November 26, 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.
- Northrop Grumman touts successful tests of its hypersonic inertial guidance system on Stratolaunch’s Talon-A
It does appear that Stratolaunch is getting some business, even though much of its planned military hypersonic testing market has been grabbed by Rocket Lab’s HASTE suborbital launch vehicle.
- Blue Origin shows off a fullscale mockup of its Blue Moon-MK2 crew cabin at the Johnson Space Center
MK2 is the manned version of the MK1 Blue Moon. It is designed to hold four astronauts for up to 30 days on the Moon. It will be very nice if Blue Origin gets it built as promised. It will also be a surprise. The company still needs to shake its reputation for great graphics and mockups, and little real hardware.
- The Ukraine destroys Russian A-60 aircraft rumored to have a laser designed to shoot down aircraft and disable satellite sensors
None of this is confirmed, including the A-60 so-called laser capabilities.
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.
- Northrop Grumman touts successful tests of its hypersonic inertial guidance system on Stratolaunch’s Talon-A
It does appear that Stratolaunch is getting some business, even though much of its planned military hypersonic testing market has been grabbed by Rocket Lab’s HASTE suborbital launch vehicle.
- Blue Origin shows off a fullscale mockup of its Blue Moon-MK2 crew cabin at the Johnson Space Center
MK2 is the manned version of the MK1 Blue Moon. It is designed to hold four astronauts for up to 30 days on the Moon. It will be very nice if Blue Origin gets it built as promised. It will also be a surprise. The company still needs to shake its reputation for great graphics and mockups, and little real hardware.
- The Ukraine destroys Russian A-60 aircraft rumored to have a laser designed to shoot down aircraft and disable satellite sensors
None of this is confirmed, including the A-60 so-called laser capabilities.
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
Sci-fi book coming
https://www.amazon.com/Futuristic-Rockets-Robots-Rayguns-Culture/dp/1605491276
I wonder if they got the Russian shark along with it?
Here’s The War Zone article on the A60 strike:
https://www.twz.com/air/unique-russian-a-60-laser-tesbed-jet-destroyed-in-ukrainian-attack
Likely it was just a target of opportunity, but it make you wonder if it was being used for something that drew attention. Our own airborne laser didn’t amount to much.
To John
The technology progresses
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/solid-state-laser-news.9380/
I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but Ukraine has re-written the asymmetric warfare textbook. Ukraine has been deadly successful where it counts: destroying high-value assets behind the lines. You can’t fight with what you don’t have. Granted, the attack on the A-60 seems more a PR blow than tactical necessity, but counting coup counts.
Ukraine is also illustrating weaknesses in air defense systems. Or, at least, the Russian ones. I wouldn’t be so quick to think the US isn’t as vulnerable.
Blair K Ivey,
The US is, without question, far more vulnerable to air and tactical missile attack than is Russia – if there was some way for our enemies to base weaponry in either Canada or Mexico. We have had no anti-air missile assets based in CONUS since the Nike days except perhaps in Alaska. We also have some on various of the Pacific Islands over which the US has sovereignty.
Neither Canada nor Mexico is exactly good buddies with the US at present, but it is also true that neither represents any strategic threat. The USN is more than capable of keeping a lid on the SLBM or sea-launched cruise missile threat from both Russia and the PRC.
Cuba, and the rest of what remains of Marxist Latin America, also constitute no basing threat where Russian and/or PRC weaponry is concerned. The slightest hint that any such thing was in the works and the offending regime would be entirely reduced to low-grade hamburger in a matter of hours.
A comprehensive defense of all US territory against flying threats from space down to zero altitude is best achieved as part of Golden Dome. Missiles are the priority, but endo-atmospheric threats can be addressed as part of follow-on enhancements should that prove desirable. Given the fragility of both Russia and the PRC, there is a decent probability that neither will any longer be around to threaten us a decade hence.
Wars are fought by people backed, supplied by economies.
This Ukraine war just proves Russia can not fight NATO.
Putin is insane, To use the excuse of keeping NATO from bringing in the Ukraine and ignoring the Finnish entrance proves he wants the Ukraine for some other reason.
