Space News and Discussions

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'No spacecraft would survive': Europe simulates catastrophic solar storm to warn of real risks

published 2 hours ago

Europe has just run its most extreme space weather simulation yet — a scenario so severe that no spacecraft was left unscathed in the exercise.

The European Space Agency (ESA) staged the exercise at its mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany, to test how its satellites and operations teams would respond to a solar superstorm rivaling the 1859 Carrington Event — the most powerful geomagnetic storm ever recorded, capable of causing severe electronic disruption. The simulation was designed to test spacecraft operations and space weather preparedness ahead of the upcoming Sentinel-1D mission, set to launch in November.

"Should such an event occur, there are no good solutions. The goal would be to keep the satellite safe and limit the damage as much as possible," Thomas Ormston, Deputy Spacecraft Operations Manager for Sentinel-1D, said in a statement from ESA.

In the simulation, the sun unleashed a triple threat. First came an enormous X-class solar flare, whose radiation hit Earth within eight minutes, disrupting communications, radar and tracking systems. A barrage of high-energy protons, electrons and alpha particles followed, striking spacecraft in orbit, triggering false readings, data corruption and potential hardware damage.

Then, about 15 hours later, a massive coronal mass ejection (CME) slammed into Earth's magnetic field. The planet's upper atmosphere swelled, increasing drag on satellites by up to 400%, knocking them from predicted orbits, heightening the risk of collisions and shortening the spacecraft's longevity.

https://www.space.com/astronomy/no-spac ... real-risks



Credit: ESA & NASA/Solar Orbiter/EUI Team

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New Space Armor shields satellites from hypersonic space debris
By David Szondy
October 26, 2025

https://newatlas.com/space/space-armor- ... c-threats/
With satellites orbiting the Earth exploding into tens of thousands of pieces, the danger of collisions with space debris is a major problem, so Atomic-6 has developed new Space Armor tiles that are lighter and more effective than current systems.

Currently, there are over 130 million bits of debris orbiting the Earth, depending on how small an object is counted as debris. Most of these are smaller than a paint chip, so they might not seem too dangerous, but when that paint chip is flying at hypersonic speed and encounters a satellite flying at hypersonic speed in the opposite direction, the results can be catastrophic.

[firestar464]

[weatheriscool]

The whole point is to turn the rich/elites into barons. They want real power and to have little push back from the peaons that are beneath them.

That is why they want to make everything private so our elected government has next to no power over the elites and the elites can micromanage our lives.....Sick but true.

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[firestar464]

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Government Shutdown Grounds Daytime Launches for SpaceX and Other Private Space Companies
The FAA issued a new order that assigns a time slot for commercial launches and reentries.
By Passant Rabie
Published November 7, 2025

The wild west of private spaceflight just got a hint of order as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) placed new restrictions on when commercial missions can launch and reenter through Earth’s atmosphere.

The FAA issued a new order to temporarily restrict commercial space activities during peak hours for the navigable airspace, permitting private launches and reentries only between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. local time. The order, which goes into effect on Monday, is to “ensure the safety of aircraft and the efficiency of the National Airspace System,” as the government shutdown continues well into its second month.

Since the U.S. government shutdown began on October 1 due to a congressional failure to pass appropriations legislation for 2026, federal workers such as air traffic controllers have been working without pay. As a result, the FAA has chosen to prohibit certain operations in the navigable airspace to alleviate the pressure on some of the busiest airports in the country. That includes restricting the launch and reentry of private spaceflight, which requires an added layer of coordination between the two industries.

https://gizmodo.com/government-shutdown ... 2000683084

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Voyager 1 approaches one light day from Earth
By David Szondy
November 23, 2025

https://newatlas.com/space/voyager-appr ... rom-earth/
As it heads out of the solar system never to return, the deep space probe Voyager 1 is headed for yet another cosmic milestone. In late 2026, it will become the first spacecraft to travel so far that a radio signal from Earth takes 24 hours, or one light day, to reach it.

According to Einstein, the speed of light is as fast as it's possible for anything to go. That may seem arbitrarily restrictive, but at 186,000 miles per second (299,388 km/s), that leaves a lot of leeway unless you're dealing with things at computer speeds where a delay can be aggravating.

