May 22, 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.
- Blue Origin touts underwater tests of its manned lunar lander design
Essentially divers tested the ladder and hatch design for getting astronauts and cargo in and out of the lander.
- Ispace reports Resilience is continuing to operate as planned in lunar orbit
The landing is still planned for June 5, 2025.
- The UAE hires Firefly’s Blue Ghost to land its Rashid-2 rover on the far side of the Moon
UAE’s first Rashid rover had been carried by Ispace’s first lunar lander, Hakuto-R1, which crashed. It appears the UAE chose Firefly this time after its successful landing of Blue Ghost earlier this year.
- Chinese astronauts on Tiangong-3 complete their first spacewalk
They installed “a debris protection device at its designated location.” It appears they are testing this shield’s effectiveness against micrometeorites and space junk at various locations on the station.
- On this day in 1969 Apollo 10 descended to within nine miles of the lunar surface, testing both the Apollo capsule and Lunar Module in lunar orbit
This was a complete dress rehearsal prior to the Apollo 11 landing two months later. It accomplished everything but the landing itself.
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.
- Blue Origin touts underwater tests of its manned lunar lander design
Essentially divers tested the ladder and hatch design for getting astronauts and cargo in and out of the lander.
- Ispace reports Resilience is continuing to operate as planned in lunar orbit
The landing is still planned for June 5, 2025.
- The UAE hires Firefly’s Blue Ghost to land its Rashid-2 rover on the far side of the Moon
UAE’s first Rashid rover had been carried by Ispace’s first lunar lander, Hakuto-R1, which crashed. It appears the UAE chose Firefly this time after its successful landing of Blue Ghost earlier this year.
- Chinese astronauts on Tiangong-3 complete their first spacewalk
They installed “a debris protection device at its designated location.” It appears they are testing this shield’s effectiveness against micrometeorites and space junk at various locations on the station.
- On this day in 1969 Apollo 10 descended to within nine miles of the lunar surface, testing both the Apollo capsule and Lunar Module in lunar orbit
This was a complete dress rehearsal prior to the Apollo 11 landing two months later. It accomplished everything but the landing itself.
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
What do you know, it turns out there’s a business case for sending stuff to the Moon that does not involve a NASA contract….
One other interesting development today that I think is worth noting: Eric Berger drew attention to new written testimony to the US House of Representatives subcommittee that oversees the military by Major General Stephen G. Purdy, acting assistant secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, the man who is the top Pentagon official in charge of national security launch procurement — testimony in which General Purdy really rakes United Launch Alliance (ULA) over the coals for the delays in getting Vulcan operational and up to cadence:
Ouch.
Link to the testimony: https://armedservices.house.gov/uploadedfiles/14_may_on_fy26_national_security_space_programs_-_maj_gen_purdy_approved_for_release.pdf (excerpted remarks are located on page 9)
No comment yet from Tory Bruno.
Richard M: Ouch is right! This is another indication that there is great opportunity here for new rocket companies, should they get their rockets off the ground.
Some good news…phys.org has a write up on how “Improved rubber processing makes material ten times stronger and resistant to cracking.”
Implications perhaps for solid rocket that resist cold….better seals?
“To Sort Out the Unknowns”
NASA: Apollo-10 Documentary (1969)
https://youtu.be/ogSPBu30_18
25:50
(“re-edited to replace all in-flight photography with modern HD transfers…”
Here is the link to the article on rubber
https://phys.org/news/2025-05-rubber-material-ten-stronger-resistant.html
“The researchers modified this longstanding, high-intensity process to induce a gentler transformation that retains long polymer chains in their natural state, rather than cutting them into shorter chains. Resembling tangled spaghetti, their so-called rubber “tanglemer” endows the new product with heightened durability by outnumbering crosslinks with entanglements.”
“We used a low-intensity processing method, based on latex processing methods, that preserved the long polymer chains,” Nian said.
Glass control:
https://phys.org/news/2025-05-uncover-mechanism-enabling-glasses-brittleness.html
“Materials with self-adaptive mechanical responses have long been sought after in material science. Using computer simulations, researchers at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Hyderabad, now show how such adaptive behavior can emerge in active glasses, which are widely used as models for biological tissues.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Physics, provide new insights—ranging from how cells might regulate their glassiness to aiding in the design of new metamaterials.”