July 13, 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.
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- A tour of Varda’s factory
Reader Cotour already linked to this in an earlier comment. I want to make sure all my readers see it. It is excellent.
- Second launch attempt of China’s Zuque-3 rocket planned in August
The first launch succeeded in putting its payload in orbit, but the 1st stage crashed in hitting its landing zone.
- China reveals it is developing an upgrade of its Long March 10B that just recovered its first stage
Dubbed Long March 10C, its first and second stages would be methane-fueled. My guess is that the Chinese government is essentially expropriating the methane development done by its pseudo-company LandSpace in developing its Zuque-3 rocket.
- An image of India’s Gaganyaan Crew Module Simulator
Jay correctly notes: “No copy of Soyuz’s instrumentation. A mix of physical buttons and touch screens, just like Dragon.”
- On this day in 1963, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) launched the first GAMBIT-1 photoreconnaissance satellite
The canister holding its exposed film was released in a capsule and then, after parachute deployment to slow its descent, was snatched out of the air by an airplane. This wasn’t the first such reconnaissance satellite, but its camera had a better resolution.
- On July 13, 1969 the Soviet Union launched Luna-15 on a desperate attempt to bring back lunar samples before Apollo 11
The mission was a failure: After reaching lunar orbit the spacecraft did several maneuvers and crashed.
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

https://selenianboondocks.com/2026/07/the-cost-of-skipping-bases/
I think Starship development suffered from too many new things attempted at once. Most disagree.