September 28, 2025

Is Amazon's Project Kuiper The First Real Starlink Alternative? (Source: BGR)
For a while, it seemed that only Viasat was a possible Starlink alternative. Now, however, Amazon's Project Kuiper has entered the arena. Project Kuiper is in its early stages of satellite launches and demonstrations. Already, though, major partnerships are being established, and it may just win over Starlink customers. As of September 16, 2025, Project Kuiper has over one hundred satellites in space.

Amazon happily boasts that this effort is creating jobs and boosting businesses involved, including those that launch the satellites such as Arianespace, ULA, and SpaceX itself. Luckily the satellites have not exploded like SpaceX's Starship. Already Project Kuiper is setting itself up to be big, focused on delivering internet to rural communities, businesses, and more. Airline service JetBlue will use Project Kuiper for its in-flight Wi-Fi with an expected start in 2027.

Amazon also has signed an agreement with the U.S. National Science Foundation to facilitate their project goals. Recent demonstrations for Project Kuiper have shown it to have a 1,280Mbps download speed. While that number is extremely impressive, it is also worth noting that it was achieved using a customer terminal designed for enterprises, or very large businesses. It is not something your average user in a country home will have access to or even need. Still, it is a promising sign that Amazon is ready to deliver something big with Project Kuiper. (9/27)

Europe Wants to Launch a Life-Hunting Mission to Saturn's Icy Ocean Moon Enceladus (Source: Space.com)
ESA is now targeting a mission to study enigmatic Enceladus as part of its Voyage 2050, the agency's long-term plan for space science activities, according to ESA officials at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) and Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) joint meeting, which was held in Helsinki in early September. The Enceladus mission, though in its earliest stages, will need both an orbiter and a lander to answer major science questions, with the orbiter to be designed to sample material in the plumes emanating from the "tiger stripes" at the south pole.

An early mission configuration following first industrial studies calls for two launches of the largest variant of the Ariane 6 rocket, with spacecraft to dock in Earth orbit. Next, approval is needed at the ESA ministerial meeting in Bremen, Germany, in November, allowing a mission definition phase, leading to mission adoption in 2034 and a launch around 2042. The spacecraft would then arrive in the Saturn system in 2053, starting a tour of Enceladus and other moons, collection of plume material and preparation for a landing around 2058. (9/27)

Scientists Find Direct Link Between Solar Storms and Heart Attacks (Source: Earth.com)
We live on a planet wrapped in a magnetic shield that waxes and wanes with solar activity. Most days, that quiet background barely draws notice. Some days, it fluctuates more strongly. The study behind this article asked a simple question: when Earth’s magnetic field gets unsettled, as it does during solar storms, is there a direct correlation to the number of heart attacks reported in humans on Earth?

Doctors in Brazil analyzed hospital admissions for myocardial infarction (heart attacks) over several years. They tracked age, sex, and whether patients survived to discharge. Then they set those numbers alongside daily magnetic activity scores to see whether patterns aligned. Only after the team matched health records with space weather data did a pattern emerge clearly enough to discuss. (9/26)

Tumbleweed Rover Tests Demonstrate Transformative Technology for Low-Cost Mars Exploration (Source: Phys.org)
A swarm of spherical rovers, blown by the wind like tumbleweeds, could enable large-scale and low-cost exploration of the Martian surface, according to results recently presented. Recent experiments in a state-of-the-art wind tunnel and field tests in a quarry demonstrate that the rovers could be set in motion and navigate over various terrains in conditions analogous to those found on Mars.

Tumbleweed rovers are lightweight, 5-meter-diameter spherical robots designed to harness the power of Martian winds for mobility. Swarms of the rovers could spread across the red planet, autonomously gathering environmental data and providing an unprecedented, simultaneous view of atmospheric and surface processes from different locations on Mars. A final, stationary phase would involve collapsing the rovers into permanent measurement stations dotted around the surface of Mars. (9/25)

Could This Be Humanity’s First Multi-Generational Starship? (Source: Earth.com)
A new interstellar concept called Chrysalis sketches a 36 mile long rotating habitat designed to carry 2,400 people on a one way, 400 year trip. The destination is Alpha Centauri, about 25 trillion miles from Earth, a distance that rules out resupply once the ship leaves. Click here. (9/27)

A Double Standard for Planetary Protection (Source: Space News)
Astrobiologist Chad Pozarycki, who worked at NASA Goddard on the sample analysis team for the Curiosity rover, believes a double standard over planetary protection is keeping the United States from getting those potential biosignatures into a lab on Earth where they could be studied in greater detail.

Planetary protection, Pozarycki argued, or the concern of bringing back dangerous microbes, is making Mars Sample Return more difficult and expensive than it needs to be when it comes to, as he wrote, "retrieving what could be the most valuable set of objects in the universe." The hypocrisy, Pozarycki wrote, is that crewed missions to Mars are not being asked to consider the same level of planetary protection as robotic missions, as doing so would drive up costs and mission difficulty. (9/27)

Federal Workers Brace for Potential Government Shutdown, Mass Layoffs (Source: CNN)
Federal employees from agencies across the US government say they’re “terrified,” “disoriented” and filled with anxiety as they brace for a possible shutdown that the Trump White House has threatened will pave the way for new rounds of fast-tracked mass layoffs. There is widespread confusion and fear among federal workers as the Tuesday night deadline approaches for Congress to approve a spending package, according to more than a dozen employees from 11 federal agencies who spoke to CNN. (9/27)

SpaceX Wants to Overfly Florida After Launching From Texas (Source: Digital Trends)
SpaceX is seeking approval from the FAA to fly its massive Starship rocket on a trajectory that would take it over Florida after launching from its Starbase site in southern Texas. An alternative route has also been suggested by SpaceX, that one taking the world’s most powerful rocket past the tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and the Cayman Islands.

The proposed overflight of Florida would enable SpaceX to try out specific recovery tests and landing scenarios that can’t be done with the current trajectories. The FAA, which is now evaluating the environmental impact of the proposed routes, said in a report that the new flight paths would likely cause several hours of disruption to air traffic over parts of the U.S. including Florida. (9/26)