Jonathan O'Callaghan

Happy SpaceX 1 million satellites FCC application comment deadline day to all who celebrate

boo/yay

Vast raises $500 million to keep developing 'Haven' private space stations "It is exciting to welcome additional investors who recognize Vast's long-term potential and share our belief in making this vision a reality."

Huh, Vast just raised $500m in funding. Pretty punchy.

www.space.com/space-explor...

AGU Awards page showing 2024 entry dates

Did anyone have the same issue as me where the AGU Awards page only wanted dates in 2024?

I’ve been trying to check I was in the right place but can’t find anyone at AGU with knowledge of this!

NASA Found Something on Mars. Now We Might Just Leave It There NASA spent years and billions of dollars collecting Martian samples to bring home. Now they might be stranded

Hopefully they all enjoyed my SciAm feature on MSR in November

www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa...

text information about saving the MSR mission

Hmm. A new Senate bill proposes saving MSR, sort of. Interesting.

spacenews.com/senate-commi...

Hey all, I'm looking for astro-focused Discord and Slack channels I can join where scientists discuss some of the latest and greatest space research (like the old days of Twitter).

If you know of any, do get in touch! Cheers.

jdaoca[at]gmail[dot]com

I think about this a lot, the loss of perspective from being unable to see stars in the night sky

love this

Somehow, El Niño returned

Hey editors, my schedule is fairly open at the moment. If you need some space reporting, or want something look into, let me know!

Ooh, I forgot about the Lucy timeline! Nice.

But you are right. I do feel like we're missing cool images and updates from strange new worlds at the moment though.

Not deep space!

We're really missing a good deep space planetary mission at the moment where there are like daily updates, everyone's enthused etc, like Rosetta / Perseverance landing / DART / etc

What's next? BepiColombo at the end of the year? Then... it's a bit slim pickings until MMX/Psyche/Clipper/JUICE...

Statement from Jared Isaacman calling out competition with China

This is a pretty wild thing for a NASA Administrator to say in an official statement

www.nasa.gov/news-release...

Whoa cool!

Hey space people, I'm looking for an expert with good technical knowledge of Rocket Lab's Neutron rocket – particularly on the reusability/constellation aspect – to comment in a story I'm working on.

If that's you, or you know someone, do get in touch.

jdaoca[at]gmail[dot]com

Thanks!

Sorry, I normally do. Sometimes I forget!

A satellite re-entering every 3 minutes. Seems fine.

SpaceX's 1 million satellites could avoid environmental checks The environmental impact of SpaceX's planned gargantuan mega-constellation is still being grappled with, but the FCC isn’t required to study it

SpaceX's 1 million AI satellites could cause "massive ozone depletion" and change the night sky forever - but the FCC has no requirement to check before approving them.

Astronomers are now scrambling to submit their concerns.

Story by me in New Scientist

www.newscientist.com/article/2516...

Ah thanks, don’t worry I’m used to it!

friendly comments from users on X about my SpaceX FCC NEPA piece

Made some new friends on X today

NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory launches real-time discovery machine for monitoring the night sky NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory has issued its first scientific alerts, enabling dynamic, real-time observation of the night sky. The alerts are expected to increase to about 7 million per night...

Rubin is (partially) up and running. 800,000 alerts in one night!

www.nsf.gov/news/nsf-doe...

Key bits

SpaceX's 1 million satellites could avoid environmental checks The environmental impact of SpaceX's planned gargantuan mega-constellation is still being grappled with, but the FCC isn’t required to study it

SpaceX's 1 million AI satellites could cause "massive ozone depletion" and change the night sky forever - but the FCC has no requirement to check before approving them.

Astronomers are now scrambling to submit their concerns.

Story by me in New Scientist

www.newscientist.com/article/2516...

a man with a beard is hugging another man with the words you haven 't aged a day below him Alt: a man with a beard is hugging another man with the words you haven 't aged a day below him

Writing about NEPA again

Thanks - but they also opened this up for comment in less than a week so wasn't sure if it might be quicker!

Ah, it's 6 March. Sorted!

Mannnn I was so excited to get jury service, but was devastated when after a few days was told I wasn't needed!