July 21, 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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- Video of startup Gitai’s Inchworm robots building a tower
The robots are proposed for building lunar bases. The company also builds satellites and has a lunar rover in the works.
- The case of the Sun’s missing silver
Scientists were simply not measuring it properly.
- On July 21, 1961 Liberty Bell-7, the second Mercury mission, was launched, carrying Virgil “Gus” Grissom
The short sub-orbital flight reached an altitude of over 118 miles and traveled about 300 miles downrange. Upon splashdown the hatch inexplicably blew off and the capsule sunk, though Grissom escaped unharmed.
- On July 21 1973 the Soviet Union launched the Mars-4 orbiter, which failed to enter orbit due to a defective computer chip
This defective chip design impacted almost all of the 1970s Soviet Mars missions.
- On July 20, 1999 Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell-7 capsule was successfully retrieved from the ocean floor
Because the hatch was not found, the recovery did not determine the cause of the hatch blowing off. Later analysis of archival film however suggested a static charge took place when the recovery helicopter’s haul cable made contact, a charge that could have caused the release.
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