February 19, 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.
- Iran’s space agency head touts his plans for big rockets and a Starlink-type satellite constellation
The stuff of fantasy.
- Germany’s space agency completes vibration tests of landing legs for Callisto reusable rocket stage demonstrator
My heart be still. Callisto was first proposed in 2015 by the ESA, as a response to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Since then it has yet to do a single test flight, while SpaceX has landed more than 500 first stages. And its first demo hop flight won’t happen any sooner than ’27.
- Blue Origin touts its proposed Blue Ring orbital and interplanetary tug
As Jay says, “Talking the talk, but can they launch the launch?” So far, all evidence says no.
- Did NASA-Ames and San Jose State just test an exobrake drag device in de-orbiting a cubesat this week?
The tweet says yes, based on the cubesat’s very fast loss of altitude. Nothing however is confirmed.
- On this day in 1930 Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto
He spotted the planet by comparing two photographic plates taken six days apart.
- On this day in 1986 the Soviet Union used a Proton rocket to launch the first module of its Mir space station
It took more than a decade to complete (delayed significantly by the fall of the Soviet Union), and was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan. I discovered scads of amazing untold tales in writing Leaving Earth.
- On Feb. 18, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully landed in Jezero Crater on Mars
The video at the link is garbage, typical NASA PR that mixes animation and live footage in ways that are unethical, topped off with a high-powered music score comparable to a comic book movie trailer. This isn’t science, it is childish propaganda.
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.
- Iran’s space agency head touts his plans for big rockets and a Starlink-type satellite constellation
The stuff of fantasy.
- Germany’s space agency completes vibration tests of landing legs for Callisto reusable rocket stage demonstrator
My heart be still. Callisto was first proposed in 2015 by the ESA, as a response to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Since then it has yet to do a single test flight, while SpaceX has landed more than 500 first stages. And its first demo hop flight won’t happen any sooner than ’27.
- Blue Origin touts its proposed Blue Ring orbital and interplanetary tug
As Jay says, “Talking the talk, but can they launch the launch?” So far, all evidence says no.
- Did NASA-Ames and San Jose State just test an exobrake drag device in de-orbiting a cubesat this week?
The tweet says yes, based on the cubesat’s very fast loss of altitude. Nothing however is confirmed.
- On this day in 1930 Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto
He spotted the planet by comparing two photographic plates taken six days apart.
- On this day in 1986 the Soviet Union used a Proton rocket to launch the first module of its Mir space station
It took more than a decade to complete (delayed significantly by the fall of the Soviet Union), and was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan. I discovered scads of amazing untold tales in writing Leaving Earth.
- On Feb. 18, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully landed in Jezero Crater on Mars
The video at the link is garbage, typical NASA PR that mixes animation and live footage in ways that are unethical, topped off with a high-powered music score comparable to a comic book movie trailer. This isn’t science, it is childish propaganda.
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
”Blue Origin touts its proposed Blue Ring orbital and interplanetary tug…As Jay says, ‘Talking the talk, but can they launch the launch?’”
I’d like to point out that Blue Origin has already launched a prototype Blue Ring to orbit. It remained attached to the upper stage of the New Glenn, but it did fly.
On materials:
“Obstacle or accelerator? How imperfections affect material strength.”
This is the second -phys article I have seen on how inclusions can make things weaker.
“Dual Role for Heterogeneity in Dynamic Fracture” will be in Physical Review Letters this fall…from Georgia Tech’s Itamar Kolvin
A new study on Falcon 9 lithium plumes, unfortunately, has been getting a significant amount of play in news media outlets, both space and mainstream:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-03154-8
Space.com has a story up, and I pick them merely because it’s less egregious than the other articles I have seen:
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/scientists-measure-air-pollution-from-reentering-spacex-rocket-in-real-time-its-never-been-done-before
I’m not in a position to really critique their methodology, but . . . it is not unreasonable to think that the actual value of what they claim to have learned is questionable enough; and yes, it is not hard to resist wondering about the motivations of the study.
I am afraid this is the sort of thing that reinforces the sense that Europeans are much better at looking for reasons to halt physical output economic activity than they are at actually undertaking it, and not just where spaceflight is concerned.
Hello mkent,
I admit, I’m actually keen to see Blue Ring fly, and . . . just maybe, that test flight suggests that this might even be a probability in the next 18-24 months.
Blue Origin is still moving too slowly, but they do seem to be picking up speed, and focusing more on developing core capabilities. More please.
I am not worried about lithium plumes.
As it happens, there is new technology that might allow longer service life–from phys:
“Atom-thin electronics withstand space radiation, potentially surviving centuries in orbit”
This talks about Peng Zhou at Fudan, who has an article in Nature called:
“Radiation-tolerant atomic-layer-scale RF system for spaceborne communication.”
Downwards/Earthwards isn’t the only path.
There are shepherd moons in Saturns rings after all. Perhaps just having a few massive objects in an orbital plane is all that is needed to coax any stray cats in and out of position as needed.