February 27, 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.
- Lunar Trailblazer failed because the software pointed the solar panels *away* from the Sun
Apparently Lockheed Martin failed to test the solar panel pointing software before launch. The NPR article the tweet links to of course advocates more money for NASA, even though comparably budgeted commercial lunar missions have succeeded just fine.
- Changes in leadership at NASA’s commercial crew and space operations programs
The changes appear linked to Starliner report, which put some blame on those in charge at the time.
- The Starship header tank from test flight 9 has washed up in Madagascar
SpaceX sent out two contractors to inspect it. If SpaceX doesn’t reclaim it, the locals want to turn it into a monument.
- The January 22nd tank failure on Rocket Lab’s Neutron rocket attributed to manufacturing defect by 3rd party contractor
Rocket Lab has made changes in the design, and is now building the tank in-house. Neutron’s maiden launch is now targeting the fourth quarter of this year.
- Senate version of NASA re-authorization bill bans NASA from buying more than 50% of its launches from one provider
The bill also allows NASA to seek waivers. Considering that the options other than SpaceX are presently few, expect this rule, if passed into law, to be waived frequently.
- On this day in 1966 a Saturn-1B rocket launched Apollo capsule/service module on its first unmanned test flight
The suborbital flight was a test both of the Saturn-1B rocket and the Apollo capsule.
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.
- Lunar Trailblazer failed because the software pointed the solar panels *away* from the Sun
Apparently Lockheed Martin failed to test the solar panel pointing software before launch. The NPR article the tweet links to of course advocates more money for NASA, even though comparably budgeted commercial lunar missions have succeeded just fine.
- Changes in leadership at NASA’s commercial crew and space operations programs
The changes appear linked to Starliner report, which put some blame on those in charge at the time.
- The Starship header tank from test flight 9 has washed up in Madagascar
SpaceX sent out two contractors to inspect it. If SpaceX doesn’t reclaim it, the locals want to turn it into a monument.
- The January 22nd tank failure on Rocket Lab’s Neutron rocket attributed to manufacturing defect by 3rd party contractor
Rocket Lab has made changes in the design, and is now building the tank in-house. Neutron’s maiden launch is now targeting the fourth quarter of this year.
- Senate version of NASA re-authorization bill bans NASA from buying more than 50% of its launches from one provider
The bill also allows NASA to seek waivers. Considering that the options other than SpaceX are presently few, expect this rule, if passed into law, to be waived frequently.
- On this day in 1966 a Saturn-1B rocket launched Apollo capsule/service module on its first unmanned test flight
The suborbital flight was a test both of the Saturn-1B rocket and the Apollo capsule.
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
Here we go;
AS-201 Launch
Creator: Lunarmodule5 (September 2022)
https://youtu.be/4cSrUsyVW3Q
(29:43)
launch begins around the 12-minute mark
“Senate version of NASA re-authorization bill bans NASA from buying more than 50% of its launches from one provider”
Looks like we now know who might have been behind that provision in the authorization bill: Jim Bridenstine!
https://x.com/i/status/2027503513803108548
If so, Jim has definitely been earning his lobbyist paychecks. (Hey, college tuition is expensive these days.)
P.S. As you can see in the LinkedIn post screenshot by Eric Berger, Jimbo clarifies what the 50% refers to: it’s “NASA’s total launch contract value.”
Oh my.
The Senate needs to pass a bill that makes it illegal for Blue Origin and ULA to utterly fail to do anything at a competitive pace. That’ll fix everything!
Perhaps add Ford, GM, and Stellantis into that while they’re at it?
My response to the Rocket Lab failure is “this is why SpaceX is vertically integrated”.
Right you are Calvin.
Was it the same folks who did the early MCT tank that failed?
I seem to remember hearing that Beal’s huge filament winding machine was dismantled and/or shipped to Japan.
Carbon fiber tanks might be fine for kerosene. Beal wanted to put HTP in his BA-1.
That would have to have had a liner…one would think.
Calvin Dodge wrote; “My response to the Rocket Lab failure is ‘this is why SpaceX is vertically integrated’.”
It was SpaceX’s philosophy from early on, and they learned a similarly hard lesson about even minimal outsourcing with their CRS-7 launch, in which they discovered that their vendor was supplying substandard struts.
ULA has been learning the same lesson, with their failing solid rocket boosters and with Blue Origin’s delays in delivering their BE-4 engines.
In my younger days I did a lot of beach combing on several isolated Pacific islands in hopes of finding the illusive Japanese glass fish net float.
I would have killed for a header tank.
I say let the locals have it, after SpaceX gets data from the thing of course.
Some interest in science in Madagascar can’t hurt, and it’s not the worst site for a spaceport itself.
Edward wrote: “It was SpaceX’s philosophy from early on ..”
Yeah, I was amused at some Xer who stated that SpaceX was vertically integrated because its manufacturing cadence required it. No, SpaceX has emphasized that since pretty much the beginning, when it was launching twice per year.
