June 30, 2025 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Weather forces Australian rocket startup Gilmour Space to delay today’s first launch attempt of its Eris rocket
The new date: July 3, 2025.
- Russia touts the assembly of its next Soyuz-2 rocket, which will launch a Progress freighter to ISS
The launch is set for July 3rd, and also commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Soyuz-Apollo mission.
- Space Force ponders shakeup to LEO satellite strategy, potentially hiring SpaceX for data relay
The new strategy would abandon some of the other commercial constellations presently being developed and launched by other satellite companies. Understandably, there is already a lot of push back to this plan.
- Thirty years ago today the space shuttle Atlantis become the first American spacecraft to dock with the Soviet/Russian Mir space station
The docking was part of Clinton’s foreign policy to keep Russia’s non-military space programs afloat, sending them cash in the 1990s as a component of flying joint missions to Mir.
- Sixty years ago today Joe Engle flew the X-15 to an altitude of more than 50 miles, qualifying him for astronaut wings
He later flew on the space shuttle, becoming the only person to do both.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Weather forces Australian rocket startup Gilmour Space to delay today’s first launch attempt of its Eris rocket
The new date: July 3, 2025.
- Russia touts the assembly of its next Soyuz-2 rocket, which will launch a Progress freighter to ISS
The launch is set for July 3rd, and also commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Soyuz-Apollo mission.
- Space Force ponders shakeup to LEO satellite strategy, potentially hiring SpaceX for data relay
The new strategy would abandon some of the other commercial constellations presently being developed and launched by other satellite companies. Understandably, there is already a lot of push back to this plan.
- Thirty years ago today the space shuttle Atlantis become the first American spacecraft to dock with the Soviet/Russian Mir space station
The docking was part of Clinton’s foreign policy to keep Russia’s non-military space programs afloat, sending them cash in the 1990s as a component of flying joint missions to Mir.
- Sixty years ago today Joe Engle flew the X-15 to an altitude of more than 50 miles, qualifying him for astronaut wings
He later flew on the space shuttle, becoming the only person to do both.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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