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SpaceX Achieves Record Launchpad Turnaround
Earth's Oldest Rocks Discovered
Coffee Table Science
July 02, 2025
Welcome to this edition of Over a Cup of Coffee!
SpaceX Achieves Record Launchpad Turnaround
SpaceX further pushed rapid reuse boundaries early Saturday, setting a new launchpad turnaround record with its latest Falcon 9 launch. The Starlink 10-34 mission launched at 12:26 a.m. EDT (0426 UTC), a mere two days, eight hours, 31 minutes, and 10 seconds after the previous Starlink 10-16 mission on June 25. This rapid turnaround highlights SpaceX's increasingly efficient launch operations. This achievement surpassed SpaceX's previous record, set in March, by nearly 30 minutes.
Despite some rough weather hitting Florida's Space Coast on Friday night, SpaceX successfully launched its 27 Starlink V2 Mini satellites right at the start of the early morning launch window. The Starlink 10-34 mission was launched using Falcon 9 first stage booster B1092, marking its fifth flight. Previously, it was used in missions such as Starlink 12-13, NROL-69, CRS-32 and GPS III SV08.
What happened next?
Just over eight minutes after liftoff, booster B1092 successfully touched down on the droneship 'A Shortfall of Gravitas.' This marked the 115th landing on that particular vessel and the 469th booster landing overall. Saturday morning marked the 497th Falcon 9 flight, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of SpaceX's CRS-7 mission. While CRS-7 ended in an anomaly, it led to a significant and still-used block upgrade for the Falcon 9 rocket.
The findings were published in Spaceflight Now.
Earth's Oldest Rocks Discovered
A rocky outcrop on the eastern shore of Canada's Hudson Bay in northern Quebec appears serene in its eerie isolation. For two decades, the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, an exposed ancient ocean floor remnant in northern Quebec, has been a fiercely debated site in the search for Earth's oldest rock. New research indicates that the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt contains Earth's oldest known crustal fragments, dating back 4.16 billion years.
The Acasta Gneiss Complex, located near Yellowknife in northwestern Canada, is generally accepted as Earth's oldest geological formation. These rocks are unambiguously dated at 4.03 billion years old, marking the boundary between the Hadean and Archean Eons.
Radiometric dating uses the natural, spontaneous radioactive decay of elements within rocks as a "clock" to determine their age. The most reliable method for dating ancient rock formations involves zircon, a durable mineral. These tiny crystals contain uranium, and by measuring its radioactive decay into lead, scientists can precisely determine the rock's age. The Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, mapped in the 1960s but gaining scientific attention in the early 2000s, presents a challenge for dating due to its scarcity of zircon-bearing rocks. Zircons are rare in low-silicon specimens, such as those that were once ancient ocean crust.
What’s the conclusion then?
Whether Nuvvuagittuq outcrops will be widely accepted as Earth's oldest rocks remains uncertain among scientists not involved in the research. It's incredibly difficult to be definitive when studying rocks and minerals with complex geological histories that stretch back over 4 billion years. It's remarkable that these rocks, potentially 4.15 billion years old, are preserved at all. This latest research offers even more compelling evidence supporting that age. Researchers are looking forward to solving this mystery.
The insights were published in the journal Science.
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Lost Spaceship Alert: Found in the Ocean
In science fiction, lost spacecraft are a common trope, but what about a lost spaceship at sea? This past week, an eight-foot-wide experimental spacecraft from European aerospace company, The Exploration Company, became lost at sea. It launched Monday afternoon from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California.
It launched aboard a SpaceX mission that also carried 70 other payloads and human remains for a space memorial. The unmanned Mission Possible spacecraft, a test capsule for future cargo and astronaut transport, successfully launched into space, orbited Earth, survived re-entry, and established contact with mission control.
Mission control lost contact with the experimental spacecraft after it splashed down in the ocean. The capsule successfully launched, powered its payloads in orbit, stabilized after separation, and re-established communication following re-entry blackout. However, based on current information, it encountered an issue, and we lost communication a few minutes before splashdown. The company is still investigating the root causes of the incident.
The Exploration Company's leadership has declared the mission a success. They state it proves that a capsule can be successfully launched using low-cost, off-the-shelf components, such as parachutes from SpaceX's Dragon. Mission Possible was built for approximately $20 million. The company's potential next steps include developing Nyx, a more advanced and reusable cargo vehicle, which could eventually transport humans to and from the Moon.
The findings were published in Futurism.
Astronomers mistook a mysterious radio burst for a signal from deep space
Astronomers initially believed a powerful, mysterious blast of radio waves was a fast radio burst (FRB) originating from beyond the Milky Way. However, it was actually an emission from Relay 2, a long-defunct NASA satellite. The "pseudo-FRB," initially detected by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in June 2024, was a remarkably brief yet powerful radio burst. Lasting less than 30 nanoseconds, it was strong enough to overshadow all other celestial signals.
Launched in 1964 as part of NASA's Relay program, the Relay 2 satellite operated in medium Earth orbit until 1965 before its systems fully failed by 1967. The team confirms the "pseudo-FRB" signal wasn't intentional; Relay 2 has been inoperative for 58 years, and its original transmission capabilities couldn't generate such short radio pulses.
The primary indicator distinguishing an artificial signal from a fast radio burst (FRB) is its dispersion measure. This refers to the time delay observed in lower frequencies of radio signals from FRBs and pulsars, caused by ionized electrons slowing the signal as it travels through space and encounters plasma. This effect provides astronomers with a reliable way to gauge the distance a signal has traveled.
Why is it important for us?
The key question now is how this research can help us use radio telescopes to monitor satellites. These instruments could be especially effective for detecting Electrostatic Discharge (ESD). Scientists are hoping that they or another group will detect more of these in the coming years and develop a model for how it happens. It would be great if that proved useful in preventing satellite damage.
The research was published in the paper arXiv.
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Until next time,
Adya
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