Daniel Roy – 10 Levels of Sleight of Hand
An evening pause: For the long weekend, some tricks you can use in your next poker night.
Hat tip Cotour, who adds, “Never play cards with strangers.”
Author: Robert Zimmerman
July 3, 2025 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.
- Gilmour Space once again delays first launch of its Eris rocket
The new target launch date is July 16th.
- On this day in 1985 Europe’s Giotto probe was launched to visit Halley’s Comet
The fly-by occurred on year later.
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.
- Gilmour Space once again delays first launch of its Eris rocket
The new target launch date is July 16th.
- On this day in 1985 Europe’s Giotto probe was launched to visit Halley’s Comet
The fly-by occurred on year later.
EPA employees who publicly signed letter opposing Trump’s agenda have now been put on leave
Trump in charge
They apparently forgot who the American people elected and who is thus the boss! The 170 EPA employees who publicly signed a letter this week announcing their opposition to Trump’s policies at EPA have now all been put on leave, with the expectation that they will eventually lose their jobs as well.
Staffers at the Environmental Protection Agency who signed a letter of dissent against President Donald Trump have been placed on leave, reports The Hill. “The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” EPA spokeswoman Brigit Hirsch said in a written statement.
The letter, posted on June 30, 2025, made it very clear in its opening paragraph that these employees were willing to defy orders and sabotage the Trump administration.
» Read more
Trump in charge
They apparently forgot who the American people elected and who is thus the boss! The 170 EPA employees who publicly signed a letter this week announcing their opposition to Trump’s policies at EPA have now all been put on leave, with the expectation that they will eventually lose their jobs as well.
Staffers at the Environmental Protection Agency who signed a letter of dissent against President Donald Trump have been placed on leave, reports The Hill. “The Environmental Protection Agency has a zero-tolerance policy for career bureaucrats unlawfully undermining, sabotaging, and undercutting the administration’s agenda as voted for by the great people of this country last November,” EPA spokeswoman Brigit Hirsch said in a written statement.
The letter, posted on June 30, 2025, made it very clear in its opening paragraph that these employees were willing to defy orders and sabotage the Trump administration.
» Read more
Russia launches Progress freighter to ISS
Russia today (July 4th in Kazakhstan) successfully launched a new Progress freighter to ISS, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan.
The freighter will dock to ISS in two days, bringing with it almost three tons of cargo and more than a half done of hardware and equipment. Expect NASA to order its astronauts to shut the hatch between the American and Russian sections of ISS due its fear that a docking to the Zvezda module could cause a catastrophic failure because of the stress fractures in that module’s hull. That docking will however not be directly to Zvezda, but to the Poisk module that is itself docked to Zvezda.
The lower stages and strap-on boosters crashed inside Kazakhstan in the normal drop zones that Russia has used for decades.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
84 SpaceX
36 China
10 Rocket Lab
8 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 84 to 63.
Russia’s launch pace this year is its lowest pace in decades. At this rate Russia might only get about 15-17 launches off in 2025, a count more comparable to what it did in the very early 1960s. This decline can be directly linked to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. That invasion caused Russia to lose billions in contracts in the international launch market. And it continues to prevent Russia from winning any new international contracts as well. Except for its government launches (which are limited due to government cash shortages), the only other missions Russia flies are those to ISS, and those number about four per year.
Russia today (July 4th in Kazakhstan) successfully launched a new Progress freighter to ISS, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan.
The freighter will dock to ISS in two days, bringing with it almost three tons of cargo and more than a half done of hardware and equipment. Expect NASA to order its astronauts to shut the hatch between the American and Russian sections of ISS due its fear that a docking to the Zvezda module could cause a catastrophic failure because of the stress fractures in that module’s hull. That docking will however not be directly to Zvezda, but to the Poisk module that is itself docked to Zvezda.
The lower stages and strap-on boosters crashed inside Kazakhstan in the normal drop zones that Russia has used for decades.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
84 SpaceX
36 China
10 Rocket Lab
8 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 84 to 63.
Russia’s launch pace this year is its lowest pace in decades. At this rate Russia might only get about 15-17 launches off in 2025, a count more comparable to what it did in the very early 1960s. This decline can be directly linked to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. That invasion caused Russia to lose billions in contracts in the international launch market. And it continues to prevent Russia from winning any new international contracts as well. Except for its government launches (which are limited due to government cash shortages), the only other missions Russia flies are those to ISS, and those number about four per year.
Mars is not dry!
I once again feel compelled to rant against the shallow ignorance of too many people in both the journalism field as well as academia about the most recent data we now have of Mars. Two articles today once again show this ignorance, assuming blandly that Mars is a dry planet with little water on it anywhere, when orbital data over the past decade has unequivocally shown that — except for its equatorial regions — the planet is covered with a LOT of near-surface ice.
The headlines make this ignorance quite clear:
- University of Chicago: Was Mars doomed to be a desert? Study proposes new explanation
- Space.com: The secret of why Mars grew cold and dry may be locked away in its rocks
In both cases, the articles assume that the data obtained from rovers and landers in the dry Martian tropics applies to the entire planet. It does not. This evidence of a dry planet carries a bias that comes from the decision by the planetary community as well as NASA to send every rover to that dry equatorial region. Only one lander, Phoenix, has ever been successfully dropped far from the Martian equator, and it was purposely sent to a very high latitude, where it proved there was ice present just below the surface.
Orbital data in the past decade from both Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Express has clearly shown that there is a lot of near surface ice on Mars, as shown by the map above. In the mid-latitudes the terrain is dominated by glaciers, as this is the region where the vast ice sheets in the high latitudes begin to fade away.
Only the equatorial region, indicated by the white lines on the map, is dry and barren. And yet, even here, orbital data has detected evidence that suggests underground ice still exists.
