June 1, 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.
- Weighing newborn planets using their dusty fingerprints
All computer modeling, which has value but is not real data.
- EchoStar plans to liquidate the rest of its spectrum over the next few years
Illustrates the on-going demise of the big geosynchronous satellite constellations, replaced by the low Earth orbit constellations of smallsats.
- On May 30, 1971, Mariner 9 – the first spacecraft to enter into orbit around another planet – was launched
Mariner 9 mapped 85% of the Martian surface and sent back more than 7,000 images, including our first clear images of Olympus Mons and the Valles Marineris canyon system. It arrived during a global dust storm that obscured the entire surface, but unlike the Russian orbiters that operated automatically and took images of dust, mission controllers simply waited until the dust cleared before beginning their survey.
- Video taken by China’s Chang’e-6 lander as it descended to the lunar surface on June 1, 2024
It touched down on the far side in Apollo Basin, and its ascender took off three days later to bring samples back to 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
The New Glenn Disaster has fallen off the front page, so this seems like the best place to post this: Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp has posted an update about the launch pad examination:
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https://x.com/i/status/2061655383610114124
It’s good to hear that the tank farm is in good shape, that helps a lot, as he rightly says. But color me skeptical that they can get the pad rebuilt in time to launch again in 7 months. They have a lot of resources, but it’s hard to see how they can work faster than SpaceX has done with its static fire pad rebuild.
But I wish them all possible luck. It’s good to have ambitious goals.
Richard M: I will post this story as a full post tomorrow. However, I will say this: based on his report, I see no reason they can’t launch again by the end of the year.
Well, Dave Limp has called his shot. Now let’s see if he can put it over the fence. If Blue can really return to flight by December – and avoid further misadventures – then it’s at least faintly possible it can have something ready to go for Artemis 3. I’d like to see that, but I can’t honestly say I expect to even after this statement.
They have a lot of resources, but it’s hard to see how they can work faster than SpaceX has done with its static fire pad rebuild.
Different pad with different designs. SpaceX may have had some equipment closer than Blue Origin had. SpaceX’s static fire pad may have been built less robust than Blue’s. Other factors may be in play, and possibly seven months is optimistic.
What matters most is that they have a plan to work to. I get the idea that they didn’t dilly dally around or hesitate or mope about the loss but got right to it with the kind of sense of urgency that we have been hoping Blue Origin would get back to. Losing that urgency is what I think caused them to slow down with their previous leadership, and it seems that the current leaders are knuckling down to the unexpected task and getting back to operations as swiftly as they can.
If this is the case, I think we can count on Blue Origin to be another leader in launches and lunar development. Bezos had wanted this kind of operation for a decade, ever since he announced and revealed Blue Moon, all those years ago.
________
Robert,
The Reply and verification buttons are working for me as intended. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
P.S. Mariner 9 has fallen into undeserved obscurity. But it was a big milestone on the exploration of Mars!
The Vikings wouldn’t have been possible without its success.
New spray thruster
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-satellites-small-briefcase-space-lot.html
Boston bolide
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-meteor-heavy-elephant-widespread-speculation.html
I am sure Bob would have posted something on this anyway, but . . .
Today is the 60th anniversary of the landing (June 2, 1966) of NASA/JPL’s Surveyor 1 on the Moon, which is . . . kind of a big thing. It was the first soft landing by an American space probe on any extraterrestrial body, and a very big stepping stone for the Apollo program. (The USSR had done the first landing four months earlier with Luna 9.)
I noticed this because the NASA history office had a post about this on X. But what made it more interesting is that Jared Isaacman quote-tweeted it in connection with Artemis, and then fielded a question in the replies. It was a question critical of the Intuitive Machines tip-over landings, but Jared replied by noting rightly that the Surveyor program did not have a perfect track record, either (2 out of 7 missions failed). Anyway, he has some interesting things to say:
https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2061921736078016552
JPL still has their video short of the mission from 2002 up on their site, by the way, which includes clips of the 1966 broadcast. Dated production values, but still nice to watch.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/surveyor-1-first-us-soft-landing-on-moon/
My aunt worked at JPL at that time, as a software engineer. She did not work on Surveyor, I believe (she did work on Apollo and Viking), but even so I think it was an exciting moment for her, like everyone there. A big feather in JPL’s cap back in its heyday.
Richard M: Look at today’s quick links.
Thanks, I see it now!