July 9, 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.
- Trump appoints Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as interim NASA administrator
At first glance this does NOT bode well for NASA as an agency. It suggests Trump is beginning to think of it as an after thought. Then again, it could mean he has decided action needs to be taken to help the agency. We can only wait and see.
- Starfish Space touts the nominal operations of its Otter Pup-2 robotic docking demo satellite
It will demonstrate rendezvous, proximity operations, and then a docking. The company is proving out its standardized docking system for sale to satellite companies.
- Relativity provides update of what it has accomplished in June
The company continues to move aggressively towards a first launch of its Terran-R rocket.
- Jeff Bezos wins the IAF World Space Award for 2025
For WHAT? As Jay notes, “One New Glenn launch? Best lawn outside of KSC? Biggest check to IAF?”
- Blue Origin touts the integration of propellant tanks on the first flight vehicle of its Blue Ring orbital tug
It would be nice if this damn company would finally begin actual commercial operations of something.
- On this day in 1979 Voyager-2 made its closest fly-by of Jupiter
The video provides a nice summary of what was learned, with the volcanoes of Io the biggest discovery.
- On this day in 2011 the space shuttle Atlantis was launched on the program’s last mission
It was a supply mission to ISS. Replacing the shuttle with cheaper commercial spacecraft took time. In about ten months the first cargo Dragon would launch to ISS, followed by the first cargo Cygnus in 2013, and the first manned Dragon in 2020.
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.
- Trump appoints Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as interim NASA administrator
At first glance this does NOT bode well for NASA as an agency. It suggests Trump is beginning to think of it as an after thought. Then again, it could mean he has decided action needs to be taken to help the agency. We can only wait and see.
- Starfish Space touts the nominal operations of its Otter Pup-2 robotic docking demo satellite
It will demonstrate rendezvous, proximity operations, and then a docking. The company is proving out its standardized docking system for sale to satellite companies.
- Relativity provides update of what it has accomplished in June
The company continues to move aggressively towards a first launch of its Terran-R rocket.
- Jeff Bezos wins the IAF World Space Award for 2025
For WHAT? As Jay notes, “One New Glenn launch? Best lawn outside of KSC? Biggest check to IAF?”
- Blue Origin touts the integration of propellant tanks on the first flight vehicle of its Blue Ring orbital tug
It would be nice if this damn company would finally begin actual commercial operations of something.
- On this day in 1979 Voyager-2 made its closest fly-by of Jupiter
The video provides a nice summary of what was learned, with the volcanoes of Io the biggest discovery.
- On this day in 2011 the space shuttle Atlantis was launched on the program’s last mission
It was a supply mission to ISS. Replacing the shuttle with cheaper commercial spacecraft took time. In about ten months the first cargo Dragon would launch to ISS, followed by the first cargo Cygnus in 2013, and the first manned Dragon in 2020.
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
I’m tempted to think that the Duffy move is a “negative” decision — it is not what Trump thinks Duffy can particularly do for NASA but rather that (for reasons not yet clear to us) he no longer trusts Janet Petro to handle the interim administrator job. So he wants one of “his” people in place, stat.
It probably also signals that Trump anticipates it being a while before a permanent administrator is nominated and confirmed. Which might not be a surprise given how confirmation hearings in the Senate have slowed to a crawl this summer. (Not that Trump has exactly set speed records with a new nomination.)
OK…after reading Eric Berger’s article, I may have been partially off base. Maybe it was not about Petro after all — beyond the general reality that she was not a “Trump person,” as opposed to anything she actually did (or did not do):
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/07/nasa-has-a-new-interim-administrator-the-secretary-of-transportation/
Jared Isaacman has come out in support of the move, by the way, for what it is worth.
(As usual, avoid the Ars comment section at all costs unless you are a sadomasochist.)
P.S. It is a relief to see Axiom making what appears to be some tangible progress on the EVA suits.
It won’t do much good for Starship to be ready to do a landing if the astronauts have no way of walking out of the airlocks. That would be just as true for any commercial mission SpaceX might be approached to execute, too!
It’s the Elephant in the Room thing, again. But — as I am all too aware — does it even serve any point to talk about it?
The problem, simply put, is what does the growing rift between Elon Musk and President Trump portend for America’s future in space?
Since last November, it appeared that there was an emerging consensus that Robert’s view of the way forward (cf, Capitalism in Space) had firmly taken hold at the White House, and we were looking, finally, at a true, private sector-sourced Second Space Age.
Now, with the cashiering of Mr. Isaacman and the retention of funding for the SLS / Artemis boondoggle, it would appear that such a hopeful vision may have been premature, and we are back to short sighted, pork barrel politics as usual in Washington. Worse, there is no reason not to believe that politics — not to mention raw emotion — is now driving Mr. Trump’s decision making process with respect to what this nation does in space, and this cannot have a happy ending. Is he, in short, more interested in “punishing” Elon Musk or overseeing a rational and sustainable expansion into the Solar System?
