Weekly - Japan’s first private satellite launch fails after explosion and more
Weekly Space News - Quick and Easy
Web finds building blocks of life around young stars
Last week, the James Webb Telescope discovered substances like acetic acid and ethanol in the form of ice compounds around two young stars named IRAS 2A and IRAS 23385. These substances are commonly called COMs or Complex Organic Polymers. They are believed to play a large role in the formation of habitable planets that could support life. Neither of the two stars has any planets around them, but it is possible they could form in the future. This discovery has also advanced our understanding of where these COMs come from. Previous discoveries of COMs in the gaseous state had led scientists to believe they came from reactions of gasses; however, this new finding indicates that the solid phase reactions also play a large role. These solid compounds may have sublimed to form the gasses previously discovered.
Japan’s first private satellite launch fails after explosion
Last week, a Japanese private space startup: Space One attempted to put Japan’s first-ever private satellite into orbit. Sadly, this mission was a failure when the privately owned rocket ‘Kairos’ exploded seconds after the launch, destroying the satellite with it. This was a catastrophic failure. While other Japanese startups like Interstellar Technologies, have sent rockets to space, they did not contain an orbiting satellite. If it had succeeded, Space One would have become the first-ever private Japanese company to put a satellite in orbit.
SpaceX loses contact with Starship minutes before mission completion
The Starship rocket is the largest and most powerful rocket ever built but it is still a work in progress. In recent days, SpaceX has been conducting a few test launches and flights and has been making steady progress in each test even if they were not completely successful. Last week, SpaceX was conducting one such test of the rocket. After launch from near the Mexican border, its mission was to safely fly halfway across the world and splash down in the Indian Ocean. Most of the mission was successful until the last 15 minutes of the flight when contact was lost with the rocket. SpaceX believes that the rocket may have broken up at this point.
The rocket’s boosters were supposed to separate from the rocket and splash down safely near Mexico for reuse, but after separation, it broke apart. This was a big failure as Starship is a rocket that aims for maximum reusability and even aims to be fully reusable. You can read more about this and explore the reusability of rockets here:
SpaceX still considers most of the missions a success as this time the rocket flew much farther and for longer than ever before. This shows the steady progress that they are making to get this rocket ready by 2026 for NASA’s Artemis mission as it will be the official rocket used. This is why it is so powerful, it aims to take humans to the moon, mars and beyond and establish humanity as a multiplanet species.
