June 12, 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.
- South Korean rocket startup Innospace touts the start of the overseas shipment of its HANBIT-Nano rocket
It hopes to attempt a second launch before the end of the year out of Brazil’s Alcantara spaceport.
- Images of pad work by Blue Origin and SpaceX at Cape Canaveral
SpaceX is about to begin building its launchpad for Superheavy/Starship. Blue Origin has begun clean-up. Jay notes: “I saw someone posted that the pad is already clear of all the debris from the accident.”
- Russia extends its orbiting Spektr-RG X-ray observatory by five more years
Launched in 2019, it is Russia’s only orbiting telescope in operation.
- Vandenberg offers new launch site for small and medium rockets
Companies have until July 8, 2026 to submit a bid.
- On June 12, 1967 the Soviet Union launched Venera 4, the first probe to send data back from Venus’ atmosphere
It operated for 93 minutes as it descended 20 miles on parachutes.
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
Re: Elon Musk IPO – I do not usually use Google. I decided to do a quick search. Elon Musk employs 160,000 people DIRECTLY. Indirectly, 600,000 more people have jobs.
The Left seems to despise Musk so much, they would have all those hundreds of thousands on the government dole, instead of the gainfully employed
Here’s something for the lefties to consider. Musk’s companies exist to make money. That money results in revenue. That revenue is taxed and, from that revenue, his employees are paid. Those employees pay tax on their wages and use that money to buy groceries and pay rent. Those stores and landlords pay tax on that income. And on and on it goes.
What’s not to like for a government?
SpaceX didn’t put much effort into getting the previous launch pad at Vandenberg. I suspect that the message sent by the California Coastal Commission was received, just as was the message sent by the California Legislature, a few years ago. This is likely why there is rumor about a Louisiana plot of land being sold to a large aerospace company. SpaceX would like to use Louisiana as an alternate to the Vandenberg site located in hostile California.
Are you aware of how much of their workforce is left in California vis-à-vis Washington, Florida, or Texas? Also, it’s interesting how despite Washington’s government being nearly so insane as California’s, Musk doesn’t have quite so much trouble with its government, though he’s not expanding production the way he might if they were less insane.
As has been true from the get-go, the vast majority of Elon Musk’s CA employees work for Tesla in Fremont. The SpaceX Mothership in Hawthorne shows no signs of diminution – probably the contrary as it has taken on a great deal of Starship work in addition to its long-time, and on-going, Falcon and Dragon stuff. And the Starlink satellite works is still in WA.
That said, the Musk companies are doing most of their new construction elsewhere. The Tesla Semi plant is in Nevada. The Starlink user terminal plant is in Bastrop, TX, is being expanded and will soon be joined – and dwarfed – by new factories and warehouses for the AI data center satellite initiative. Terafab is also going to be built in TX and the Tesla Gigfactory is already there. Then, of course, there is the possible Pecan Island Starship reservation in LA which may well exceed Starbase, TX and the FL Starship facilities, combined, in eventual scale.
It would not surprise me if both Fremont and Hawthorne are eventually wound down and sold off. I don’t foresee either happening for at least several years yet, but the handwriting seems to be at least faintly visible on the wall. By the mid-2030s both of these sites could well be history, at least as parts of the Musk-iverse.
This assumes, of course, that CA remains a Democrat fastness. That probably is the percentage bet, but is also far from a certainty.
Unless the state of WA goes full-CA, I don’t see any obvious reason for the Starlink satellite works to up-stakes and go elsewhere.
Space is still a fledgling industry…those jobs are precious.
Space isn’t that fledgling of an industry anymore, and jobs are only precious insofar as they create real value, which SpaceX does. Jobs for the sake of jobs are throwing away money that could be better used elsewhere.
One of our company expressions. “We get paid by the square foot, not the sweat gallon”. Meaning the customer doesn’t care how much effort we put in, just what they get for what they paid. The idea that it is the job itself that is precious is an unfortunate meme that is destructive to the people and organizations involved.
Absent external force, productive people and organizations are better appreciated and paid.
I’m going with Jeff Wright, on this one. The fledgling commercial space is definitely still in its formative years and is learning to fly. Commercial space is still finding the low hanging fruit of what people want and need from space resources.
However, I agree with Nate P that jobs must produce what people want and will pay for, otherwise we might as well just dig ditches and fill them in again, or even better, put people onto welfare and pay them to not work. After all, if everyone works, then we have more things to buy, at lower prices and with lower taxes, so we have more money to spend and the economy booms, but with many people on welfare, there is less to buy, prices are higher, taxes are higher, and the economy is as anemic as any other marxist country.
Instead, space is employing hundreds of thousands, so far, producing plenty for people to buy, and increasing the economy nicely. What a deal space has become in only the past fifteen years. Imagine what it will be like in another fifteen years.
ad astra prosperitas!
Edward,
I don’t think space industry is mature, mind. It won’t reach that point for decades, if not centuries. But neither does it qualify as fledging to my mind. To use an analogy, a fledgling industry would be the equivalent of a child. A mature industry would be the equivalent of someone in their forties. What we have is roughly like a teenager about to graduate high school. Still much growth ahead, yes, lots of change, but with some experience and an idea of the direction it wants to go.
Nate,
I see it differently. Only the geostationary communication industry has flexed its wings successfully. Constellations are still a new concept, the first two having been failures into bankruptcy, sold for a penny on the dollar. Any real space industry began at the beginning of this millennium, with Earth observation leading the way. All other space companies are still startups.
To use your analogy, the space industry can crawl, but standing and walking are still in the future.
Copy edit: “Alcantara,” not “Alcantera.”
Dick: Fixed. Thanks.
Speaking of Roscosmos: Eric Berger has a new article up today, based on background interviews with two senior NASA officials, which suggests, if it is accurate, that the interaction between NASA and Roscosmos over the PrK module leak repair was far more tense (and, I would say, disturbing) than we were led to believe.
Apparently there is now a resolution: the Russians have backed down and decided to decommission the PrK module (well, mostly). I will leave off any detail or further comment for our host’s likely post, as that seems more appropriate:
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/russia-appears-set-to-finally-address-long-term-serious-space-station-cracks/
Richard M: Berger’s report leaves more questions than it answers. I am writing them up now.