May 20, 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.
- Monument unveiled dedicated to the people who ran the Air Forces Deep Black special projects in the ’70s and ’80s
They built the surveillance satellites that dominated satellite reconnaissance for decades.
- Varda’s W-6 capsule returns safely in Australia
The flight tested autonomous hypersonic navigation and next-generation thermal protection systems.
- On May 19, 1971, the Soviet Union launched Mars 2 aboard a Proton-K/D rocket, followed nine days later by its twin, Mars 3
Both sent back no useful data, partly because of failures and partly because their orbiters worked automatically, taking pictures of a planet covered by a global dust storm and thus showed nothing.
- Video of the May 19, 2000 launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on a 10-day mission to resupply ISS
It was the first Shuttle to fly with a new instrumental panel, designed more around screens and digital controls.
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.
- Monument unveiled dedicated to the people who ran the Air Forces Deep Black special projects in the ’70s and ’80s
They built the surveillance satellites that dominated satellite reconnaissance for decades.
- Varda’s W-6 capsule returns safely in Australia
The flight tested autonomous hypersonic navigation and next-generation thermal protection systems.
- On May 19, 1971, the Soviet Union launched Mars 2 aboard a Proton-K/D rocket, followed nine days later by its twin, Mars 3
Both sent back no useful data, partly because of failures and partly because their orbiters worked automatically, taking pictures of a planet covered by a global dust storm and thus showed nothing.
- Video of the May 19, 2000 launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on a 10-day mission to resupply ISS
It was the first Shuttle to fly with a new instrumental panel, designed more around screens and digital controls.
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