May 26, 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.
- Starlink is now available in the Kyrgyz Republic
- American Airlines to install Starlink in 500 planes beginning in 2027
SpaceX continues to expand its reach, and profits.
- Scientists make another attempt to explain Venus’s coronae features
This geology has puzzled scientists for decades.
- A group of Russian satellites are now gathered near the commercial Iceye radar satellite
This could be to do surveillance, it could be to do jamming (Iceye provided orbital data to the Ukraine), or it could be the first steps in an anti-satellite attack. The last however is very unlikely.
- Video of the May 26, 2010 first test flight of Boeing’s X-51 hypersonic missile
It achieved the longest duration flight at a speed over Mach 5 and an altitude of 70,000 feet for over 200 seconds. It also led no where for more than a decade. Only in the past year or so has the military made real progress in the hypersonic field, because it now has a fleet of private companies able to do testing cheap, fast, and in a variety of ways, something Boeing could not do.
- False color panorama released on May 26 2025 by Perseverance
The mosaic, made from 96 images, features the rover’s 43rd rock abrasion (white patch at center-left).
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
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.
- Starlink is now available in the Kyrgyz Republic
- American Airlines to install Starlink in 500 planes beginning in 2027
SpaceX continues to expand its reach, and profits.
- Scientists make another attempt to explain Venus’s coronae features
This geology has puzzled scientists for decades.
- A group of Russian satellites are now gathered near the commercial Iceye radar satellite
This could be to do surveillance, it could be to do jamming (Iceye provided orbital data to the Ukraine), or it could be the first steps in an anti-satellite attack. The last however is very unlikely.
- Video of the May 26, 2010 first test flight of Boeing’s X-51 hypersonic missile
It achieved the longest duration flight at a speed over Mach 5 and an altitude of 70,000 feet for over 200 seconds. It also led no where for more than a decade. Only in the past year or so has the military made real progress in the hypersonic field, because it now has a fleet of private companies able to do testing cheap, fast, and in a variety of ways, something Boeing could not do.
- False color panorama released on May 26 2025 by Perseverance
The mosaic, made from 96 images, features the rover’s 43rd rock abrasion (white patch at center-left).
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
I don’t think Boeing can do anything anymore because of the weight of the MBAs that run the company to just make money and not produce brilliant engineering works. I have had Business Degree folks tell me that engineers are just useless weight on the corporate structure that prevent producing better profits.