It seems to me that journalists and academic PR departments should know these facts, and include them in any reports about the dry nature of Mars’ equatorial regions.
European capsule startup wins $15 million grant
A Luxembourg-based startup aimed at building orbiting recoverable capsules for cargo as well as in-space manufacturing has won a $14.7 million grant from the European Innovation Council as part of its European Innovation Council Accelerator program to encourage development in Europe’s private commercial space sector.
The company, Space Cargo Unlimited, will use the money to develop what it calls its “BentoBox in-orbit testing and manufacturing platform.” It is also partnering with well-established European company Thales-Alenia, with the BentoBox development based on previous work done for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Space Rider demonstrator project.
The overall nature of this grant and work illustrates Europe’s aggressive shift in the past two years from the government model, where ESA designed and owned everything, to the capitalism model, where the government is merely the customer, buying what it needs from the private sector. The government-built Space Rider, which was intended to be a re-usable space plane similar to the X-37B, has never flown. Now, its technology is being repurposed by private European companies for their own spacecraft with the intention of making profits. And this Bentobox project is a prime example.
The inaugural flight of the BentoBox platform as a standalone system using the ATMOS inflatable heatshield is expected in the fourth quarter of 2025. As of a late 2024 update, Space Cargo Unlimited had already secured bookings for 80% of the inaugural flight, and 50% and 40% of the second and third flights, respectively.
Note too that Space Cargo is a European competitor with Varda in the U.S. It appears Europe wants some of this business for itself.
A Luxembourg-based startup aimed at building orbiting recoverable capsules for cargo as well as in-space manufacturing has won a $14.7 million grant from the European Innovation Council as part of its European Innovation Council Accelerator program to encourage development in Europe’s private commercial space sector.
The company, Space Cargo Unlimited, will use the money to develop what it calls its “BentoBox in-orbit testing and manufacturing platform.” It is also partnering with well-established European company Thales-Alenia, with the BentoBox development based on previous work done for the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Space Rider demonstrator project.
The overall nature of this grant and work illustrates Europe’s aggressive shift in the past two years from the government model, where ESA designed and owned everything, to the capitalism model, where the government is merely the customer, buying what it needs from the private sector. The government-built Space Rider, which was intended to be a re-usable space plane similar to the X-37B, has never flown. Now, its technology is being repurposed by private European companies for their own spacecraft with the intention of making profits. And this Bentobox project is a prime example.
The inaugural flight of the BentoBox platform as a standalone system using the ATMOS inflatable heatshield is expected in the fourth quarter of 2025. As of a late 2024 update, Space Cargo Unlimited had already secured bookings for 80% of the inaugural flight, and 50% and 40% of the second and third flights, respectively.
Note too that Space Cargo is a European competitor with Varda in the U.S. It appears Europe wants some of this business for itself.
China launches technology test satellite
China today successfully launched a technology test satellite, its Long March 4C rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.
As is usual for China’s state-run press, little information about the satellite was released. The most information any article provided was this:
The satellite, designed and built by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, will measure and survey space environmental elements and test new technologies.
Nor did that state-run press provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
84 SpaceX
36 China
10 Rocket Lab
7 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 84 to 62.
China today successfully launched a technology test satellite, its Long March 4C rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in southwest China.
As is usual for China’s state-run press, little information about the satellite was released. The most information any article provided was this:
The satellite, designed and built by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai, will measure and survey space environmental elements and test new technologies.
Nor did that state-run press provide any information about where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuels, crashed inside China.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
84 SpaceX
36 China
10 Rocket Lab
7 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 84 to 62.
Two more former SpaceX employees sue the company for harassment and discrimination
SpaceX employees cheering the first chopstick capture of
Superheavy, October 13, 2025. Click for video.
Two new articles today outline two different new lawsuits against SpaceX by former employees, with both claiming harassment and discrimination as reasons for their firing.
- Black SpaceX technician says in lawsuit he was fired for being late while white workers’ tardiness was ignored
- Former SpaceX manager alleges harassment, retaliation, and security violations in lawsuit
In the first case, the former employee, L’Tavious Rice, claims that he “was fired for being late to work while caring for his young daughter as she recuperated from a heart transplant, while his white colleagues were given a pass for their own “consistent tardiness and absences.” The lawsuit also claims the SpaceX human resources department was retaliating against him because he testified about another employee’s misbehavior in another unrelated case.
In the second case, the former employee, Jenna Shumway, claims she was passed over for promotion, and the man who got the job “waged a campaign of harassment against her, which included stripping her of her responsibilities over a period of months and ultimately leading to her termination in October 2024.” She also claims this “harassment extended to other female employees, too.”
I have no idea whether these claims are true or not. I tend to be skeptical, because of the overall make-up of SpaceX’s entire work-force. The image to the right, a screen capture from the company’s broadcast during the fifth flight of Starship/Superheavy on October 13, 2024 and taken mere seconds after the first successful capture of Superheavy. illustrates this. The SpaceX work-force is young, and typical of engineering, more male than female. At the same time it has many long time female employees, including the company’s president and chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell.
We must not also dismiss the possibility of political motives in these lawsuits. In the past three years the left has made it clear it is out to get Elon Musk, and that campaign has included vandalism, regulatory sabotage, and numerous other environment lawsuits by leftist activist groups whose funding is political.
At the same time, it is very possible that these two former employees have legitimate beefs. We shall have to see how both cases play out in the courts.
SpaceX employees cheering the first chopstick capture of
Superheavy, October 13, 2025. Click for video.
Two new articles today outline two different new lawsuits against SpaceX by former employees, with both claiming harassment and discrimination as reasons for their firing.
