Space news – live: North Korea touts spy satellites and space programs compare rocket size

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 carries a batch of Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit (SpaceX)

After North Korea tested two ballistic missiles on 26 February and 5 March, the first such tests for the authoritarian regime since 2017, US officials worried the North Koreans could resume nuclear tests with an eye for developing long-range nuclear missiles.

But North Korean state media recently countered that accusation to say no, the missile tests are not the prelude to launching nuclear warheads. Rather, the launches were part of a five-year plan to launch spy satellites to monitor US forces in Asia, which if true may not leave US officials much more comfortable than before.

Former US astronaut Scott Kelly, meanwhile, took to twitter to mock the Russian space program over the size of its rockets, tweeting an image showing a Russian Soyuz rocket and the much larger Nasa Space Launch System, or SLS, which the US space agency hopes to push out to the launch pad for a major test on 17 March.

Capt Kelly has been very active on social media, tweeting information about the war in Ukraine at the Russian people, in Russia, and engaging with the bellicose head of the Russian space agency, Dmitry Rogozin. The two had a back and forth on Twitter where Mr Rogozin told Capt Kelly to shut up, Captain Kelly asked if Mr Rogozin was special enough to keeping tweet despite a Russian ban on the social media side, leading Mr Rogozin to block Capt Kelly.

The phallic measuring aspect of Capt Kelly’s tweet may or may not be intentional — he did not respond to requests for comment on his social media activities — but such interpretations are common in the world of rocketry, with Amazon Billionaire and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos meeting mockery over the explicit proportions of his own rocket in 2021.

You can follow all the latest space news and analysis in our live coverage below.

Key Points

• Nasa uncorks 50-year-old Apollo Moon sample
• Elon Musk and Roscosmos chief taunt each other
• Russian space agency takes down OneWeb rocket

[8 March 2022 01:40 · Jon Kelvey]

Solar Orbiter prepares to dive close to the Sun

The European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft has already captures the closest pictures ever of the Sun, and documented the largest solar prominence ever recorded.

Now the Solar Orbiter, which was launched in in February, 2020, will take another plunge close to the Sun to better understand our star. On 14 March, the spacecraft will pass within the orbit of Mercury on it’s way to its closest approach on 26 March, which will bring the spacecraft within around 45 million kilometers of the Sun.

The Solar Orbiter’s trajectory uses repeated gravity assist flybys of both Earth and Venus to fling the spacecraft toward its close approaches with the Sun — at slightly different angles — every six months. The spacecrafts mission could continue into the 2030s and will help scientists better understand the Sun, solar eruptions and the space weather they generate.

Space weather can impact space and satellite operations around Earth, such as the solar eruption that triggered a geomagnetic storm in early February, ultimately pulling 40 newly launched SpaceX Starlink satellites from their orbits.

[8 March 2022 01:11 · Jon Kelvey]

The war on twitter over the war in Ukraine

At least two former US astronauts have been posting information about the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Twitter, in Russian, seemingly in an attempt to inform Russians who may not understand what their nation is doing.

On 2 March, Garret Reisman, a former Space Shuttle and International Space Station astronaut tweeted in Russian saying, “Who is guilty? The terrible war in Ukraine is not the fault of the Russian people. They did not decide to invade their brotherly country, many still do not know that this is happening. Only one person is to blame, Putin.”

And Scott Kelly, a former Space Shuttle pilot and ISS commander, has kept up a steady stream of tweets about the war in Russian, drawing the ire of Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, who on Sunday told Capt Kelly to stop before blocking the former astronaut on the social media site.

“We know that Russia uses a lot of disinformation, to manipulate his population and manipulate the world,” said Laura Forczyk, a physicist and founder of space consulting firm Astralytical. “By offering another viewpoint in their native language, those two astronauts are not only engaging in a Twitter spat, but also may be trying to correct the viewpoint for people who don't know any better.”

[4 March 2022 19:25 · Jon Kelvey]

Nasa may not find rocket that hit Moon for weeks

Nasa scientists are searching for the crash site of the spent rocket section that likely struck the far side of the Moon on Friday, but it could take some time to confirm the impact.

Scientists hope to use Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been in orbit around and mapping the Moon since 2009, to spit the wreckage of the rocket and study the resulting impact crater.

But the orbiter was not in a position to view the rocket’s demise as it happened, and according to a Nasa spokesperson, the process of comparing old lunar photographs to new images taken in the coming days “will be challenging and might take weeks to months.”

There had been some debate over the identity of the defunct rocket segment, with early reporting suggesting it was a former SpaceX rocket booster launched more than six years ago.

But Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory now believes the large piece of space junk was the remnant of a Chinese Chang’e 5-T1 booster launched in 2014.

“This update results from analysis of the object’s orbits in the 2016 – 2017 timeframe,” the spokesperson said.

