April 27, 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.
- Soviet-era lander module from failed 1972 Venus mission to re-enter atmosphere in mid-May
Designed to survive Venus’s thick atmosphere, there is an excellent chance it will hit the ground intact when it comes down, with no way to control it. It is not a big object, and the risk to habitable areas remains small, but not zero. More updates to follow.
- ISRO engineers have undocked the two Spadex satellites after raising their orbit
More docking tests are expected.
- Lockheed Martin touts the successful pressure tests for its own inflatable station module
The company does not tell us the scale of this test item, but it does indicate it exceeded specififications.
- On this day in 2001 Dennis Tito became the first space tourist, launching as a paying passenger on a Russian Soyuz capsule to ISS
Tito paid the Russian’s $20 million for the flight, and NASA fought hard to stop this perfect example of freedom and capitalism. By the start of this century the U.S. government was no longer a big supporter of such things, something that sadly continues largely to this day.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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.
- Soviet-era lander module from failed 1972 Venus mission to re-enter atmosphere in mid-May
Designed to survive Venus’s thick atmosphere, there is an excellent chance it will hit the ground intact when it comes down, with no way to control it. It is not a big object, and the risk to habitable areas remains small, but not zero. More updates to follow.
- ISRO engineers have undocked the two Spadex satellites after raising their orbit
More docking tests are expected.
- Lockheed Martin touts the successful pressure tests for its own inflatable station module
The company does not tell us the scale of this test item, but it does indicate it exceeded specififications.
- On this day in 2001 Dennis Tito became the first space tourist, launching as a paying passenger on a Russian Soyuz capsule to ISS
Tito paid the Russian’s $20 million for the flight, and NASA fought hard to stop this perfect example of freedom and capitalism. By the start of this century the U.S. government was no longer a big supporter of such things, something that sadly continues largely to this day.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
There was a post about rocket belts the other day,
https://substack.com/@billpieper/note/c-112674863?r=3uv2v&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
Those are tiny jets–air-breathing let’s you fly longer than rocket belts.