January 9, 2026 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.
- ESA strikes new deal with NASA in its partnership commitments at ISS
I read this article earlier today and decided not to post it because it does not make clear what has changed.
- Close-up images of Zhuque-3 first stage engines and tanks coming apart just before impact
This was that first attempt to land the stage on December 2, 2025.
- New video of the Zhuquie-3 first stage crash
This footage is quite spectacular.
- On this day in 1973, the Soviet Union launched Luna 21 with their second successful lunar rover, Lunokhod 2
The tweet shows a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photo of the rover on the floor of the crater Le Monnier.
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.
- ESA strikes new deal with NASA in its partnership commitments at ISS
I read this article earlier today and decided not to post it because it does not make clear what has changed.
- Close-up images of Zhuque-3 first stage engines and tanks coming apart just before impact
This was that first attempt to land the stage on December 2, 2025.
- New video of the Zhuquie-3 first stage crash
This footage is quite spectacular.
- On this day in 1973, the Soviet Union launched Luna 21 with their second successful lunar rover, Lunokhod 2
The tweet shows a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photo of the rover on the floor of the crater Le Monnier.
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


Michael Bay is jealous.
The stage looked like it was coming in too hot. It may be that aerodynamic and mechanical stresses exceeded tolerances when the engines fired.
Jared Isaacman is now off on his 2026 North American tour, playing hits off his new album at every single NASA center and facility, but mainly listening to employees, sometimes in rather heated and animated tones, apparently (there were “tough questions”).
Anyway, he was at Goddard Space Flight Center here in Maryland today, and he did say something interesting about that in his X post:
Might he be hinting that rumors of Goddard’s closure are true, or is he saying that he wants to make modernizing upgrades there? Or is it unwise to read anything into it?
No matter what, of course, Congress will always get a say. I wonder if something like a military base closure commission isn’t going to be the only politically viable way to consolidate and close any NASA centers that really need consolidating closing.
https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2009821254895759787
P.S. Jared Isaacman is showing himself to be a shrewd operator in the Trump Administration: He will be on Lara Trump’s show on Fox tonight at 9pm ET to talk about NASA and his plans for it; it will feature footage of what appears to be Isaacman taking Eric and Lara up on his F-5’s (repainted in NASA livery!) at the Cape, which has got to be the first time a serving NASA Administrator has done this with a reporter.
This should please the boss. And that’s important.
Glimpse here: https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2010045292612407714