- Black SpaceX technician says in lawsuit he was fired for being late while white workers’ tardiness was ignored
- Former SpaceX manager alleges harassment, retaliation, and security violations in lawsuit
In the first case, the former employee, L’Tavious Rice, claims that he “was fired for being late to work while caring for his young daughter as she recuperated from a heart transplant, while his white colleagues were given a pass for their own “consistent tardiness and absences.” The lawsuit also claims the SpaceX human resources department was retaliating against him because he testified about another employee’s misbehavior in another unrelated case.
In the second case, the former employee, Jenna Shumway, claims she was passed over for promotion, and the man who got the job “waged a campaign of harassment against her, which included stripping her of her responsibilities over a period of months and ultimately leading to her termination in October 2024.” She also claims this “harassment extended to other female employees, too.”
I have no idea whether these claims are true or not. I tend to be skeptical, because of the overall make-up of SpaceX’s entire work-force. The image to the right, a screen capture from the company’s broadcast during the fifth flight of Starship/Superheavy on October 13, 2024 and taken mere seconds after the first successful capture of Superheavy. illustrates this. The SpaceX work-force is young, and typical of engineering, more male than female. At the same time it has many long time female employees, including the company’s president and chief operating officer, Gwynne Shotwell.
We must not also dismiss the possibility of political motives in these lawsuits. In the past three years the left has made it clear it is out to get Elon Musk, and that campaign has included vandalism, regulatory sabotage, and numerous other environment lawsuits by leftist activist groups whose funding is political.
At the same time, it is very possible that these two former employees have legitimate beefs. We shall have to see how both cases play out in the courts.
Coldplay – Viva La Vida
July 2, 2025 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, as well as reader Gary for the last link. 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.
- Another Chinese pseudo-company unveils its proposed Falcon 9 copycat rocket
It calls itself New Space, or Xiamen in Chinese. As far as I can tell, it makes great computer graphics, but nothing else.
- Vast touts the beginning of thermal vacuum testing of what it calls its Haven Demo
It is unclear if this Haven Demo is actually the Haven-1 module being built at this time for launch next year.
- ArianeGroup touts completion of static fire tests of its Prometheus rocket engine
The engine will first fly on a suborbital test flight of Europe’s Themis demonstrator, but later will be the main engine used on Maiaspace’s Maia smallsat rocket.
- New geometry discovery could stop lunar landers from falling over
This is the stupid-story-of-the-day. A lot of news outlets have picked it up, but it only takes a nano-second of thought to realize this is hardly a solution to keep lunar landers from tipping over. It is far too complicated a solution to what is really a very simple problem: extend the legs out more and keep the center of gravity low.
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, as well as reader Gary for the last link. 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.
- Another Chinese pseudo-company unveils its proposed Falcon 9 copycat rocket
It calls itself New Space, or Xiamen in Chinese. As far as I can tell, it makes great computer graphics, but nothing else.
- Vast touts the beginning of thermal vacuum testing of what it calls its Haven Demo
It is unclear if this Haven Demo is actually the Haven-1 module being built at this time for launch next year.
- ArianeGroup touts completion of static fire tests of its Prometheus rocket engine
The engine will first fly on a suborbital test flight of Europe’s Themis demonstrator, but later will be the main engine used on Maiaspace’s Maia smallsat rocket.
- New geometry discovery could stop lunar landers from falling over
This is the stupid-story-of-the-day. A lot of news outlets have picked it up, but it only takes a nano-second of thought to realize this is hardly a solution to keep lunar landers from tipping over. It is far too complicated a solution to what is really a very simple problem: extend the legs out more and keep the center of gravity low.
July 1, 2025 Zimmerman/Space Show appearance
My two hour appearance yesterday on the Space Show with David Livingston is now available as a podcast. You can find here.
A number of members of the Space Show’s advisory board joined the Zoom feed to raise questions and add their perspective, which made it for me at least a truly fascinating two hours. Lots of discussion about Starship, about Artemis, and about the desperate need for Americans to stop emoting and begin to discuss these issues calmly and rationally. This mature nature of the discussion made this show is very much worthwhile listening to.
My two hour appearance yesterday on the Space Show with David Livingston is now available as a podcast. You can find here.
A number of members of the Space Show’s advisory board joined the Zoom feed to raise questions and add their perspective, which made it for me at least a truly fascinating two hours. Lots of discussion about Starship, about Artemis, and about the desperate need for Americans to stop emoting and begin to discuss these issues calmly and rationally. This mature nature of the discussion made this show is very much worthwhile listening to.
New data: the ozone hole occurs mostly because of the sunspot cycle and cosmic rays, not CFC pollution
The uncertainty of science: A science paper released yesterday suggests that the ozone hole over Antarctica that scientists have been tracking for almost a half century is caused mostly by the solar cycle and the accompanying fluctuations in cosmic rays hitting the upper atmosphere, not the release of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that used to be used in aerosol spray cans.
The graph to the right, from figure 2 of the paper, illustrates the data. The red line is the ozone hole fluctuations predicted by the paper’s model, labeled “CRE Theory”, based on the increase of cosmic ray radiation during solar minimum. The blue, black, and green lines indicate the actual fluctuations of ozone and temperature in the lower stratosphere where the ozone layer exists. As you can see, the model and actual fluctuations match quite closely. From the paper’s abstract:
» Read more
Sunspot update: Sunspot activity rebounds somewhat in June
As I have done since I started this website fifteen years ago, I post at the start of every month an update of the Sun’s ongoing sunspot activity, using the update that NOAA posts each month to its own graph of sunspot activity but annotated by me with extra information to illustrate the larger scientific context.
Below is that graph, showing that in June sunspot activity rebounded upward somewhat from the shocking drop in activity that occurred in May.
As I have done since I started this website fifteen years ago, I post at the start of every month an update of the Sun’s ongoing sunspot activity, using the update that NOAA posts each month to its own graph of sunspot activity but annotated by me with extra information to illustrate the larger scientific context.
