May 18, 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.
- University to do biology experiment on Dawn Aerospace’s as-yet unflown suborbital spaceplane
Dawn has only flown a smaller prototype at lower altitudes. It remains unclear when actual suborbital spaceflights will take place.
- Axiom Space establishes a wholly owned Japanese subsidiary
The goal is to win Japanese commercial and government contracts for its Axiom commercial space station.
- Chinese pseudo-company Zenk Space aims for June ’26 debut launch of its Zhihang-1 rocket
Detailed write-up, but all remains uncertain. The company claims it raised more money, and eventually hopes to recover the first stage engines for reuse (similar to ULA’s plan for Vulcan).
- On May 17, 1968 the United States launched Europe’s first satellite, Iris, using a Scout-B rocket from Vandenberg
Iris studied the Sun’s output, and confirmed earlier space telescope observations that the aurora was caused by charged particles from the solar wind following the Earth’s magnetic field lines down to the poles.
- On May 17, 1969, a day after Venera- 5, the Soviet Venera 6 operated for 51 minutes as it descended through Venus’s nightside atmosphere
At seven miles altitude its ceased operations due to the pressure from the Venusian atmosphere. Both spacecraft confirmed the hellish atmosphere of Venus, sixty times denser than Earth’s, with temperatures ranging from 750 to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
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.
- University to do biology experiment on Dawn Aerospace’s as-yet unflown suborbital spaceplane
Dawn has only flown a smaller prototype at lower altitudes. It remains unclear when actual suborbital spaceflights will take place.
- Axiom Space establishes a wholly owned Japanese subsidiary
The goal is to win Japanese commercial and government contracts for its Axiom commercial space station.
- Chinese pseudo-company Zenk Space aims for June ’26 debut launch of its Zhihang-1 rocket
Detailed write-up, but all remains uncertain. The company claims it raised more money, and eventually hopes to recover the first stage engines for reuse (similar to ULA’s plan for Vulcan).
- On May 17, 1968 the United States launched Europe’s first satellite, Iris, using a Scout-B rocket from Vandenberg
Iris studied the Sun’s output, and confirmed earlier space telescope observations that the aurora was caused by charged particles from the solar wind following the Earth’s magnetic field lines down to the poles.
- On May 17, 1969, a day after Venera- 5, the Soviet Venera 6 operated for 51 minutes as it descended through Venus’s nightside atmosphere
At seven miles altitude its ceased operations due to the pressure from the Venusian atmosphere. Both spacecraft confirmed the hellish atmosphere of Venus, sixty times denser than Earth’s, with temperatures ranging from 750 to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
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
Matt Anderson has just been confirmed by the Senate as Deputy Administrator of NASA, per Jeff Foust. (Took ’em long enough.)
https://x.com/i/status/2056506866918687006
P.S. This was an unusually good Quick Space Links!
The Vera Rubin observatory seems to me to be the most underhyped science instrument of the decade. In a couple years, astronomy will never be the same. It’s just that it takes a bit of thinking for people to understand what makes the best survey telescope ever, by a wide margin, so useful. Vera Rubin could be far more useful scientifically than James Webb, yet it is just easier for the lamperson to understand what James Webb does.