June 10, 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.
- A small portion of the largest and sharpest image ever taken of the Andromeda galaxy
Taken in 2015 by the Hubble Space Telescope, it shows over 100 million stars, thousands of star clusters in a section of the galaxy’s disc stretching across over 40 000 light-years.
- Rocket Lab shows off the numerous new rockets rolling off its factory floor
It also notes that its 100th Electron rocket is in this lineup.
- Video of the June 10, 2003 launch of the Spirit Mars rover from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II rocket
Designed for a 90 day mission, it ended up operating for six years until 2010
- On June 10, 2009 Japan’s Kaguya lunar orbiter was intentionally deorbited and crashed on the Moon
It was Japan’s 2nd lunar orbiter, and operated in lunar orbit for a little less than two years, producing a high resolution elevation map of the entire surface.
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

Meanwhile, at the Nova Scotia concrete slab:
https://shorturl.fm/1uhtx