ESA to study Falcon 9 breakup over Poland. The European Space Agency has invited tenders for a study investigating the re-entry and breakup of the SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage in February last year, European Spaceflight reports. In the early hours of February 19, 2025, the Falcon 9 second stage had an uncontrolled atmospheric re-entry over Poland. At least four pieces of the stage survived reentry and fell at various locations across the country. Although no one was injured and no property was damaged, at least one piece fell in a populated area.
Not just an academic study … ESA hopes that data collected during Falcon 9 upper stage re-entry over Poland will be used to help predict the risks associated with the re-entry of extended upper stages. There are currently considerable uncertainties regarding the physics and dynamics of catastrophic reentry in the very low-Earth orbit region, below 150 km. This is not an academic study, as approximately 80 orbital rocket launches were conducted in 2015. A decade later, that figure has nearly quadrupled, with 317 successful orbital rocket launches in 2025. (Submitted by LPTIA)
SpaceX targets mid-March for next Starship launch. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said on Sunday, January 25 that the company plans to launch the next test flight of Starship in six weeks, Space.com reports. The flight will be the 12th overall for Starship, but the first flight of the larger, more powerful and highly anticipated “Version 3” (V3) version of the vehicle.
a better engine … Starship V3 is slightly longer than V2—408.1 feet (124.4 m) versus 403.9 feet (123.1 m), but is significantly more powerful. According to Musk, the V3 can carry more than 100 tons of payload into low Earth orbit, compared to about 35 tons for the V2. The increased power comes courtesy of Raptor 3, a new version of the engine that will fly for the first time on an upcoming test mission. SpaceX hopes it will prove to be even more reliable than V2.
Information is being sought about contender artefacts. In 2010, Robert Pearlman of CollectSpace purchased a batch of 18 Space Shuttle-era “remove before flight” tags on eBay. It was later discovered that these tags had actually been removed from the external tank of STS 51-L, the space shuttle’s ill-fated flight. contender In 1986. He wrote about the experience on Ars.
How did they get to eBay? … “When the tags were first identified, contacts at NASA and Lockheed, among others, were unable to explain how they ended up on eBay and, ultimately, with me,” Perlman said. He wants to gather more information about the origins of the tags so he can donate them to museums along with their full background.
next three launches
30 January:Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-101 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida 05:51 UTC
2 February:Falcon 9 | Starlink 17-32 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California 15:17 UTC
3 February:Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-103 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida 22:12 UTC
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