[4 March 2022 15:52 · Jon Kelvey]

Spent rocket segment hits Moon — probably

A spent rocket segment left over from either a SpaceX or Chinese rocket launch, depending on who you believe, struck the far side of the Moon around 12:25 p.m. GMT.

At least, it probably struck the Moon.

The predicted impact site, the massive Hertzsprung crater on the lunar far side, was out of site of any satellites or telescopes during the predicted time of impact.

But scientists with Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter program hope the Moon mapping lunar satellite will soon lay eyes on the aftermath of the rocket’s demise — and learn a thing or two about the Moon and the physics of high velocity impacts as well.

[4 March 2022 15:52 · Jon Kelvey]

Spent rocket segment hits Moon — probably

A spent rocket segment left over from either a SpaceX or Chinese rocket launch, depending on who you believe, struck the far side of the Moon around 12:25 p.m. GMT.

At least, it probably struck the Moon.

The predicted impact site, the massive Hertzsprung crater on the lunar far side, was out of site of any satellites or telescopes during the predicted time of impact.

But scientists with Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter program hope the Moon mapping lunar satellite will soon lay eyes on the aftermath of the rocket’s demise — and learn a thing or two about the Moon and the physics of high velocity impacts as well.

[4 March 2022 09:34 · Andrew Griffin]

The Russian space agency is taking down the rocket that was due to take OneWeb’s satellites to space this week, as well as the satellites themselves, and removing them both from the launchpad.

You can follow along with Roscosmos’s live stream here.

OneWeb’s launch had become something of a test of whether collaboration between Russia and other countries in space would continue even as tensions increased on the ground. That test failed yesterday, when OneWeb announced that it would not agree to Roscosmos’s demands for the launch to go ahead, and said that it was suspending all launches from the cosmodrome.

Here’s the full story on that.

[4 March 2022 09:09 · Andrew Griffin]

Out-of-control rocket to crash today

Today is the day that an out-of-control piece of rocket will smash into the lunar surface.

The impact is estimated for 12.25 on Friday, according to the scientists who have been tracking it and working out its trajectory.

We won’t see it happen, however, since the collision will happen on the far side of the Moon. As such, we might not know for weeks – or even months – when, where and how it actually landed on the lunar surface.

But it is not likely to cause any problems. While the rocket is very big and very fast, the lunar surface is largely undisturbed and it is likely to leave only some craters and plumes of dust.

But the meaning of the rocket is more significant. It is just one of a huge amount of space debris currently floating, uncontrolled, off the Earth – and scientists have warned that an errant piece of junk could be enough to cause major problems both up here and down there.

It is still not entirely clear what the rocket is – scientists tracking it initially said it was a piece of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, before running the numbers again and finding that it is more likely to be a piece of Chinese spacecraft.

You can read more about the scientists preparing for the crash here.

[3 March 2022 22:56 · Jon Kelvey]

Rocosmos hiding flags

Following UK satellite internet company OneWeb’s announcement Thursday morning that the company would halt any scheduled launches of its satellites with Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin tweeted a video apparently taunting Western nations and showing workers hiding the international flags on a Soyuz rocket.

“The launchers at Baikonur decided that without the flags of some countries, our rocket would look more beautiful,” Mr Rogozin wrote, referring to the Roscosmos cosmodrome in Baikonur Kazakhstan.

The rocket was scheduled to lift off from Baikonur on Friday carrying OneWeb Satellites to low Earth Orbit. In the video, the large red font spelling out “OneWeb” can be seen on the white rocket fairing, around which are the Japanese, American and other nation’s flags. The workers systematically cover them up with white material.

The tweet is just the latest in a series of similar posts by Mr Rogozin taunting or threatening the Western nations that have placed sanctions on Russia over its invasion and ongoing war in Ukraine. US President Joe Biden announced sanctions a week ago designed to degrade Russia’s space program unless Russia ceased hostilities toward Ukraine.

[3 March 2022 21:51 · Jon Kelvey]

Scientist excited for rocket to hit Moon Friday

A rogue rocket segment is expected to strike the far side of the Moon around noon GMT on Friday, and scientist are excited at the prospect.

While large pieces of space junk are generally concerning, scientists with Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission hope to use the spacecraft to study the impact crater after the fact to learn more about the physics of such impacts and the constituents of lunar soil and rocks.

[3 March 2022 21:51 · Jon Kelvey]

Scientist excited for rocket to hit Moon Friday

A rogue rocket segment is expected to strike the far side of the Moon around noon GMT on Friday, and scientist are excited at the prospect.

While large pieces of space junk are generally concerning, scientists with Nasa’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission hope to use the spacecraft to study the impact crater after the fact to learn more about the physics of such impacts and the constituents of lunar soil and rocks.