Another thing that can be aggravating is that though light is fast, the universe is, as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy says, really big. This means that if you have to cover a long enough distance, the speed of light starts to become noticeable in a way that we don't see on Earth.

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Star Catcher Breaks Beamed Power Record With 1.1kW Transmission
Planning orbital demonstration of power beaming in 2026 before commercial deployment in 2027.
By Jon Martindale November 24, 2025
https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/s ... ansmission

Florida-based startup Star Catcher Industries has managed to break the world record for beamed electricity using a high-power laser. Using its proprietary Star Catcher Network technology, it was able to beam 1.1kW of power to commercial, off-the-shelf solar panels, showcasing the potential of its wireless power transmission technology. This opens the door to in-orbit testing in 2026, before a full constellation deployment can begin in 2027.

The idea behind Star Catcher Industries' design is to deploy solar panel arrays in space that can store and beam electricity to other satellites using multi-spectrum lasers. DARPA has tried something similar using microwaves, but Star Catcher's laser design could be more straightforward, and it's already broken DARPA's record.

Since Star Catcher's designs would be built solely to generate power, it could focus on that and use larger panel arrays to produce much more energy than the average spacecraft. As needed, that energy could then be distributed to other satellites, which in turn may not need to fly with such large solar panel arrays themselves, improving their efficiency, cutting launch costs, and potentially expanding their capabilities dramatically.

"Space has waited decades for its energy revolution," said Howard Morgan, chair and general partner of the investment fund B Capital. "Star Catcher just delivered it."

Imagine instead of needing large solar panels on space stations. We could just beam it up to any space station in orbit in the future? Or maybe in reverse with massive mile wide solar arrays in space to earth.

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European Space Agency boosts budget to catch up in space race
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-european- ... oosts.html

The European Space Agency said Thursday it would increase its budget for the next three years to almost 22.1 billion euros ($25.6 billion).

Ahead of an agency conference in the German city of Bremen, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher had expressed concern that Europe could be left behind in space travel if it didn't invest more money, German news agency dpa reported.

On Thursday, Aschbacher thanked ESA's 23 European member states for their contributions.

"I think the message that Europe must catch up and get involved in order to literally give wings to Europe's future through space travel was taken very seriously by our ministers," he said.

Germany, one of ESA's main financial contributors, said it plans to significantly increase its budget for the agency to more than 5 billion euros.

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NASA's Roman Observatory passes spate of key tests

by Ashley Balzer, NASA
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-nasa-roma ... e-key.html

NASA's nearly complete Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has made another set of critical strides toward launch. This fall, the outer portion passed two tests—a shake test and an intense sound blast—to ensure its successful launch.

The inner portion of the observatory underwent a major 65-day thermal vacuum test, showing that it will function properly in space. As NASA's next flagship space telescope, Roman will address essential questions in the areas of dark energy, planets outside our solar system, and astrophysics.

"We want to make sure Roman will withstand our harshest environments," said Rebecca Espina, a deputy test director at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "From a mechanical standpoint, our heaviest loads and stresses come from launch, so we use testing to mimic the launch environment."

The vibration and acoustic testing were the final round of launch simulations for the outer portion of the Roman observatory, which consists of the outer barrel assembly, deployable aperture cover, and recently installed flight solar panels.

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Launch mishap may knock Russia out of astronaut launches for years
By David Szondy
November 30, 2025

Russia has suffered a major setback after the launch of its Soyuz MS-28 mission ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) caused severe damage to the country's only pad capable of handling crewed boosters.

Space launches have become so routine these days that they're about as worthy of reporting as a transatlantic passenger plane taking off. However, sometimes mishaps happen and some of these can have major implications.

Launched on November 27, 2025, MS-28 was a routine mission to send Roscosmos cosmonauts Commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Flight Engineer Sergei Mikaev, and NASA astronaut Flight Engineer Christopher Williams to the ISS aboard a Soyuz spacecraft launched atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket.

https://newatlas.com/space/soyuz-launch ... nt-russia/

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