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SpaceX plans to fire up all 33 engines powering its massive Starship launch system ahead of its first orbital launch, a key milestone in the company’s efforts to reach the moon and Mars. The so-called static fire is scheduled for Thursday, Gwynne Shotwell, the company’s president and chief operating officer, said Wednesday at an industry conference in Washington. That would pave the way for the rocket’s orbital launch within “the next month or so,” she said.

The announcement comes about two weeks after the company, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, filled the rocket and booster with propellant in a “wet dress rehearsal.”

These timelines are not assured. A year ago, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk gathered members of the press in Boca Chica, Texas, to show off a Starship prototype on a launchpad. He said it would be ready to launch in a “couple of months.”

Starship is SpaceX’s next-generation launch vehicle, designed to carry cargo and eventually people to deep-space destinations.

SpaceX also holds a contract with NASA to develop Starship as a lunar landing system that can take NASA astronauts to and from the surface of the moon.

The company plans for Starship to be a spacecraft that it can assemble quickly.

“Falcon was never built to be producible and launch quickly,” Shotwell said, referring to the Falcon 9 workhorse rocket. “We have designed Starship to be producible and launch quickly. So if we can do 100 flights of Falcon this year, I’d love to be able to do 100 flights of Starship next year.”

Unintended Uses

Shotwell also discussed SpaceX’s internet-from-space initiative, Starlink, which she said had a cash-flow positive quarter last year.

“They’re paying for their own launches and they will still make money,” she said in response to questions from reporters.

Last year, SpaceX and Musk provided Starlink terminals to the Ukrainian government after Russia’s invasion of the country.

Shotwell said that Starlink ended up being used in unintended ways, which the company has since tried to stop.

“It was never intended to be weaponized,” she said. Ukrainians “leveraged it in ways that were unintentional.”

We thought “humanitarian, keep the banks going, hospitals, keep families connected,” she said. “I think comms for the military is fine. We know the military is using them for comms and that’s OK. But our intent was never to have them use it for offensive purposes.”

Some Ukrainian military units had used Starlink to connect their combat drones, the Times of London reported last March.

SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon in September asking for the agency to pay for Ukraine’s Starlink service, CNN first reported.

SpaceX is still funding the service. “We stopped interacting with the Pentagon on the existing capability. They are not paying for it.”

As far as stopping certain uses of Starlink, “there are things that we can do and have done,” Shotwell said.

© 2023 Bloomberg L.P.

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Rare Titan Shadow Transits Will Sweep Across Saturn in Summer 2025

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June 30, 2025

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Rare Titan Shadow Transits Will Sweep Across Saturn in Summer 2025

Saturn’s largest moon Titan will cast its shadow across the planet’s surface in a rare spectacle this summer. Over the coming months, observers on Earth may see a dark “hole” move across Saturn’s disk as Titan passes in front of the planet. This event is tied to a special alignment: roughly every 15 years, Saturn’s rings become edge-on to our view (a ring-plane crossing or equinox). Indeed, in March 2025 the rings briefly vanished as they lined up edge-on, setting the stage for Titan’s shadow to loom large on Saturn’s globe. After this year’s transit season, the configuration won’t recur until about 2040, making these transits uniquely unmissable.

Saturn’s Equinox and Titan’s Transits

According to Space.com, right now Saturn is near its equinox, meaning its tilted rings are edge-on to Earth. This geometry allows Titan’s shadow – a dark spot on Saturn – to sweep across the planet’s face, much like a lunar eclipse but on Saturn. Titan orbits Saturn about every 16 days, so during this alignment we can see its shadow cross Saturn’s disk repeatedly. In fact, roughly ten Titan shadow-transit events are expected during 2025. Three have already occurred (most recently on June 16), and seven more are forecast from July through early October 2025. When visible, each transit looks like a moving dark spot (a “hole”) on Saturn’s bright disk.

Viewing the Titan Shadow Transits

These transits are faint and require planning. A good telescope (at least 200× magnification) is needed to see Titan and its shadow. For viewers in North America, Saturn will be low in the pre-dawn sky during the event dates. According to Sky & Telescope, the remaining 2025 transit dates are July 2, July 18, August 3, August 19, September 4, September 20 and October 6 (local viewing times vary by location).

