April 8, 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.
- Elon Musk’s Terafab computer chip project signs partnership deal with Intel
As always, Musk means it when he says he is going to do something.
- Russia postpones its Luna-28, Luna-29 and Luna-30 missions, again
Luna-28 was supposed to launch in 2030. The new schedule: Luna-29 in 2032, Luna-30 in 2034, and Luna-28 in 2036. As with all modern Russian space projects, the launch date is an ever receding phenomenon. For some reason it never gets closer.
- Startup Lunar Outposts touts its Owl autonomous lunar excavators, that over 15 days broke up and hauled 12 metric tons of concrete‑hard regolith simulant
The video is impressive. Get this equipment to the Moon and building a base looks quite doable.
- Russia ships its dust monitoring instrument to China for China’s Chang’e-7 lunar lander
Russia delivers something! The launch is for later this year.
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.
- Elon Musk’s Terafab computer chip project signs partnership deal with Intel
As always, Musk means it when he says he is going to do something.
- Russia postpones its Luna-28, Luna-29 and Luna-30 missions, again
Luna-28 was supposed to launch in 2030. The new schedule: Luna-29 in 2032, Luna-30 in 2034, and Luna-28 in 2036. As with all modern Russian space projects, the launch date is an ever receding phenomenon. For some reason it never gets closer.
- Startup Lunar Outposts touts its Owl autonomous lunar excavators, that over 15 days broke up and hauled 12 metric tons of concrete‑hard regolith simulant
The video is impressive. Get this equipment to the Moon and building a base looks quite doable.
- Russia ships its dust monitoring instrument to China for China’s Chang’e-7 lunar lander
Russia delivers something! The launch is for later this year.
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
New fuel cell design
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-hydrogen-fuel-cell-key-energy.html
Gossamer strength
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-04-bio-impact-resistance-energy-absorption.html
Intel has squandered its once-impressive lead in chip fab tech to TSMC, Samsung and others over the past two or three decades. This tie-up with Musk’s Terafab project looks like maybe Intel’s only real shot at getting back its lost mojo. That makes Intel a motivated partner and Elon can be expected to work them hard.
The Lunar Outpost jackhammer-bulldozer combo “rover” is going to be needed for ginning up a lunar metal smelting industry even more than for lunar construction jobs. One can get started in smelting on the Moon by using the loose regolith and rocks that are initially ready-to-hand for initial feedstock. But that supply won’t last long close to home once production scales up even moderately. Thus, it will be absolutely necessary to bust up the nearby native rock to keep things running.
I am sure there will be an entire basic infrastructure ready, or nearly so, by the time a suitable ride arrives. Human’s are past masters at resource exploitation. ‘Mines’ may be the first school with a Lunar campus.
Guess what? We now have confirmation that Blue Origin is building a second launch complex for New Glenn at the Cape — and it’s a doozy. It will apparently have a 500-foot tall Launch Umbilical Tower at SLC-36B/11 for the launch of the New Glenn.
2026-ASO-7367-OE:
https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/oe3a/main/#/search/records
Construct a Launch Umbilical Tower at SLC-36B/11 for the launch of the New Glenn Rocket.
2026-ASO-7368-OE:
https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/oe3a/main/#/search/records
Construct a 600′ Lightning Protection System (Tower) to protection the Umbilical Tower (UT) and the New Glenn Rocket on the UT.
Other observers have noted that it appears that this new launch pad will NOT be using a transporter-erector for umbilical connections, but a fixed structure instead. This is similar to what Starship does, or Vulcan’s Vandenberg launch site.
Over on X, one space blogger has posted aerial photos of the ground work already underway for this new pad:
https://x.com/i/status/2041976020069183804
It is a pleasant surprise to see today a pro-SpaceX, pro-capitalism in space, op-ed published in the Washington Post (which is still owned by Jeff Bezos, by the way).
“Artemis II is, perhaps sadly, not a giant leap for mankind. It is a reminder of how America used to reach for the stars — slowly, expensively and without accountability. SpaceX has shown what space exploration looks like when it must earn its keep: cheaper, faster and driven by people willing to invest their own money, not just spend someone else’s. The final frontier will not be reached by Washington but by markets that reward innovation and demand results.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/04/09/spacex-artemis-nasa-private-market/
Non pay wall: https://archive.is/2026.04.09-132341/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/04/09/spacex-artemis-nasa-private-market/
More Bezos propaganda–what else is new.