Jerry Greenwood:
The Oregon Coast was famous for the thousands of glass floats that washed ashore during the previous Century. Because any surviving floats would be decades old, it is extremely rare to find one now, but it does still happen after major storms. Lincoln City has an annual festival where people mimic finding floats by ‘searching’ for locally made ones. Like an adult Easter Egg hunt. Lincoln City is also where the City Council got in hot water by exempting People of Color from wearing masks during The Crazy Times.
From the Madagascar Government: ” . . . the responsible officials said that Madagascar is a land of Law, . . .” (emphasis in original). Hey, you guys want a job over here? I have 10 quatloos on the tank staying in place.
Odd motor
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-overlooked-electrostatic-motor-future.html
No field interference from this?
Wayne:
As noted by many, that stuff never gets old. I remember the sense of wonder and trepidation as a kid: will that thing actually get off the ground, and go all the way to space? Curious if anyone has annotated old launch footage with modern graphics? Time/speed/altitude/downrange, and such. One might get an idea of the flight profiles for the various launch vehicles; and, fun.
I think Hazegrayart had something along those lines. All I remember for sure is that Atlas V is the speediest of current LVs. Atlas III perhaps more so…in that it had both lightweight balloon tankage AND RD-180s from Glushko’s bunch.
Two different design philosophies in one rocket.
I loved the Saturn IB. ABMA/Apollo guys were kept in the dark about MOL. No need for a hatch through a heat-shield—and a wider Saturn could have meant wider optics for the Dorian system. I routinely butt heads with an AF guy there.
The one place where Army was out of line was trying to get the Navy to use their missiles.
Eric Berger of Ars Technica now has a full article up this morning on this NASA authorization act provision to restricting NASA from buying more than 50% of its launches from one provider (i.e., SpaceX). Some interesting stuff in here about both Jim Bridenstine, and the reaction of one of the best NASA managers of this century. For example:
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/03/former-nasa-chief-turned-ula-lobbyist-seeks-law-to-limit-spacex-funding/
In short, it’s legislation making the pretence of fostering more competition, but in actuality putting a thumb on the scale to give a leg up to favored businesses and a hitch in the gait of disfavored ones. A story old as time, and one likely to be all too familiar to Mr. Zimmerman’s regular readers.
Richard M,
Thank you for the link to the article.
I think that the quote that you provided makes a good point, that such a law gives an opportunity for corruption during times when there is one very good provider and others that are struggling. However, the article does make the important point that:
Redundancy is very important, as we saw with the end of the Space Shuttle and its important role in taking American astronauts to the ISS. However, that same example, the end of the Shuttle, shows how governmental favoritism can be detrimental, because the government’s favored vendor, Boeing, has failed to make a working alternative to the Shuttle’s transportation service, leaving NASA stuck using only SpaceX’s Dragon.
There is an irony in that a provision similar to this in the law — had it applied to manned spacecraft — would have eliminated Dragon as a NASA crew transporter until another company (maybe Boeing, maybe not) can get an alternate operational.
Fortunately the provision only applies to prevent NASA from spending more than 50 percent of its launch funding on any single provider, and the timing is possibly right, because there is Blue Origin’s New Glenn coming online and maybe even ULA’s Vulcan. Rocket Lab can contribute a small portion of the alternate 50% with its operational Electron, but until all the other launch providers are able to provide 50% of the launches, NASA may have to wildly overpay these alternate launch companies until they come up to speed. If the alternate companies can only come up with a third of the launches, then they will have to receive twice as much money in order to match the 50% spending from NASA.
Thus, we get waste and corruption until there are sufficient alternatives We can only hope that these companies will have the incentive to improve their launch cadences enough for NASA to pay them fair prices, rather than the exorbitant amount that they will have to pay this year and maybe next. And maybe the year after, depending. So, when I say the timing is possibly right, I mean that I think that it would possibly be right next year or the year after, depending, but not this year.
That is what government thinks it, government, is for: to interfere in our lives and our commerce in order to satisfy favored people or companies, which always comes at the expense of some others or of all others. Government excels at that, making government the problem, not the solution.
It would be so much better for us all if NASA could choose among the best suppliers, which would encourage the others to improve. ULA made improvements, because the Falcon 9 was eating their lunch. New Glenn did this, because they saw a niche that they could compete in. Even Rocket Lab believes that it can compete in the same niche, and all these improvements happened without the government restricting NASA’s choice of providers.
One has to wonder how the interference will affect the other entrants into the market.
This could be used to scan whole rockets:
“GiantEye—new dimensions in computed tomography”
“The combination of a high-energy X-ray source and robust detectors also enables radiography of thick components and dense materials, such as those found in complete vehicles, high-voltage batteries or aircraft components. The precise manipulation system simultaneously ensures accurate image data with minimal artifacts.”
Overcoming tribocorrosion in marine metals
“A joint research team at the Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) has successfully developed Korea’s first high corrosion- and wear-resistant carbon coating technology to mitigate the severe corrosion and wear issues associated with ammonia fuel. This technology is expected to serve as a key enabling platform for accelerating the commercialization of eco-friendly ammonia-powered ships. The paper is published in the journal Carbon.”