November 24, 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.
- New aerial views of the damaged Superheavy booster-18 from RGVAerial
I can’t help it: That interior reminds me of Hans Giger’s art for the sci-fi movie Alien.
- The Long March-2F carrying Shenzhou-22 is now on the launchpad
It will carry only cargo to provide a lifeboat for the astronauts on Tiangon-3. While many in the west are speculating it will launch on November 25th due to road closure notices, all China has said so far is that it is “scheduled for launch in the near future.”
- ULA has begun stacking its Atlas-5, the next rocket it will launch
The targeted launch date is December 15, 2025, carrying another 27 Amazon LEO satellites.
- Luxembourg startup Space Cargo signs deal with French Dassault to fly its BentoBox service module on the latter’s proposed Vortex reusable space plane
Vortex appears to be the orbital version of an ESA suborbital “demonstrator” that Dassault is building but whose funding at this moment is not finalized. If it gets built and the orbital version follows, the BentoBox will fly with it carrying commercial payloads.
- Webb discovers rapidly growing black hole in the very early universe
As has become common for Webb’s observations close to the Big Bang, it is bigger than expected, making things difficult for the present theories of cosmology.
- On this day in 1960 the second weather satellite, TIROS 2, was launched
It had problems with its wide-field camera, but its close-up camera produced good data, though of limited value for weather prediction.
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.
- New aerial views of the damaged Superheavy booster-18 from RGVAerial
I can’t help it: That interior reminds me of Hans Giger’s art for the sci-fi movie Alien.
- The Long March-2F carrying Shenzhou-22 is now on the launchpad
It will carry only cargo to provide a lifeboat for the astronauts on Tiangon-3. While many in the west are speculating it will launch on November 25th due to road closure notices, all China has said so far is that it is “scheduled for launch in the near future.”
- ULA has begun stacking its Atlas-5, the next rocket it will launch
The targeted launch date is December 15, 2025, carrying another 27 Amazon LEO satellites.
- Luxembourg startup Space Cargo signs deal with French Dassault to fly its BentoBox service module on the latter’s proposed Vortex reusable space plane
Vortex appears to be the orbital version of an ESA suborbital “demonstrator” that Dassault is building but whose funding at this moment is not finalized. If it gets built and the orbital version follows, the BentoBox will fly with it carrying commercial payloads.
- Webb discovers rapidly growing black hole in the very early universe
As has become common for Webb’s observations close to the Big Bang, it is bigger than expected, making things difficult for the present theories of cosmology.
- On this day in 1960 the second weather satellite, TIROS 2, was launched
It had problems with its wide-field camera, but its close-up camera produced good data, though of limited value for weather prediction.
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


I had the same thought!