June 18, 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, Blue Origin, and Thales Alenia sign agreement to vaguely work together in low Earth orbit
It appears the deal will increase the participation of Thales Alenia and the European Space Agency in the development of Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station, including Thales Alenia likely building some of the station’s modules. Where Orbital Reef partner Sierra Space stands in this with its LIFE modules is unclear.
- Chinese pseudo-company Azspace touts the final assembly of its first small cargo capsule
No indication of a launch date.
- Varda touts completion of its fourth Winnebago orbital capsule, this time built entirely in-house
It will launch this week on a Falcon 9. The company has also obtained a five year FAA license to bring all its capsules back at the Koonibba Test Range in southern Australia.
- On this day in 1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space
During her space shuttle mission the crew deployed two satellites.
- On this day in 2009 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched
It has been in lunar orbit ever since, is still operating, and has produced very high resolution maps of the entire Moon.
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
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, Blue Origin, and Thales Alenia sign agreement to vaguely work together in low Earth orbit
It appears the deal will increase the participation of Thales Alenia and the European Space Agency in the development of Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station, including Thales Alenia likely building some of the station’s modules. Where Orbital Reef partner Sierra Space stands in this with its LIFE modules is unclear.
- Chinese pseudo-company Azspace touts the final assembly of its first small cargo capsule
No indication of a launch date.
- Varda touts completion of its fourth Winnebago orbital capsule, this time built entirely in-house
It will launch this week on a Falcon 9. The company has also obtained a five year FAA license to bring all its capsules back at the Koonibba Test Range in southern Australia.
- On this day in 1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space
During her space shuttle mission the crew deployed two satellites.
- On this day in 2009 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched
It has been in lunar orbit ever since, is still operating, and has produced very high resolution maps of the entire Moon.
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
Well, there goes Orbital Reef. I predict Sierra will split off on ots own.
Vast and Voyager and Gravitas are the only serious ones….my hope was Elon does rockets, Bezos does payloads.
Re: Starship 36 suddenly exploded during a static fire on the test stand at Massey’s.
Man, 90 minutes later after the explosion, and things are still cooking off at Massey’s. The deluge system was clearly overwhelmed.
Looks like some significant rebuild work is gonna be needed for that part of Massey’s.
Clarifying my last: I should clarify that the explosion occurred about 10-15 minutes before the actual static fire — during the last stage of prop loading.
Loads of emergency vehicles on site now, still struggling to get the fire under control.
seriously, how confident is everyone that a refueled starship will never explode when its ignites its engines at the start of its travels from Earth orbit to Mars?
Richard M: I’m on it. A post is about to go up.
Hello Steve,
Things look rough now, but I don’t think we have enough insight to say.
Are a lot of these issues specific to the V2 Starship? I could be forgiven for suspecting that. But V3 doesn’t exist yet, so I can hardly begin to make comparisons.
On how to turn solar sails
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-solar.html
Researchers from the University of New South Wales have proposed an elegant solution inspired by Japan’s groundbreaking IKAROS mission: Reflectivity Control Devices, or RCDs. These are essentially electronic mirrors that can change how they reflect sunlight with the flip of a switch.