January 29, 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 successfully completes soft capture test of docking system to be used on its manned lunar lander and Orbital Reef space station
As far as I know, this could be the first real hardware Blue Origin has built for Orbital Reef.
- Declassifying JUMPSEAT, a surveillance satellite program from the ’70s and ’80s
The satellites used a high elliptical orbit that favored high latitude observations, excellent for monitoring Soviet military operations.
- I bought “Remove Before Flight” tags on eBay in 2010—it turns out they’re from Challenger’s final flight
Very interesting story about collecting miscellaneous space memorabilia that turns out to come from a very significant space mission.
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 successfully completes soft capture test of docking system to be used on its manned lunar lander and Orbital Reef space station
As far as I know, this could be the first real hardware Blue Origin has built for Orbital Reef.
- Declassifying JUMPSEAT, a surveillance satellite program from the ’70s and ’80s
The satellites used a high elliptical orbit that favored high latitude observations, excellent for monitoring Soviet military operations.
- I bought “Remove Before Flight” tags on eBay in 2010—it turns out they’re from Challenger’s final flight
Very interesting story about collecting miscellaneous space memorabilia that turns out to come from a very significant space mission.
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
I’ve half thought Blue would abandon Orbital Reef, given Bezos’s lunar ambitions, and Limp’s efforts at getting Blue focused on delivering rather than announcing a whole swarm of projects, but docking is useful on multiple fronts.
Varda’s Winnebago-5 has re-entered over Australia in an apparent landing attempt. I haven’t heard anything yet as to whether the landing was successful.
That appears to leave Winnebago-4 still in orbit. I’ve heard rumors that Varda has had multiple problems with it, even that it was lost, though I’m not sure that that’s the case. W-4 was Varda’s first in-house spacecraft. Previous spacecraft buses were built by Rocket Lab and combined with the Varda re-entry capsule.
Rocket Lab delivered a fourth spacecraft bus to Varda. Does anyone know whether W-5 had the fourth Rocket Lab bus or the second Varda bus? I’m guessing that since Rocket Lab didn’t make an announcement of imminent re-entry as they had with Winnebagos 1-3 that it had Varda bus #2. Does anyone know for sure?
Varda has now announced the successful landing of W-5 and confirmed that it had a Varda bus. It also appears that W-6 and W-7 are flying on Transporter-16 and -17, respectively. They seem to be picking up the pace. Good to see.
To Nate.
I still look for Bezos to abandon his vaporware reef.
Other than one or two beehive plus sized private modules, humanity may never see the likes of ISS again
Nate P,
I have to agree that an “out of the blue” (pun definitely intended) reference to Orbital Reef after, literally, years of silence on the topic is a bit startling. Weirdly encouraging too – but startling.
mkent,
Thanks for the Varda update. One hopes Winnebago-5 represents the comprehensive chasing down and squishing of whatever bugs there were in Winnebago-4. Always good to see more use cases for commercial activity in LEO emerging. Once Varda gets to the point where it has a Winnebago riding on every Transporter mission – and maybe the Bandwagons too – the next logical step up is either bigger “motor homes” or, as a number of LEO satellite constellation operators have been doing for some time, putting two or more Winnebagos on each such rideshare. Kooniba may have to get used to being peppered on a regular basis.
Jeff Wright,
In a very literal sense, I hope we never do see another space station like the ISS. It has always been a sort of camel whose creators were trying for a horse, but missed. ISS isn’t scalable, designed for either easy or EVA-free repair and maintenance and requires highly-trained astronauts to spend far to much of their time being weightless janitors, handymen, stevedores and warehousemen. And it has no laundry facilities – which makes its default odor that of, say, a vintage gym like the one Rocky worked out in.
No one not given to pathological nostalgia is going to miss that thing a bit when it’s finally gone.
Jeff Wright: I hope we don’t. As Dick said, it doesn’t lend itself well to maintenance, expansion, or even daily life. We can do better, and we will. At least three companies are currently developing modules which would make building a station larger than the ISS much more affordable, practical, and speedy, and as costs drop and companies find more avenues to make money off space, we’ll see more stations spring up. Perhaps Blue will simply put Reef on hold until Limp sees a more opportune time.
SpaceX is making ephemeris data free for all through a program called Stargaze: https://starlink.com/updates/stargaze
Jay likely caught this already for you, Bob, but just in case:
https://www.faa.gov/space/stakeholder_engagement/spacex_starship_ksc/SpaceX-SSH-LC-39A-Final-EIS_Executive-Summary.pdf
Today the FAA has advanced approval for up to 44 Starship launches from LC-39A at KSC.
NSF is the only one with a story up so far on this, so far as I can make out, for what it is worth: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/01/faa-advances-approval-44-starship-launches-39a/
Richard M: I have been reviewing the FAA EIS summary and plan to post about it later today.
SpaceX and xAI news:
https://nypost.com/2026/01/29/business/elon-musks-spacex-in-merger-talks-with-xai-ahead-of-potential-blockbuster-ipo-report/
Before it was ISS, it was called Freedom…box frame or dual keel.
I liked Bush 41…he was pro-space