May 6, 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.
- Spanish rocket startup PLD shows off pictures of the first and second stages of its first Miura-5 orbital rocket
The rocket is clearly coming together, with the first test flight planned for this year from France’s French Guiana spaceport.
- Voyager officials confident they can work with or without NASA in building their Starlab station
That they think they can “go it alone” if need be, based on present customer demand, confirms there will be private space stations in orbit in the next decade.
- On this day in 1967 the United Kingdom’s first entirely home-built satellite, Ariel 3, was placed in orbit
An American Scout rocket provided the launch services. The satellite operated for two years, studying the upper atmosphere.
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.
- Spanish rocket startup PLD shows off pictures of the first and second stages of its first Miura-5 orbital rocket
The rocket is clearly coming together, with the first test flight planned for this year from France’s French Guiana spaceport.
- Voyager officials confident they can work with or without NASA in building their Starlab station
That they think they can “go it alone” if need be, based on present customer demand, confirms there will be private space stations in orbit in the next decade.
- On this day in 1967 the United Kingdom’s first entirely home-built satellite, Ariel 3, was placed in orbit
An American Scout rocket provided the launch services. The satellite operated for two years, studying the upper atmosphere.
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
Voyager’s confidence that there will be plenty of customers for space station services rings true with what I have been gleaning from various news reports over recent years. Not only does NASA want plenty of space station time, but Europe has expressed interest, and so have a few other national space agencies. I would be enormously surprised if individual companies don’t use space stations heavily, because many companies have been willing to suffer NASA’s draconian requirements to do research aboard the ISS. Privately run commercial spaced stations would not have the same rules as NASA has and would allow companies to retain the proprietary information that they derive from their own experiments and research.
A possible addition to the Quick Space Links:
Astrobotic Breaks Records for Hot Firing Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjnC8KvakKk
Tech-bros and aerospace….a cautionary tale
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RRH_nLxmASY&pp=ygUXRXNwbG91cmUgR0EgZGVsdXNpb25hbCA%3D
Jeff Wright,
If you’re hoping for a general objection to people from the computer industry getting into aerospace, I don’t think you’ll have much luck. Most businesses fail regardless of who founded them, and your link admits the engineering was good, but the company faced a difficult economy. That’s life.