Space Stories: Dragon Delays, Odd Black Holes, and Surprising Martian Warmth

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): SpaceX Dragon capsule. (SpaceX)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Space.com: “SpaceX, NASA Delay Next Astronaut Launch to ISS Due To Leak on Dragon Spacecraft”

SpaceX’s next astronaut mission to the International Space Station won’t launch on Sept. 12 after all. That flight, known as Crew-13, has been delayed due to an oxidizer leak in the propulsion system of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, NASA announced on Saturday (Aug. 29). Joint NASA and SpaceX teams are performing additional tests and data review and will complete any necessary rework prior to launch,” NASA officials wrote in an update on Saturday. “A new target date will be announced once available.”

—Earth.com: “Giant Black Holes Appeared Too soon After the Big Bang, and Astronomers May Know Why“

Nearly every large galaxy keeps a giant black hole at its center. Some of those giants already weighed a billion Suns when the universe was less than 700 million years old. Astronomers have struggled for decades to explain how anything grew that heavy that fast. A new study built on James Webb Space Telescope observations suggests one possible answer. The researchers describe a young black hole wrapped in gas so dense that the whole object shines like a single enormous star. Astronomers call objects like it black hole stars. The light from this one has been traveling for 13 billion years, since a moment just 660 million years after the Big Bang, and no earlier example has been found.

—Caltech: “Thermal Anomaly Discovered Below Mars’s South Pole“

Based on gravitational measurements that give clues to the Red Planet’s interior structure, Mars’s interior southern hemisphere is around 200 to 400 degrees Celsius warmer than the northern half of the planet and partially molten. The surprising finding adds additional context to Martian history and the periods of time in which it may have hosted conditions favorable for life. The research was led by Caltech alumnus Alexander Berne (PhD ’26), who is now a postdoctoral associate at the University of Arizona. The findings are reported in a paper appearing in the journal Nature on August 27.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

Space Quote: SpaceX Expanding into Louisiana

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Dragon capsule on the launchpad at Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (SpaceX)

“Today is a pivotal moment for Louisiana. This announcement pushes our state beyond $250 billion in new investment and puts us at the center of the next great frontier…We have the people and talent to build what the world once thought impossible, creating jobs on land, across the Gulf and through space. Our job creation knows no bounds. This is America First. This is Louisiana First. I want to thank Elon Musk and the entire SpaceX team for choosing Louisiana.”

–Statement by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry regarding SpaceX’s announcement to build its fourth space port in the state. The $100 billion investment by SpaceX is expected to create 3,000 new direct jobs as well as 8,100 new indirect jobs. The first launch from the planned site is not expected until 2029.

Pic of the Week: SpaceX Rocket Part Creates Crater on Moon

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The two images show the lunar surface before and after the impact of the Falcon 9 upper stage on August 5, 2026. (NASA Goddard/Intuitive Machines)

Earlier this week, NASA released the image above showing the crater created by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket’s upper stage. The upper stage was part of an earlier SpaceX mission from January 2025 that launched the Firefly Blue Ghost 1 mission. This lunar image was captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter between August 11 and 12.

NASA explained the complex process needed to locate the new crater:

Finding the impact site took global coordination among experts and hobbyists. Independent astronomers first identified the rocket’s trajectory using publicly available data. NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies, which tracks natural objects that could pose hazards to Earth for the agency’s Planetary Defense program, used this opportunity to test and validate tools and techniques for predicting impacts.

Based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the center incrementally refined the trajectory until identifying the location of impact, which it provided to the Republic of Korea for their Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (Danuri) team. The team used the high-resolution LUTI camera on Danuri a few hours later to image the crater, finding the prediction was accurate to about 0.6 miles.

After capturing images of the crater, the Danuri mission sent coordinates to NASA’s LRO team to help refine their follow-up imaging sequence. Comparing their new crater images with the pre-impact images, the LRO team updated the crater center coordinates: 19.4759°N, 266.7138°E, 511 meters elevation.

Starship’s 13th Test a Needed Success

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: SpaceX

After some delays, SpaceX’s Starship rocket is back in testing mode, with yesterday’s 13th launch a success. The rocket met the milestones set for the mission, and even launched a batch of satellites. This should give SpaceX and NASA some breathing room, as well as the new investors in SpaceX.

Mr. Musk had a bad week with both Tesla and SpaceX stock struggling. While SpaceX stock fell approximately 7 percent during the five days preceding the launch, the market should be somewhat more confident on Monday morning following the successful test.

Reuters reported last week that short sellers betting against SpaceX are making a fortune to the tune of about $8.7 billion. Mr. Musk may not like this, but if you want to be part of the marketplace then you need to understand how the market works.

In stocks, what goes up can often come down, and it can be painful to watch. As a rocket man, Mr. Musk should be familiar with this.

Maybe his success with Starship on Friday will turn some of that around.

Space Quote: Dealing with Off-Planet Real Estate

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Image (Credit): One artist’s version of a Martian base. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

“So, who should have the right to acquire property in space? My answer: those who have the financial means to get there, develop, and use the land. For instance, if SpaceX succeeds in reaching Mars and starts to build permanent settlements on the red planet, then the ownership of land should go to SpaceX first. Not of the entire planet, of course, but of a practicable area, for example the size of Singapore. The surface area of Mars is 200,000 times that of Singapore, so SpaceX would initially only own 0.0005 percent of Mars. That would be enough to develop multiple settlements, but not so many that others would no longer have a chance.”

-Statement by Rainer Zitelmann, a historian and sociologist, in his Reason magazine article titled “Why You Can’t Settle Mars or Colonize the Moon Without Real Property Rights.” You do not need to agree with his conclusion, but he discusses a timely topic. The Moon Agreement and Outer Space Treaty may need to be revisited now that the idea of permanent settlements on the Moon and Mars are not simply science fiction, as they were in the 1960s and 1970s when these provisions were agreed to (and not by all nations, keep in mind).