TYB
NASA APOD Shutdown Edition - Trump sings Fly Me To The Moon
Shutdown Forces NASA Furloughs While Avi Loeb Warns U.N. of Black Swan Risk As 3I/ATLAS Nears Perihelion
October 2, 2025
Key Takeaways
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NASA has furloughed 83% of its federal workforce — more than 15,000 employees — during the shutdown, just as astronomers face a once-in-a-lifetime chance to study interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS.
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Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb warned the U.N. this week of a possible “Black Swan Event” tied to the interstellar object, urging global coordination.
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October 3 marks a key observation window before 3I/ATLAS re-emerges from behind the sun, with ESA’s Mars and Jupiter probes preparing to collect critical data.
The federal government shutdown has forced NASA to furlough more than 15,000 employees — 83% of its total civil servant workforce — in one of the largest standstills in agency history. Only a small cadre of workers deemed “essential” remain at their posts.
The timing could hardly be worse. October 3rd, represents one of the last and most crucial opportunities for astronomers to capture data on 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object racing past the sun at roughly 130,000 mph.
While NASA faces paralysis on the ground, its spacecraft already in orbit remain functional — and those instruments may determine whether humanity makes the most of this fleeting scientific opportunity.
A Rare Visitor From Beyond
Discovered in July 2025 by an ATLAS telescope in Chile, 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed interstellar object to visit our solar system, following ‘Oumuamua in 2017 and comet Borisov in 2019. Its trajectory — open rather than closed — makes clear it did not originate in our system.
Ground-based observatories tracked it until late September, but now Earth has lost line of sight as the comet slipped behind the sun. For astronomers, this active perihelion phase is the “make-or-break” moment.
ESA is stepping into the breach. Between October 1–7, its Mars orbiters (Mars Express and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter) are focused on 3I/ATLAS.
On October 3, the object passes within 30 million km of Mars. Meanwhile, NASA’s Psyche mission — en route to the asteroid belt — will also record observations.
The most critical data may come in November, when ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) will monitor 3I/ATLAS just after its closest solar approach.
Global Stakes and Warnings
Harvard’s Avi Loeb, known for his work on interstellar phenomena, submitted a whitepaper to the United Nations this week urging leaders to establish an emergency protocol.
He warned that interstellar objects carry the potential for “Black Swan” outcomes — events with outsized, unpredictable consequences.
The U.N. briefing underscores how 3I/ATLAS is not just an academic exercise.
The chemical clues gleaned from its vaporizing gases could answer whether planetary systems across the galaxy share common building blocks — or whether this object bears alien compounds never before seen in our solar neighborhood.
What’s Next
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October 3: Key ESA Mars orbiter observations as 3I/ATLAS nears its closest distance to Mars.
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November 2–25: ESA’s JUICE spacecraft conducts perihelion monitoring, likely to yield the most comprehensive dataset.
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Post-shutdown: NASA’s role in data integration, public releases, and international coordination remains in limbo until funding is restored.
Should the government shutdown drag on, the U.S. risks being sidelined in one of the most consequential interstellar research efforts in modern astronomy.
https://usaherald.com/shutdown-forces-nasa-furloughs-while-avi-loeb-warns-u-n-of-black-swan-risk-as-3i-atlas-nears-perihelion/
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/a-recap-of-the-anomalies-of-3i-atlas-on-the-day-of-its-closest-approach-to-mars-6c2949fb16ab
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_TeQd78Gnc
A Recap of the Anomalies of 3I/ATLAS on the Day of Its Closest Approach to Mars
October 3, 2025
Like in any blind date, encounters with interstellar objects can result in dealbreakers following non-negotiable behavior.
In a new interview with Gadi Schwartz on NBC News (accessible here), I divided the seven anomalies of the third interstellar object 3I/ATLAS into two classes:
those that could be alleviated with upcoming data and those that will remain puzzling forever. Here they are:
Anomalies that could be alleviated or explained away with upcoming data:
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Size: The diameter of 3I/ATLAS is larger than 5 kilometers, making its minimum mass of 33 billion tons, larger by a factor of a thousand to a million than the mass of the second and first interstellar objects (as derived here).
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Jet: The Hubble image of 3I/ATLAS showed a forward jet of scattered sunlight — 10 times longer than it is wide, pointing towards the Sun (as discussed here). A weak tail showed up only at the end of August (as reported here).
