The Arcadia Times

Sol 668 · Mars Year 38 · 29 September 2026 Dry run. Set by hand from real wires; the presses are being builtSample edition

Relativity Space

New Glenn 9×4 joins NASA's launch catalogue

Blue Origin's larger rocket follows Relativity's Terran R onto the same contract this month.

A stylised Mars lit exactly from the side, its terminator running pole to pole, with the Sun's rays drawn as thin lines. — At Ls 0° the terminator runs from pole to pole: equal day and night everywhere on Mars. → Mars Year 38 ends tomorrow morning AI illustration

NASA has added Blue Origin's New Glenn 9×4 launch service to its NASA Launch Services II contract, under the contract's on-ramp clause, so the agency's Launch Services Program can use it for future missions.

Three weeks earlier, on 9 September, Relativity Space's Terran R was added to the same contract through the same on-ramp provision. The on-ramp lets NASA add new launch vehicles as they come online rather than waiting for a new competition.

For a hab that watches launches for a living, two new heavy-lift names on the agency's list in one month is a good month.

Sources NASA: NASA Adds Blue Origin New Glenn 9×4 to Launch Services Contract NASA: NASA Adds Relativity Space's Terran R to Launch Services Contract

Mars Year 38 ends tomorrow morning

The northern spring equinox, Ls 0°, falls at 08:21 UTC on 30 September; the hab's clocks roll over to Mars Year 39.

By the Mars24 algorithm NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies publishes for mission clocks, areocentric solar longitude reaches 0° tomorrow at about 08:21 UTC. That instant is the northern spring equinox and, in the Clancy numbering that counts Mars Year 1 from 11 April 1955, the start of Mars Year 39.

A Mars year lasts 668.6 sols, or about 687 Earth days. Arcadia Planitia, at 39.8° north, has just come through its winter; the paper's window should show a shorter night from here.

Sources NASA GISS: Mars24 Sunclock: technical notes on Mars solar time

SpaceX

Four SpaceX launches on the board this week

Crew-13 to the space station on Thursday, a Falcon Heavy for the NRO on Friday, and two more Falcon 9s.

NASASpaceflight's weekly preview lists four orbital launches for the week, all of them SpaceX: the Crew-13 astronaut mission to the International Space Station, the Transporter-18 rideshare, a Falcon Heavy carrying a mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, and a Starlink flight.

Launch Library 2 has Crew-13 at 15:10 UTC on 1 October from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, status go.

Sources NASASpaceflight: Launch Preview: Crew-13 to launch to ISS, Falcon Heavy to launch mission for the NRO The Space Devs: Launch Library 2

Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab disputes a NASA Mars spacecraft award

The company says the decision does not match NASA's own eligibility criteria.

Rocket Lab has objected to a NASA award decision on a Mars spacecraft. "NASA's award decision appears to be inconsistent with the eligibility criteria," the company said, as reported by Ars Technica.

Sources Ars Technica: Rocket Lab is seeing red about NASA's decision on a Mars spacecraft

Next off the pad

1 Oct 15:10 UTC Falcon 9 Block 5 | Crew-13 SpaceX · Go
1 Oct 18:18 UTC Falcon 9 Block 5 | Transporter 18 (Dedicated SSO Rideshare) SpaceX · Go
2 Oct 03:53 UTC Falcon Heavy | NROL-97 SpaceX · Go

Source The Space Devs: Launch Library 2

Weather at Gale crater

−71/−5°C

Sky: Sunny
Pressure: 777 Pa
Report: sol 4995, 25 Aug

Curiosity's REMS station, 2,700 km from the hab. Air pressure about 0.8% of Earth's.

Source Centro de Astrobiología / NASA: Curiosity REMS weather

Who's talking to Earth

Voyager 1Goldstone · DSS25
Mars OdysseyMadrid · DSS53
New HorizonsCanberra · DSS43

Deep Space Network antennas with a live link at press time.

Source NASA: DSN Now

From the belt

Relativity Space Terran R added to NASA's launch services contract
SpaceX Four launches this week, Crew-13 first
Rocket Lab Rocket Lab disputes a NASA Mars award

Companies I own a piece of; public holdings only.

Source The Space Devs: Spaceflight News API

Classifieds

Fiction, by nature. Rates: free; the hab accepts coffee.

WANTED: a seat on the next Starship. Serious offers only. — M.W.
LOST: one Mars Year. Last seen near Ls 359.9°. No reward; a new one arrives tomorrow. — The hab
NOTICE: presses tested this morning. Ink still wet. Do not lean on the masthead. — The editor

On the stand