December 11, 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.
- American Airlines considering replacing ViaSat with Amazon Leo or Starlink for WiFi on its airplanes
The company appears to be favoring Leo, but nothing is confirmed or settled.
- European aerospace companies Kongserg and Helsing form partnership
It appears their capabilities are very complimentary.
- Webb detects supernova only only 730 million years after the Big Bang, the earliest seen yet
The big take-away is how little it differs from supernovae in our own time.
- Scientists simulate what an exoplanet super-Jupiter look like
Data said it was red with a very dusty and stormy atmosphere and they modeled its appearance based on this.
- Flaring black hole produces 60,000 kilometer per second winds
It has a mass of 30 million Suns, and sits at the center of a galaxy.
- Firefly gets a new commercial payload for its second Blue Ghost mission, going to the far side of the Moon
The company is Volta Space Technologies, and its payload is a demonstration test of its wireless power receiver for its proposed lunar power grid.
- L3Harris satellite-jamming system approved for export to close U.S. allies
Those allies are the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
- Perseverance detects static electricity produced by Martian dust devils
I didn’t post this story last week when it was first announced because the media framed it as “Lightning found on Mar!” That’s balderdash. What was actually found was that the dust moving in dust devils produces static charges that have now been detected. I should have clarified this point then. I thank Jay for getting me to correct this omission.
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.
- American Airlines considering replacing ViaSat with Amazon Leo or Starlink for WiFi on its airplanes
The company appears to be favoring Leo, but nothing is confirmed or settled.
- European aerospace companies Kongserg and Helsing form partnership
It appears their capabilities are very complimentary.
- Webb detects supernova only only 730 million years after the Big Bang, the earliest seen yet
The big take-away is how little it differs from supernovae in our own time.
- Scientists simulate what an exoplanet super-Jupiter look like
Data said it was red with a very dusty and stormy atmosphere and they modeled its appearance based on this.
- Flaring black hole produces 60,000 kilometer per second winds
It has a mass of 30 million Suns, and sits at the center of a galaxy.
- Firefly gets a new commercial payload for its second Blue Ghost mission, going to the far side of the Moon
The company is Volta Space Technologies, and its payload is a demonstration test of its wireless power receiver for its proposed lunar power grid.
- L3Harris satellite-jamming system approved for export to close U.S. allies
Those allies are the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
- Perseverance detects static electricity produced by Martian dust devils
I didn’t post this story last week when it was first announced because the media framed it as “Lightning found on Mar!” That’s balderdash. What was actually found was that the dust moving in dust devils produces static charges that have now been detected. I should have clarified this point then. I thank Jay for getting me to correct this omission.
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