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Unusual chemical composition: the plume of gas around 3I/ATLAS showed much more nickel than iron (as discussed here and here), as in industrial nickel alloys.
Unlike solar system comets, the plume contained mostly carbon dioxide and not water (as reported here and here).
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Polarization: the light from 3I/ATLAS showed extreme negative polarization (as reported here).
Anomalies that will remain puzzling forever:
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The trajectory of 3I/ATLAS is aligned with the ecliptic plane of planets around the Sun to within 5 degrees (0.2% likelihood), as discussed here.
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The arrival time of 3I/ATLAS was optimized to pass near Mars, Venus and Jupiter (0.005% likelihood), as discussed here.
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The arrival direction of 3I/ATLAS is aligned to within 9 degrees with the “Wow! Signal” from August 15, 1977 (0.6% likelihood), as discussed here.
Dogmatists who insist that 3I/ATLAS is a comet of natural origin must be held accountable to explain all of these anomalies as results of probable natural processes.
The existence of the second category of persistent anomalies implies that I will never rank 3I/ATLAS lower than 2 on the Loeb Scale (which was defined here and quantified here).
We must keep in mind the story of the Trojan Horse — where an innocent-looking visit delivered an existential threat to the city of Troy.
In his famous wager, Blaise Pascal argued that we must consider God seriously, even if we believe that the likelihood for its existence is small, because the implications of this notion are huge.
I argue the same regarding the technological origin of anomalous interstellar objects like 1I/`Oumuamua or 3I/ATLAS. Encountering an interstellar artifact might constitute a black swan event, with a low a priori likelihood but major implications.
An international organization must attend to this possibility, as a new white paper recommended to the United Nations here.
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Sunlight deposits gigawatts of power on the surface of 3I/ATLAS as it approaches a minimum separation of 202 million kilometers from the Sun on October 29, 2025. If 3I/ATLAS is a natural comet, it may erupt in a flare of outgassing or break up into icy fragments soon.
Alternatively, if it is technological — it may maneuver to benefit from the Sun’s gravitational assist or release probes that could intercept the Earth or other planets owing to its retrograde orbit — opposite in direction to the motion of the planets around the Sun.
During the upcoming months, we should observe 3I/ATLAS with radio telescopes to check whether the near alignment of its arrival direction with the “Wow! Signal” was spurious.
Hopefully, we will learn much more about 3I/ATLAS in the coming days. Today, October 3, 3I/ATLAS will pass within its closest distance of 29 million kilometers from Mars.
Between October 1–7, 2025, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and ESA’s Mars orbiters Mars Express and ExoMars will observe 3I/ATLAS.
The Mars orbiters will take pictures of 3I/ATLAS and use their spectrographs to infer the composition of the gas around it.
“A picture is worth a thousand words.” The highest resolution image so far (accessible here) was obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope on July 21, 2025, when 3I/ATLAS was at a distance of 570 million kilometers from the telescope.
This image was taken by a camera that is 20 times farther than the closest approach of 3I/ATLAS to the Mars orbiters. As a result, the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will obtain images with a much better spatial resolution of 30 kilometers per pixel.
The brightest pixel in the HiRISE image would gauge the surface area of 3I/ATLAS and therefore its diameter. In a recent paper (accessible here), I derived that the diameter of 3I/ATLAS is larger than 5 kilometers — the width of Manhattan Island.
The first recognized interstellar object, 1I/`Oumuamua, was pancake shaped and 0.1 kilometers in diameter — the size of a football field (as discussed here). Why is the third interstellar object a million times more massive than the first one?
The HiRISE image might exacerbate or weaken the discrepancy. As I told Gadi at the end of my interview, nature could be more imaginative than script writers in Hollywood.
We should not judge the nature of 3I/ATLAS by the chemicals evaporated from its surface for the same reason that we should not “judge a book by its cover.”
During the month of October 2023, it will be difficult to observe 3I/ATLAS from Earth because of its proximity to the sun in our sky. When you look at the Sun in the coming weeks, keep in mind that 3I/ATLAS is passing behind it.
If 3I/ATLAS will maneuver towards Earth when it reappears on the other side of the Sun, the financial markets may crash. For now, I eagerly await with optimism that the new data from the Mars orbiters will alleviate these concerns.