The NATO nations already on Russia’s boarder have never been a threat to Russia. No he wants the Ukraine for its western economy and resources because its the last non NATO nation he could possibly take over.
He knows that if he accepts a peace deal in any form What he doesn’t hold of Ukraine well become a NATO member. The sanctions will never stop as long as he is in power and he will eventually be overthrown from inside Russia.
Even if Ukraine surrenders he will never have peace there or in his own nation. The civilians will never give up. 4 years has taught them they can win and if he ever even opens the boarders up between the nations they will flood in to cause trouble.
To steal a sports quote, Putin has been exposed.
His neglect of all things space resulted in a recently used R-7 pad now out of service
It is late, but I wanted pitch in. Finland joined because it is a windfall. As a member of NATO, the US immediately start paying for 60% of their defense costs. Pretty good deal. In most of the non-western world, it is known that Russia tried to get a solution to the issues before 2014. And the efforts were sabotaged throughout. If NATO allows Ukraine entry, the very first thing that happens is the US builds military bases in Ukraine. One does not have to like Russia, but at least understand the root causes. Mi6 and the CIA are all over this. Trump was going end this even before he took office. Hundreds of thousands have probably died since then. EU members are suffering economic collapse, and political collapse. True, EU/NATO are much larger than Russia. But who spent $300 Billion on Ukraine to help them beat Russia. We did. And who launched over 30,000 Finacial sanctions against Russia (and now its allies). We and the EU did. But as others have implied, the war will not end. It will become a dark ops/assassination regime. It is already being done. My own issue is Trump campaigned on stopping this on day one (and even before day one) and he did not. I voted for him. It is almost 20% of his second term and the conflict continues. We have Spanish language choice at all call centers/businesses for whatever purpose, but the Russian language is outlawed on the easter provinces of Ukraine, and people there can face severe penalties. No language, no books, no Russian Orthodox religion, no Russian language in schools. It Trump had used diplomacy and not the bullhorn and bullwhip, this conflict may have been over a long while back.
From a country that joined NATO the same time as Finland, I have a bit of a different view, although not too far removed from the good posters here.
When NATO was set up it was agreed that it would not encroach too much on the USSR’s “sphear of interest”, now NATO is butting up against Russian boarders… I don’t actually blame Russia for getting a bit paranoid…
Crimea was traditionally russian for a very long time, and the Dombas is russian speaking, and full of Nazies… Let Putin take them for the sake of peace in Ukraine proper.
I have said here before… It’s a doomed bet to bet against Russia… They are undoubtedly struggling from sanctions, but they still have a huge military, a huge population and are ruled by a madman… Oh, and they have all sorts of nukes, including tactical, and a madman at the helm. If he dropped/launched a tactical nuke on Kiev, would any country retaliate in kind? Absolutely not … No one would risk the escalation… And mad as he is. Putin is no dummy and knows this. I genuinely think this is a real possibility if he thinks he is going to lose face..
I certainly don’t think nuclear war is imminent, but from here the chances of some sort of nuclear weapons use on the battlefield has never seemed closer than in the 80’s.. And to be honest, I don’t like it.
For what it’s worth, I voted against Sweden joining NATO.
IMO Putin and this Ukraine situation is really the only thing that Trump is actually concerned about.
I would assume that Putin has laid down certain hard lines, no cruise missiles, that Trump dare not cross.
Bloviating and throwing weight around have its place, but there are lines.
Putin will play this out until he gets more not less of what he intends.
And ultimately, he sees Ukraine over time becoming his.
Thanks, Obama and Joe, treason incorporated.
Putin occupies 80% of the (supposedly) nazi filled Donbas and Lee S still thinks this is about getting rid of the baba yaga boggy man Nazis.
How many NATO nations have invaded anyone in the last 50 years?
The Germans NAZI’s used all those same” they speak Russian excuses.” I don’t see England trying to take over all the English speaking nations. Or Spain or France or really anyone else in the world.
As for Nukes. Let Putin try please. Please prove the world will never kick back. At that point Putin rules the world.
Even his generals know that if he uses just one he has lost it all. If he launches a total WW3 nuclear war he looses.
