May 5, 2025 Quick space linksCourtesy 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.
- China releases some payload mass data on its pseudo-commercial SpaceSail satellite constellation, aiming to compete with SpaceX
As Jay notes, the images suggest China’s engineers have somehow stolen SpaceX designs, or are copying them superficially.
- A video “tour” of Vast’s space station facility
I put quotes around “tour” because I was very disappointed with this video. It provided very little real or new information, and instead acted more like a promotional for the company. Largely a waste of time.
- On this day in 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space
It was a short 15 minute suborbital flight.
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.
- China releases some payload mass data on its pseudo-commercial SpaceSail satellite constellation, aiming to compete with SpaceX
As Jay notes, the images suggest China’s engineers have somehow stolen SpaceX designs, or are copying them superficially.
- A video “tour” of Vast’s space station facility
I put quotes around “tour” because I was very disappointed with this video. It provided very little real or new information, and instead acted more like a promotional for the company. Largely a waste of time.
- On this day in 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space
It was a short 15 minute suborbital flight.
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
“”images suggest China’s engineers have somehow stolen SpaceX designs, or are copying them superficially””
Reminds me of the vaunted Soviet Union space shuttle. Did not work out too well.
Yes, I realize the Chicoms are successful in space. I just would hate to be one of the Chicom engineers who fails too much. The engineer might offer up a kidney to remain breathing.
If the PRC was able to steal from SpaceX, it would have had a decent copy of F9 in operation by now instead of just a bunch of subscale look-alikes in the works. What Starlink satellites look like is public domain knowledge. What’s in them, not so much. The PRC are copying the Starlink form factor because it makes sense to do so for birds being built for the same purpose.
Shepard’s suborbital flight was in 1961, not 1962.
Dick Eagleson: Typo fixed. Thank you.
George C. Marshall Space Flight Center Presents…
“Our Man in Space”
https://youtu.be/7LgJHKu7yqw
16:54
I am surprised that film still exists.
Let me tell you guys a secret.
Up until recently-the Air Farce had a bloody Thor in the same spot an Army Redstone used to launch Explorer I
I think I had a light stroke when I first saw that.
Then the Navaho missile got tossed.
Robert,
RE the Vast “tour:” “I put quotes around “tour” because I was very disappointed with this video. It provided very little real or new information, and instead acted more like a promotional for the company. Largely a waste of time.”
The audience for this video is people who are relatively new to space stations. This seems more like a primer than a tour. A few months ago NASASpaceFlight did a tour of the Vast facilities which had people like us in mind as its audience.
Should you have included it as a quick space link? I think so. It gives us something to send to friends and family that they could learn from.
Edward: Note that I did include it. I just found it unnecessarily pandering. Even the uneducated public deserves better.