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https://www.ufonews.co/post/new-image-of-the-3i-atlas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVsT0qZ6oaY
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.26053
https://www.youtube.com/live/FsIFb_dxJ1o
New Image of the 3i/Atlas
October 2, 2025
An amateur astronomer operating under the name Dobsonian Power recently captured images of 3I/ATLAS using a backyard telescope, revealing an object with an irregular shape that does not resemble typical comets.
The photograph adds to mounting evidence that this interstellar visitor passing through our solar system exhibits characteristics that challenge conventional understanding of such objects.
The most striking recent development involves a potential connection to one of astronomy’s enduring mysteries.
Harvard Professor Avi Loeb announced that 3I/ATLAS appears to have originated from approximately the same region of the sky as the famous WOW signal detected on August 15, 1977.
The Big Ear Radio Telescope at Ohio State University recorded this powerful narrowband transmission lasting 72 seconds at 1420.4 megahertz — the hydrogen line frequency.
According to Loeb, the directional alignment between 3I/ATLAS and the WOW signal source is within nine degrees, with only a 0.6 percent probability of random occurrence.
The power requirements for such a signal provide context for why this correlation matters.
Loeb’s analysis indicates that if 3I/ATLAS was positioned approximately 600 astronomical units from Earth in 1977, producing the WOW signal would have required between 0.5 and 2 gigawatts of power — comparable to a nuclear reactor on Earth.
In contrast, the same signal originating from light-years away would demand exponentially greater energy output. The signal was also blueshifted by roughly 10 kilometers per second, indicating movement toward Earth.
While 3I/ATLAS currently approaches the Sun at approximately 60 kilometers per second, Loeb suggests an artificial object capable of maneuvering could have accelerated after detecting planets within our habitable zone.
He proposes the WOW signal may have been a radar pulse scanning for planetary bodies rather than a message.
Data compiled from over 4,000 observations across 227 observatories worldwide reveals additional anomalies. Despite visible outgassing — material streaming off the object — 3I/ATLAS shows no deviation from a purely gravitational trajectory.
According to statements Loeb this indicates extraordinary mass: at least 1,000 times greater than 2I/Borisov, the interstellar comet observed in 2019.
At an estimated 33 billion tons, 3I/ATLAS is comparable in size to Manhattan Island, while Borisov measured roughly the size of a football field.
Loeb notes there is insufficient rocky material in interstellar space to deliver objects this large to the inner solar system with the frequency being observed, creating a statistical problem for natural formation theories.
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Research published in Astronomy and Astrophysics has identified another puzzling characteristic:
3I/ATLAS is expelling massive amounts of nickel with almost no iron. Every other comet studied shows nickel and iron in ratios roughly proportional to solar abundances.
The research team concluded that the presence of these metallic atoms at current distances from the Sun is extremely puzzling, as surface temperatures remain too low for sublimation of refractory minerals.
Some researchers have quietly discussed whether this pattern could represent waste products or byproducts from industrial processes such as manufacturing, repairs, or maintenance of radiation shielding on an artificial structure.
The object’s trajectory presents yet another anomaly. 3I/ATLAS is aligned with the plane of planets around our Sun — a configuration occurring randomly in only one out of 500 interstellar objects.
There is also evidence suggesting the object may have slightly altered its course.
In response to these accumulating anomalies, Loeb has submitted a white paper to the United Nations calling for creation of an international committee to evaluate anomalous interstellar objects.
He emphasized the need for preparation for what he termed a “black swan event” — a low-probability occurrence that could fundamentally alter circumstances for humanity.
He noted that alien technology would represent a threat to all humans regardless of geopolitical divisions, making this an international matter requiring coordinated response protocols.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, along with spacecraft from the European Space Agency and China National Space Agency, are currently attempting to capture high-resolution images as 3I/ATLAS makes its closest approach to Mars on October 3rd.
According to NASA JPL, these observations should achieve pixel resolution of approximately 30 kilometers, potentially sufficient to resolve surface features or structural details if present.
After Mars, the object will continue toward Jupiter before exiting our solar system entirely. Despite the WOW signal correlation and chemical anomalies, no radio telescope has been directed at 3I/ATLAS to search for potential transmissions.
