August 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.
- AT&T to Acquire Spectrum Licenses from EchoStar
Jay: “This is not Spectrum the cable company, these are radio spectrum rights that EchoStar owns, and I would be surprised if old AT&T leases them out.”
- Rocket Lab’s Neutron launch pad has been completed
The company is still targeting the first Neutron launch before the end of this year.
- Firefly Aerospace gets Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) clearance to resume Alpha rocket launches
This completes the investigation into the April launch failure.
- Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy signs agreement to launch Piesat’s satellites with its Ceres-2 solid-fueled rocket
This is for Piesat’s Nuwa radar satellite constellation.
- RKK Energia, Russia’s prime contractor in human space flight, publicly admits that the company is in dire financial straits, with debt eating its budget, demotivated staff and obsolete processes
The Russian invasion of the Ukraine cut Energia off from all its international customers. It no longer has any way to make money.
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.
- AT&T to Acquire Spectrum Licenses from EchoStar
Jay: “This is not Spectrum the cable company, these are radio spectrum rights that EchoStar owns, and I would be surprised if old AT&T leases them out.”
- Rocket Lab’s Neutron launch pad has been completed
The company is still targeting the first Neutron launch before the end of this year.
- Firefly Aerospace gets Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) clearance to resume Alpha rocket launches
This completes the investigation into the April launch failure.
- Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy signs agreement to launch Piesat’s satellites with its Ceres-2 solid-fueled rocket
This is for Piesat’s Nuwa radar satellite constellation.
- RKK Energia, Russia’s prime contractor in human space flight, publicly admits that the company is in dire financial straits, with debt eating its budget, demotivated staff and obsolete processes
The Russian invasion of the Ukraine cut Energia off from all its international customers. It no longer has any way to make money.
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
Do not forget about the over 30,000 sanctions by the US and the West. It might play a part.
I’m sure the sanctions have hit RKK Energia hard. But not as hard as Ukraine hit one of its factories recently. It seems one of the things RKK Energia was doing to keep the lights on was making drone parts for the Russian military.
Maybe the folks at RKK Energia could defect–take whatever secrets they have here–where there is actually a market for them.
A new rocket fuel is being looked at
https://phys.org/news/2025-08-chemists-high-energy-compound-fuel.html
“The newly synthesized compound, manganese diboride (MnB2), is over 20% more energetic by weight and about 150% more energetic by volume compared to the aluminum currently used in solid rocket boosters. Despite being highly energetic, it is also very safe and will only combust when it meets an ignition agent like kerosene.”
On fluid handling in space:
https://phys.org/news/2025-08-tiny-big-impact-fluid-space.html
“Our common sense tells us a barrier should block waves, but here we found certain meniscus shapes can make waves pass through more easily,” Zhang said. “Only a tiny, 1.5-millimeter change in the meniscus shape caused the transmission to drop from about 60% to just a few percent. Tiny meniscus, huge impact.”
Far more easily said than done I suspect.
Still, if RKK Energia goes entirely toes-up we may see some attempts along those lines. Russia isn’t quite the “prison house of nations” it was in Soviet times. Russia would certainly like to lock down emigration, but has been unable to avoid losing somewhere around 2 million military-age men who have skedaddled to avoid the various forms of conscription now feeding the Ukrainian meatgrinder. It’s easier to keep tabs on the much smaller number of those who are well-educated and possessed of tech savvy, but these are also the folks with the wherewithal to bribe their way out.
Russia’s shrinking manpower cannot all be detailed for brief pre-death service as cannon fodder in Ukraine. Russia has to man its massive internal security apparat and what remains of its dwindling industrial infrastructure. More than a few Russian hardhats are likely weighing their options anent emigration too, given the notably increased likelihood of becoming collateral damage during one of the growing number of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian energy, transport and military industry. And, of course, even if they avoid getting blown up on the job, many will wind up being idled as plants are knocked out unless they also have applicable repair skills.
Those Russian scientists better hope they don’t get sold to the Chinese.
I suspect a lot of Russian scientists would be delighted to be sold to the Chinese.