In a similar fashion, it is hard to ignore what seems to be happening with respect to Mr. Musk’s increasingly erratic behavior. As James Howard Kunstler observes https://www.kunstler.com/p/cage-match :
“Is Elon losing it, a little bit? His grip, that is. Mr. Trump thinks so. He declared over the weekend that Elon has “gone off the rails” . . . has become “a train wreck.” Well, what you can see in this very public, very regrettable cage-match between two giant public personalities is that Elon has lost his cool and the president has not.”
But what does all of this “mean” with respect to what direction America pursues with respect to going into space? Looking forward a bit, if “Capitalism in Space” becomes inseparably bound up with the platform of Mr. Musk’s new American political party, then what will be Mr. Trump’s response? A Big Beautiful Space Program based on SLS / Artemis? Is anyone feeling “good” about any of this right now?
What does everyone else think?
“Mission Mules emergency response team arrives in Texas to support search & recovery”
July 7, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/N9plSB_ymuM
“Unlike traditional emergency vehicles, our teams utilize surefooted Mules to reach victims often left behind in the immediate aftermath of a crisis. This crucial first response capability allows us to deliver essential supplies and medical assistance where other relief efforts are simply unable to reach.”
Richard M.–James Webb, JFK’s administrator during the formative Apollo years was also not an aerospace guy.
NASA needs to be scaled way back to pure research before it can become cutting edge once again. Commercial space is now where the airlines were 100 years ago–it needs to be supported by an NACA-like agency, but it will be those *free market* commercial companies that take us sustainably, affordably, and profitably into LEO and beyond.
NASA as it stands now is just a giant, old, bloated weight keeping us tethered to the ground with more downward force than gravity.
The porker senators in TX, AL, CA, CO obviously don’t share that vision.
He and Jared look a bit like each other–so maybe Trump thinks he can make a switch :)
There is so much going on in the world today but our news media doesn’t cover very much of it. Is journalism dead? I see it twitching once in a while but then it stops and I’m disappointed. The news has turned into sensationalism. Soundbites. Influencers. Social media echo chamber.
As for the best friend Break up between Trump and Elon, “who benefits?” Why did this happen? Has this been “staged” for our benefit by two former Democrats? A distraction for headlines?
It is said; when things aren’t going well at home, the president does a world tour and takes his show on the road.
(like Obama‘s apology tour where he was handing out USAID)
Was this tantrum of giants for our benefit to help save Tesla? He lost a lot of money and the hemorrhaging need to stop. Did the break up with the pretend domestic squabble work? Was the announcement of a third-party (a Ross Perot tactic to split the conservative vote to get Bill Clinton elected) A conspiracy to get Old/new Democrats fighting each other so they can’t be unified?
The Democrats are fracturing and in disarray, with no leader ship… Is this an attempt to yank back the party of crazies into sane reality? To save the “pink hair opposition” so no one notices the mistakes your own party is making? Gaslighting on a new level?
We will know in time if their advisers who are helping them do damage control, saves this upset in the MAGA Movement without becoming a logjam to this administration.
Without Elon side-by-side with the Trump, the Democrats no longer have a unifying position to focus their angst upon. They are saying, do we support Elon now that he hates Trump like us?
Now they’re back to focusing on Trump only, which is getting tiresome… it’s hard to stand against something when the administration pulls the rug from under your feet and you must climb back up again.
Is this really brilliantly executed theater to keep the enemies off balance? At the same time as diverting attention from your own failures of holding anyone responsible for the crimes of the century?
“Lock her up” was the rallying cry for his first election… Failure to do so destroyed his first term in office because of his “verbal pardon” allowed her to do anything she wished without repercussions… The Russia dossier.
Now history is repeating itself. With a twist.
Billionaires love to play mind games… Why? Because they can! They can afford to do so.
I’m with you, Max.
On the Axiom suit:
“This AxEMU space suit is an horror. Discarding neck mobility and peripheral vision is a huge step back in term of Astronauts security when the next generations of astronauts will be confronted to an increased exposure to confined geological formation due to extra terrestrial space exploration (imagine yourself handling a piolet in a tight cave embalmed like a larva in that bizarre suit).
Also, the larger exposed fabric surface resulting from the lack of a neck increases the risk of accidentals tearing and suit breaching (see the ripped and curled material there). Something that is aggravated by the reduced peripheral vision.”
“I understand the tradeoff was for a jump-in suit, as favored by the online public. IMOHO, it´s a costly error. (and jump-in suits can be built differently).”
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/artemis-moon-program.32471/page-47#post-808668
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krechet-94