January 26, 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.
- Blue Origin late last week flew another New Shepard suborbital tourist flight
It carried six passengers on the 38th such flight.
- SpaceX apparently tested Starship tiles on yesterday’s Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg
It also appears during a test-to-failure tank test a few days ago a Superheavy tank ruptured. Lots of speculation, but this rupture does not appear to be a big deal, because it clearly occurred during a test-to-failure test.
- Anti-ICE protester films a Long March 4C upper stage launched in 2022 burning up over Minneapolis
Being general ignorant (as these anti-ICE protesters are), he speculates it is a meteorite or “something exploded in space,” when it is very clearly appears to be a rocket stage breaking up during re-entry.
- On this day in 1994 Clementine launched to map the Moon, where it detected the first hint of ice in some permanently shadowed craters
Clementine cost under $100 million and took only two years to build and launch. But then, it wasn’t a NASA probe but a Pentagon-financed mission testing new lightweight cameras and control systems that used the Moon and scientific research to do the test. It was also the first U.S. mission to the Moon in more than two decades.
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.
- Blue Origin late last week flew another New Shepard suborbital tourist flight
It carried six passengers on the 38th such flight.
- SpaceX apparently tested Starship tiles on yesterday’s Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg
It also appears during a test-to-failure tank test a few days ago a Superheavy tank ruptured. Lots of speculation, but this rupture does not appear to be a big deal, because it clearly occurred during a test-to-failure test.
- Anti-ICE protester films a Long March 4C upper stage launched in 2022 burning up over Minneapolis
Being general ignorant (as these anti-ICE protesters are), he speculates it is a meteorite or “something exploded in space,” when it is very clearly appears to be a rocket stage breaking up during re-entry.
- On this day in 1994 Clementine launched to map the Moon, where it detected the first hint of ice in some permanently shadowed craters
Clementine cost under $100 million and took only two years to build and launch. But then, it wasn’t a NASA probe but a Pentagon-financed mission testing new lightweight cameras and control systems that used the Moon and scientific research to do the test. It was also the first U.S. mission to the Moon in more than two decades.
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
“”It also appears during a test-to-failure tank test a few days ago a Superheavy tank ruptured””
Once again, thanks to G-d that President Trump survived assassination attempts & lawfare, and returned to the Oval Office. The Obama/Biden Regime would have halted any more SpaceX testing/launches until the results of a “full crash investigation.”
I just love explaining to those that will listen the concept of test-to-failure.