August 11, 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.
- Startup Gravitics wins small NASA contract to develop concept of a single orbital “hangar” to bring multiple orbital products back on one flight
The idea is to store the products produced by multiple companies on the various commercial space stations in this hanger and once fully loaded return them all together, for less cost.
- Satellite company Kepler picks Rocket Lab’s Neutron for Kepler’s first dedicated launch, scheduled no earlier than 2028
Another data center communications constellation. And another customer for Neutron.
- Blue Origin touts its Lunar Express version of its Blue Ring orbital tug for Moon communications
Essentially it would act as a relay satellite. It is in competition for this NASA contract with several other companies, including Firefly, that are building similar relay satellites.
- The James Webb Space Telescope recently produced a false-color image of planetary nebula NGC 2392, also called the Eskimo Nebula
It appears this name (as well as another nickname, “the Clownface nebula”) were considered “offensive” by NASA and other academics, so they are now pushing a new name, the “Lion Nebula.” Can’t offend anyone, ever, even if it means history gets muddled and confusing and difficult to teach.
- On August 11, 1969 the Soviet Union’s Zond 7 unmanned spacecraft flew past the Moon at a distance of 1233 miles
Zond was a modified Soyuz capsule designed to send cosmonauts around the Moon, and the third to fly around the Moon. See chapter 13 of Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8.
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
“On August 11, 1969 the Soviet Union’s Zond 7 unmanned spacecraft flew past the Moon at a distance of 1233 miles….Rather than next doing a manned circumlunar mission in October — beating the U.S. and Apollo 8 — the Soviet leadership became cautious and demanded one more unmanned mission, which didn’t fly until 1970.”
Huh? By August 11, 1969 Apollos 8, 9, 10, and 11 had all flown and returned safely.
Oy. I got my years and Zonds mixed up. This was post-Apollo 8, and was the unmanned mission the Soviet leadership required before allowing a manned mission, and thus guaranteed they’d lose the race to the Moon.
I have fixed the post. Thanks.
Zond was a name often used.
Here, a rump Soyuz (no spherical living compartment in the nose) was put atop a UR-500 Proton instead of R-7. The former puts about 20 tons in LEO (Mir and ISS modules) where R-7 puts seven tons or so in LEO.
The Almaz was to have a long stem (escape tower and retros in one package) equipped VA capsule atop station modules. Two capsules atop one another gave us Kosmos 881 and 882.
Mark Wade Podsaka problem (sic) had an R-7 launch Soyuz with UR-500 just putting an upper stage for it to dock with….Falcon might try that with Dragon launched single stick Falcon and FH launching an ISS de-orbit module for it to dock with…Agenda style, perhaps.
Why not just a fewtanker flights and Lunar Starship variant finds it own way to the Lunar surface instead of a kluge?
Has anyone asked the Inuit (Eskimo’s) what they think? Or is this another case of Progressive cultural appropriation to push an agenda?
We had that same debate here in Canada several years ago.
The city of Edmonton, Alberta has a team in the Canadian Football League. It was established several decades ago as the Edmonton Eskimos. From 1978 to 1982, it won the Grey Cup five times in a row. Warren Moon played with them for a while before he joined the NFL.
Then Edmonton elected a progressive mayor who thought the name was “offensive” and pushed to have it changed. The reaction from the public was, generally, in favour of keeping it. Most of the natives who were consulted about the matter apparently didn’t find anything wrong with it.
But, no, the name had to be changed and the team is now the Edmonton Elks. (It might have been a way of reducing the costs of changing the souvenirs and associated merchandise as the initials “EE” would be applicable in both circumstances.)
I stopped watching CFL games after that.
Eskimo’s are hunters; elk are prey. A bit symbolic, that, eh?
Space Station design
https://phys.org/news/2026-08-space-habitat-residents-mental-health.html
More
https://hecia.space/
Jared Isaacman blasts an op-ed by a “space ethics specialist” which appeared at Space News this week. And I can’t disagree with him:
“Bureaucracy has already throttled space exploration, and this article proposes creating a UN-affiliated ‘Planetary Stewardship Council’? As a species, there are few things we actually agree upon here on Earth, so how could this possibly advance progress in space?
“No. The authors incredible accomplishments aside, as a society we need fewer bureaucrats regulating tethered caps on plastic water bottles and more doers if we want to see even a glimpse of that exciting future so many of us imagined as children.”
https://x.com/i/status/2087601967254380644
I just heard that Mike Fincke is leaving NASA today after 30 years.
He holds the amateur radio callsign KE5AIT and I remember hearing him many years ago during an ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) contact.