Early-season events last several hours, but the crossings shorten as the year goes on: by Oct. 6 the shadow is only visible briefly at the exact mid-transit moment. Observers should consult astronomy software and aim for clear skies on those dates, as any clouds or mist will obscure the subtle shadow.

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NASA’s Chandra Reveals Stunning Multi-Wavelength Image of Andromeda Galaxy

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June 30, 2025

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NASA’s Chandra Reveals Stunning Multi-Wavelength Image of Andromeda Galaxy

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory provides a new look at the Andromeda galaxy in this multi-wavelength image that includes X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio images and illustrates the “collaboration of light” across the spectrum. The structure and future fate of the Milky Way are modelled with the help of Andromeda, which is 2.5 million light years away. This combined image not only shows high-energy radiation from a supermassive black hole but also provides a clear view of the arms and core of M31 in remarkable detail. The light is transformed into a sound with a sonification video, bringing another level of sensation.

Chandra X-ray Data Reveals Black Hole Flares and Dark Matter Legacy in New View of Andromeda

As per NASA’s Chandra team, the X-ray observations — alongside data from ESA’s XMM-Newton, NASA’s GALEX and Spitzer, Planck, IRAS, COBE, Herschel, and more — reveal distinct galactic features. Notably, a flare detected in 2013 from Andromeda’s supermassive black hole showed enhanced X-ray emission. The data also honours astronomer Vera Rubin, whose M31 rotation studies led to the first convincing evidence for dark matter. Rubin is now commemorated on a 2025 U.S. quarter.

Among the release features is a signature sonification, with different categories of light — X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio — translated into sound tones. Volume is controlled by brightness, pitch by frequency position. The result is a sound map of the galaxy’s internal structure.

The Chandra programme for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington is managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama. Chandra’s overseer is the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

With this updated M31 panorama in hand, astronomers are in for a beautiful sight, but the broader population is also treated to a sight and sound experience that transports us to our Milky Way’s closest galactic neighbour.

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Could These Meteorites Be from Mercury? New Research Hints at Rare Discovery

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June 30, 2025

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Could These Meteorites Be from Mercury? New Research Hints at Rare Discovery

Scientists have observed whether the meteorites can reach Earth from Mercury. Over thousands of meteorites from Mars and the Moon have been observed, but none have been from Mercury, despite it being a nearby rocky planet. A new study revealed Icarus suggests two meteorites, Ksar Ghilane 022 and Northwest Africa 15915, could belong to Mercurian origin. Such a kind of meteorite can offer a realistic opportunity to study the material of the surface of the planet, if the technical challenges and the cost of sending a spacecraft to Mercury are met.

New Meteorite Samples Show Strong Similarities

As per the new studies reported to Physics.org , Meteorite NWA 7325 and aubrites in the past were considered to be possibly from Mercury. However, the mineral composition of their samples has inconsistencies with the known surface data from the Messenger mission of NASA. Aubrites formed on a planet similar in size to Mercury, lacking spectral and chemical similarities, and further weakened as Mercurian fragments.

Ksar Ghilane 022 and NWA 15915, the new samples, share many traits of Mercury crust, with olivine, oldhamite, pyroxene, and minor albitic plagioclase. The oxygen composition of these matched with the aubrites, signalling a similar planetary origin and putting them among strong Mercurian members.

Key Differences Raise Scientific Questions

There are key differences even after that, and the two meteorites contain very little plagioclase than on the Mercury surface, and are about 4,528 million years older than Mercury’s surface material. If they are from Mercury, there is a possibility that they can represent an ancient crust which is no longer visible on the planet.

Future Missions and Scientific Verification

Relating a meteorite to a particular planet is quite difficult without direct samples. BepiColombo missions are orbiting Mercury currently, and can offer valuable insights to confirm meteorites source. Mercurian meteorites can get valuable insights into the formation, composition and history of the planet. There are further findings to be presented at the Meteoritical Society Meeting 2025 in Australia.

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