November 18, 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.
- Blue Origin’s CEO touts a recent hotfire test of its upper stage BE-3U engine
He claims it “reached more than 211,500 lbf thrust [making it] the highest thrust-to-weight hydrogen engine in history.”
- French rocket startup Latitude commits €8M to build its launchpad in French Guiana
It is entirely unclear when this startup will do its first launch. It initially targeted 2024, which obviously did not happen.
- On this day in 1970 the Soviet Union’s unmanned lander Luna 17 touched down the Moon, delivering the Lunokhod-1 rover
Lunokhod-1 operated for eleven months, traveling 6.5 miles. In 1993, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia sold it at a Sotheby’s auction for $68,500, even though it still sits on the Moon.
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.
- Blue Origin’s CEO touts a recent hotfire test of its upper stage BE-3U engine
He claims it “reached more than 211,500 lbf thrust [making it] the highest thrust-to-weight hydrogen engine in history.”
- French rocket startup Latitude commits €8M to build its launchpad in French Guiana
It is entirely unclear when this startup will do its first launch. It initially targeted 2024, which obviously did not happen.
- On this day in 1970 the Soviet Union’s unmanned lander Luna 17 touched down the Moon, delivering the Lunokhod-1 rover
Lunokhod-1 operated for eleven months, traveling 6.5 miles. In 1993, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia sold it at a Sotheby’s auction for $68,500, even though it still sits on the Moon.
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


More UN crud
https://spacenews.com/avoiding-a-harmful-lunar-gold-rush/
Lunokhod’s reflector still gets used by the UCSD’s APOLLO team for lunar laser ranging work. It’s still doing good service!
On the whole, it has to be said that while the Soviets never got a man to the Moon, their Lunokhod program was a rather impressive feat, achieved under challenging circumstances, showing what is possible in space even for a corrupt totalitarian system when it makes the effort to develop good engineering talent and supplies it with ample resources and durable political backing. ROSCOSMOS is only a pale shadow of those days.