November 25, 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.
- A short commercial from Amazon touting its Amazon Leo constellation (formerly Kuiper)
As Jay says, “These numbers are meaningless without birds in orbit.”
- Chinese researchers propose an explanation for the stickier regolith found by Chang’e-6
The explanation is complex, and essentially relates to the different local make-up of the soil.
- Scientists release final data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope project
The data, collected over almost two decades, confirm the conflict in the predicted number for the Hubble constant (the universe’s expansion rate), where two different methods of observations have produced two reliable but different numbers. At present no theory successfully explains the conflict.
- Chinese pseudo-company Sepoch claims its proposed copycat Falcon-9 rocket will be caught by tower chopsticks on a drone ship
As Jay notes, “Talk, like CGI, is cheap.”
- Detailed article outlining the range issues at Cape Canaveral as launch rates rise
The article is mostly focused on bashing SpaceX’s plans to launch Starship/Superheavy from Florida next year, noting the generally weak objections filed by ULA and Blue Origin. If you put that aside, it does provide a good overview of the issues involved.
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.
- A short commercial from Amazon touting its Amazon Leo constellation (formerly Kuiper)
As Jay says, “These numbers are meaningless without birds in orbit.”
- Chinese researchers propose an explanation for the stickier regolith found by Chang’e-6
The explanation is complex, and essentially relates to the different local make-up of the soil.
- Scientists release final data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope project
The data, collected over almost two decades, confirm the conflict in the predicted number for the Hubble constant (the universe’s expansion rate), where two different methods of observations have produced two reliable but different numbers. At present no theory successfully explains the conflict.
- Chinese pseudo-company Sepoch claims its proposed copycat Falcon-9 rocket will be caught by tower chopsticks on a drone ship
As Jay notes, “Talk, like CGI, is cheap.”
- Detailed article outlining the range issues at Cape Canaveral as launch rates rise
The article is mostly focused on bashing SpaceX’s plans to launch Starship/Superheavy from Florida next year, noting the generally weak objections filed by ULA and Blue Origin. If you put that aside, it does provide a good overview of the issues involved.
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

