June 9, 2026 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, plus readers Tom Donahue and Chuck, who provided the first two links. 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.
- What was jamming GPS over Europe: An engineering detective story
A very well done video that has pinned down what appears to be a real threat from Russia to the world’s GPS satellite networks.
- Video of SpaceX’s new Starship/Superheavy barge arriving in Florida with what looks like a Superheavy transport stand
Whatever the cargo was, SpaceX is now capable of moving big stuff from Boca Chica to Florida.
- European airline Wizz Air touts the arrival of Starlink on its planes in 2027
More sales for SpaceX, which means an increasing revenue stream.
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
The barge was carrying transport stands for the booster and Starship.
I saw that GPS video. Agree, it is telling.
The US conducts GPS jamming over CONUS for military exercises. Not good for airlines or other aviators as ADSB is mandated in certain airspace. ADSB takes your GPS derived position and transmits that data to ground stations and other aircraft for air traffic control and collision avoidance.
US airspace over military reservations where exercises are underway is closed to civilian traffic anyway. I’m not aware of any instances of US military GPS jamming/spoofing beyond military reservations.
It does and has occurred over wide areas, not just military areas.
Live and learn. I see that Ft. Irwin, here in my state of residence, CA, is one of the frequent centroids of deliberate War Dept. GPS interference for training purposes. The loci where GPS is bent, to some degree, even if not altogether broken, includes where I live in the Greater L.A. area.
I wonder if that’s why delivery drivers sometimes go to the wrong place with my orders?
I also saw the GPS video. The whole process was interesting. What was found is bothering.
Almost everything about Russia is bothering. “Bothering” others in assorted ways has pretty much been the Russian stock-in-trade for their entire millennium of existence.
Which makes their complete and utter destruction something the entire rest of the world should eagerly anticipate. I suspect that happy condition is not very far off.
Defeat and expulsion by Ukraine will be only the first step in such a process but the next steps should then come thick and fast as did the events preceding the implosion of the Soviet Union. From initial foreshocks to the end of the USSR took less than 30 months. Russia is likely to best this mark by a considerable margin.
Even in advance of utter extinction, Russia may soon be reduced to a condition in which it will be possible to sweep its entire presence in space away without interference. I hope I’m still around to see at least the start of that.
Putin seems to have been able to keep his domestic situation under control in the face of the military setbacks, but if Ukraine continues to succeed Putin will be in a tough situation.
A cornered bear is a dangerous animal, particularly one armed with thousands of nukes.
Will sensible, future focused Russians be able to push Putin away from the button and out of power?
I sure hope so, but we know there are millions of Iranians who would like to see the regime of the Ayatollahs fall, but even with the deaths of the leadership and the military humiliation, the Iranian regime remains in control.
Let’s hope Putin doesn’t illustrate why it was essential to keep nukes out of the Ayatollah’s hands.
None of the capabilities in the video seem to have helped the Russians against Ukranian drones.
No. The Ukrainian drones continue to evolve, with every month seeing units with longer ranges, larger warheads and improved resistance to Russian countermeasures entering the fray. If the Russians want to continue fighting to the last man and round of ammunition, Ukraine seems quite willing – and more able with every passing day – to accommodate them.
And it won’t be long before domestically designed and produced Ukrainian ballistic missiles make their debut alongside ever-improving drones and cruise missiles in the mix that is slowly but surely reducing Russia to pre-industrial status.
There are supposed to be some new kind of dead-reckoning chips that work without GPS just fine.
The new navigation isn’t really new.
What it does is use hyper accurate LIDAR scans for the limited programming of the ship/craft to follow. Just like following a good map by visual references.
It took Ukraine almost a year to make enough scans to make its new LIDAR navigation work.
Only the best most expensive drones get this feature.
Even more significantly, I have read of radio interference that convinces ballistic missile guidance systems that they are off course, causing them to miss their targets.
This is particularly effective when the warhead is hypersonic, and employs maneuvering to avoid interceptors. Apparently Ukraine has caused some Russian hypersonic missiles to maneuver to a degree that aerodynamic loads exceed the capability of the reentry body, causing breakup.