October 8, 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.
- Space station startup Axiom signs agreement with Slovakian government
The deal is very similar to Axiom’s deal with Senegal from yesterday. Slovakia is buying access to Axiom’s expertise and its planned space station.
- Hams confirm Juno is still operating
It apparently transmitted a signal back to Earth. This however has no bearing on whether the mission will survive the budget process. Right now I remain very skeptical it will.
- A detailed long article describing China’s government space program
A very nice summary, though as Jay notes, “if a little alarmist.” It is part of the swamp’s tag team effort to convince Americans we need to give NASA and the Pentagon lots of money or else China will destroy us. Meanwhile, all we really need to do is clear the way for private competition and American ingenuity and China will be left in the dust.
- The third set of Kuiper satellites are on the way to one of SpaceX’s Florida launchpad
The launch is targeting Thursday, Oct. 9 on a Falcon 9.
- On this day in 1985, the space shuttle Atlantis completed its first mission
This mission, which deployed two military communications satelliets, completed construction of NASA’s initial fleet of four shuttles.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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.
- Space station startup Axiom signs agreement with Slovakian government
The deal is very similar to Axiom’s deal with Senegal from yesterday. Slovakia is buying access to Axiom’s expertise and its planned space station.
- Hams confirm Juno is still operating
It apparently transmitted a signal back to Earth. This however has no bearing on whether the mission will survive the budget process. Right now I remain very skeptical it will.
- A detailed long article describing China’s government space program
A very nice summary, though as Jay notes, “if a little alarmist.” It is part of the swamp’s tag team effort to convince Americans we need to give NASA and the Pentagon lots of money or else China will destroy us. Meanwhile, all we really need to do is clear the way for private competition and American ingenuity and China will be left in the dust.
- The third set of Kuiper satellites are on the way to one of SpaceX’s Florida launchpad
The launch is targeting Thursday, Oct. 9 on a Falcon 9.
- On this day in 1985, the space shuttle Atlantis completed its first mission
This mission, which deployed two military communications satelliets, completed construction of NASA’s initial fleet of four shuttles.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
There are 240 million Amazon prime sunscribers, so I think Kuiper will do ok in long run even if it has to buy launch services from SpaceX.
George C,
Maybe. Even if Amazon shifted 100% of its Kuiper launches to SpaceX, though, it would still be paying retail to launch while Starlinks go uphill at cost. And we haven’t seen much indication of what a consumer end-user monthly bill for Kuiper service would be. Kuiper might wind up like O3B and OneWeb, abandoning any pretense of being a consumer-level service in favor of strictly B2B markets. Starlink has an enormous first-mover advantage in the consumer-level market.
All,
It looks as though Axiom is doing a full-court press to sign MOUs with countries whose names start with ‘S.’ Who will be next? Sierra Leone? Solomon Islands? Serbia? Singapore? Slovenia?
The key to our easy life – American ingenuity. Most liberals do not understand that concept of (mostly white) humans using natural resources in unique ways to make our lives better, since the 1750s or so. Unfortunately, we shared those ways with the world, and not much appreciation is returned to us.