February 23, 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.
- Video from Sierra Space of the Tenacity Dream Chaser tow tests
Posted last week, but I think it shows the tow tests done in November 2025. As I noted then, these tow tests should have been done years ago, not after final electromagnetic, telemetry, and vibration tests. There is something wrong here that Sierra Space is not telling us.
- On this day in 1966, the USSR launched an adapted Voskhod spacecraft carrying the dogs Veterok and Ugolyok
The mission lasted 21 days — the first such long term flight — and returned the dogs alive, though in poor health. They had lost weight, but more important was the discovery that weightlessness caused a loss of bone density.
- On this day in 1969, the Soviet Union attempted the first test flight of its giant N-1 rocket
The launch was a failure, as were the three that followed.
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.
- Video from Sierra Space of the Tenacity Dream Chaser tow tests
Posted last week, but I think it shows the tow tests done in November 2025. As I noted then, these tow tests should have been done years ago, not after final electromagnetic, telemetry, and vibration tests. There is something wrong here that Sierra Space is not telling us.
- On this day in 1966, the USSR launched an adapted Voskhod spacecraft carrying the dogs Veterok and Ugolyok
The mission lasted 21 days — the first such long term flight — and returned the dogs alive, though in poor health. They had lost weight, but more important was the discovery that weightlessness caused a loss of bone density.
- On this day in 1969, the Soviet Union attempted the first test flight of its giant N-1 rocket
The launch was a failure, as were the three that followed.
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 articles of interest:
“Engineers discover new physics principle to break sound absorption barriers in ventilated spaces.”
This from the University of Hong Kong’s Nicholas X. Fang, who speaks of “duality symmetry.” HKU worked with the University of Cambridge on this.
Noise reduction is tough in ventilated areas–to allow air means allowing sound too…yet Professor I. David Abrahams at Cambridge and Acoustic Metamaterials Group LLC claim to have reduced 86% of sound from 300-6,000 Hz
I can see this being useful for aerospace as well.
“Diamond owl swoops in with new method to keep electronics cool” Rice University has managed to grow diamond via gas deposition. I am hoping this can also be done with Borazon for heat shields. Rice also has made Multilayered Insulated SuperHydrophobic (MISH) compounds to cause even hot liquids to not stick, according to Daniel J. Preston at Rice.
A research team at King’s College London led by Dr. Clare Bakewell has isolated a new, reactive form of aluminum called cyclotrialumane.
Lastly there is a *must read* called:
“Researchers develop a system that detects subtle defects missed by existing industrial visual inspection”
This details a program called MambaAlign.
RGB and thermal data help find flaws in aerospace parts