Russia launches 2nd set of Rassvet satellites
Russia today successfully launched 16 more Rassvet satellites as part of its own Starlink-type internet constellation, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from its Plesetsk spaceport in northeast Russia.
This launch was originally scheduled for April but never occurred. Furthermore, Russia issued multiple flight plans for this launch covering a period of 24 hours, all likely designed to prevent the Ukraine from targeting the actual launch with drones. The Ukraine considers this constellation a direct military threat, and it appears it has attempted to use drones to attack Plesetsk during earlier launches.
With this launch the Rassvet constellation has 31 satellites in orbit. It is being built by Bureau (Buro) 1440, a so-called private company in Russia, which hopes to get the full 700+ satellite constellation in orbit by 2035.
The leaders in the 2026 launch race:
86 SpaceX
45 China
10 Rocket Lab (plus two suborbital HASTE launches)
10 Russia
For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 86 to 80.
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