Trump, Xi and Putin essentially rule the world and, in that order, and I believe that Trump sees Putin is in a very hard spot right now and does not want to push him over the edge and doing something in desperation where everyone literally loses.
An American cruise missile launched by Kiev in desperation to end the carnage and taking out all those pretty onions in Moscow would be that thing that might get Kiev nuked at least with a small 20 kilo ton warhead.
And then it begins.
Speaking of glowing in the dark—Mutant 58, the Rad Eaters-cue Godzilla bassoon roar:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251125-the-mysterious-black-fungus-from-chernobyl-that-appears-to-eat-radiation
Some ideas of CO2 removal
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-tiny-reconfigurable-robots-carbon-dioxide.html
Lee S wrote: “When NATO was set up it was agreed that it would not encroach too much on the USSR’s ‘sphear of interest’, now NATO is butting up against Russian boarders…”
When NATO was set up, it butted up against the USSR’s satellite countries, which they ruled as their own. Now that these satellites are free from Russia’s grip, they fear that the new Russia will conquer them again, except this time for territorial gain rather than to defeat the NAZIs.
Conditions have changed. Fears are different. Recent prologue has shown Russia as an expansionist nation, eager to regain previous glories — er — territories. The worldwide fear is that they are eager for more. The thinking is that the only reason the USSR didn’t take over the rest of Europe is that NATO was there to stop it. Russia fears NATO, and the performance in Ukraine shows why.
“I have said here before… It’s a doomed bet to bet against Russia…”
Before the Russians tried to take Kiev, we here in the U.S. had the understanding that messing with Ukrainians was foolish, as they would kick your butt, either individually or collectively. We saw this in action when Putin messed with the Ukrainians and lost face when his superior forces were stopped by the rough and ready* Ukrainians. Zelenskyy refused to take refuge in a safe country, showing that the Ukrainians’ reputation is deserved. The Russians got their butts handed to them. They still are. Lesson not yet learned: Don’t mess with Ukrainians.
So, the question now is: “How much should Putin be rewarded for his various invasions?” My answer: His first ones were completely rewarded; this time, he should be severely punished.
We Americans believe that a man should never start a fight, but he should always finish it.
_________________
* I know, it sounds like they are tough and prepared, but the phrase actually means more along the lines of: crude but effective, and in comparison with Russia’s continuing reputation, they are.
FYI, Bryce’s Q͢3͢ ͢L͢a͢u͢n͢c͢h͢ ͢R͢e͢p͢o͢r͢t͢ ͢j͢u͢s͢t͢ ͢c͢a͢m͢e͢ ͢o͢u͢t͢:
For kg launched to orbit, SpaceX has 97% share for the U.S. and 83% globally. The eight Chinese launchers add up to 8.6%.
(See graph at the X post linked.)
https://x.com/FutureJurvetson/status/1994495568291532883
Stunning to think about. It really is.
DJ,
Yeesh, where to start?
Finland – and Sweden – joined NATO because both finally noticed that Russia is both aggressive and dangerous – even in its dotage. Russia was willing to straightforwardly invade a non-NATO country that had 4.5 times the population of Sweden and 9 times the population of Finland. Plus, Finland has quite a long border with Russia and has been on the receiving end of unwelcome Russian attention within living memory. Do, as they say, the math.
Oh yeah, the US is not paying Finland’s defense bills. The Finns are paying us to station fighter jets and support troops on their soil.
What “most of the non-Western world knows” is generally codswallop. The “solution” Russia was trying to get in Ukraine before 2014 was to put one of their stooges into the Ukraine Presidency. They succeeded for a short time, but said stooge was given the heave-ho once he tried handing the nation back to Russia as a satrapy. He ran back to Moscow and two anti-Russian Ukrainian Presidents succeeded him.
The only “root cause” that needs to be understood is that Russia wants its erstwhile empire back – all of it. Ukraine was supposed to be overrun in a week. After that, it was going to be the Balts, the Poles and a bunch of other folks. Well, hey, that sure didn’t work out did it?
The CIA and MI-6 were both doing their usual job of mucking about in the domestic politics of their respective nations and, in their spare time, attempting to find their arses with both hands and six-man search parties – and failing. When the Russians are massing troops and tanks on your borders, it’s hardly necessary to have some Brit or Yankee spook tell you what the score is – not that either would know.
