¶Euclid. ESA is scheduled to launch Euclid, their latest astrophysics mission, on July 1st on a Falcon 9. Euclid will study the “dark Universe” by mapping the three-dimensional positions of billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years in order to study dark energy and the distribution of dark matter and their effects on the evolution of the Universe. The 1.2-m-diameter telescope will reside at the Earth-Sun L2, joining JWST and ESA’s Gaia to orbit a point of balanced gravitational forces about 1.5 million km away from Earth (Euclid’s specific L2 orbit will be a halo about 1 million km in diameter). Once it arrives, the newest space telescope will observe the cosmos in visible and near-infrared spectra for a nominal six-year mission (hopefully extended if fuel can be conserved). Euclid will survey roughly ⅓ of the extra-galactic ‘sky’ and is 4x sharper than existing ground-based sky surveys. |
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 | Euclid attached to its Falcon 9 ahead of a NET July 1 launch from Cape Canaveral. |
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¶Orbiter anomaly. Launcher (recently acquired by Vast) deployed its Orbiter SN3 space tug from the F9 upper stage launched on Transporter-8. Unfortunately, after separation, SN3 suffered an anomaly that caused it to enter a high rate of spin, consuming propellant and battery reserves. This forced an emergency deployment of the three small satellite customer payloads (as well as the deployment of cubesats by the TRL11 hosted payload). While all primary payloads were able to make ground contact, at least one of the payloads, Starfish Space’s Otter Pup, inherited significant spin during deployment. Otter Pup continues to be power positive and in communication with ground systems, but, unless it’s able to remove the imparted spin, it is unlikely to be able to perform its mission objectives, and definitely will not be able to re-dock with Orbiter as planned. Despite turning off all non-critical systems, SN3 itself was unable to become power positive and, after 6 ground station passes, Launcher lost contact with the craft. Orbiter’s anomaly was caused by a software error in its attitude control system—space software is hard too. |
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¶Papers- We’ve mentioned Gamma Ray Burst 221009A previously, a supernova with its energetic jet pointed directly at us. While it was 2.4 billion light-years away, it still managed to disturb Earth’s ionosphere, produced 18 tera-electron-volt photons (paper), and saturated spacecraft X-ray and gamma-ray sensors (but conveniently, not those on the diminutive GRBAlpha CubeSat). This explosion is now seemingly universally referred to as the BOAT (Brightest of All Time) and is thought to be a once-in-a-10,000-year occurrence, for which we should probably be grateful. It also illuminated dust clouds in our galaxy, allowing their distances and properties to be measured with unprecedented accuracy (paper).
- Also supernovae: an explosion’s blast wave can strike dense surrounding interstellar gas, causing intense X-ray emissions (paper). Data from observations of 31 supernovae with Chandra and other space telescopes suggest that the expanding aftermaths of these explosions can continue producing powerful X-rays for decades, which in turn travel through space to affect planets up to 160 light-years away, potentially damaging planetary atmospheres and even wiping out life. “For an Earth-like planet, this process could wipe out a significant portion of ozone, which ultimately protects life from the dangerous ultraviolet radiation of its host star.” Fortunately, there are no known potential supernovae within the X-ray danger zone for Earth.
- Is a supermassive black hole, weighing as much as 20 million suns, moving at 1,600 km/s through intergalactic space and leaving a trail of new stars in its wake (paper)? Or, is that trail of stars actually a galaxy viewed edge-on (paper)? This is how science happens, a hypothesis is published and then a rebuttal or reinterpretation from another group follows. If it is indeed the first interpretation, the trail of young blue stars is 200,000 light-years long and would have arisen from the blackhole churning up and compressing a feedstock of interstellar gas. "It has long been hypothesized that every galaxy is embedded in a vast reservoir of hydrogen gas. We think we’re seeing the black hole lighting up that gas as it speeds away, giving us a rare view of this elusive material." Or it’s a galaxy on its side… TBD.
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 | A galaxy edge-on, or something more exotic? You decide. The top is the mysterious object imaged by Hubble, the middle and bottom are views of a local galaxy, without a bulge, edge-on. |
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| ¶(Other) News in brief. Ecuador became the 26th country to sign the Artemis Accords, quickly followed by India, in a geopolitically impactful step, becoming the 27th—the US will also support India with ISRO astronauts training and collaborate on future initiatives ● A Delta IV Heavy launched a secret NRO mission, probably a geostationary electronic signals intelligence (ELINT) satellite ● ESA and Ariane Group completed a first hot-fire of their reusable Prometheus engine and Themis demonstrator—the engines are designed to be 5x reusable, with the demonstrator targeted to be fully flight-tested and ready for integration into full scale ESA rockets in 2025 ● AST SpaceMobile announced that its large (and bright) BlueWalker 3 LEO sat successfully hit 10 Mbps download speeds repeatedly with normal cell phones in Hawai’i ● ESA announced the Zero Debris Charter at the Paris Air Show, by which they mean that they will figure out their plans for generating zero space debris (hopefully) by the end of the year, to be implemented by 2030 ● SES has ended merger talks with Intelsat—the deal would have been valued at roughly $10B ● SpaceX performed a six-engine static-fire test of their next Starship upper stage, Ship 25. |
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