April 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.
- Smallsat startup True Anomaly touts its new “Jackal spacecraft for GEO and Cislunar space”
The company is angling for defense work.
- Vast signs deal with NASA’s Glenn center to do environmental testing of its Haven-1 manned space station
This testing is set for early ’26, which makes for a very tight schedule to meet the present May ’26 launch date.
- SpaceX completes static fire test of Superheavy booster recovered from the seventh test flight
The tweet says this booster could very well be reused on test flight 9, the next planned test flight.
- Kongsberg to deliver 280 microsatellites to SpinLaunch’s LEO satellite communication constellation
My readers might remember SpinLaunch as the startup aiming to put payloads into orbit by spinning them to high speeds and then releasing them. They did some tests, got some investment capital, and then apparently switched focus to satellite communications.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. 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
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
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.
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.
- Smallsat startup True Anomaly touts its new “Jackal spacecraft for GEO and Cislunar space”
The company is angling for defense work.
- Vast signs deal with NASA’s Glenn center to do environmental testing of its Haven-1 manned space station
This testing is set for early ’26, which makes for a very tight schedule to meet the present May ’26 launch date.
- SpaceX completes static fire test of Superheavy booster recovered from the seventh test flight
The tweet says this booster could very well be reused on test flight 9, the next planned test flight.
- Kongsberg to deliver 280 microsatellites to SpinLaunch’s LEO satellite communication constellation
My readers might remember SpinLaunch as the startup aiming to put payloads into orbit by spinning them to high speeds and then releasing them. They did some tests, got some investment capital, and then apparently switched focus to satellite communications.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. 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
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
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.
I continue to be impressed by Rocket Lab’s willingness to diversify their portfolio rather than keep pushing all of their chips onto the hypercompetitive launch market. It’s why they’re finally in the black now.
Yes, Rocket Lab has done very well by, in essence, buying at estate sales. Most of its space components acquisitions have been of overextended startup companies circling the drain which it has then turned around. And in the particular case of Virgin Orbit, the “organ donor” had already died. This is exactly how the “creative destruction” of capitalism is supposed to work. More’s the pity Rocket Lab isn’t yet large enough to take over Boeing’s distressed space assets. Perhaps a few years down the road the story will be different.