July 3, 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.
Note: If the video on X won’t play when you click on the links below, right click and open the tweet in a new tab. The video will then play.
- Vast touts the trash container system it will have inside its single module Haven-1 station, set to launch next year
It includes eight containers with odor-control seals and vacuum venting.
- Short interview with Astra CEO Chris Kemp, touting his proposed Rocket-4’s cheap and quick launch capability
He says it will launch for $5 million, and will ship in standard 40-foot shipping containers that will allow it to be set up within 48 hours for launch anywhere. No word however on when a first test launch will take place.
- Video of Blue Origin’s crane removing the first tower module at its damaged Cape Canaveral launchpad
This tower is being de-stacked to allow each module to be repaired/modified in parallel.
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

NASA wanted a moon lander — it got a fight over who gets to touch the controls
This video looks at the growing tension inside NASA’s lunar landing plan, where Starship HLS is no longer just facing delays, but an increasingly serious fight over safety, manual control, and crew survival. What makes the story hit harder is that the argument is happening while NASA is already warning that lunar landers carry the highest probability of crew loss in Artemis, with no rescue option if astronauts are stranded on the Moon. The deeper hook is what gives it teeth: this is not just a technical disagreement over controls, but a sign that the Moon return is resting on a vehicle architecture that still has major unanswered risks right at the point where failure would matter most.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/nasa-wanted-a-moon-lander-it-got-a-fight-over-who-gets-to-touch-the-controls/vi-AA26Y0bA?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=6a483d969c264ee8bdc53a175d24c16a&ei=14