November 18, 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’s CEO touts a recent hotfire test of its upper stage BE-3U engine
He claims it “reached more than 211,500 lbf thrust [making it] the highest thrust-to-weight hydrogen engine in history.”
- French rocket startup Latitude commits €8M to build its launchpad in French Guiana
It is entirely unclear when this startup will do its first launch. It initially targeted 2024, which obviously did not happen.
- On this day in 1970 the Soviet Union’s unmanned lander Luna 17 touched down the Moon, delivering the Lunokhod-1 rover
Lunokhod-1 operated for eleven months, traveling 6.5 miles. In 1993, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia sold it at a Sotheby’s auction for $68,500, even though it still sits on the Moon.
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’s CEO touts a recent hotfire test of its upper stage BE-3U engine
He claims it “reached more than 211,500 lbf thrust [making it] the highest thrust-to-weight hydrogen engine in history.”
- French rocket startup Latitude commits €8M to build its launchpad in French Guiana
It is entirely unclear when this startup will do its first launch. It initially targeted 2024, which obviously did not happen.
- On this day in 1970 the Soviet Union’s unmanned lander Luna 17 touched down the Moon, delivering the Lunokhod-1 rover
Lunokhod-1 operated for eleven months, traveling 6.5 miles. In 1993, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia sold it at a Sotheby’s auction for $68,500, even though it still sits on the Moon.
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
More UN crud
https://spacenews.com/avoiding-a-harmful-lunar-gold-rush/
Lunokhod’s reflector still gets used by the UCSD’s APOLLO team for lunar laser ranging work. It’s still doing good service!
On the whole, it has to be said that while the Soviets never got a man to the Moon, their Lunokhod program was a rather impressive feat, achieved under challenging circumstances, showing what is possible in space even for a corrupt totalitarian system when it makes the effort to develop good engineering talent and supplies it with ample resources and durable political backing. ROSCOSMOS is only a pale shadow of those days.
It does not effect your count, but Rocket Lab launched a HASTE sub orbital rocket.
https://x.com/RocketLab/status/1990848721895223573
This was the 3rd of the year.
In terms of overall launches (orbital and sub-orbital) this is a record for them.
Strictly orbital they are still tied with last year.
sippin_bourbon: I have thought about those HASTE suborbital launches and realize their existence is a gap the manner in which I do my count. They don’t belong, but leaving them out of Rocket Lab’s count also doesn’t give a full sense of what the company did in terms of rockets this year.
I guess I will address this in the year-end full report.
Robert Zimmerman,
Whatever you decide to do anent sub-orbital missions that reach space, it will affect Blue Origin as well as Rocket Lab – assuming those RL HASTE missions actually reach space. I don’t know if they do.
Another complicating factor – especially if Virgin Orbit survives long enough to fly its Delta vehicles – is just which definition of “space” should apply. There is the McDowell Line at 80 km. (49.67 mi.), the USAF Line at 50 mi. and the Karman Line at 100 km. That is a question that may well apply to RL’s HASTE missions as well unless those are entirely endoatmospheric. In that case, they don’t qualify as space launches at all.
I’m glad it’s not me who has to figure these things out.
Jeff Wright,
I don’t go to SpaceNews since the paywall went up. But I imagine the working definition of “harmful,” where the UN is concerned, is “anything that we’re not either in charge of or get to regulate to death.”
I find it fascinating that the anti-Moon-settlement people seem to fall into two completely disjoint camps. The first is convinced that wicked capitalists are all set to cruelly exploit the Moon and reap gobs of money doing it. The second is convinced there is nothing whatever worth doing on the Moon that justifies the expense of getting there.
Dick Eagleson: My criteria has always been that a rocket should reach orbit. I have fudged that a bit with the Starship/Superheavy launches, because they choose to do suborbital but if they reach the planned flight path they could have been orbital if they wanted to.
I know this is a bit of a rationalization but so be it. Those launches are so over the top I just couldn’t imagine not counting them.
Thus, New Shepard and Virgin Galactic (which is what I am sure you were referring to, not Virgin Orbit) never qualify. They can’t reach orbit, and never will. I don’t care if they get into space for a few short minutes (no matter the definition). What I want to measure the the ability to get off the Earth.
