December 10, 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.
- Axiom and KBR successfully complete first uncrewed thermal vacuum test of its lunar spacesuit
The suit has already been tested manned underwater. These tests are to make sure it will work in the harsh temperature conditions on the Moon.
- Startup Muon Space wins $1.9 million contract from Pentagon to develop a new infrared detector for spotting incoming missiles
Apparently Muon is adapting sensors it developed for civilian “global thermal detection” uses.
- Lunar rover startup Lunar Outpost selected to fly its small MAPP rover on Artemis-4
This is not the company’s big manned rover. NASA has not yet made a decision on that. MAPP is a little rover, about the size of a little red wagon. It will carry two NASA instruments and maneuver away from the lunar lander when it lifts off so the instruments can measure the dust produced during launch.
- On this day in 1964 the last ASSET test re-entry vehicle launched from Cape Canaveral
ASSET, unmanned, gathered data for the military’s X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane program that was soon canceled without ever flying.
- On this day in 1978, the Pioneer Venus Probe dropped five probes into the atmosphere of Venus
All five sent data back to Earth as they descended toward the surface. The numbers were consistent with all fourteen previous Soviet and American probes, a hellishly hot and very dense atmosphere with a layer of sulfuric acid.
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.
- Axiom and KBR successfully complete first uncrewed thermal vacuum test of its lunar spacesuit
The suit has already been tested manned underwater. These tests are to make sure it will work in the harsh temperature conditions on the Moon.
- Startup Muon Space wins $1.9 million contract from Pentagon to develop a new infrared detector for spotting incoming missiles
Apparently Muon is adapting sensors it developed for civilian “global thermal detection” uses.
- Lunar rover startup Lunar Outpost selected to fly its small MAPP rover on Artemis-4
This is not the company’s big manned rover. NASA has not yet made a decision on that. MAPP is a little rover, about the size of a little red wagon. It will carry two NASA instruments and maneuver away from the lunar lander when it lifts off so the instruments can measure the dust produced during launch.
- On this day in 1964 the last ASSET test re-entry vehicle launched from Cape Canaveral
ASSET, unmanned, gathered data for the military’s X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane program that was soon canceled without ever flying.
- On this day in 1978, the Pioneer Venus Probe dropped five probes into the atmosphere of Venus
All five sent data back to Earth as they descended toward the surface. The numbers were consistent with all fourteen previous Soviet and American probes, a hellishly hot and very dense atmosphere with a layer of sulfuric acid.
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


Some interesting notes:
Electron mission “Raise and Shine”, was pushed back for additional checks.
They quickly shifted gears and slid the next mission in to place with “Bridging the Swarm”. which in on the pad as I type this, and due to launch in about an hour and fifteen minutes.
https://x.com/RocketLab/status/1998551497748132213