July 10, 2025 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.
- Space Forge signs deal to use Intuitive Machines’ proposed orbital capsule for in-space product manufacturing
Space Forge manufactures semi-conductors, but it has also partnered with Rhodium Scientific, a biotech manufacturer, so the plan is to produce both pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
- Rocket Lab hires Bollinger Shipyard to modify its ship as a landing platform for its Neutron rocket
Delivery is scheduled for early 2026. Since Rocket Lab has been targeting its first Neutron launch for this year, this either means the schedule has been pushed back, or the company doesn’t expect to recover the rocket on the first launch.
- NASA touts Parker images of the Sun
A short video summary describing Parker’s results so far, though heavy on platitudes.
- ESA and France sign new agreement for expanding commercial launch operations at French Guiana
The deal runs through 2035, allowing continued launches of Ariane-6 and Vega-C, but expands opportunities for new commercial rocket startups.
- On this day in 1962 AT&T launched the first private satellite, Telstar-1
It demonstrated relatively inexpensive broadcast and communication between Europe and North America. AT&T’s plan then was to launch a full constellation to provide phone and broadcast service worldwide, replacing the expensive and very limited undersea cables. The plan ended up getting blocked by Congress and President Kennedy, who instead created a monopoly run by the pseudo-company Comsat, partly owned by the government. While Comsat launched a number of geosynchronous satellites, it never came close to the success promised.
Had the government stayed out, we would have had large satellite constellations in the early 1960s and a robust private launch industry. Instead, it all died on the vine, and it would be more than a half century before the American commercial space industry recovered.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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.
- Space Forge signs deal to use Intuitive Machines’ proposed orbital capsule for in-space product manufacturing
Space Forge manufactures semi-conductors, but it has also partnered with Rhodium Scientific, a biotech manufacturer, so the plan is to produce both pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.
- Rocket Lab hires Bollinger Shipyard to modify its ship as a landing platform for its Neutron rocket
Delivery is scheduled for early 2026. Since Rocket Lab has been targeting its first Neutron launch for this year, this either means the schedule has been pushed back, or the company doesn’t expect to recover the rocket on the first launch.
- NASA touts Parker images of the Sun
A short video summary describing Parker’s results so far, though heavy on platitudes.
- ESA and France sign new agreement for expanding commercial launch operations at French Guiana
The deal runs through 2035, allowing continued launches of Ariane-6 and Vega-C, but expands opportunities for new commercial rocket startups.
- On this day in 1962 AT&T launched the first private satellite, Telstar-1
It demonstrated relatively inexpensive broadcast and communication between Europe and North America. AT&T’s plan then was to launch a full constellation to provide phone and broadcast service worldwide, replacing the expensive and very limited undersea cables. The plan ended up getting blocked by Congress and President Kennedy, who instead created a monopoly run by the pseudo-company Comsat, partly owned by the government. While Comsat launched a number of geosynchronous satellites, it never came close to the success promised.Had the government stayed out, we would have had large satellite constellations in the early 1960s and a robust private launch industry. Instead, it all died on the vine, and it would be more than a half century before the American commercial space industry recovered.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
RocketLab will probably start off with return to launch site .
“Since Rocket Lab has been targeting its first Neutron launch for this year, this either means the schedule has been pushed back, or the company doesn’t expect to recover the rocket on the first launch.”
Your second option is, indeed, the right one! The first launch in the second half of 2025 will not attempt a landing. Instead, it will perform a “soft splashdown” in the ocean, according to SpaceNews.
https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-reaffirms-2025-first-launch-of-neutron/
It appears they are aiming for attempting actual “landing” sometime next year.