The Psyche spacecraft prepares for launch, and other stories
Welcome to Ramin’s Space, the newsletter from WIRED space writer Ramin Skibba. You can read more about the newsletter here. If you like it, please consider subscribing and sharing this post.
NASA’s Psyche Spacecraft Heads to Cape Canaveral
I had the rare opportunity to see the Psyche probe up close, along with the scientists leading its mission, at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. If the final tests go well, it’ll launch toward the asteroid belt in a couple months. Here’s my new story that came out of that reporting.
Analysts Warn Anti-Satellite Weapons Have Evolved Beyond Missiles
One thing we’ve learned from Russia’s and India’s tests is that blowing up a satellite has many consequences, including for the tester. That could be why many countries have invested in quieter, sneakier weapons, like electronic and cyberweapons and lasers and microwave beams.
Netflix’s SpaceX Documentary Doesn’t Tell the Whole Story
The new movie Return to Space shows how underdog SpaceX rose against the odds, developed low-cost, reusable rockets, and transformed the space industry. But as I argue in this piece, the documentary misses some important context.
Axiom’s All-Private Spaceflight Returns from the ISS
The first all-private mission to the International Space Station just finished, a first step toward the commercial space stations of the future. But this was a crew of mostly white, wealthy businessmen, and I’m curious about to what extent we’ll actually see increased access to space.
Space Command’s Lt. Gen. John. Shaw Says Space is ‘Under Threat’
I’m excited to share my exclusive, wide-ranging interview with the US Space Command’s second-in-command. I asked him about cyberattacks, satellite vulnerabilities, space junk in orbit, implications of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and more. This was my most widely read piece for WIRED this month.
Scientists Want to Probe Uranus with a New Spacecraft
A respected group of planetary scientists and astrobiologists call for a new space mission to Uranus and its moons, a couple of which might have life-friendly underground oceans. It’ll be great for science and for Uranus jokes!
In other writing…
The great ungrieving
It’s disturbing how people have become inured to the daily deaths from COVID-19, including a callous disregard for people we used to call “essential” or “frontline” workers. I recommend this New York Review of Books piece by Sarah Jaffe.
In the land of living skies
We all have complex relationships with the night, with darkness and light. But we should remember that there’s actually a lot at stake as artificial light continues encroaching into the night, hiding the starry sky from our view. I like this new essay in Harper’s by Suzannah Showler.
More pressure on NASA to rename the James Webb Space Telescope
New revelations showed that under James Webb’s tenure at NASA, federal employees could be fired based on suspicions of their sexual orientation, and then last year the agency seemed to dismiss the concerns of LGBTQ+ astronomers in their discussions. Adam Mann makes the case in Scientific American to rename the telescope.
Decolonizing the search for extraterrestrial life
In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), and in space exploration in general, we sometimes hear colonialist terms like “frontiers” and “manifest destiny.” But recently some scholars have been trying to include Indigenous voices and perspectives in SETI. Interesting piece by Doug Johnson in Undark magazine.
The plan to make Michigan the next space state
The US’s, Europe’s and Japan’s main launch sites are all on the edge of oceans, to mitigate environmental impacts. There could be a spaceport built next to the Michigan side of Lake Superior too, and it’s not surprisingly a controversial idea. Good coverage of the situation by David Rompf in the New Yorker.
What I’m reading: Kim Stanley Robinson’s science fiction novel (or maybe climate fiction), The Ministry for the Future.
Looking back: Five years ago, I wrote about the psychological and neurological impacts of solitary confinement on prisoners for Newsweek. Now I’m looking to write a story about new efforts to study the effects of long-term isolation on space travelers. Stay tuned!
More about me: I’m the space writer at WIRED magazine, and I’m based in San Diego. I used to be a freelance writer and journalist, and before that, an astrophysicist. You can find me at my website, raminskibba.net, and on Twitter @raminskibba. I’m also former president of the San Diego Science Writers Association (SANDSWA) and on the board of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW), though the opinions I express are mine alone. If someone has forwarded this email to you, you’re welcome to subscribe too.