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Astronomers hail observatory’s debut — and look ahead

Zeljko Ivezic with picture of Rubin Observatory
University of Washington astronomer Zeljko Ivezic talks about the Rubin Observatory in front of a photo of Rubin. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

It’s been more than two decades since the University of Washington helped kick off the effort to get the Vera C. Rubin Observatory built in Chile — and now that it’s finished, UW astronomers are gearing up to get in on the first decade of discoveries.

The university’s role in the past, present and future of the Rubin Observatory and its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, literally took center stage in front of a packed house at UW’s Kane Hall on June 26.

UW astronomer Zeljko Ivezic, who served as director of Rubin construction and is shifting his focus to his role as head of science operations for LSST, recalled the night of April 15, when Rubin’s first test images came in for fine tuning.

“We were all so happy, and we are still happy,” he said. “We had been dreaming about this night for two decades, and it finally arrived. And not only that, we quickly obtained beautiful data, but also we continued to do so, and every new image was better and better. The observatory is performing beyond all our expectations.”

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Universe Today

A plan to manage asteroid mining wins Schweickart Prize

Illustration: Mining spacecraft on asteroid with Earth in background
An artist's conception shows an asteroid mining operation with Earth in the background. (Credit: NASA)

The $10,000 Schweickart Prize is awarded every June to mark Asteroid Day and draw attention to risks from above — and this year’s prize is going to a team of students who are proposing a panel to focus on what could happen when we start tinkering with asteroids.

The winning proposal calls for the creation of a Panel on Asteroid Orbit Alteration, which would address the risks posed by unintended asteroid orbit changes. Such changes could crop up during asteroid mining operations, research missions to asteroids, or even when a spacecraft malfunctions and kicks an asteroid onto a perilous path.

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GeekWire

Starfish’s second spacecraft launched for docking test

Illustration: Otter Pup approaching spacecraft in orbit
An artist’s conception shows Otter Pup 2 (at left) approaching its target satellite. (Starfish Space Illustration)

Starfish Space’s second Otter Pup spacecraft went into Earth orbit today, marking the first step in what the Seattle-area startup hopes will be a successful demonstration of the vehicle’s ability to dock with other satellites.

Otter Pup, which is about the size of a microwave oven, was one of 70 payloads that hitched a ride to space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of the Transporter-14 rideshare mission. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 2:25 p.m. PT.

Minutes after stage separation, SpaceX reported that the rocket’s reusable first-stage booster made a successful touchdown on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean. Later, SpaceX confirmed that Otter Pup separated successfully from the Falcon 9’s upper stage.

“Launch is an exciting milestone for Otter Pup 2, placing the satellite into low Earth orbit so it can work towards its mission: docking with another satellite and validating core Starfish technologies along the way,” Starfish Space, which is headquartered in Tukwila, Wash., said in a post-launch posting to X / Twitter. “If successful in these goals, Otter Pup 2 will bring us closer to an interactive future in orbit, shifting the paradigm for what humanity can accomplish as we venture out into the universe.”

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3D-printed rocket engine gets tested at New Frontier

Mjölnir rocket engine hot-fire test
Flames stream from New Frontier Aerospace’s Mjölnir rocket engine during a hot-fire test. (NFA Photo)

Kent, Wash.-based New Frontier Aerospace says it has put its 3D-printed Mjölnir rocket engine through a series of successful hot-fire tests, in preparation for an initial flight test of a hypersonic drone that could take place as early as next year.

Mjölnir is named after the hammer that was wielded by Thor in Norse mythology (and in Marvel movies). The first job for this hammer would be to propel an uncrewed aerial system called Pathfinder for a series of hovering tests, currently set for 2026. Eventually, Pathfinder could be used for weapons testing or for suborbital point-to-point cargo transport.

The engine is also slated for use on New Frontier’s Bifröst orbital transfer spacecraft, which is due to fly into space by 2027. (Continuing with the Norse mythology theme, Bifröst was the rainbow bridge that connected the realm of humans with the realm of the gods.) Mjölnir, which is fueled by liquid natural gas, will also be marketed to other aerospace ventures as a standalone product.

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GeekWire

Rubin Observatory makes discoveries in its debut

This image shows a small section of the Rubin Observatory’s view of the Virgo Cluster, including two spiral galaxies at lower right, three merging galaxies at upper right, several groups of distant galaxies and many stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. Click for a larger version of the image. (Credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory)

After more than 20 years of planning and construction, astronomers celebrated the release of the first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory today — and also registered hundreds of the first discoveries from the world’s newest eye on the sky.

University of Washington astronomer Mario Juric, a member of the Rubin team and director of UW’s DiRAC Institute, said that discovery data for 2,104 previously undetected small bodies in the solar system were reported to the Minor Planet Center early today.

Those small bodies include 2,015 main-belt asteroids, nine trans-Neptunian objects and seven near-Earth objects. (But don’t worry: None of those NEOs has a chance of hitting Earth anytime soon.)

“The over 2,100 asteroids we discovered are impressive, but just a drop in the bucket relative to what’s coming. We’ll have moments where we find over 20,000 in a single night, more than the entire world presently finds in a year,” Juric told me in an email.

“By sometime next year Rubin will double the number of known asteroids, then continue to discover hundreds of new comets, the remaining few dwarf planets, and maybe even a new planet in our solar system,” he said. “This will be the most comprehensive census of our planetary home in history.”

During today’s “First Look” briefing in Washington, D.C., astronomers explained the science behind their scan for asteroids — and showed off eye-pleasing imagery that included a colorful wide-angle view of the Trifid and Lagoon nebulas in the constellation Sagittarius, galactic closeups gleaned from the observatory’s survey of the Virgo Cluster, and a zooming video scan of the same region of the sky.

