The Space Race - Weekly Roundup Feb 18th

Author

Juan Fernández
February 18, 2025

In partnership with

Hello, space fans! 🚀 

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Now, back to space.

Well, that was a pretty intense week 🚀 From landers nearing the Moon to asteroid water clues and distant icy worlds. Blue Origin is (sadly) making headlines with layoffs but pushing toward the Moon...and even Mars?, while CubeSats could soon fix telescopes, and lunar samples keep surprising us.

On to the details! 🌌😊

🛰️ Blue Ghost on Track for Lunar Landing

Firefly's Blue Ghost lander successfully completed a critical four-minute engine burn, maintaining its course for a March 2nd landing on the Moon. It even sent back a stunning image of the lunar South Pole. This mission is a significant step forward for NASA's lunar exploration goals, with private companies playing a key role.

🪐 Blue Origin: Layoffs & Big Moon Plans

Blue Origin is cutting 10% of its staff to focus on speed and efficiency, but it’s not slowing down. A second New Glenn rocket launch is set for spring, and the company is pushing hard to land on the Moon this year—all while dreaming of Mars.

Read more 👉🏻 here and here

🇯🇵 Japanese Lander's Lunar Flyby

ispace’s RESILIENCE lander made history with a close flyby of the Moon, a huge win for Japan’s private space industry. It’s now looping through deep space before aiming for lunar orbit in May. Big dreams ahead—like digging Moon soil and even planting a tiny “Moonhouse.”

🇪🇺 Ariane 6 To Ramp Up in 2025

Arianespace is gearing up for five Ariane 6 launches next year, though most will happen late in 2025. Their new CEO is pushing hard to meet demand, especially Amazon’s Kuiper project. It’s crunch time for Europe’s rocket ambitions, with high hopes but pressure to deliver fast.

🌍 Small Satellite to Map Lunar Water

Launching no earlier than February 26 on Intuitive Machines' IM-2 mission, NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer will map water on the Moon. It’s taking a slow, looping route using gravity tricks. Once in orbit, it could help future astronauts tap into lunar ice for drinking water and fuel.

🧑‍🚀 First Disabled Astronaut Cleared for ISS

ESA astronaut John McFall, who has a prosthetic leg, is now medically approved for missions to the International Space Station. It’s the first time someone with a physical disability has been cleared for long-duration spaceflight, opening the door for more inclusive crews in future space missions.

🪐 Ryugu Asteroid Samples Reveal Ancient Salty Water

Scientists studying samples from asteroid Ryugu found salt crystals, suggesting its parent body once had liquid water. This could link asteroids to watery worlds like Europa and Enceladus. It’s a reminder that water—and maybe the building blocks of life—could be more common out there than we think.

🛰️ CubeSats: The Future of Space Telescope Repair?

Researchers have developed a way for small CubeSats to work together and repair spacecraft like telescopes in deep space without crashing into each other or wasting a lot of fuel. It’s a big step toward future space repairs, ensuring the longevity of valuable science instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope.

🌑 Moon Rocks Rewrite Lunar History

New samples from China’s Chang’e missions show the Moon’s past was more active than we thought: volcanoes lasted longer, and the far side holds deep mysteries. With NASA aiming for a 2027 astronaut landing, every rock is rewriting what we know about our closest neighbor and its future potential.

🧊 Webb Unlocks Secrets of Distant TNOs

NASA’s Webb telescope has revealed surprising details about trans-Neptunian objects, icy bodies beyond Neptune. Their surfaces show unexpected chemical diversity, hinting at where they formed in the early solar system. Each spectrum is like a fingerprint, helping scientists piece together our cosmic origins, one frozen world at a time.

💥 White Dwarf Explosions Aren’t So Simple!

Astronomers studied nearly 4,000 exploding white dwarf stars and found they go out in wildly different ways. Sometimes colliding, other times tearing apart their neighbors. This messier picture could impact how we measure the universe’s expansion and better understand the mysterious force driving it: dark energy.

📹 Our latest videos

Here are the latest videos we've published on our YouTube channel this week:

🚀 Upcoming Rocket Launches

It’s a quieter week than usual — just some Starlink action and Rocket Lab adding a bit of variety — but hey, “quiet” still means four rockets heading to space… we’ve come a long way! 😂🚀

  • Tuesday, Feb 18th: Electron (Rocket Lab, New Zealand) – Fasten Your Space Belts (BlackSky Gen-3 1) Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand.

  • Wednesday, Feb 19th: Falcon 9 Block 5 (SpaceX, USA) – Starlink Group 10-12 Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA.

  • Thursday, Feb 20th: Falcon 9 Block 5 (SpaceX, USA) – Starlink Group 15-1 Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA.

  • Friday, Feb 21st: Falcon 9 Block 5 (SpaceX, USA) – Starlink Group 12-14 Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA.

And that’s it for this week. Stay curious! 😊

Juan and the team at The Space Race