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NASA research balloon lands unexpectedly on Texas farmland
Updated: Oct 3, 2025 / 08:44 AM CDT
LUBBOCK, Texas — It was an ordinary morning on the farm until it wasn’t.
While getting ready for the day, Ann Walter was told that, floating high above them, was a massive parachute-like balloon gliding silently across the sky.
They stood there in awe, snapping photos and videos before carrying on with their morning routine.
Someone told Ann that she should call the Hale County Sheriff’s Office, which thanked her and explained that the NASA team was trying to find and retrieve the piece of equipment.
The next day, Ann received a text saying her family had found the space equipment. The research balloon landed in a farmland in Hale County on Thursday morning.
https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/nasa-research-balloon-lands-unexpectedly-on-texas-farmland/
China Calls NASA On Orbital Conjunction
October 3, 2025
The Chinese space agency has reportedly contacted NASA for the first time to avoid a collision in orbit.
China’s message to the US space agency urged the American spacecraft to stay put while Beijing maneuvered its own assets, NASA space sustainability director Drew Alvin said during a panel at the International Astronautical Congress, noting that it’s “the first time that has ever happened.”
Life is a highway: The US Commerce Department is working on a system, dubbed Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS), to track spacecraft in orbit and help deconflict potential conjunctions.
However, it’s only as good as the data fed into the system. And missing self-reported information from one of the major operators in space—if China is unwilling to share information—is likely to leave those using the program with at least a few blind spots.
Top concern: China’s views on crowding and debris in LEO have come a long way. In 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite weapons test that produced 3,000+ pieces of debris large enough to track—some of which are still in orbit today.
However, as China’s operations in and reliance on space have grown—including plans for a SpaceX Starlink competitor, and a sovereign PNT alternative—so has its concern about LEO becoming unusable due to congestion or debris.
At IAC, Chinese officials reportedly telegraphed their concerns about crowding in LEO and orbital debris, and highlighted these issues as problems that deserved both Chinese and international attention to solve.
https://payloadspace.com/china-calls-nasa-on-orbital-conjunction/
https://thedebrief.org/james-webb-space-telescope-detects-sign-of-life-molecule-phosphine-on-a-brown-dwarf-54-light-years-from-earth/
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu0401
James Webb Space Telescope Detects “Sign of Life” Molecule Phosphine on a Brown Dwarf 54 Light Years From Earth
October 2, 2025
Scientists have detected the molecule phosphine, a compound potentially linked to the presence of life, in the atmosphere of the brown dwarf star WOLF 1130c using the James Webb Space Telescope.
Previous observations have detected phosphine in the atmospheres of other brown dwarf stars and giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn. However, the concentration levels in those discoveries were significantly lower than previous models had predicted.
Conversely, the levels detected around WOLF 1130c, which is located 54 light-years from the Sun in the constellation Cygnus, were nearly a perfect match.
The new research was led by Professor Adam Burgasser from the University of California, San Diego’s (UCSD) Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
“It’s basically spot on with what models have long predicted,” Burgasser told The Debrief.
The professor, who is the director of UCSD’s Cool Star Lab, added that detecting phosphine would not normally make for a “science-level result” if previous detections had also matched models.
However, finding phosphine levels that match predictions “muddies the waters even further,” since the models work some of the time but not others, indicating our understanding of phosphorus chemistry is clearly incomplete.”
“Our challenge now is to understand why!” Burgasser said.
Phosphine detections have previously made headlines due to their connection to biological processes on Earth. For example, researchers detected phosphine in the clouds of Venus in 2020, 2021, and 2023, conditions that may be hospitable for certain anaerobic life forms on Earth. Professor Burgasser noted that because phosphine levels are continuously depleted by natural processes, they must be renewed in the atmosphere by some other process, “which on Earth is biology-based.”
“For terrestrial worlds which are dominated by O2/N2 (Earth) or CO2 (Venus, Mars), phosphorus preferentially binds to oxygen in various forms of phosphate,” he explained. “Phosphine (PH3) is rare in these atmospheres and has to be replenished by active processes.”
In the atmospheres of planets like Jupiter and Saturn, as well as brown dwarf stars, which are hydrogen-based, phosphorus binds to hydrogen first, naturally replenishing phosphine levels.
