Starship Set for Flight 13, Japan's Reusable Rocket Breakthrough, and SpaceX's 100,000 Satellite...
Astronomy Daily S05E139 — Monday, 13 July 2026 Starship could fly again as soon as Wednesday — carrying its first-ever real payload. Japan quietly joins the reusable rocket club just a day after China. SpaceX asks regulators for a jaw-dropping 100,000 satellites. Physicists may have heard the accumulated whispers of every star that ever exploded. Isar Aerospace signs a $150 million deal to launch from Canada. And a ravenous black hole just 1.8 billion light-years away is giving astronomers — including teams from CSIRO and the University of Sydney — a window into the dawn of time. In this episode • Starship Flight 13: Booster 20's 33-engine static fire complete; launch NET Wednesday (AEST); first deployment of 20 Starlink V3 satellites; in-space Raptor relight and Indian Ocean splashdown planned. • JAXA's RV-X reusable rocket completes its first hop at Noshiro — about 40 seconds, 10–11 metres up, landing upright — one day after China's Long March 10B sea recovery. • SpaceX files with the FCC for a 100,000-satellite Gen3 constellation in very low Earth orbit, pitched at multi-gigabit AI-era connectivity — and entirely dependent on Starship. • Super-Kamiokande reports the first indication of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background from nearly 5,000 days of data — the accumulated neutrinos of every core-collapse supernova in cosmic history. • Isar Aerospace signs a 10-year deal with Maritime Launch Services for a dedicated complex at Spaceport Nova Scotia — first orbital launches targeted for 2028, up to 40 per year by 2029. • Galaxy SDSS J110546.07+145202.4: a lightweight, ferociously fast-growing black hole behaving like the early universe's titans, shining 20-fold brighter in radio for eight-plus years — with CSIRO's ATCA among the follow-up telescopes. • Skywatching: New Moon Tuesday evening (7:44pm AEST / 9:44pm NZST); prime Milky Way core viewing; Venus brilliant in the west; Mars near Aldebaran pre-dawn; Comet 10P/Tempel 2 favours southern observers. Sources & further reading • Space.com — Starship Flight 13 static fire & launch outlook; Starlink Gen3 filing; Isar/MLS deal; ravenous black hole; supernova neutrino whispers • AP / Japan Times / RTÉ — JAXA RV-X first test flight • Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy press release; Komossa et al., The Astrophysical Journal (2026) • Tohoku University / phys.org — Super-Kamiokande DSNB indication (Neutrino 2026 conference) • CBC / The Globe and Mail / SpaceQ — Isar Aerospace & Maritime Launch Services agreement details • NASA JPL What's Up July 2026; EarthSky; Space.com night sky guide — skywatching
