It has been a while since I've done one of these.
Mexico looking at ways to interfere with SpaceX's Texas operations.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is looking for ways to hamper or slow SpaceX operations at Starbase Boca Chica after SpaceX's Starship 36 disintegrated in a giant fireball earlier this month as it was being fueled for a test-firing of its engines, The New York Times reports (warning for extreme subscription nagging). No one was injured in the accident which rained debris on the beaches of the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas.
Collision course ..."We are reviewing everything related to the launching of rockets that are very close to our border," Sheinbaum said at a news conference Wednesday. If SpaceX violated any international laws, she added, "we will file any necessary claims." Sheinbaum's leftist party holds enormous sway around Mexico, and the Times reports she was responding to calls to take action against SpaceX amid a growing outcry among scientists, regional officials, and environmental activists over the impact that the company's operations are having on Mexican ecosystems. SpaceX, on the other hand, said its efforts to recover debris from the Starship explosion have been "hindered by unauthorized parties trespassing on private property." SpaceX said it requested assistance from the government of Mexico in the recovery and added that it offered its own resources to help with the cleanup.
You picked a fine time to swing by Apophis
(Sung to the tune of "Lucille" by Kenny Rogers - yeah the extra syllable in Apophis is awkward)
Chances are readers here are among the people most aware of the approaching close fly-by of Earth by the asteroid Apophis in a bit under four years (April of 2029). Once the Osiris-REx probe completed the mission that brought samples of asteroid Bennu back to Earth, it was re-purposed to be called OSIRIS-Apophis Explorer (OSIRIS-APEX), which will take the spacecraft on several more loops around the Sun. Soon after Apophis passes less than 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) from Earth in 2029, the OSIRIS-APEX spacecraft will enter orbit around the asteroid for more than a year of close-up observations.
An aspect of this mission that's suddenly getting some attention is to use a satellite to measure properties of Apophis, creating a detailed model of the asteroid's interior.
"This is a remarkable opportunity," said Bobby Braun, who leads space exploration for the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, in an interview. "From a probability standpoint, there’s not going to be another chance to study a killer asteroid like this for thousands of years. Sooner or later, we’re going to need this knowledge."
What about OSIRIS-APEX? Ars Technica is reporting that the mission has been flagged to be dropped in NASA's 2026 budget. One wonders if anyone who wants a mission to study Apophis has ever talked with anyone who knows the budget. I would guess that a custom designed probe could be made to outperform OSIRIS-APEX, but that using the one that's currently on a planned trajectory to rendezvous with Apophis seems like it has to be cheaper and easier than creating a new probe from scratch.
Conceptual rendering of OSIRIS-Apex on asteroid Apophis. Image credi: NASA.
As usual, more info at the source article on this subject.
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