Below is that graph, showing that in June sunspot activity rebounded upward somewhat from the shocking drop in activity that occurred in May.
Another interstellar object identified entering the solar system
Astronomers think they have identified another interstellar object that is now entering the solar system.
The dim space rock is currently at about magnitude 18.8. Our new visitor, A11pl3Z, will get its closest to the sun – at about 2 astronomical units (AU), or twice as far as Earth is from the sun – in October. As it reaches perihelion – its closest point to the sun – it should be moving at about 68 km/s relative to the sun, or at about 152,000 miles per hour.
The object’s calculated path through the solar system, shown by the blue line in the graphic to the right, as well as the object’s high speed, are why the astronomers think it is interstellar in origin. Both facts suggest it is coming from beyond the Oort cloud.
This is the third such object discovered, after Oumuamua (whose nature remains somewhat unknown), followed by Comet 21/Borisov.
UPDATE: The object has now been renamed 3I/Atlas. The “3I” indicates it is the third interstellar object discovered, and “Atlas” refers to the discovering telescope survey.
Astronomers think they have identified another interstellar object that is now entering the solar system.
The dim space rock is currently at about magnitude 18.8. Our new visitor, A11pl3Z, will get its closest to the sun – at about 2 astronomical units (AU), or twice as far as Earth is from the sun – in October. As it reaches perihelion – its closest point to the sun – it should be moving at about 68 km/s relative to the sun, or at about 152,000 miles per hour.
The object’s calculated path through the solar system, shown by the blue line in the graphic to the right, as well as the object’s high speed, are why the astronomers think it is interstellar in origin. Both facts suggest it is coming from beyond the Oort cloud.
This is the third such object discovered, after Oumuamua (whose nature remains somewhat unknown), followed by Comet 21/Borisov.
UPDATE: The object has now been renamed 3I/Atlas. The “3I” indicates it is the third interstellar object discovered, and “Atlas” refers to the discovering telescope survey.
Astronomers discover supernovae that apparently exploded twice
Click for original picture.
Using the ground-based Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, astronomers have discovered evidence suggesting a star apparently exploded twice went it went supernova several hundred years ago.
They detected this possibility by looking at the remnant of that blast, shown to the right. It shows a double halo, indicated by the blue and orange colors. The blue however is seen in both shells. As noted by the VLT’s press notice:
Calcium is shown in blue, and it is arranged in two concentric shells. These two layers indicate that the now-dead star exploded with a double-detonation.
This type of supernova, dubbed type 1a, occurs when a white dwarf sucks matter from its closely orbiting stellar companion. That material piles up on the surface of the star until it reaches critical mass and explodes, causing the supernova.
The two shells, suggesting a double detonation, fits a theory proposed for this process. From the paper’s abstract:
Our analysis reveals that the outer calcium shell originates from the helium detonation at the base of the outer envelope, while the inner shell is associated with the carbon–oxygen core detonation. This morphological distribution of intermediate-mass elements agrees qualitatively with the predicted signature of the double detonation of a sub-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf from a hydrodynamical explosion simulation.
In other words, the outer shell resulted from the explosion caused by the helium ripped from the companion star, with the resulting shockwave detonating the second explosion inside the white dwarf’s core.
That’s the theory at least. This data supports it, but it certainly doesn’t prove it.
Click for original picture.
Using the ground-based Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, astronomers have discovered evidence suggesting a star apparently exploded twice went it went supernova several hundred years ago.
They detected this possibility by looking at the remnant of that blast, shown to the right. It shows a double halo, indicated by the blue and orange colors. The blue however is seen in both shells. As noted by the VLT’s press notice:
Calcium is shown in blue, and it is arranged in two concentric shells. These two layers indicate that the now-dead star exploded with a double-detonation.
This type of supernova, dubbed type 1a, occurs when a white dwarf sucks matter from its closely orbiting stellar companion. That material piles up on the surface of the star until it reaches critical mass and explodes, causing the supernova.
The two shells, suggesting a double detonation, fits a theory proposed for this process. From the paper’s abstract:
Our analysis reveals that the outer calcium shell originates from the helium detonation at the base of the outer envelope, while the inner shell is associated with the carbon–oxygen core detonation. This morphological distribution of intermediate-mass elements agrees qualitatively with the predicted signature of the double detonation of a sub-Chandrasekhar-mass white dwarf from a hydrodynamical explosion simulation.
In other words, the outer shell resulted from the explosion caused by the helium ripped from the companion star, with the resulting shockwave detonating the second explosion inside the white dwarf’s core.
That’s the theory at least. This data supports it, but it certainly doesn’t prove it.
Methane climate satellite fails
Fifteen months into a five year mission it appears the methane climate satellite MethaneSat has apparently failed prematurely.
From the press release by the environmental activist organization Environmental Defense Fund that operated the satellite:
On Friday, June 20, the MethaneSAT mission operations lost contact with MethaneSAT. After pursuing all options to restore communications, we learned this morning that the satellite has lost power, and that it is likely not recoverable.
The satellite was unusual in that it was developed and built by this activist organization, not a government or academic institution. Its failure is especially unfortunate at this time, because this non-governmental approach to science research is exactly what the science community needs to pursue faced as it is with major cuts in federal funding.
Fifteen months into a five year mission it appears the methane climate satellite MethaneSat has apparently failed prematurely.
From the press release by the environmental activist organization Environmental Defense Fund that operated the satellite:
On Friday, June 20, the MethaneSAT mission operations lost contact with MethaneSAT. After pursuing all options to restore communications, we learned this morning that the satellite has lost power, and that it is likely not recoverable.
The satellite was unusual in that it was developed and built by this activist organization, not a government or academic institution. Its failure is especially unfortunate at this time, because this non-governmental approach to science research is exactly what the science community needs to pursue faced as it is with major cuts in federal funding.