So, detecting phosphine around a rocky exoplanet could be an indicator of biological processes, whereas phosphine in the atmosphere of a brown dwarf is predicted by naturally occurring processes.
“This is what distinguishes a biosignature – it shouldn’t form naturally in an atmosphere (of a rocky planet), implying life is the source,” Burgasser told The Debrief.
“Phosphine fits the bill in oxygen-rich atmospheres but not in hydrogen-rich atmospheres.”
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Still, the predicted concentrations haven’t always agreed with observation, making the new detection even more complicated.
“Prior to JWST, phosphine was expected to be abundant in exoplanet and brown dwarf atmospheres, following theoretical predictions based on the turbulent mixing we know exists in these sources,” said co-author Sam Beiler, in a statement announcing the team’s discovery.
One example described by Professor Burgasser as a “heroic analysis by Melanie Rowland and collaborators,” found phosphine in the atmosphere of a brown dwarf star with the JWST. However, in that case, it was 100x less than the models had predicted.
“This is why our article title refers to ‘undepeleted’ phosphine,” the professor told The Debrief, “as this is the first time we’ve actually agreed with the models!”
Beiler agreed, noting that every observation the team obtained with JWST “has challenged the theoretical predictions — that is, until we observed Wolf 1130C.”
Assistant Professor of Astronomy at San Francisco State University, Eileen Gonzales, also a co-author on the study, described the process she used to confirm the levels.
“To determine the abundances of molecules in Wolf 1130C, I used a modeling technique known as atmospheric retrievals,” Professor Gonzales explained. “This technique uses the JWST data to back out how much of each molecular gas species should be in the atmosphere.”
“It’s like reverse engineering a really delicious cookie when the chef wouldn’t give up the recipe,” she added.
One proposed explanation for the difference involves the unique material makeup of WOLF 1130c.
Part of a triple star system that includes a red dwarf (1130a) and a white dwarf (1130b), the star has an abundance of metals in its atmosphere that could affect phosphine renewal.
“It may be that in normal conditions phosphorus is bound up in another molecule such as phosphorus trioxide,” Beiler explained.
“In the metal-depleted atmosphere of Wolf 1130C, there isn’t enough oxygen to take up the phosphorus, allowing phosphine to form from the abundant hydrogen.”
Although the detection is unlikely to be an indicator of life, Burgasser told The Debrief that in this experiment, brown dwarf stars can serve as a “control sample” for understanding phosphine production and replenishment in a non-biological setting.
He also said the result is a clear indicator that scientists “need to do more work to understand the chemistry of phosphine.”
“Our result shows that using biosignatures like phosphine in our search for life beyond Earth requires us to really understand the chemistry of this molecule in its natural (non-life) environment,” he said.
“Until we get these atmospheres right, we should remain skeptical about using phosphine as a signature for life.”
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I liked that show
Data centres in space? Jeff Bezos says it's possible
(Updated: 04 Oct 2025 12:19AM)
TURIN :Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted on Friday gigawatt-scale data centres will be built in space within the next 10 to 20 years and that continuously available solar energy meant they would eventually outperform those based on Earth.
Speaking at the Italian Tech Week in Turin, Bezos also compared the surge in artificial intelligence to the internet boom of the early 2000s, urging optimism despite the risk of speculative bubbles.
The concept of orbital data centres has gained traction among tech giants as those on Earth have driven up demand for electricity and water to cool their servers.
"These giant training clusters, those will be better built in space, because we have solar power there, 24/7.
There are no clouds and no rain, no weather," Bezos said in a public conversation with Ferrari and Stellantis Chairman John Elkann.
"We will be able to beat the cost of terrestrial data centres in space in the next couple of decades."
Bezos said the shift to space infrastructure is part of a broader trend of using space to improve life on Earth.
"It's already happened with weather and communication satellites," he said. "The next step is data centres, then other kinds of manufacturing."
Hosting data centres in space has its own challenges, including the difficulty of maintenance and carrying out upgrades and the cost of launching rockets, as well as the risk the launches may fail.
The executive chair of Amazon said the AI wave shares traits with the dot-com era, when massive hype was followed by a crash.
"We should be extremely optimistic that the societal and beneficial consequences of AI, like we had with internet 25 years ago, are for real and there to stay," he said.
