July 16, 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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- Former top Chinese space official and later political figure Ma Xingrui expelled from Communist Party
The claim is he was expelled for corruption. He is also an example of China’s long policy of using the space industry to groom future top political officials. His expulsion — the second major former space official to be expelled since 2024 — could be a signal China is abandoning that policy. If so, this will not bode well for its space program, as it will weaken its status in China’s top-down government bureaucracy.
- Very short video of the robot hopper to be launched on China’s Chang’e-7 lunar mission
It will attempt to access the permanently shadowed interior of Shackleton Crater at the Moon’s south pole.
- The final flights of the Redstone rocket were done by Australia
Australia used refurbished Redstones for suborbital reentry research as well as launching first Australian orbital satellite,Wresat-1, which studied solar radiation during its five day mission.
- Film of the July 16, 1969 Saturn-5 launch of Apollo 11
For some additional background on the very first lunar landing see Chapter 13 of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8.
- On July 16, 1986 Soyuz-T15 returned its two cosmonauts to Earth, the only manned mission to visit two space stations, Salyut-7 and Mir
The crew spent 125 days in space, during which they initiated operations on Mir. They then spent seven weeks at Salyut-7, finishing out some last experiments while doing two spacewalks. For more details see chapter 8 in Leaving Earth.
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