March 24, 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.
- Amazon outlines its effort to accelerate the launch of its Leo satellites
Sounds good, but it will all depend on whether the rockets it depends on, other than SpaceX or ULA, can get off the ground. Right now it is questionable Blue Origin’s New Glenn and Arianespace’s Ariane-6 can launch soon or very quickly.
- A Florida-based company, Seagate Space, is developing modular offshore launch platforms
It joins two European companies attempting to do the same.
- Blue Origin touts the ongoing assembly of its 2nd Blue Moon MK1 unmanned lunar lander
Blue Origin still has to launch the first.
- Rocket Lab touts its Rutherford rocket engine, having launched more than 800 so far on its Electron rocket
The company hopes in 2026 to launch another 200+.
- More moons for Jupiter and Saturn!
Jupiter now has 101, while Saturn has 285. Nor should anyone expect these numbers to remain this low.
- Gus Grissom and John Young became the first astronauts to fly the Gemini spacecraft on this day in 1965
The 5-hour Gemini-3 mission tested the new maneuverable Gemini spacecraft, designed expressly to demonstrate docking and rendezvous as well as missions from one to two-weeks long.
- On March 23, 1983, the Soviet Union launched the Astron-1 space telescope on its Proton rocket from Baikonur
It operated in a highly elliptical orbit to study sources of UV and X-rays and functioned for about 6-8 years.
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.
- Amazon outlines its effort to accelerate the launch of its Leo satellites
Sounds good, but it will all depend on whether the rockets it depends on, other than SpaceX or ULA, can get off the ground. Right now it is questionable Blue Origin’s New Glenn and Arianespace’s Ariane-6 can launch soon or very quickly.
- A Florida-based company, Seagate Space, is developing modular offshore launch platforms
It joins two European companies attempting to do the same.
- Blue Origin touts the ongoing assembly of its 2nd Blue Moon MK1 unmanned lunar lander
Blue Origin still has to launch the first.
- Rocket Lab touts its Rutherford rocket engine, having launched more than 800 so far on its Electron rocket
The company hopes in 2026 to launch another 200+.
- More moons for Jupiter and Saturn!
Jupiter now has 101, while Saturn has 285. Nor should anyone expect these numbers to remain this low.
- Gus Grissom and John Young became the first astronauts to fly the Gemini spacecraft on this day in 1965
The 5-hour Gemini-3 mission tested the new maneuverable Gemini spacecraft, designed expressly to demonstrate docking and rendezvous as well as missions from one to two-weeks long.
- On March 23, 1983, the Soviet Union launched the Astron-1 space telescope on its Proton rocket from Baikonur
It operated in a highly elliptical orbit to study sources of UV and X-rays and functioned for about 6-8 years.
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
Amazon is facing issues with Blue Origin too as its solid rocket strap ons keep puking off engine nozzles, and to launch any reasonable number of Leo satellites at the same time like SpaceX does Starlinks they’re going to need them.
Gemini 3 Launch to Staging
Retro Space (2019)
https://youtu.be/m2YLeEjWUIs
3:00
MDN, it’s the ULA Vulcan that is having SRB nozzle issues. The Blue Origin New Glen does not use strap-ons. But yes, Amazon needs both those launchers to be operating at a vastly higher cadence than they’ve managed so far.
”Right now it is questionable…Arianespace’s Ariane-6 can launch soon or very quickly.”.
The next Ariane 6 launch is scheduled for April 28th and will carry 32 satellites for Amazon Leo.
There are two more Atlas V launches for Amazon scheduled before then carrying 29 satellites each. LA-06 is scheduled for April 24th, and LA-05 is scheduled for Sunday. That makes three Amazon launches scheduled in the next five weeks carrying a total of 90 more satellites for its Leo constellation.
Also, last I saw is that Vulcan will return to flight this summer with an Amazon launch carrying 40 satellites. Two more Atlas V launches remain on the books for this summer with another 58 satellites.
mkent: Yes, Ariane-6 has a launch scheduled, but Arianespace has promised at most 8 launches in 2026, but likely less. It cannot match the pace that Amazon needs and wants.
I also did not suggest that ULA was the issue here, though it too has a Vulcan problem.
“As many as Amazon needs” is likely well beyond what Ariane can deliver. But Amazon LE-02 is scheduled for April, supposedly LE-03 is scheduled for May, and LE-04 is scheduled for this fall. That, along with the four remaining Atlas V launches, should give Vulcan and New Glenn time to ramp up their cadence, with Vulcan supposedly starting mid-summer.
Personally, I doubt it will happen like that. I, like you, don’t think Ariane can ramp up that fast, and Europe has two Ariane 6 launches scheduled for this summer for high-priority weather satellite launches. I suspect Ariane will launch LE-02, then the two weather satellites, then LE-03 in the fall. Note that LE-03 is the first flight of the upgraded P160 stage, so I expect some schedule slippage related to that.
Amazon recently bought 10 more Falcon 9 launches. My guess is that all 10 of those will fly before Amazon’s other three launch providers are able to get off 10 deployment missions combined. I also think this recent 10-launch deal with SpaceX will not be the last such. SpaceX may well wind up launching a larger percentage of Amazon’s total Leo constellation than any of its other launch providers. With Starship most likely deploying the first V3 Starlinks later this year, SpaceX can put up a lot of birds for Amazon Leo on F9s that might otherwise have launched the smaller Starlink birds without taking any hit at all to the rate of total bandwidth increase for its constellation.
Wouldn’t it be interesting, after Starship is operational, if Amazon contracts a launch to support LEO.
Alternatively, it Starship may free up Falcon 9 bandwidth for Amazon.
Worth mentioning that there’s an Atlas V set up for launch this week with a payload of LEO satellites, but . . . yeah, I would not wish to bet against your prediction here, Dick.
Seagate Space needs to approach the Navy with their concept, in that they have been looking into Sea Bases anyway:
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/us-navy-usmc-us-army-sea-basing-concepts.10177/
The USSF and the USM together may at last shove the Air Farce away from the table—it’s time they did without for a bloody change.
Wayne: as usual; NGO (Never Gets Old). But, as I’ve said before, those early films focus on the fuselage: show the business end!