"It is important to decorrelate the potential bubbles and their bursting consequences that might or might not happen from the actual reality," Bezos said, adding that the benefits of AI were expected "to be broadly diffused and it will go everywhere".
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/business/data-centres-in-space-jeff-bezos-says-its-possible-5384041
China's Tianwen 2 asteroid-sampling spacecraft snaps a selfie with Earth
October 3, 2025
Smile! A spacecraft just caught you — and everyone else on our planet — on camera while snapping a selfie.
China's Tianwen 2 spacecraft took a picture of itself, as well as the Earth, while en route to a mysterious asteroid. The image, released Wednesday (Oct. 1), also shows the Chinese flag on the side of the China National Space Administration spacecraft.
Our planet shines in the distance roughly 26.5 million miles (43 million km) away from Tianwen 2. For comparison, the average distance between Earth and the sun is more than three times that: 93 million miles (150 million km).
Tianwen 2 is "functioning normally" and collecting data as expected,, wrote Chinese state media outlet CCTV in an English-language description accompanying the image's release.
"The probe has successfully completed a series of in-orbit tests, including the deployment of sampling devices and self-checks of electronic devices," the statement added.
That's all in preparation for the big moment: reaching the mysterious asteroid Kamo'oalewa, which is one Earth's seven known "quasi moons." Tianwen 2 will spend several months doing engine burns to reach its destination, which should happen in July 2026.
Then the spacecraft will spend several months at work learning about the asteroid, which may have been a chunk of the moon thrown into space after a big impact.
Tianwen 2 will collect samples and deliver them back to Earth in late 2027, using a reentry capsule. Then the spacecraft will slingshot around our planet for another deep-space rendezvous: a visit with main belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS, expected to happen around 2035.
China operates independently of most of the space community. NASA and other U.S. government agencies are restricted from bilateral work with China or Chinese-owned companies under a 2011 law known as the Wolf Amendment.
More recently, Congressional hearings have expressed security concerns about Chinese activities in space, adding that the U.S. is in a new "space race" with that country to return astronauts to the moon.
China is showing itself to be a space powerhouse, including in past missions related to Tianwen 2's goals. China previously performed lunar sample returns with the Chang'e 5 near-side mission in 2020, and Chang'e 6's far-side mission in 2024.
The country also did a flyby of the asteroid Toutatis in 2012 with Chang'e 2, after that mission mapped the moon.
As for deep-space exploration, China has experience there as well: Tianwen 1, launched in 2020, sent an orbiter, a lander and a rover to Mars.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/asteroids/chinas-tianwen-2-asteroid-sampling-spacecraft-snaps-a-selfie-with-earth
SpaceX launches Starlink satellites on 125th Falcon 9 mission of the year
October 3, 2025
SpaceX has now launched its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket 125 times this year.
A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on California's central coast today (Oct. 3), rising into the sky at 10:06 a.m. EDT (1406 GMT; 7:06 a.m. local California time).
The rocket is carrying 28 of SpaceX's Starlink satellites, which its upper stage deployed into low Earth orbit (LEO) about an hour after launch, according to a SpaceX social media post.
The Falcon 9's first stage, meanwhile, came back to Earth a little over eight minutes after liftoff today, touching down in the Pacific Ocean on the SpaceX droneship "Of Course I Still Love You."
It was the second launch and landing for this particular booster, which is designed B1097. Its other flight was also a Starlink mission, SpaceX wrote in a mission description.
More than 70% of the Falcon 9 launches in 2025 have been dedicated to building out Starlink, the largest satellite constellation ever assembled.
More than 8,500 active Starlink spacecraft circle Earth at the moment.
There are just currently just 12,500 or so operational satellites of any kind in orbit, according to the European Space Agency — meaning that two out of every three functional spacecraft right now is a Starlink satellite.
And that proportion is only going to climb as more and more Starlinks go up.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-starlink-11-39-b1097-vsfb-ocisl
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-11-39
Blockchain Satellite Proves Space Can Handle Encrypted Data Traffic
October 3, 2025
The company announced its first demonstration spacecraft successfully transmitted a secured transaction from Chile to Portugal, proving that cryptographic signatures can survive the journey through space without corruption.
