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