July 1, 2025 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Senate reconciliation budget bill includes Cruz’s big spending additions to NASA
According to a tweet yesterday by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), the reconciliation budget bill that was passed by the Senate included the budget additions that Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had proposed to save SLS, Orion, and Lunar Gateway.
The graphic to the right lists these budget numbers. It is not clear whether the launch taxes on payloads that Cruz proposed were also included, though likely not based on the rules under which the reconciliation bill was passed.
This additional money for these projects contradicts directly the NASA 2026 budget proposal put forth by Trump that aimed to cancel Lunar Gateway and end SLS and Orion after only two more flights. Their existence in this passed Senate bill suggests that Congress is cool with the idea of spending this money and continuing these projects, even though they do nothing but waste taxpayer money and get us no where in space.
It also appears from the language in the graphic that the Senate is eager to also spend more money on NASA’s Mars sample return project, even though NASA itself still has no idea how to accomplish the task.
According to a tweet yesterday by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), the reconciliation budget bill that was passed by the Senate included the budget additions that Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had proposed to save SLS, Orion, and Lunar Gateway.
The graphic to the right lists these budget numbers. It is not clear whether the launch taxes on payloads that Cruz proposed were also included, though likely not based on the rules under which the reconciliation bill was passed.
This additional money for these projects contradicts directly the NASA 2026 budget proposal put forth by Trump that aimed to cancel Lunar Gateway and end SLS and Orion after only two more flights. Their existence in this passed Senate bill suggests that Congress is cool with the idea of spending this money and continuing these projects, even though they do nothing but waste taxpayer money and get us no where in space.
It also appears from the language in the graphic that the Senate is eager to also spend more money on NASA’s Mars sample return project, even though NASA itself still has no idea how to accomplish the task.
SpaceX yesterday completed two launches
SpaceX yesterday successfully completed two launches from Florida. First, it placed a European Union weather and climate research satellite, Sentinel-4, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center. The first stage completed its ninth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
Next, it continued its unrelenting pace of launching Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off with 27 from Cape Canaveral. The first stage completed its 29th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
That flight makes this particular first stage the third most traveled launch vehicle, with only the space shuttles Discover (39 flights) and Atlantis (33 flights) ahead of it.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
84 SpaceX
35 China
10 Rocket Lab
7 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 84 to 61.
SpaceX yesterday successfully completed two launches from Florida. First, it placed a European Union weather and climate research satellite, Sentinel-4, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Center. The first stage completed its ninth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
Next, it continued its unrelenting pace of launching Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off with 27 from Cape Canaveral. The first stage completed its 29th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
That flight makes this particular first stage the third most traveled launch vehicle, with only the space shuttles Discover (39 flights) and Atlantis (33 flights) ahead of it.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
84 SpaceX
35 China
10 Rocket Lab
7 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 84 to 61.
Todd Rundgren – Hello It’s Me
An evening pause: Performed live on the television show The Midnight Special in 1973.
Hat tip wampyre.
July 1, 2025 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.
- Rocket Lab completes design review of its 18-satellite communications constellation for the Space Force
The military is considering canceling this program and going with SpaceX’s Starshield constellation instead, but that decision has not been made.
- Progress undocks from ISS in preparation of arrival of new Progress on July 3, 2025
It will be de-orbited to burn up over the Pacific Ocean.
- Another Chinese pseudo-company, Space Transportation, proposes a new rocket
The video shows the first stage landing on a net, without landing legs. To Jay (and myself) the net more resembled a trampoline. Like a lot of these Chinese pseudo-companies, it is dangerous to take any of this seriously.
- China announces creation of the International Deep Space Exploration Association (IDSEA)
This is another attempt by China to build an international alliance in space, with it in the lead. It is hard to say how many others will join. Its lunar base alliance has not garnered a large number of nations.
- Time-lapse showing yesterday’s docking and docking of China’s unmanned Shijian-25 and Shijian-21 servicing satellites
This appears to be the third docking, with at least one in which we think the former refueled the latter.
- On this day in 1976 the Air & Space Museum in DC opened
Apollo 11 astronaut Mike Collins was head of the museum at the time, and was instrumental in getting it established.
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.
- Rocket Lab completes design review of its 18-satellite communications constellation for the Space Force
The military is considering canceling this program and going with SpaceX’s Starshield constellation instead, but that decision has not been made.
- Progress undocks from ISS in preparation of arrival of new Progress on July 3, 2025
It will be de-orbited to burn up over the Pacific Ocean.
- Another Chinese pseudo-company, Space Transportation, proposes a new rocket
The video shows the first stage landing on a net, without landing legs. To Jay (and myself) the net more resembled a trampoline. Like a lot of these Chinese pseudo-companies, it is dangerous to take any of this seriously.
- China announces creation of the International Deep Space Exploration Association (IDSEA)
This is another attempt by China to build an international alliance in space, with it in the lead. It is hard to say how many others will join. Its lunar base alliance has not garnered a large number of nations.
- Time-lapse showing yesterday’s docking and docking of China’s unmanned Shijian-25 and Shijian-21 servicing satellites
This appears to be the third docking, with at least one in which we think the former refueled the latter.
- On this day in 1976 the Air & Space Museum in DC opened
Apollo 11 astronaut Mike Collins was head of the museum at the time, and was instrumental in getting it established.
Upcoming appearances on both the Space Show and Coast to Coast
I will be appearing on both the Space Show with David Livingston and Coast to Coast with George Noory over the next two evenings.
First, tonight I will be doing a 90 minute-plus appearance on the Space Show. It will be broadcast on Zoom and well as live streamed. Instructions for calling in can be found at this link. Scroll down to see them.
Next, tomorrow I will be doing the first two hours on Coast to Coast with George Noory. More information can be found here.
