June 26, 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.
- Due to the earthquakes in Venezuela, Starlink is providing free service through July 25 to new and existing customers
It is also working to rapidly deploy Starlink terminals and restore connectivity to the hardest-hit areas.
- Impulse Space touts its Deneb engine with a video of a recent test
For use in its Helios orbital tug. The company is also looking to hire, and provides a link.
- Indian rocket startup Skyroot shows images of its completed Stage 1 at the Sriharikota spaceport
The company says it is “entering the final stretch of the launch operations.” The actual launch date for its Vikram-1 rocket remains unclear, though it is expected before the end of this year.
- Images of SpaceX’s Starfall demo capsule arriving at the Port of Long Beach, California
It was unloaded (covered with a tarp) and trucked away for post-flight inspections.
- Russia once again delays the launch of its Spektr-UF space telescope, for two more years until 2031
Intended to replace the Astron ultraviolet observatory, launched in 1983, it has been delayed for decades. Nor should anyone bet on that 2031 launch date.
- On June 26, 1973, a Soviet Kosmos 3M launch vehicle exploded on the launch pad at Plesetsk, killing nine people
The Soviet state-run press censored all mention of the tragedy, with the victims buried in a mass grave in Mirny.
- Two close-up views of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, the largest moon in our solar system, taken 25 years apart
The first was taken June 27, 1996 by the Galileo orbiter during its first flyby. The second was taken in June 2021 by the Juno orbiter.
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
A chunk of interesting news about Rocket Factory Augsburg. Among other revelations, its initial rocket is barely above Rocket Lab’s Electron in capability and not a peer of Isar’s Spectrum or Firefly’s Alpha. RFA has, in essence, been lying about its first rocket up to this point. That certainly must call into serious doubt RFA’s notional plans for follow-on vehicles – also part of this announcement.