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Amazon adds 27 satellites to its broadband constellation

Atlas V rocket liftoff with Amazon Project Kuiper satellites
An Atlas V rocket sends Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites into space. (United Launch Alliance via YouTube)

A second batch of satellites has been sent into low Earth orbit for Amazon’s Project Kuiper broadband network, marking another significant step toward competing with SpaceX’s global Starlink network.

United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket launched 27 Project Kuiper satellites today at 6:54 a.m. ET (3:54 a.m. PT) from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. They joined 27 other satellites that were launched on an Atlas V in April.

“Many more launches ahead, but we’re 2/2 in under two months and already looking ahead to our next missions,” Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology and head of Project Kuiper at Amazon, said in a LinkedIn posting.

Eventually, Amazon aims to deploy 3,232 satellites to provide global high-speed internet access to millions of people who are currently underserved. Under the terms of Amazon’s license from the Federal Communications Commission, half of those satellites should be deployed by mid-2026 — although that deadline may be extended.

This batch of satellites was originally scheduled for deployment a week ago, but ULA said it had to scrub the first launch attempt “due to an engineering observation of an elevated purge temperature within the booster engine.” No major technical issues cropped up during today’s countdown.

The current schedule calls for Project Kuiper to begin delivering service to customers later this year.

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Fiction Science Club

Rubin Observatory throws a party to reveal first pictures

Long-exposure image of Rubin Observatory against night sky filled with star trails
A long-exposure image shows the Rubin Observatory beneath star trails. (Credit: Hernan Stockebrand via Rubin Observatory)

After more than 20 years of planning and construction, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory is ready for its grand opening, and the world is invited.

The observatory in the foothills of the Chilean Andes features a monster of a telescope, with an 8.4-meter-wide (28-foot-wide) mirror, coupled with what’s said to be the world’s largest digital camera.

It will survey the night sky every night for at least 10 years, producing about 20 trillion bytes of data every 24 hours. It would take you more than three years of watching Netflix, or over 50 years of listening to Spotify, to use that amount of data, according to the Rubin team.

The first images and videos are due to be unveiled on June 23, during a “First Look” webcast that will be shared online and at more than 300 in-person watch parties across the globe.

What will the images look like? Mario Juric knows, but he isn’t telling.

“I cannot tell you what’s on them, but I can tell you we just finished them, and they look amazing,” Juric, a member of the Rubin team and the director of the University of Washington’s DiRAC Institute, says on the Fiction Science podcast. “I did not spend a day doing what I was supposed to be doing, because I just spent it browsing through the images. … I could teach an entire class by just zooming in on different parts of this image and explaining what this object is.”

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Bill Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson riff on the cosmos

William Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson on stage in Seattle
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson laughs as “Star Trek” captain William Shatner tells a tale. (Mat Hayward Photo / Future of Space)

William Shatner set a record as the oldest human in space at the age of 90 — but at the age of 94, he’s not that interested in taking another record-setting space trip.

“You know, I had such a meaningful experience,” he told me. “Maybe I tend to think of it like a love affair. You want to go back to that love affair? Maybe not. It was such a great moment.”

The original captain from “Star Trek” revisited that emotional moment from his Blue Origin suborbital spaceflight during a rollicking chat with celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson at McCaw Hall in Seattle on June 18.

This week’s performance grew out of a meetup that the astronomer and the actor had last year during a space-themed Antarctic cruise. The two had such a good time that they worked with producers to organize an onstage follow-up.

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GeekWire

AeroTEC joins project to test hybrid-electric aircraft

Illustration: Hybrid-electric aircraft in flight
An artist’s conception shows the RTX hybrid-electric demonstrator in flight. (RTX Illustration)

Seattle-based AeroTEC says it’s been selected by Pratt & Whitney Canada to lead the modification and flight test of an experimental hybrid-electric demonstrator aircraft at its Flight Test Center in Moses Lake, Wash.

The RTX demonstrator is a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-100 aircraft that will be modified to use a thermal engine built by Pratt & Whitney Canada and a 1-megawatt electric motor developed by Collins Aerospace. Both Pratt & Whitney and Collins are RTX businesses.

Pratt & Whitney and its partners have also developed a mobile charging unit for the plane. The 200-kilowatt-hour batteries will be supplied by H55, a Swiss spin-off from the Solar Impulse venture that sent a solar-powered airplane around the world in 2015-2016. H55 is supported by RTX Ventures, the venture capital arm of RTX.

The RTX hybrid-electric demonstrator program is targeting up to 30% improved fuel efficiency compared to today’s regional turboprops. In-flight demonstrations could help open the way for the propulsion system to be used on multiple platforms in the future. A date for the first flight test hasn’t been set.

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GeekWire

Portal Space puts its spacecraft factory near home base

Portal Space Systems CEO Jeff Thornburg with flags on the wall behind him
Portal CEO Jeff Thornburg says the company is expanding its footprint in Bothell, Wash. (Portal Space Systems Photo)

Portal Space Systems says it’s decided to set up its 50,000-square-foot spacecraft manufacturing facility just 3 miles away from its existing design and testing hub in Bothell, Wash.

By the end of 2026, the factory should be ready to start producing Portal’s Supernova space vehicles, which are being designed to use an innovative solar thermal propulsion system to maneuver payloads between orbital locations.

“With growing demand from both our commercial and defense partners, this new facility marks the next strategic step in Portal’s evolution,” Portal CEO Jeff Thornburg said today, in a news release that was issued in conjunction with the Paris Air Show. “By expanding our footprint in Bothell, we’re doubling down on local talent, proximity to core operations, and a growing aerospace ecosystem supported by state leadership.”

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