Hundreds of thousands have died. A sizable majority of those corpses are Russian. I shed no tears for any of them.
You wail about the sanctions slapped on Russia. Russia is an aggressive rogue state. It has no right to expect to conduct business as formerly usual.
The political troubles of EU nations derive mainly from growing grass-roots objections to being ruled by the EU bureaucracies instead of their national governments.
The anemic performance of EU economies lately is partly a consequence of the end of Russian gas deliveries, but owes far more to clueless Green stupidities coming home to roost at both the national and EU levels.
The US has not sent $300 billion to Ukraine. We have supplied them weaponry from extant stocks that might have a book value of that much, but the money spent to build them was spent long before the Russo-Ukraine War began. These weapons were purchased precisely to deal death to Russians during Cold War times. I look upon their transfer to Ukraine as fulfilling their design missions.
Absent some arm-twisted deal forced on Ukraine, the war will end when Russia ceases being able to any longer conduct it. Given the recently increasing rates of Russian loss continuing to rise, I figure that point is most likely no more than 12 – 18 months off.
There is no effective way to outlaw use of the Russian language anywhere in Ukraine, but it is certainly possible to ban its use in any official capacity – especially in schools. The Russian Orthodox Church is a creature of the Russian state.
I wonder just what sort of “diplomacy” you imagine Trump might have used to get Russia to cease its war on Ukraine? “Diplomacy” is not a synonym for “magic.”
Lee S,
NATO was up against Russian and Warsaw Pact national borders from the get-go. It is unsurprising in the extreme that nations formerly under the Soviet thumb wanted to join NATO as quickly as possible once that thumb disappeared.
Russia has been paranoid for its entire 1,000-year history. But it has also been aggressively expansionist for that same 1,000 years. Its neighbors have, historically, had a better right to be paranoid than has Russia – considering how many of said neighbors it has gobbled up over that interval.
If the Donbas is still “full of Nazis” after most of it has been under Russian occupation for 11 years, the FSB must be doing a particularly awful job of rooting them out.
Yes, Crimea was part of Russia for a long time – along with the rest of Ukraine. But so were the nations that are now collectively known as the Central Asian Republics. Is Russia entitled, somehow, to take them back by force also? It seems to me that the only way to end Russian serial aggressions is to end Russia. I think that Ukraine is well on the way to doing that. I hope they are allowed to continue this project to a richly-deserved conclusion.
You continue to regurgitate Cold War-era “conventional wisdom” about Russia. It is a large country by European standards, both in population and – especially – in land area. But the majority of that land is barely populated and the population it has is only about 2/3 ethnic Russian and is rapidly aging. Russia pretty much had to invade Ukraine when it did if it was ever going to do so at all because waiting even five years would have made the project impossible from the standpoint of military-age manpower. As the war is now in a very-much-unlooked-for fourth year with a fifth waiting in the wings, Russia has already committed about as much manpower as it can to the Ukraine misadventure and has had to enlist levies from North Korea and Sub-Saharan Africa to fill its ranks.
Nuclear war is not imminent now anymore than it was in the early ’80s. If you thought otherwise then, you were just one of millions who fell for the Soviet scare-mongering of that era. You seem just as prone to buy such claptrap now. The Russians are going to keep their nukes in their holsters for the same reasons that they failed to roll over Ukraine in a week. The Russian conventional military was considered world-class by many – until it actually showed its true decrepitude in Ukraine. Despite this rather obvious object lesson in the fallibility of conventional wisdom, there are still a lot of people, it seems, who think the Russian strategic and tactical nuclear arsenals are formidable. I think the rational belief is that Russia’s nuclear weapons are in the same sorry state as its conventional forces, if not even worse. Russia isn’t going to start lobbing nukes for the good and sufficient reason that even Russia doesn’t know how many of things – and which ones – would actually work.
Gridshells for structures
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-12-beautiful-method-architects-gridshell.html
More on hexanitrogen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjeVKdBW-CY
Perhaps form this substance on the Moon, but transport the nitrogen in a safer form there