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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.

• Vast touts its thermal vacuum testing of the power distribution unit for its Haven-1 space station
  It says this is the unit’s “final qualification milestone”. Whether they are still on schedule for a launch in early 2026 remains unclear.

• Firefly files papers in preparation for its first public stock offering
  The number of shares and their price has not yet been determined. Nor is there any date set for the offering.

• ESA successfully communicates with the Psyche probe using optical lasers over a distance of 165 million miles

• Blue Origin shows off the seven BE-4 engines it plans to install on the first stage of the second New Glenn rocket launch
  As always, this company moves like frozen molasses. The first launch was seven months ago. Only now they are thinking of assembling the second rocket? Did it take that long to build these BE-4 engines? Or is the company simply twiddling its thumbs while Jeff Bezos gets married?

• Axiom’s spacesuit visor, built for it by the subcontractor Oakley in California
  The company’s visor design used technology found in the sunglasses it sells commercially.

• ISRO touts the rocket it is building for its proposed lunar manned missions
  Don’t hold your breath. They are targeting the 2040s for the mission. If built the rocket will be bigger than SLS and only slightly shorter than Starship/Superheavy.

• On this day in 1978 Skylab fell to Earth, with some pieces hitting the ground in Australia
  The original plan had been to use the space shuttle to dock with it, raise its orbit, and then use both together. Shuttle development however was late and thus there was no way to prevent Skylab’s orbit from decaying, with its de-orbit an uncontrolled one.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who with I wish everyone a great Thanksgiving tomorrow.

• China touts concept for two-stage to orbit reusable space plane

Cute looking, but right now nothing more than engineering by PowerPoint.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company shows off video of separation test of its large fairing

The fairing will be used on a launch scheduled for December.

 

• Commercial lunar rover startup announces eight payload customers for 2026 mission

The company, Astrolab, has a contract to fly on SpaceX’s Starship to the Moon. The customers have contracts with Astrolab equaling $160 million. Everything involved however is extremely tentative and in the early development stages, even the lunar landing version of Starship.

 

• South Korea camera catches North Korean launch, showing 1st stage separation and its apparent destruction immediately thereafter

The video, part of a meteor-survey project, suggests the North Koreans might have purposely destroyed that first stage so that the South Korean military could not recover it, as was done after the May failed launch.

 

• Blue Origin shows off the now welded first stage tanks of its New Glenn rocket

It is assumed these are for the first launch, whenever that might be. Since there are no workers on the factory floor, Jay speculates it was taken after hours. I wonder, since this lack of activity has been seen in every such picture of this rocket assembly operation. I really wonder how many people even work there.

 

• Jeff Bezos sells off $240 million more Amazon shares

Though the reporters on the CNBC video at the link speculate this money is for Blue Origin, there is no evidence of this. In fact, recently Bezos has appeared to donate almost all his stock sale cash to leftist political charities, not Blue Origin.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Firefly puts its new Miranda rocket engine on the test stand, ready for its first hot fire tests

This is the engine that will power the first stage that Firefly is building for Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket, replacing the Ukrainian stage and Russian engines it used to use.

 

• ULA’s CEO shows off four Vulcan upper stages under assembly at its factory

As Jay notes, “At least he is building something,” taking a jab at another company with the word “blue” in its name.

 

• Bezos is abandoning Seattle and moving to Florida

He says he wants to be closer to both his family and his Cape Canaveral space facilities in Florida, which as he says is “shifting increasingly to Cape Canaveral.” He also likely decided to get out because of a new state tax that will steal $70 million from him for every stock sale of $1 billion.

 

• The Times of India brags about the use of an nuclear power source for the Chandrayaan-3 propulsion module still functioning in lunar orbit

The units are engineering tests, designed to work out the kinks so this power source can be used on future unmanned rovers to Mars and elsewhere.

 

• Next Gaganyaan launch abort test scheduled for March 2024

This second test vehicle will be closer to the final capsule version. According to ISRO, four total abort tests are planned before the manned mission.

 

• Review of Kepler archive confirms solar system with seven exoplanets

The review also refined the present understanding of this alien solar system.

 

• NASA officials say they are willing to extend ISS beyond 2030

That’s nice, but the question is whether the Russians will stay on after ’28, and even more important, whether their modules will last until then.