In both appearances the subject of Trump, Musk, SpaceX, Starship, and SLS is certain to come up, as well as the NASA budget. Expect as always conclusions you don’t expect. I welcome my readers to participate, either by calling in or emailing questions.
I will be appearing on both the Space Show with David Livingston and Coast to Coast with George Noory over the next two evenings.
First, tonight I will be doing a 90 minute-plus appearance on the Space Show. It will be broadcast on Zoom and well as live streamed. Instructions for calling in can be found at this link. Scroll down to see them.
Next, tomorrow I will be doing the first two hours on Coast to Coast with George Noory. More information can be found here.
In both appearances the subject of Trump, Musk, SpaceX, Starship, and SLS is certain to come up, as well as the NASA budget. Expect as always conclusions you don’t expect. I welcome my readers to participate, either by calling in or emailing questions.
Webb detects unexpected “little red dots” in the early universe
The uncertainty of science: Using the Webb Space Telescope astronomers have begun to compile a small catalog of what they call “little red dots” [LRDs], objects in the very early universe that are very small, too small to be galaxies and are thus a mystery.
A team of astronomers recently compiled one of the largest samples of LRDs to date, nearly all of which existed during the first 1.5 billion years after the big bang. They found that a large fraction of the LRDs in their sample showed signs of containing growing supermassive black holes.
“We’re confounded by this new population of objects that Webb has found. We don’t see analogs of them at lower redshifts, which is why we haven’t seen them prior to Webb,” said Dale Kocevski of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and lead author of the study. “There’s a substantial amount of work being done to try to determine the nature of these little red dots and whether their light is dominated by accreting black holes.”
The present most popular theory to explain the dots, based on the available data, is that the dots are newly formed black holes, their red light caused by material falling into the hole at millions of miles per hour. That theory has of course problems. For example, it doesn’t explain why we don’t see these dots in more recent times. Nor does it explain why the dots are dim in X-rays, a radiation expected from accreting black holes.
As always, the press release claims that this discovery does not “break” the present cosmological theories for the formation of the universe, but at the same time, it does illustrate our overall lack of knowledge about that early universe. We really don’t know very much, which means any theories we have are likely wrong simply due to our present ignorance.
The uncertainty of science: Using the Webb Space Telescope astronomers have begun to compile a small catalog of what they call “little red dots” [LRDs], objects in the very early universe that are very small, too small to be galaxies and are thus a mystery.
A team of astronomers recently compiled one of the largest samples of LRDs to date, nearly all of which existed during the first 1.5 billion years after the big bang. They found that a large fraction of the LRDs in their sample showed signs of containing growing supermassive black holes.
“We’re confounded by this new population of objects that Webb has found. We don’t see analogs of them at lower redshifts, which is why we haven’t seen them prior to Webb,” said Dale Kocevski of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and lead author of the study. “There’s a substantial amount of work being done to try to determine the nature of these little red dots and whether their light is dominated by accreting black holes.”
The present most popular theory to explain the dots, based on the available data, is that the dots are newly formed black holes, their red light caused by material falling into the hole at millions of miles per hour. That theory has of course problems. For example, it doesn’t explain why we don’t see these dots in more recent times. Nor does it explain why the dots are dim in X-rays, a radiation expected from accreting black holes.
As always, the press release claims that this discovery does not “break” the present cosmological theories for the formation of the universe, but at the same time, it does illustrate our overall lack of knowledge about that early universe. We really don’t know very much, which means any theories we have are likely wrong simply due to our present ignorance.
China releases images of Earth and Moon, taken by its Tianwen-2 asteroid probe
For original images go here and here.
According to a report today in China’s state-run press, its Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return spacecraft is operating normally, and has successfully taken pictures of both the Earth and the Moon to test its instrumentation.
Those images are to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here.
The CNSA [China National Space Administration] said that the narrow-field-of-view navigation sensor equipped on the probe recently captured the images of Earth and the moon, demonstrating good functional performance.
The images released include a photograph of Earth obtained by Tianwen-2 when it was approximately 590,000 kilometers away from the planet, as well as a new photograph of the moon captured when it was about the same distance from the moon. After the images were transmitted back to the ground, they were processed and produced by scientific researchers.
The Tianwen-2 probe has currently been in orbit for over 33 days, at a distance from Earth exceeding 12 million kilometers, and it is in good working condition, the CNSA said.
The probe will take about a year to reach asteroid Kamo’oalewa, where it will fly in formation studying it for another year, during which time it will attempt to grab samples by two methods. One method is a copy of the touch-and-go technique used by OSIRIS-REx on Bennu. The second method, dubbed “anchor and attach,” is untried, and involves using four robot arms, each with their own drill.
For original images go here and here.
According to a report today in China’s state-run press, its Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return spacecraft is operating normally, and has successfully taken pictures of both the Earth and the Moon to test its instrumentation.
Those images are to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here.
The CNSA [China National Space Administration] said that the narrow-field-of-view navigation sensor equipped on the probe recently captured the images of Earth and the moon, demonstrating good functional performance.
The images released include a photograph of Earth obtained by Tianwen-2 when it was approximately 590,000 kilometers away from the planet, as well as a new photograph of the moon captured when it was about the same distance from the moon. After the images were transmitted back to the ground, they were processed and produced by scientific researchers.
The Tianwen-2 probe has currently been in orbit for over 33 days, at a distance from Earth exceeding 12 million kilometers, and it is in good working condition, the CNSA said.
The probe will take about a year to reach asteroid Kamo’oalewa, where it will fly in formation studying it for another year, during which time it will attempt to grab samples by two methods. One method is a copy of the touch-and-go technique used by OSIRIS-REx on Bennu. The second method, dubbed “anchor and attach,” is untried, and involves using four robot arms, each with their own drill.
