July 15, 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.
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- Image of Long March-10BB’s recovered first stage as it arrives at port
More images here. It appears clamp arms were used to transfer the stage onshore.
- Northrop Grumman presents video of the launch of Pegasus from its L-1011 Stargazer airplane
This was Pegasus’ last launch, placing Katalyst’s Link spacecraft in orbit to save the Gehrels-Swift space telescope.
- Film of the July 15, 1975 launch of Apollo 18 as part of the first joint U.S./Soviet space flight
The Apollo capsule brought an airlock to dock with the Soviet Soyuz 19 capsule. All told the two spacecraft flew linked for almost two days. No American would fly in space for six more years, until the first shuttle flight in 1981.
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