HASTE is a very unusual case. It is a first stage of an orbital rocket reconfigured for suborbital hypersonic testing. It never reaches orbit, but for all intents it is the equivalent of launching an orbital rocket, without the second stage. It doesn’t really qualify for my listing, but to understand the state of Rocket Lab as a company it must be considered. As I said, I will simply note these launches in my annual report.
If the BE-3U engine really has a T/W ratio of more than 90 then CEO Limp is right about that being a record. The RL-10’s T/W ratio is less than half that. The never-built Aerojet M-1 was projected to have a T/W ratio of about 60. The J-2, RS-25, RS-68A and Vulcain 2 are all at about 75. The most recent Vulcain 2.1, used on Ariane 6, has, weirdly, fallen back to a T/W ratio of about 67.
For reference, SpaceX’s Merlin 1-D (kerolox) and Raptor 3 (methalox) each have T/W ratios exceeding 180.
”It never reaches orbit, but for all intents it is the equivalent of launching an orbital rocket, without the second stage.”
HASTE rockets have an Electron second stage. They need it. Payload separation is above 80 km at speeds up to 7.5 km/sec (which is just shy of orbital velocity). Electron has basically replaced the Scout, which did both orbital and suborbital launches with similar configurations.
HASTE launches and the Starship test flights are so similar performancewise that whatever you do for one you should do for the other. Personally I count only the orbital launches for Scout, Thor, Atlas, Electron, and someday Starship. But the suborbital launches for all of them are substantial and worth noting.
mkent: I was not aware that the HASTE launches included the second stage. In the videos I have seen, it did not appear as if there was one. Could you direct me to your source? I find this very worthwhile pursuing.
”Could you direct me to your source?”
Sort of.
1) HASTE reaches an altitude of 80 km and a speed of 7.5 km / sec. It couldn’t do that without a second stage.
2) Photos posted to Rocket Lab’s flickr account after the first HASTE flight showed a second stage marked “HASTE” attached to the top of the interstage.
3) About that time Rocket Lab’s senior director of communications Morgan SomethingOrOther tweeted that HASTE still has a second stage.
mkent: Thank you. I need to think about this. Adding these launches will complicate things in a way I don’t like, but I understand entirely your point.
Beware definition creep, and remember KISS.
Blair Ivey: I am assuming you are advising against adding complexity to my launch list. If so, it is taken under advisement.
Robert Zimmerman,
Yes, I meant Virgin Galactic, but my fingers sometimes have a mind of their own. Thanks for pointing that out. My days as a copy editor mock me in my rear-view mirror.
For what it’s worth, mkent makes a good case for including the HASTE launches in some fashion. I can appreciate why the up-and-down Mach 3-ish suborbital jaunts don’t strike you as having the gravitas for inclusion.
On ignition
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-hidden-ignition-analytic-law-multi.html
Drop-to-deploy
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-11-deploy-bistable-mechanics-unfold.html
What about, “suborbital launches of orbit-capable rockets” as a separate category?
Starship test flights to date really are a murky case. They reach a low earth orbit altitude, and they accelerate to basically orbital velocity, but their trajectory is an orbit whose perigee is deliberately within the upper atmosphere, so they reenter rather than completing a full orbit.
I think the HASTE and Starship test flights deserve mention in any summary of spaceflight activity for the year, but maybe they should be in their own category. I know that is more work for you, though.
FYI, Mr Z. RL snuck one in this morning, with little advanced notice.
sippin_bourbon,
Yeah, that RL Electron launch pretty much just popped up out of nowhere. RL wouldn’t name the customer either and ended the webcast after kick stage separation.
I strongly suspect the customer was the US War Dept. I figure it provided a payload to RL some time ago on the understanding that it would later call for it to be orbited on very short notice to test RL’s ability to provide responsive space launch – something the War Dept. has been pursuing for years. Firefly’s Alpha has gotten a couple of these missions too, but I think Electron likely just showed that it is now the leader in this capability. Admittedly, Electron’s payload maximum is only about a 1/4 that of Alpha.
Dick Eagleson
My thought, too, was a US Nat’l Defense launch.
It has been some time, but Rocket Lab announced “Responsive” launch for “24/7 rapid call-up launch capability”.
https://rocketlabcorp.com/updates/rocket-lab-introduces-responsive-space-program/
They just proved they can do it.
Favorable weather, green across the board surely helped.
On turbulence
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-ai-turbulence-fresh-unsolved-physics.html
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-superfluids-collide-physicists-behavior.html