Author: Robert Zimmerman

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.

• New paper speculates alternative to the Big Bang
  Fun stuff only a tiny bit different than fantasy. The author does however provide a nice summary of some of the basic problems with the Big Bang theory itself, problems that until recently it was generally considered inappropriate for any cosmologist to mention.

• Video of the launch and recovery of Space Epoch’s XZY-1 grasshopper rocket during its test flight May 29, 2025
  As usual for these kinds of promo pieces, the video includes epic music.

• X user notes that China has not released a single picture of its Tianwen-2 asteroid probe, now on its way
  Makes me wonder if the spacecraft looks too much like someone else’s (such as Osiris-Rex or Hayabusa-2), thus indicating its design was stolen, and China wants to hide this fact.

• Two Chinese satellites appear to be approaching each other, suggesting they are attempting a autonomous docking and/or servicing test

• Firefly touts the successful full duration static fire test of the Miranda engine it is developing for the first stages of both the Antares and Eclipse rockets
  The video is quite impressive. This engines does appear powerful. Seven will be mounted at the base of Eclipse.

• Arsonists on trial in the UK for setting fire to a business supplying Starlink terminals to the Ukraine
  The accused apparently were hired by the military Wagner Group that Russia used to pay to fight in the Ukraine.

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.

• Stratolaunch touts the re-usability of its Talon-A2 hypersonic test vehicle

• Vast touts completion of second major weld (of ten) for the primary hull of its Haven-1 space module
  Time is pressing if they want to launch on schedule in 2026.

• Firefly releases four-camera video taken during Blue Ghost’s lunar landing in March
  The video is quite beautiful.

• Graphic showing images of all eight Chinese pseudo-company prototypes testing vertical rocket landings
  This shows in graphic form the summary of this Chinese effort that I posted on May 29, 2025. There is also a ninth company attempting the same work. It must be underlined that the Chinese government demands that these companies share their results. There is no such thing as propriety data under its totalitarian rule.

• On this day in 1965 Ed White became the first American to do a spacewalk

• On this day in 2003 Europe’s Mars Express orbiter was launched
  It is still operating in orbit around Mars.

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.

• Ispace update: All is well with its Resilience lunar lander, still scheduled to land on June 5, 2025
  The picture of the company’s Tenacious rover is cool: It looks like a Conestoga wagon.

• Picture of offshore engine test stand for Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 rocket
  This is the same Chinese pseudo-company that had its rocket break free and launch itself during a staric fire engine test in 2024. I wonder if the Chinese government ordered it to build this offshore test stand after that incident.

• Long tweet detailing why Europe’s government Starlink constellation, IRIS2, is “dead in the water”
  The bottom line is that Germany and Italy want nothing to do with these government projects that cost too much and never get built on time, no matter how much France whines.

• On this day in 1966 Surveyor-1 became the first spacecraft to gently soft land on the Moon
  The Soviets had placed Luna 9 on the Moon in January 1966, but it didn’t soft land, it used giant airbags to protect it when it crashed on the surface, which once deflated allowed the spacecraft to operate three days. For a picture of Surveyor-1 from orbit, taken by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, go here.

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.

• Another Chinese pseudo-company, Astronstone, raises money, proposes copycat rocket
  More here. As noted at the first link, the design appears to be a steal of the rocket being built by another Chinese pseudo-company, Space Epoch. This is not surprising, as the Chinese government requires its fake companies to share all data with the government and other companies. The only design difference is that Astronstone is stealing SpaceX’s chopstick launch tower design for its rocket’s landing.

• Pictures of Space Epoch’s recovered YXZ-1 grasshopper test stage after its soft vertical splashdown in the ocean
  There are dents and some damage, but overall the rocket’s condition looks good. A vertical touch down on land would probably have been less harmful than falling over into the ocean.

• Sources claim Russia will begin deploying its own “Starlink constellation” by the end of this year
  The sources say each launch will place 16 satellites in orbit. We shall see. The Russians have not met any schedule even close now for decades, often missing proposed targets by decades.

• South Korea has approved Starlink, allowing it to sell its service to customers

• On this day in 1971, Mariner 9 was launched, becoming upon arrival the first successful Martian orbiter
  It arrived during a global dust storm, waited it out, and eventually discovered that Mars was not like the Moon as suggested by earlier fly-by missions, but had giant volcanoes, canyons, and many meandering channels suggestive of flowing water.

• On this day in 2020 SpaceX used its Falcon 9 rocket to place two Americans into space, the first American launch from American soil in an American spacecraft on an American rocket in nine years