Space Stories: Space Observatory in Need of Rescue, Alien Comet Activates Earth Defense, and Japan Sends Cargo to the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: swift.sonoma.edu/.

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—KJZZ Phoenix: “Flagstaff-based Company Wins $30M Contract for NASA Space Rescue Mission“

A Flagstaff-based space company has won a $30 million contract to raise the orbit of a space-based NASA observatory next year before it can drop uncontrolled back into Earth’s atmosphere. NASA officials say they are in a race against time as the agency’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and its three-telescope system studying gamma rays from space needs a rescue.

—Space Coast Daily: “NASA Activates Earth Defense Over Possible Alien Comet in Our Solar System“

NASA has activated a global planetary defense group to study a massive interstellar object exhibiting strange, possibly artificial characteristics—fueling speculation that it could be an alien probe operating within our solar system. The object, designated 3I/ATLAS, is approximately the size of Manhattan and was first captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on July 21. It has been selected as the first-ever official target of the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN)—a NASA-backed coalition of global agencies and astronomers tasked with identifying and tracking potential threats to Earth.

—ABC News: “Japan Successfully Launches New Cargo Spacecraft to Deliver Supplies to ISS“

Japan’s space agency successfully launched Sunday its most powerful flagship H3 rocket, carrying a newly developed unmanned cargo spacecraft for its first mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the HTV-X1 spacecraft successfully lifted off atop the No. 7 H3 rocket from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center in the country’s south and confirmed it entered targeted orbit 14 minutes after liftoff. The spacecraft was separated and placed into a planned orbit, JAXA said. If everything goes smoothly, it is expected to arrive at the ISS in a few days to deliver supplies. Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, currently at the ISS, is set to catch the craft with a robot arm in the early hours of Thursday.

Space Quote: Don’t Damage Discovery

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Space shuttle Discovery in the Smithsonian Institution’s Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. (National Air and Space Museum)

”The Smithsonian estimates that transporting Discovery from Virginia to Houston could cost more than $50 million, with another $325 million needed for planning, exhibit reconstruction, and new facilities. These costs far exceed the $85 million appropriated in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, P.L. 119-21. Dedicating hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to move an artifact that is already housed, displayed, and preserved in a world-class facility is both inefficient and unjustifiable.”

-Statement in an October 23, 2025 bipartisan letter from the US Senate Committee on Appropriations. In addition to the cost, the letter also highlights potential damage to the shuttle, stating:

Moving the shuttle would inevitably and irreparably compromise the artifact and render it unusable as a museum-quality collection item, permanently diminishing its historical and cultural value for future generations.

Pic of the Week: Cat’s Paw Nebula

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s JWST poster showing the Cat’s Paw Nebula. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Designer: Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI))

This week’s image highlights a NASA poster that you can download (in a variety of versions). It shows the Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334) as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Here is a short summary of what you are seeing from NASA:

Located approximately 4,000 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius, the Cat’s Paw Nebula offers scientists the opportunity to study the turbulent cloud-to-star process in great detail. Webb’s observation of the nebula in near-infrared light builds upon previous studies by NASA’s Hubble and retired Spitzer Space Telescope in visible- and infrared-light, respectively.

With its sharp resolution, Webb shows never-before-seen structural details and features: Massive young stars are carving away at nearby gas and dust, while their bright starlight is producing a bright nebulous glow represented in blue. It’s a temporary scene where the disruptive young stars, with their relatively short lives and luminosity, have a brief but important role in the region’s larger story. As a consequence of these massive stars’ lively behavior, the local star formation process will eventually come to a stop.

For more details and videos, visits the NASA page on the Cat’s Paw Nebula, which helps to commemorate the third anniversary of the JWST.

A Day in Astronomy: Letter to General Secretary Brezhnev

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image: USSR 1991 Yuri A. Gagarin Stamps.

The U.S. has plenty of issues regarding the pace of its space programs in the face of Chinese achievements, as noted multiple times in posts on this site. We should not see this as anything new. U.S. politicians and citizens had plenty of similar complaints during the space race with the USSR, and we also have evidence of similar complaints within the USSR.

For instance, on this day in 1965, Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, wrote a letter with other cosmonauts to the USSR’s General Secretary Brezhnev with a list of concerns. The letter stated, in part:

The USA have not only caught up with us, but even surpassed us in certain areas. The flights of space vehicles Ranger-7, Ranger-8, Mariner-4, Gemini-5, and others are serious achievements of American scientists. This lagging behind of our homeland in space exploration is especially objectionable to us, cosmonauts, but it also damages the prestige of the Soviet Union and has a negative effect on the defense efforts of the countries from the socialist camp…Why is the Soviet Union losing its leading position in space research? A common answer to this question answer is as follows: the USA have developed a very wide front of research in space; they allocate enormous funds for space research. In the past 5 years they spent more than 20 billion dollars, and in 1965 alone 7 billion dollars. This answer is basically correct. It is well known that the USA spend on space exploration much more than does the USSR.

The letter covers other issues, including battles between the various organizations involved in space affairs as well as a stated preference by some for robotic flights rather than manned-flights.

It is an interesting reminder that the same issues constantly crop up to potentially cripple space initiatives, and today’s leader in space can quickly fall behind.

Space Stories: Earth’s Second Moon, Organic Molecules on Enceladus, and Mysterious Gullies on Mars

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Earth as observed by the Apollo 11 spacecraft. (NASA/JSC)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—The Economic Times: “NASA Confirms Earth Has a Second Moon, And It Will Stay With Us Until 2083“

Earth has received a new cosmic partner, a small asteroid designated as 2025 PN7. NASA confirmed this week that the object, initially found by the University of Hawaii, qualifies as a “quasi-moon” , an uncommon type of celestial body that moves almost similarly in sync with Earth. While not a real moon, it has a similar orbit surrounding the Sun, seeming to shadow our planet as it travels through space. Researchers estimate the asteroid measures 18 to 36 meters wide, approximately the height of a small building, making it small by cosmic standards but noteworthy for Earth’s extended neighborhood.

—Sky&Telescope: “New Study Identifies Organic Molecules Spewing from Saturn’s Icy Moon Enceladus“

Twenty years after the Cassini spacecraft discovered an ocean under the icy surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, a new study of previously collected data hints at a much better chance for habitability. The change comes from recording how a plume of ice grains hit Cassini just minutes after it erupted from the moon. The close encounter exposed organic compounds not previously seen on Enceladus.

—Utrecht University: “Mysterious Gullies on Mars Appear to Have Been Dug, But by Whom or What?“

Did life really exist on Mars after all? Unfortunately, there is no conclusive evidence for this yet. Nevertheless, it would seem that some form of life was the driving force behind the mysterious Martian dune gullies. Earth scientist Dr Lonneke Roelofs from Utrecht University has investigated how these gullies were formed. In a test setup, she observed that blocks of CO2 ice ‘dug’ these gullies in a unique way. “It felt like I was watching the sandworms in the film Dune.”