December 16, 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.
- Vast puts out a call for proposals for microgravity research on its Haven-1 station
This is a great opportunity for college students, as the approval process is going to be far simpler and faster than NASA’s for ISS.
- Chinese pseudo-company Astronstone touts the construction and testing of its own tower chopsticks
Only they are not yet on a tower, but held up with scaffolding near the ground.
- Blue Origin completes testing of the BE-7 engine to fly on its unmanned Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander
The engine has now been shipped to Florida for integration with lander for launch next year.
- South Korean rocket startup Innospace has moved its HANBIT-Nano rocket to the launchpad in Brazil for final checks
Launch is scheduled for December 16, 2025 at 10:45 pm (Mountain). Live stream here.
- On this day in 1965 Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford launched on Gemini-6 to rendezvous with Gemini-7, already in orbit
They completed world’s controlled first rendezvous of two spacecraft.
- On this day in 1984, the Soviet Union launched Vega 1, the first of two Vegas to fly by Venus (dropping off landers) and then continuing on to Halley’s Comet
As of today, the two Vega landers remain the last missions to touch the surface of Venus and return data.
- On this day in 2010 Mars Odyssey became the longest-operating spacecraft ever sent to Mars
It is still operating after 24 years, and now mostly acts as a communications satellite for other Mars missions.
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.
- Vast puts out a call for proposals for microgravity research on its Haven-1 station
This is a great opportunity for college students, as the approval process is going to be far simpler and faster than NASA’s for ISS.
- Chinese pseudo-company Astronstone touts the construction and testing of its own tower chopsticks
Only they are not yet on a tower, but held up with scaffolding near the ground.
- Blue Origin completes testing of the BE-7 engine to fly on its unmanned Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander
The engine has now been shipped to Florida for integration with lander for launch next year.
- South Korean rocket startup Innospace has moved its HANBIT-Nano rocket to the launchpad in Brazil for final checks
Launch is scheduled for December 16, 2025 at 10:45 pm (Mountain). Live stream here.
- On this day in 1965 Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford launched on Gemini-6 to rendezvous with Gemini-7, already in orbit
They completed world’s controlled first rendezvous of two spacecraft.
- On this day in 1984, the Soviet Union launched Vega 1, the first of two Vegas to fly by Venus (dropping off landers) and then continuing on to Halley’s Comet
As of today, the two Vega landers remain the last missions to touch the surface of Venus and return data.
- On this day in 2010 Mars Odyssey became the longest-operating spacecraft ever sent to Mars
It is still operating after 24 years, and now mostly acts as a communications satellite for other Mars missions.
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


In addition to the generally good news about research opportunities on Haven-1 in the Vast presser, we also found out that Vast intends to have enough of its Haven-2 successor station on-orbit by 2030 to allow continuous human habitation there, taking the baton from ISS. Perhaps Starlab and Axiom will also be able to do likewise by that date or not much later.
Am I the only one who finds a degree of mirth in the fact that the Chinese are copying “chopstick” technology from the US? It’s true that said chopsticks are close to the ground just now, but SpaceX’s own sets started out that way too. But SpaceX had giant towers already built to mount them to. This PRC outfit seems lacking in that key respect. Kudos on at least a decent start at “collecting the entire set,” but I think it will likely be awhile before we see any launch activity from these folks – if ever.
More new space hardware from Korea and Blue. Best wishes to INNOSPACE and HANBIT-Nano in their efforts to ninja a number of other start-ups working toward initial launches in 2026 by becoming the last of the newcomer class of 2025.
Dick Eagleson: Vast continues to rank #1 in my mind as the space station company to watch. It has been making a concerted effort recently to local customers and users for its stations, much more than any of the other stations. And it will be flying its hardware ahead of anyone else.
No mirth on Chinese copying chopsticks–I am just angry that they don’t go for winged fly backs.
Each country should spend its money (public, private, whatever) building its own type of space lift. Angara was a clone of EELVs. I just hated that. The Baikal winged flyback got no love.
Space tech
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-cool-satellites-flexible-electronics-thin.html
Invisibility cloak–this time for real…uh-huh:
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-12-harry-potter-style-invisibility-cloak.html