June 27, 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.
- Lockheed Martin touts its $3 billion proposal to get Perseverance’s Mars samples back to Earth
It offers its plan as a fixed-price contract, which is a refreshing change from an old big space company. The press release however says a lot of blather but provides few specific details.
- Blue Origin touts delivery of a very large cylindrical-shaped container to its Florida launch facility
Jay thinks, “It is the Blue Moon Lander mid-module,” a smaller test lander that the company says it will send to the Moon this year. We shall see.
- Amazon signs agreement with National Science Foundation to mitigate the impact of its Kuiper constellation on ground-based astronomy
The actions proposed are similar to those taken by SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.
- New rocket startup based in Colorado dubbed Leap
It says its rocket and spaceplane will both be a single-stage-to-orbit and reusable. Seems far-fetched. The company also is building its own orbital tug.
- The Trump reconciliation budget bill being considered right now by Congress would give the Space Force a $40 billion budget
Boy, those trees with leaves of money must really be blooming. That more than a 30% increase.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Epoch provides positive update on the state of the recovered engine from vertical test hop in late May
The next launch will attempt to reach orbit.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
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.
- Lockheed Martin touts its $3 billion proposal to get Perseverance’s Mars samples back to Earth
It offers its plan as a fixed-price contract, which is a refreshing change from an old big space company. The press release however says a lot of blather but provides few specific details.
- Blue Origin touts delivery of a very large cylindrical-shaped container to its Florida launch facility
Jay thinks, “It is the Blue Moon Lander mid-module,” a smaller test lander that the company says it will send to the Moon this year. We shall see.
- Amazon signs agreement with National Science Foundation to mitigate the impact of its Kuiper constellation on ground-based astronomy
The actions proposed are similar to those taken by SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.
- New rocket startup based in Colorado dubbed Leap
It says its rocket and spaceplane will both be a single-stage-to-orbit and reusable. Seems far-fetched. The company also is building its own orbital tug.
- The Trump reconciliation budget bill being considered right now by Congress would give the Space Force a $40 billion budget
Boy, those trees with leaves of money must really be blooming. That more than a 30% increase.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Epoch provides positive update on the state of the recovered engine from vertical test hop in late May
The next launch will attempt to reach orbit.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Meh, just tell them to do what Biden told the coal miners fired due to his green energy policies: learn to code.
“NASA Is in Full Meltdown”
“Career NASA officials were seen looking mighty freaked out during a recent town hall event about the agency’s dicey future.”
“As Ars Technica’s Stephen Clark reports based on a livestream of the town hall — which was not advertised and has since been taken down — acting NASA administrator and career agency official Janet Petro looked like a hostage as she answered questions from staff about the agency’s dire standing under president Donald Trump.”
“Given what she’s been forced to work with, Petro offered some optimistic equivocations about NASA’s current status under an administration that plans to cut its budget by 24 percent and its headcount by one-third in the 2026 fiscal year, which starts in October.”
https://futurism.com/nasa-future-meltdown
On the upside, Lockheed now publicly embraces “firm-fixed price” contracts, which is something Boeing refuses to countenance any longer.
On the downside, does anyone really think they can actually do this for no more than $3 billion? The lack of detail, noted by Mr Zimmerman, doesn’t exactly help in evaluating that.
But I have to think it’s a moot point. Congress *is* undoubtedly going to restore a number of active missions that the PBR proposes to cancel. But it’s harder to see them getting the moxie to save a multi-billion dollar Mars Sample Return (whatever number is on front of the “billion”) in this environment. It’s basically “potential” pork, not currently existing pork, and anyway little of that pork will be distributed to red states.
I think Lockheed’s plan on how to get a Mars sample for $2 billion is to hire a SpaceX astronaut to bring back a sample in his baggage, and they pocket the rest.
Both fixed-price and cost-plus have good and bad points. While the latter can be seen as gouging, the former can foster a “good enough” culture which upsets me more.
Say you have a cost plus contract. There might be times when a disaster happens and you will perhaps need extra time and money to do something *right* without regard as to how loud OMB screams.
Now some crook comes along and says all the right things–and offers fixed price. Sounds good, right?
Next thing you know, he fires the know-how…and replaces them, say–with folks on a short bus.
That is not a joke. Search for “Henry Turkey Service.”
Things are brought in under budget–but at a very different cost.
What is important is this–are the folks at the company honorable people?
Crooks will find a way to cheat no matter what.
Bezos seems to be all about optics.
Stoke (and the good guys who USED to be at Dynetics before they were told “no” too many times and bailed) I would trust with either type of contract.
I generally think a little more of LockMart–so maybe this is their way of saying “something goes wrong–we will eat it.”
That sounds noble and all.
But I’d still want to be Universal’s Invisible Man to make sure.
What I think has happened is this.
Even before DEI was a thing de jure…it was already extant de facto.
Old hands were not valued…either by NewSpace wonder kids that begrudged a good wage, or the PC crowd who have troubled companies for far longer.
So the old hands quit.
It doesn’t matter that we have a President who wants to end DEI.
The damage is done.
It doesn’t matter that you are comfy by a fire now–if your fingers are still turning black from frostbite.
That’s the only explanation as to why old and new space alike are having problems.
I remember a police department that offered to still pay retirees their pensions…AND to pay them a regular, separate wage like they were new recruits.
Now Boeing and SpaceX would both likely howl if that was called for –but if you want America back in the saddle again–those old hands won’t come cheap.
It you get called a featherbedder, a bigot, a loafer, or a tyrant—there is no way you would return to an outfit that had mistreated you so…unless they bring real BANK.
I had an old drunk call me everything but a son of God who begged me to come back.
Not enough money in the world.
Eric Berger reminds us that an important anniversary is coming tomorrow:
This thesis features prominently in his latest book REENTRY, and I think he makes a pretty fair case for it. CRS-7 was a bruising failure, but the company came out of even stronger.
I have never said otherwise.
But it’s Boeing’s leadership that you’re going to have convince on this, not me.