (among numerous NASA and commercial payloads) the Lunar Codex, Samuel Peralta's passion project, a beautiful collection of stories, art, music and more. I am honored beyond words to have my these stories reach the stars and find a home on the moon!

It'll be a little while before Blue Ghost attempts a lunar landing, however. It will spend the next 25 days in Earth orbit, undergoing a variety of systems checks and gathering data. It will then conduct an engine burn and hopefully reach the moon 4 days later, where it will orbit for 16 days before attempting a touchdown in Mare Crisium.

If the landing is successful, Blue Ghost will deliver the Lunar Codex to its home on the lunar surface. Then it spend 2 weeks capturing imagery of the lunar sunset and provide critical data on how lunar regolith reacts to solar influences during lunar dusk conditions, before retiring with the lunar night.