March 17, 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.
- Firefly touts its planned constellation of lunar Elytra satellites providing relay communications to Earth
Each of the next three Blue Ghost lander missions will deploy an Elytra in lunar orbit, which will also provide imagery and mapping data for other landing missions.
- The Parker Solar Probe completed its 27th close fly-by of the Sun on March 11, 2026
It flew just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface at a record-matching 430,000 mph, and began sending the data back from that fly-by today.
- On this day in 1966 Neil Armstrong and David Scott launched aboard Gemini VIII
Six hours later they accomplished the first ever docking of two spacecraft in orbit, only to be forced to do an emergency undocking and return-to-Earth when a thruster began misfiring 27 minutes after docking, spinning both spacecraft uncontrollably.
- Today marks 100 years since Robert Goddard completed the first successful test of a liquid-fueled rocket
Though the rocket flew just 41 feet in the air, landing in a nearby cabbage patch, the engineering achievement has become the foundation of almost all rocketry.
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.
- Firefly touts its planned constellation of lunar Elytra satellites providing relay communications to Earth
Each of the next three Blue Ghost lander missions will deploy an Elytra in lunar orbit, which will also provide imagery and mapping data for other landing missions.
- The Parker Solar Probe completed its 27th close fly-by of the Sun on March 11, 2026
It flew just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface at a record-matching 430,000 mph, and began sending the data back from that fly-by today.
- On this day in 1966 Neil Armstrong and David Scott launched aboard Gemini VIII
Six hours later they accomplished the first ever docking of two spacecraft in orbit, only to be forced to do an emergency undocking and return-to-Earth when a thruster began misfiring 27 minutes after docking, spinning both spacecraft uncontrollably.
- Today marks 100 years since Robert Goddard completed the first successful test of a liquid-fueled rocket
Though the rocket flew just 41 feet in the air, landing in a nearby cabbage patch, the engineering achievement has become the foundation of almost all rocketry.
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