June 6, 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.
- Firefly founder Tom Markusic (pushed out in 2022) is now starting a company building a suborbital space plane
The concept is to provide fast point-to-point transport. Not much info, and he enters an increasingly crowded field.
- China says its Tianwen-2 asteroid probe is operating as expected, and releases the first picture of it
You can see the picture here, showing one of its deployed solar panels, which looks remarkably like the solar panels on the Lucy asteroid probe.
- Video of yesterday’s Long March 6A launch, showing booster and stage separation
Still no word on where those boosters and core stages crashed inside China.
- Video of short static fire test of Superheavy prototype #16 in preparation for test flight 10
No word yet on when that flight will happen.
- Spanish rocket startup PLD touts the engineering on the engines for its Miura-5 rocket
The engine is now entering production leading to full engine qualification testing later this month.
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.
- Firefly founder Tom Markusic (pushed out in 2022) is now starting a company building a suborbital space plane
The concept is to provide fast point-to-point transport. Not much info, and he enters an increasingly crowded field.
- China says its Tianwen-2 asteroid probe is operating as expected, and releases the first picture of it
You can see the picture here, showing one of its deployed solar panels, which looks remarkably like the solar panels on the Lucy asteroid probe.
- Video of yesterday’s Long March 6A launch, showing booster and stage separation
Still no word on where those boosters and core stages crashed inside China.
- Video of short static fire test of Superheavy prototype #16 in preparation for test flight 10
No word yet on when that flight will happen.
- Spanish rocket startup PLD touts the engineering on the engines for its Miura-5 rocket
The engine is now entering production leading to full engine qualification testing later this month.
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
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