March 27, 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.
- Elon Musk touts SpaceX’s completion of more than 500 rocket landings
As Al Jolson once said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
- PLD touts successful strongback testing using a full‑scale mockup of its Muira-5 rocket
The strongback now gets shipped to their French Guina launchpad. First launch still targeting this year.
- Astroscale touts its almost year-long ADRAS‑J rendezvous demo mission, now preparing for de-orbit
It did fly-around observations within 50 feet of an abandoned upper stage. The company plans a follow-up mission to de-orbit that stage in 2027.
- Chinese pseudo-company Sustain Space completes a week-long first set of tests of an early robotic refueling arm onboard its Xiyuan-0 satellite
Nice video at the link. More info here. No fueling was done. They were testing the arm’s ability to move and hit a refueling port.
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.
- Elon Musk touts SpaceX’s completion of more than 500 rocket landings
As Al Jolson once said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”
- PLD touts successful strongback testing using a full‑scale mockup of its Muira-5 rocket
The strongback now gets shipped to their French Guina launchpad. First launch still targeting this year.
- Astroscale touts its almost year-long ADRAS‑J rendezvous demo mission, now preparing for de-orbit
It did fly-around observations within 50 feet of an abandoned upper stage. The company plans a follow-up mission to de-orbit that stage in 2027.
- Chinese pseudo-company Sustain Space completes a week-long first set of tests of an early robotic refueling arm onboard its Xiyuan-0 satellite
Nice video at the link. More info here. No fueling was done. They were testing the arm’s ability to move and hit a refueling port.
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
Story One
“AI-driven framework uncovers new carbon structures—one thought to be harder than diamond”
Through new improvements to existing AI models, researchers in China have created a framework that can methodically identify useful new forms of solid carbon. Their results have been published in Applied Physics Letters.
In 2024, a team of UK researchers unveiled CrystaLLM: a Large Language Model (LLM) that can model crystal structures using text.
With this approach, the researchers discovered several allotropes with combinations of exotic properties that have never previously been observed. Among them is a superhard phase with a calculated hardness exceeding even that of diamond. Its dense sp3-dominant network makes it a potentially groundbreaking material for applications demanding extreme hardness.
On top of this already remarkable discovery, the team discovered a material whose thermal conductivity varies depending on the direction of heat flow, combined with an ultra-low shear stiffness—allowing different regions of the carbon lattice to reorient relative to each other when a shear force is applied.
“We also discovered an sp-sp2-sp3 hybridized phase of C12 phase containing 12 carbon atoms per unit cell, which uniquely combines metallic conductivity with a negative Poisson’s ratio,” Gao says. The latter property describes how the material counterintuitively expands in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which it is being stretched.
“Electronic structure calculations further show that certain yne-diamond phases are narrow-bandgap semiconductors suitable for infrared or thermoelectric applications.”
Story Two
“Liquids can fracture like solids—researchers discover the breaking point”
Recently published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the research shows how viscous liquids can suddenly break if stretched with enough force. “Now that we have reported this unanticipated behavior, the work of fully understanding why it happens and how the behavior manifests in other liquids is an important next step,” Lima said. “It will also be interesting to see how this finding may be applied to assist fiber spinning and other applications that use viscous liquids.”
I asked Grok about the new NEP – nuclear electric propulsion system proposed this past week by NASA and Jared Isaacman:
“does NEP change the design objectives and usage of SpaceX Starship? Where Starship would be used for launching to and from earth orbit. Then ships with NEP engines would take the payloads from Earth orbit to Mars. This approach obviating the need to carry heavy fuel to Mars”
Grok likes my idea! Concluding response from my AI friend:
Yes — your described architecture would change Starship’s design objectives:
Starship could be optimized more as a high-cadence Earth-to-LEO heavy lifter rather than a long-duration interplanetary vehicle.
It could reduce the propellant mass fraction Starship must carry, potentially allowing simpler or more payload-focused designs.
It would make Starship even more valuable as the “first mile” transportation system.
However, this hybrid model is not SpaceX’s current baseline plan. It would require significant coordination between NASA (or another agency developing the NEP stage) and SpaceX.
Steve, a Starship-based system that used an NEP booster between Earth and Mars, would still require a reusable Starship-like component at Mars to get down to the surface and back into orbit again. I guess that could be a variant of Starship optimized just for the Martian atmosphere.
What happened to the Isaar rocket launch from Norway? The last new story iPhone said that they scrubbed the launch because a fishing boat got in the range. But after that, nothing. It looks like it was scrubbed completely?
Bob Wilson: Your Iphone report was wrong. They did not scrub because of the boat. See the report earlier this week on this website. (A more reliable source than AI and your smart phone.)
They have now rescheduled for sometime in April, though the specific date is not yet set.
A few XKCD comics with space related subjects
“Red dots”
https://xkcd.com/3212/
Sun behavior
https://xkcd.com/3215/
Night sky ID
https://xkcd.com/3219/
Artificial “Gravity”
https://xkcd.com/3220/
Sky watching
https://xkcd.com/3225/#
Today I took the opportunity to finally visit the National Air and Space Museum here in DC for the first time since the new $750 million overhaul. I had some real trepidation over this, because while a lot of the exhibits were showing their age, a major museum redesign at the moment of Peak Woke is hardly a reassuring one, and there were rumors….