This matters because encrypted data is notoriously sensitive to interference. Even tiny signal disruptions can render cryptographic signatures useless, making the entire concept of space-based blockchain networks seem impractical.
Spacecoin’s founder Tae Oh framed the achievement as answering a fundamental question.
“Can we send cryptographic signatures to space intact? Without it, we cannot build a decentralized network of communications satellites and fulfill the vision of building permissionless connectivity,” Oh said in a video posted on X.
“That was the main mission of CTC-0, that we launched December 2024 with SpaceX. And today, I’m glad to share that CTC-0 fulfilled its purpose.”
CTC-0 is a small satellite manufactured by Endurosat that hitched a ride on a Falcon 9 rideshare mission last December.
Spacecoin plans to launch three more prototypes under the designation CTC-1, each slightly larger than the current model.
These will be followed by even bigger spacecraft designed to handle higher performance demands.
The company operates in a market where SpaceX’s Starlink already dominates.
Starlink has deployed over 8,000 satellites and connected millions of subscribers worldwide, leveraging SpaceX’s own launch capabilities to maintain an enormous lead.
Amazon’s Kuiper and other competitors are attempting to catch up, but none have matched Starlink’s scale.
Spacecoin takes a different path entirely. Instead of operating a managed broadband service, the startup is building what it calls “tokenized access” based on decentralization.
The planned network, named Starmesh, would route encrypted internet traffic while promising anonymity and access to decentralized web services. Users would pay for connectivity using cryptocurrency through the Creditcoin blockchain.
Oh launched Spacecoin in 2022 after spinning it out from Gluwa, his financial services company focused on emerging markets. The vision centers on creating infrastructure immune to the weaknesses of traditional internet providers.
“Unlike terrestrial networks, which remain vulnerable to outages, censorship, and cost barriers, a decentralized satellite-based system can deliver internet access that is global, censorship-resistant, and independent of monopolies,” the company said in a statement.
Whether Spacecoin can scale from a single test satellite to a functional constellation remains uncertain.
The company needs significant capital to manufacture and launch enough spacecraft to provide meaningful coverage, and it must compete against established players with deeper resources and operational experience.
But the successful transmission of encrypted data through CTC-0 removes one major technical hurdle. Space-based blockchain networks are no longer purely theoretical.
https://www.technology.org/2025/10/03/blockchain-satellite-proves-space-can-handle-encrypted-data-traffic/
https://spacecoin.org/
US govt shutdown derails Ukraine support – Telegraph
3 Oct, 2025 10:50
A US government shutdown has caused discussions between Washington and Kiev on future weapons deals to be put on hold, as Ukraine “continues to incur devastating losses on the battlefield,” the Daily Telegraph reported on Thursday, citing sources.
Hundreds of thousands of US federal workers were furloughed on Wednesday after Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on spending, particularly in healthcare, with each side blaming the other for the lapse.
The shutdown has reportedly impacted talks on a prospective drone agreement between Washington and Kiev.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Ukrainian officials had arrived in Washington to strike a deal on sharing drone expertise with the US in exchange for royalties or other forms of compensation.
However, talks “have been thrown into uncertainty,” according to The Telegraph. “I don’t see how they will continue,” a Ukrainian source told the paper.
He added that Kiev’s “main concern is we have a lot of discussions ongoing about future shipments [of weapons]…
All future projects are a little bit harmed because people from the Pentagon, State Department, and White House are not meeting and we lose the time because of this shutdown.”
Ukrainian officials interviewed by the outlet complained that the talks had ended in limbo amid “unprecedented” Russian attacks, stressing that Kiev needs an uninterrupted flow of weapons.
Ukraine has relied heavily on Western – and especially US – military support since the conflict escalated in 2022.
American assistance to Ukraine has faced previous interruptions, most notably in 2024 when congressional disputes over supplemental funding delayed weapons shipments for months.
More recently, in February 2025, a tense Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky led to Washington temporarily suspending military aid.
Trump has also been opposed to open-ended US aid to Kiev, insisting that EU nations should buy American weapons to be later handed over to Ukraine.
Moscow has consistently denounced arms shipments and other military support for Ukraine, arguing they only prolong the conflict without changing its outcome while making NATO a direct participant in the hostilities.
https://www.rt.com/news/625857-us-shutdown-derails-ukraine-aid/
The Sinclairs