November 20, 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 deployable aerobrake unit for missions to Mars as well as bringing cargo to Earth
He says it comes in two sizes and can “deliver 3x more payload mass” than other designs.
- Lesbian partner of astronaut pleads guilty to falsely alleging crime in space
Stupid stuff, a sign of our increasingly stupid times.
- Building the Apollo Guidance Computer aboard the lunar module
It had to be small, light, and do things no computer had ever done before, in an environment utterly alien and untested. It worked perfectly, and ended up revolutionizing computers themselves.
- On this day in 1969, Pete Conrad landed the Apollo 12 lunar module just 538 feet away from Surveyor-3
Conrad was the third man to walk on the Moon. Conrad was relatively short compared to Neil Armstrong, and also a man who loved to joke, incessantly. His first words (in order to win a bet with an Italian reporter who didn’t believe he could say what he wanted): “Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.”
- On this day in 2009 Cassini took a magnificent shot of Saturn’s two largest moons, Rhea and Titan
Definitely worth a look.
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 deployable aerobrake unit for missions to Mars as well as bringing cargo to Earth
He says it comes in two sizes and can “deliver 3x more payload mass” than other designs.
- Lesbian partner of astronaut pleads guilty to falsely alleging crime in space
Stupid stuff, a sign of our increasingly stupid times.
- Building the Apollo Guidance Computer aboard the lunar module
It had to be small, light, and do things no computer had ever done before, in an environment utterly alien and untested. It worked perfectly, and ended up revolutionizing computers themselves.
- On this day in 1969, Pete Conrad landed the Apollo 12 lunar module just 538 feet away from Surveyor-3
Conrad was the third man to walk on the Moon. Conrad was relatively short compared to Neil Armstrong, and also a man who loved to joke, incessantly. His first words (in order to win a bet with an Italian reporter who didn’t believe he could say what he wanted): “Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that’s a long one for me.”
- On this day in 2009 Cassini took a magnificent shot of Saturn’s two largest moons, Rhea and Titan
Definitely worth a look.
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