Speculation on future New Glenn launch schedule
According to anonymous sources at Blue Origin, the company has now delayed the second launch of its New Glenn rocket to September, ten months after its first launch in January 2025, and hopes to quickly follow with three more launches by the middle of 2026.
The September launch will launch NASA’s two smallsat Escapade Mars orbiters.
After Escapade, Blue Origin has several missions tentatively plotted out. However, sources cautioned that the manifest could be moved around due to the readiness of subsequent New Glenn vehicles and their payloads. Based upon information received by Ars, the launch manifest could look something like this:
- New Glenn 2: ESCAPADE (fall 2025)
- New Glenn 3: Firefly’s Elytra orbital transfer vehicle (end of 2025, early 2026)
- New Glenn 4: Blue Moon MK1 lander (first half of 2026)
- New Glenn 5: First batch of 49 Amazon Project Kuiper satellites (mid-2026)
Whether this schedule will occur as speculated is unknown. Blue Origin’s long term track record — slow and timid — suggests it is very unlikely. And even if it does fly as planned, it suggests strongly that Amazon is not going to meet its FCC license requirement to have 1,600 Kuiper satellites in orbit by July 2026. So far Amazon has only placed 54 operational Kuiper satellites into orbit, on two Atlas-5 launches. It has contracts to launch these satellites 46 times on ULA rockets (8 on Atlas-5 and 36 on Vulcan), 27 times on Blue Origin’s New Glenn, 18 times on ArianeGroup’s Ariane-6, and 3 times on SpaceX’s Falcon-9.
Except for the Falcon 9, none of the other rockets have begun flying with any frequency. Vulcan has only launched twice, New Glenn once, and Ariane-6 twice. All three have been extremely slow to ramp up operations, with months passing between each launch. To meet Amazon’s FCC license requirements, they will have to achieve between 35 to 60 launches in the next twelve months, a pace of three to six launches per month. At this point none of these companies appear capable of even coming close to doing this.
Nor does Amazon have the option to switch these launches to the Falcon 9. SpaceX would certainly accept the business, but the manifest for the Falcon 9 is presently very full. It is doubtful it could do more than double or triple its commitment to Amazon.
According to anonymous sources at Blue Origin, the company has now delayed the second launch of its New Glenn rocket to September, ten months after its first launch in January 2025, and hopes to quickly follow with three more launches by the middle of 2026.
The September launch will launch NASA’s two smallsat Escapade Mars orbiters.
After Escapade, Blue Origin has several missions tentatively plotted out. However, sources cautioned that the manifest could be moved around due to the readiness of subsequent New Glenn vehicles and their payloads. Based upon information received by Ars, the launch manifest could look something like this:
- New Glenn 2: ESCAPADE (fall 2025)
- New Glenn 3: Firefly’s Elytra orbital transfer vehicle (end of 2025, early 2026)
- New Glenn 4: Blue Moon MK1 lander (first half of 2026)
- New Glenn 5: First batch of 49 Amazon Project Kuiper satellites (mid-2026)
Whether this schedule will occur as speculated is unknown. Blue Origin’s long term track record — slow and timid — suggests it is very unlikely. And even if it does fly as planned, it suggests strongly that Amazon is not going to meet its FCC license requirement to have 1,600 Kuiper satellites in orbit by July 2026. So far Amazon has only placed 54 operational Kuiper satellites into orbit, on two Atlas-5 launches. It has contracts to launch these satellites 46 times on ULA rockets (8 on Atlas-5 and 36 on Vulcan), 27 times on Blue Origin’s New Glenn, 18 times on ArianeGroup’s Ariane-6, and 3 times on SpaceX’s Falcon-9.
Except for the Falcon 9, none of the other rockets have begun flying with any frequency. Vulcan has only launched twice, New Glenn once, and Ariane-6 twice. All three have been extremely slow to ramp up operations, with months passing between each launch. To meet Amazon’s FCC license requirements, they will have to achieve between 35 to 60 launches in the next twelve months, a pace of three to six launches per month. At this point none of these companies appear capable of even coming close to doing this.
Nor does Amazon have the option to switch these launches to the Falcon 9. SpaceX would certainly accept the business, but the manifest for the Falcon 9 is presently very full. It is doubtful it could do more than double or triple its commitment to Amazon.
NASA still hoping to save its Lunar Trailblazer mission
Though the odds of success are very dim, NASA has decided to give engineers another few weeks to try to activate its Lunar Trailblazer orbiter, that stopped communicating with Earth the day after it was launched in late February.
NASA has extended recovery efforts of its Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft from mid-June to early July. Updated modeling of the spacecraft’s trajectory by the mission team indicates lighting conditions will continue to be favorable and may provide enough sunlight for the spacecraft’s solar panels to recharge its batteries to an operational state and turn on its radio.
…Should enough sunlight reach Lunar Trailblazer’s solar panels, the batteries may charge to a level that allows the spacecraft’s radio system to boot up. But as Lunar Trailblazer travels farther away, it will soon be too distant to recover because its telecommunications signals to Earth will be too weak for the mission to receive telemetry and command.
The mission team has determined that if they can regain command of the spacecraft, the propulsion system isn’t frozen, and the instruments remain operable, the spacecraft may be able to achieve an elliptical lunar orbit and complete its lunar science objectives.
As I said, the chance of success are not good.
Though the odds of success are very dim, NASA has decided to give engineers another few weeks to try to activate its Lunar Trailblazer orbiter, that stopped communicating with Earth the day after it was launched in late February.
NASA has extended recovery efforts of its Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft from mid-June to early July. Updated modeling of the spacecraft’s trajectory by the mission team indicates lighting conditions will continue to be favorable and may provide enough sunlight for the spacecraft’s solar panels to recharge its batteries to an operational state and turn on its radio.