I have to report that while the Woke is there, it’s not nearly as bad as I feared, and it’s still worth a visit for you chaps who are regular BTB regulars (though you must also visit the NASM Udvar-Hazy facility out at Dulles Airport) if you come to DC. Thinking particularly of our host’s fine book on Apollo 8, I was a little disappointed to see how the new exhibit on the Apollo program (“Destination Moon”) so heavily centers on Apollo 11 now. All the other Apollo missions, Project Gemini and the Ranger/Observer/Surveyor missions only get very cursory treatment; even the sleek new History Channel produced movie they have on repeat gives only a few seconds to Apollo 8 (and about 60% of it is really about the cultural and political upheavals of the 60’s anyway). On the other hand, they now have on display all they stuff they found in Neil Armstrong’s Eagle bag they found a few years ago, and there now a dedicated display for John Houboult, so that was nice.
One thing amused me, though; at the exit area of the Apollo exhibit, there’s a small display on the Artemis program, much of which is now out of date thanks to Jared Isaacman’s sweeping reforms of recent weeks.
But what I noticed almost by accident was a 3 foot tall model of the SLS sitting way up at the top of the display, leaning against the wall like it had been left there as an afterthought. If you blink you’d miss it. Somehow, that seemed quite fitting.
Today I took the opportunity to finally visit the National Air and Space Museum here in DC for the first time since the new $750 million overhaul. I had some real trepidation over this, because while a lot of the exhibits were showing their age, a major museum redesign at the moment of Peak Woke is hardly a reassuring one, and there were rumors….
I have to report that while the Woke is there, it’s not nearly as bad as I feared, and it’s still worth a visit for you chaps who are regular BTB regulars (though you must also visit the NASM Udvar-Hazy facility out at Dulles Airport) if you come to DC. Thinking particularly of our host’s fine book on Apollo 8, I was a little disappointed to see how the new exhibit on the Apollo program (“Destination Moon”) so heavily centers on Apollo 11 now. All the other Apollo missions, Project Gemini and the Ranger/Observer/Surveyor missions only get very cursory treatment; even the sleek new History Channel produced movie they have on repeat gives only a few seconds to Apollo 8 (and about 60% of it is really about the cultural and political upheavals of the 60’s anyway). On the other hand, they now have on display all they stuff they found in Neil Armstrong’s Eagle bag a few years ago, and there is now a dedicated display about John Houbolt, so that was nice.
One thing amused me, though; at the exit area of the Apollo exhibit, there’s a small display on the Artemis program, much of which is now out of date thanks to Jared Isaacman’s sweeping reforms of recent weeks.
But what I noticed almost by accident was a 3 foot tall model of the SLS sitting way up at the top of the display, leaning against the wall like it had been left there as an afterthought. If you blink you’d miss it. Somehow, that seemed quite fitting.
“… a Starship-based system that used an NEP booster between Earth and Mars, would still require a reusable Starship-like component at Mars to get down to the surface and back into orbit again. …”
ok, so they have to keep some Starships which transit from the surface to Mars orbit. :)
Just sure seems that using nuclear power for propulsion is the only way to get anywhere past the Moon. If NEP is feasible then I really like that Jared is running NASA. Please, please use every 26 month Mars opposition send a new mission to that planet.
Richard M observed: “I have to report that while the Woke is there, it’s not nearly as bad as I feared, . . .”
I have visited several dozen public (government-funded) local, state, and Federal museums the past decade, and while local museums tend to play things straight; state and Federal institutions are more likely to proselytize the State Religion of Anthropogenic Global Warming. In some places, the Message overwhelms and obscures any instructional value. Calling out Craters of the Moon National Monument, here. You’re out for a stroll in the desert to see interesting things, and every sign berates you for existing. I have noticed the past several years, that the pushing of the AGW agenda has been significantly reduced, and in some places, only mentioned in passing. If Government is abandoning that method of social control, it must be dead.
BNTEP gives you greater power.
NTR to get humans to Mars quickly, then NEP to bring back empties:
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-Crewed-Mission-to-Apophis-Using-a-Hybrid-Bimodal-McCurdy-Borowski/ccec76425d425fcf46d7cb71ecb351fcdec19b5e
Hello Blair,
“state and Federal institutions are more likely to proselytize the State Religion of Anthropogenic Global Warming.”
Funny you should mention that. I actually wandered across the Mall to kill two hours in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum while waiting for my time slot at NASM to open. My first stop was the David H Koch Hall of Fossils exhibit, and my God, does it hammer you over the head with the AGW apocalypticism. It’s relentless.
Richard M,
Dave Koch is, no doubt, whirling in his grave or churning in his urn at this state of affairs. The left always seems to get its hands on the philanthropies and even the fortunes of those who opposed them in life. Parasites are endlessly adaptable.
Hello Dick,
I saw his name on the hall when I walked in, and I thought, well, this shouldn’t be too bad. After about ten minutes, I *was* thinking that his corpse must be a renewable energy source!
I reached a point where I just stopped reading the placards and just looked at the fossils. The T-Rex was pretty nifty.