June 17, 2025 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.
- ESA touts completion of main stage of its Themis reusable demonstrator
Years in the making at a pace that turtles would beat. First test hop next year at the soonest, years late.
- China touts a launch abort test of its lunar manned capsule, Mengzhou.
This might instead be a test of the capsule’s launch system off of the Moon.
- The Exploration Company outlines its plans to upgrade its Nyx cargo capsule for manned operations
Don’t expect it to fly anytime soon. The company is targeting a 2035 launch date, and is pitching the idea for funding from the European Space Agency.
- Rocket engine company Ursa Major wins $32.9 million contract to deliver 16 Hadley engines to Stratolaunch
Stratolaunch is using the engine to power its Talon-A hypersonic testbed during military flights.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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
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.
- ESA touts completion of main stage of its Themis reusable demonstrator
Years in the making at a pace that turtles would beat. First test hop next year at the soonest, years late.
- China touts a launch abort test of its lunar manned capsule, Mengzhou.
This might instead be a test of the capsule’s launch system off of the Moon.
- The Exploration Company outlines its plans to upgrade its Nyx cargo capsule for manned operations
Don’t expect it to fly anytime soon. The company is targeting a 2035 launch date, and is pitching the idea for funding from the European Space Agency.
- Rocket engine company Ursa Major wins $32.9 million contract to deliver 16 Hadley engines to Stratolaunch
Stratolaunch is using the engine to power its Talon-A hypersonic testbed during military flights.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
Honda just test-flew a subscale “grasshopper” with a cluster of small methalox engines, retractable legs, and grid fins. The rocket rose from a flat concrete pad and landed smoothly. Video at https://youtu.be/XTw-VlOYNkQ
Chris Koresko: Yup. See the post I put up today, seven hours ago. Just scroll down.
Way to go ESA
You made a metal tube….great…. Birmingham needs a storm water culvert….just put it down over there.
Jeff Wright,
Heh.
Robert Zimmerman,
That PRC test is definitely of a capsule launch escape system. It isn’t an ascent engine test because the capsule is never going to land on the Moon, it’s strictly a transit-to-and-from-lunar-orbit vehicle, like Orion. The landing will be done using a separate lander vehicle that is to be launched on a second rocket – both rockets will be Long March 10s IIRC.
Dick Eagleson,
Yes, you are correct about the Mengzhou spacecraft and Lanyue lander both being launched on Long March-10 rockets. So far the test articles have only been launched on Long March 5B and 7 rockets.