February 17, 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.
- Bankrupt Orbex suddenly shows off images of its Prime rocket
Jay notes the engines appear to be missing. I note that the rocket was closer to launch than not. It simply couldn’t get past the UK’s red tape.
- The Boeing Starliner exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center is literally “out of order”
The picture is hilarious, and as noted at the link, “The jokes really write themselves.”
- On this day in 2000, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft captured this rotation movie of the asteroid Eros
It was the first mission specifically designed to study an asteroid.
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.
- Bankrupt Orbex suddenly shows off images of its Prime rocket
Jay notes the engines appear to be missing. I note that the rocket was closer to launch than not. It simply couldn’t get past the UK’s red tape.
- The Boeing Starliner exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center is literally “out of order”
The picture is hilarious, and as noted at the link, “The jokes really write themselves.”
- On this day in 2000, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft captured this rotation movie of the asteroid Eros
It was the first mission specifically designed to study an asteroid.
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
The Shoemaker rotating russet potato in space is an image I’ll not forget. I’m amazed it was that long ago.
I can see a wayward solar sail being the foil for that potato…just you wait.
Bummer about Orbex.
Is that asteroid rotation in real time?
todthen: That is not real time. You can see the jumps caused going from image to image, but if my memory from a quarter century ago is correct, it took hours to compile this movie. Certainly not five seconds.
One might hope that Orbex will frame the X image set, and send it to every administrator in the Space division at the UK Civil Aviation Authority. Maybe along with a framed copy of their first license application, with the date prominently noted.
It’s curious that the popular news sources describe ‘what’ happened, without once touching on ‘why’. It feels very dystopian; that the mass media extends and amplifies the willful ignorance of a discredited worldview. There is no History, no Cause. There is only Now, and only Effect. Of course, you can write the stories yourself if a grown-up (Rightist) had been the cause.
The CAA Space license requirements: https://www.caa.co.uk/media/kbfjgbx0/space-licensing-in-the-uk.pdf
The minimum timelines for various aspects from spaceport to launch come to between 30 and 42 months. A press release from Orbex (https://orbex.space/news/orbex-applies-for-licence-to-launch-first-rockets-from-scotland) 3 February 2022 announces their application to the CAA. It doesn’t appear that Orbex was unusually delayed by bureaucracy, it appears that the bureaucracy thinks 3 – 4 years from application to approval is just fine. This looks less like an operational organization, and more like sinecure for bureaucrats.
Blair Ivey: It is excellent and satisfying when others independently find the sources I use to report my conclusions. You essentially repeat my reporting on Orbex for the past two years, with even better sources.
I think it is a miracle that Rocket Factory Augsburg might actually get a launch off at Saxavord. I also think this is going to be that spaceport’s only customer for a looooonnng time.
Penn State’s Department of Electrical Engineering has a new polymer capacitor capable of withstanding 482 degrees F.
“New polymer alloy could solve energy storage challenge.”
Another story also at phys-
“3D printing platform rapidly produces complex electric machines”
The first story involves readily available materials.
Drones may benefit first, space later.
Eros rotation rate is 5.27 hours. There’s another animated gif of it from NEAR, but I can’t post pics here and lack a link to it, so I won’t.
In the news:
“3D printing platform rapidly produces complex electric machines”
In an effort to democratize the manufacturing of complex devices, MIT researchers have developed a multimaterial 3D-printing platform that could be used to fully print electric machines in a single step.
They designed their system to process multiple functional materials, including electrically conductive materials and magnetic materials, using four extrusion tools that can handle varied forms of printable material. The printer switches between extruders, which deposit material by squeezing it through a nozzle as it fabricates a device one layer at a time.
The researchers used this system to produce a fully 3D-printed electric linear motor in a matter of hours using five materials. They only needed to perform one post-processing step for the motor to be fully functional.
The assembled device performed as well or better than similar motors that require more complex fabrication methods or additional post-processing steps.
Michael McNeil: Thank you for that data point. I vaguely remembered Eros’ day was several hours long, but it was so long ago I covered the subject for The Sciences and others I didn’t remember for sure. And I admit I had no enthusiasm to look it up with the head cold this week.