Short Takes – 10-29-25 – Space Geek Edition

Rising demand and falling costs clear path for satellite servicing. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “Starfish Space raised $29 million in 2024 to develop autonomous vehicles for life-extension in geostationary orbit and removing debris from low-Earth orbit. Starfish is developing “the lowest cost satellite-servicing architecture that we possibly can, so we can open up the aperture to a larger quantity of clients,” Vidal said.”

ESA's lunar lander on a simulated moon. Space.com article. Pull quote: “Argonaut is ESA's dedicated lunar lander program, Europe's planned autonomous, versatile and reliable transport system to the moon. The Argonaut will deliver up to 1.6 tons (1.5 tonnes) of cargo to virtually any location on the lunar surface.”

Could we blast space debris out of harm's way with ion beams? Space.com article. Pull quote: “"By avoiding the risks inherent in capture or docking, the [ALBATOR] project aims to provide a safer and more versatile solution to one of the greatest challenges facing space sustainability: the proliferation of debris in Earth's orbit," NorthStar officials stated in a release last month highlighting their participation.”

'The solar system on demand': HEO Robotics aims to push spacecraft imaging deep into the final frontier. Space.com article. Pull quote: “Notably, Astroscale has performed a fly-around of a spent rocket stage in orbit, as part of its plans to start deorbiting pieces of space junk. HEO can help with such operations, Crowe explained. "It's just good practice to have outside eyes looking in. Issues can happen to a sensor on board, but also you can get a different perspective." The agreement between HEO and Astroscale also covers extending cooperation into GEO and geostationary transfer orbits.”

Space sustainability comes down to Earth. TheSpaceReview.com article.  Pull quote: “The [UK Space] agency commissioned several studies to explore those impacts, which were recently completed and discussed at a workshop the day before the main summit. They did not necessarily alleviate much of the uncertainty on the topic. One was a study of literature on atmospheric chemistry relevant to the topic. “Broadly, the conclusions were that we really don’t know anything,” he said. “We really don’t know much about what the atmospheric impact is of reentry.””

Backlog List

This is linked-list of article that have been accumulating in my reading list over the last couple of weeks, still more to come in future issues:

• SpaceX finally got exactly what it needed from Starship V2,

• Space Pioneer raises $350 million as China’s commercial launch boom accelerates,

• Strange 'puffy' alien world breaks every rule for how planets should behave,  

• Hans Koenigsmann, who investigated all of SpaceX’s rocket failures, is going to space, and

• First Ariane 64 launch slips to 2026.