Howze that Reef coming along?
Jeff Wright,
If it’s propaganda, you should be able to explain clearly how. So, have at it. What makes it propaganda?
As for the Reef, that’s an excellent example of what the article is referring to. Because the Orbital Reef isn’t doing well, the market isn’t rewarding it or Blue Origin for it. Personnel, resources, and money are being diverted elsewhere. Compare that to government programs, which hold on long after their best-used-by date has passed, because program inertia and bureaucracy are strong and have different incentives: namely, employment and power, not mission success.
Yeah, I can’t really fault Bezos and Limp for prioritizing their rocket, their lunar landers, and their planned constellation over the space station. They’re clearly focusing on where they think the business case is most promising.
Richard M,
Blue certainly needs a second pad at Canaveral. This new pad is likely for the 9×4 variant of New Glenn based on your description. If Blue shows some unaccustomed hustle running this up, it might just have a second pad at KSC-Canaveral about the time SpaceX has five.
Just below the linked item about this new pad on ‘X’ there was some other stuff noting what seems to have been a very recent anomaly at Blue’s 2nd stage testing facility that, literally, blew the roof off of the place. If the 2nd stage under test there is now a write-off as well, this will not benefit Blue’s already pretty lean-looking prospects anent New Glenn for the remainder of 2026.
Agree about Orbital Reef by the way. It may not be as “paused” as Gateway, but it is definitely paused.
Propaganda: “the systematic dissemination of information, especially in a biased or misleading way, in order to promote a political cause or point of view.”
Oxford Dictionary online
“Your Honor, Exhibits A, B, are official filings, and Exhibit C clearly shows present and on-going construction work. Even a broad interpretation of the term ‘propaganda’ must necessarily include intent to affect opinion. My client has presented factual information. We request dismissal on the grounds that the use of the term does not meet the definition or burden-of-proof. ”
“Case dismissed.”
Omitting (from an April 9 puff piece) that other April puff?
Yeah–that qualifies as propaganda–note the same date:
https://x.com/asherbphotos/status/2042357660863852868
Although I am willing to entertain the notion of “pride goeth”
At least Elon hasn’t had any Massey messes indoors–I will certainly give him that much.
Jeff Wright,
You’re going to have to be less vague. All the evidence militates against you, not for you.
Dick Eagleson,
Let’s hope the stage remains intact. I suppose we’ll hear about it soon enough.
Blair Ivey,
I once had a co-worker who called my test procedures “propaganda.” From one interpretation of the definition of the word, he was right:
“propaganda:
“information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view”
— from my computer’s dictionary.
Reworded: ‘information used to promote or publicize a particular point of view.’ Hence, advertising is propaganda, which is how my friends and I defined TV commercials way back in the 1970s (comparing commercials to Soviet propaganda). And, my co-worker was right, because my test procedures were intended to be used to gather data that would provide information that the unit under test worked as intended — a particular point of view.
Of course, sometimes the test would show that it didn’t work, but that was what non-conformance reports were for. The unit did not conform to the intended use, and corrective action was required so that the next time we ran the propaganda (test procedure) it would say what we wanted it to say.
Good lord! Now I am comparing my test procedures to Soviet propaganda.
It worked for Energia.
My opinion of Glushko has gone up over the years.
Korolev was a better showman/salesman, but as per Asif’s book on Apollo, Valentin Petrovich NEVER let anything out of his hands.
Not long before my Mother passed, she happened to be in hospital during a time where she was due for an MRI appointment anyway.
I made my mind up that no one in that hospital knew what they were doing—and I was right to do so. I told them she was due for a scan—they had no idea.
So, Glushko and I have the same mindset—trust nothing or no one outside your immediate control.
My biggest beef with Elon is that he isn’t grim enough.
Miserable, invisible, unsmiling men keep the planet turning….men whose names are hardly remembered.
I certainly don’t look at Bezos as a serious human being, though I thought he was improving.