…Should enough sunlight reach Lunar Trailblazer’s solar panels, the batteries may charge to a level that allows the spacecraft’s radio system to boot up. But as Lunar Trailblazer travels farther away, it will soon be too distant to recover because its telecommunications signals to Earth will be too weak for the mission to receive telemetry and command.
The mission team has determined that if they can regain command of the spacecraft, the propulsion system isn’t frozen, and the instruments remain operable, the spacecraft may be able to achieve an elliptical lunar orbit and complete its lunar science objectives.
As I said, the chance of success are not good.
Mitsubishi wants to cut launch price of H3 rocket to $35 million
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which developed the new H3 rocket for Japan’s space agency JAXA, wants to attract commercial launch business, and to do so hopes to cut the rocket’s launch price to about $35 million.
According to the article at the link, the price for the H2A rocket that the H3 has replaced was 10 billion Japanese yen, about $70 million.
The H2A launched more than 70 satellites and other objects into space, serving as the backbone of Japan’s space transportation. However, there was an average of only two launches a year, and most depended on “public demand” for government satellites. There were only orders for commercial launches for five satellites belonging to foreign countries, such as South Korea and the United Kingdom.
…For Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., which took over the manufacture and operation of the H2A from JAXA in 2007, winning commercial orders has been a longstanding issue. The H3 was jointly developed by MHI and JAXA with the aim of halving the launch fee.
That price listed for the H2A rocket is likely wrong, much lower than the real price, as it matches what SpaceX has been offering publicly for the Falcon 9 for more than a decade. If the H2A had been that cheap, it would have garnered some business. It did not.
Lowering the cost for the H3 rocket to $35 million would definitely be competitive in the present launch market. Whether Mitsubishi can accomplish this however remains unclear. So far there is no indication that this new rocket has attracted any more business than the H2A, but as the rocket has only just started launching it is still too early to judge.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which developed the new H3 rocket for Japan’s space agency JAXA, wants to attract commercial launch business, and to do so hopes to cut the rocket’s launch price to about $35 million.
According to the article at the link, the price for the H2A rocket that the H3 has replaced was 10 billion Japanese yen, about $70 million.
The H2A launched more than 70 satellites and other objects into space, serving as the backbone of Japan’s space transportation. However, there was an average of only two launches a year, and most depended on “public demand” for government satellites. There were only orders for commercial launches for five satellites belonging to foreign countries, such as South Korea and the United Kingdom.
…For Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., which took over the manufacture and operation of the H2A from JAXA in 2007, winning commercial orders has been a longstanding issue. The H3 was jointly developed by MHI and JAXA with the aim of halving the launch fee.
That price listed for the H2A rocket is likely wrong, much lower than the real price, as it matches what SpaceX has been offering publicly for the Falcon 9 for more than a decade. If the H2A had been that cheap, it would have garnered some business. It did not.
Lowering the cost for the H3 rocket to $35 million would definitely be competitive in the present launch market. Whether Mitsubishi can accomplish this however remains unclear. So far there is no indication that this new rocket has attracted any more business than the H2A, but as the rocket has only just started launching it is still too early to judge.
Fund-raising campaign celebrating Behind the Black’s 15th anniversary
For the most recent posts, scroll down.
It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.
This year I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black. During that time I have done more than 33,000 posts, mostly covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I have also felt compelled as a free American citizen to regularly post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonize the solar system.
You can’t understand one without understanding the other.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent independent analysis you don’t find elsewhere. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn’t influenced by donations by established companies or political movements. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to:
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
This post will remain at the top of the page until the end of the month.
Richard Strauss – Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Overture
An evening pause: Performed by the Orchestre National de Lyon, Jun Märkl, conductor.
And no, it wasn’t written for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was simply a good choice for the score.
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
June 30, 2025 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.
- Weather forces Australian rocket startup Gilmour Space to delay today’s first launch attempt of its Eris rocket
The new date: July 3, 2025.
- Russia touts the assembly of its next Soyuz-2 rocket, which will launch a Progress freighter to ISS
The launch is set for July 3rd, and also commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Soyuz-Apollo mission.
- Space Force ponders shakeup to LEO satellite strategy, potentially hiring SpaceX for data relay
The new strategy would abandon some of the other commercial constellations presently being developed and launched by other satellite companies. Understandably, there is already a lot of push back to this plan.
- Thirty years ago today the space shuttle Atlantis become the first American spacecraft to dock with the Soviet/Russian Mir space station
The docking was part of Clinton’s foreign policy to keep Russia’s non-military space programs afloat, sending them cash in the 1990s as a component of flying joint missions to Mir.
- Sixty years ago today Joe Engle flew the X-15 to an altitude of more than 50 miles, qualifying him for astronaut wings
He later flew on the space shuttle, becoming the only person to do both.
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.
- Weather forces Australian rocket startup Gilmour Space to delay today’s first launch attempt of its Eris rocket
The new date: July 3, 2025.
- Russia touts the assembly of its next Soyuz-2 rocket, which will launch a Progress freighter to ISS
The launch is set for July 3rd, and also commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Soyuz-Apollo mission.
- Space Force ponders shakeup to LEO satellite strategy, potentially hiring SpaceX for data relay
The new strategy would abandon some of the other commercial constellations presently being developed and launched by other satellite companies. Understandably, there is already a lot of push back to this plan.
- Thirty years ago today the space shuttle Atlantis become the first American spacecraft to dock with the Soviet/Russian Mir space station
The docking was part of Clinton’s foreign policy to keep Russia’s non-military space programs afloat, sending them cash in the 1990s as a component of flying joint missions to Mir.
- Sixty years ago today Joe Engle flew the X-15 to an altitude of more than 50 miles, qualifying him for astronaut wings
He later flew on the space shuttle, becoming the only person to do both.