August 14, 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.
Note: X now requires log in to view videos with sound. You can get around this by clicking on the three dots at the top right to get the embed code. Ask for the code for an “embedded video.” The video will then be available for watching with sound.
- NASA tested a radiation-blocking vest during the unmanned Artemis-1 flight around the Moon in 2022
Built by a startup, Stemrad, which estimated it reduced radiation from 40 to 60%.
- Animation showing how a Space Force satellite rendezvoused and tracked a Chinese spy satellite designed to spy on US Pacific test ranges
It also photographed it in high resolution and apparently identified its Chinese ground links.
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 found another video of these two people doing the same act at another time. When I looked at the transcript of that video it said his name is Jahan Aroni. You can find it at 1:17 of this videos transcript. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neTpcWOq8-8
Rapscallion
‘Rapscallion’
The singing, dancing, onions.
OG Leek in the ‘hood.
No sooner do they scuttle Starship than we get a tsunami warning in Indonesia….I always knew it was the world’s largest depth charge….now to fill the next one with concrete and hit Pickaxe Mountain at speed :)
Now just watch a ship from China show up with Starship stuck on an anchor on one of their “cutters” like toilet paper…before Go Australis makes it back home.
I must say I am disappointed in Western sailors these days. The Ford class carrier is a luxo-boat, and kids are jumping off it.
G.I.s stayed overseas for years–some of them….I survived a lifetime in ALABAMA for Pete’s sake.
Good thing these pansies weren’t in Bastogne
Nuts….
That’s all good. As far as I am concerned, if you weren’t wearing olive drab in jungles or the Black Forest (as it brats in the desert)–you aren’t a real Vet….sorry.
I wonder what they made the vest out of? Lead like the dentist uses for x-rays? Mercury? Liquid field chambers that are flexible and more comfortable but also more toxic? Other materials also could be used like thin sheets of gold will have better shielding, non-toxic with flexibility.
The 4 chamber “StarPods” will use gelled water for working/sleeping in for “radiation protection” for the “whole body” on long trips. The water jacket will have a secondary use… Non-toxic drinking water? It makes good sense to turn your water storage into radiation shielding… Water is what they use to shield nuclear reactors after all.
Indonesia earthquake? Also in Columbia and Venezuela…
There’s always an uptick in earthquakes and volcanic activity during solar eclipses. The alignment of the moon and sun near the spring and fall equinox also produce the highest tides and the most crustal movement resulting in earthquakes. But the occurrence (which can happen at any time) doesn’t usually happen during high tide, but at low tide when gravity increases at 90° to high tide. The increased gravity pulls water below sea level and does the same to land forcing movement.
Shipping
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiEE8vXUVuo&ra=m
Today (August 17), Gene Kranz is 93 years young.
https://x.com/NASAhistory/status/2089336441138548887
His daughter drops into the thread to talk about his birthday party.