September 17, 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.
- ESA delivers to NASA the third service module for Orion
The first was used on the Artemis-1, that went around the Moon unmanned in 2022. The second will be used on the first manned mission, presently scheduled for April 2026 to also fly around the Moon. This third service module will be used on the planned landing mission, Artemis-3, scheduled for 2027 (very unlikely).
- SpaceX’s new water ship to transport Starship from Starbase to Cape Canaveral is launched
Suggests that the first Starship launches in Florida are not far off.
- NASA plugs a book by one of its employees, giving his perspective on the space shuttle Columbia tragedy
It is a free download. Be aware that this book is published by NASA’s history office. It might give a good account, but the track record of NASA history books is that they rarely tell the whole truth.
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.
- ESA delivers to NASA the third service module for Orion
The first was used on the Artemis-1, that went around the Moon unmanned in 2022. The second will be used on the first manned mission, presently scheduled for April 2026 to also fly around the Moon. This third service module will be used on the planned landing mission, Artemis-3, scheduled for 2027 (very unlikely).
- SpaceX’s new water ship to transport Starship from Starbase to Cape Canaveral is launched
Suggests that the first Starship launches in Florida are not far off.
- NASA plugs a book by one of its employees, giving his perspective on the space shuttle Columbia tragedy
It is a free download. Be aware that this book is published by NASA’s history office. It might give a good account, but the track record of NASA history books is that they rarely tell the whole truth.
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
I was wondering if SpaceX would fly a booster from Starbase to be caught at the cape. Seems like an easy flight.
Not gonna happen in the early going. And it won’t be long before there’s a full production facility for Super Heavies and Starships at Roberts Road. Once that comes on-line, there won’t be much point in point-to-point deliveries between Starbase and Canaveral. It is certainly possible that Starships launched from Starbase might re-enter and be caught at Canaveral and vice versa but those Starships will have jobs to do in space between launch and return.
NSF has identified at Starbase a tubular structure that is seemingly designed to lay alongside a starship hull. Could it be a “strongback” for the laydown / standup to and from the barge?
Dick Eagleson: Yes I can see where you wouldn’t bother with this capability for a while. But it would be nice to have it in your back pocket in case of need.,
Ray Van Dune,
I guess we’ll all find out pretty soon. One V3 Super Heavy and several V3 Starships are currently in various stages of construction at Starbase. This first V3 SH will be retained at Starbase to support V3 testing and operations there.
The Starship Pad at LC-39A is being built as essentially a duplicate of Pad 2 at Starbase and it will likely be ready for service not long after the SB Pad 2 – year-end this year or early next year. By then, a second V3 Super Heavy could be completed at Starbase and this article might be in line to be shipped to FL by barge. One would need both a Super Heavy and one or more Starships to be sent from Brownsville to Port Canaveral to support initial launches from LC-39A. It will be awhile before the Roberts Road Starfactory is sufficiently complete to begin local production of boosters and ships in FL.
Saville,
Maybe. The most straightforward type of such notional point-to-point transfer-by-flight would be that of Super Heavy boosters. Launching these is what the pads are all being built to support. Launching Starships directly from these same pads would require some V3 equivalent of the lash-up SpaceX built to allow static fire testing of V2 Starships on Pad 1. Doable, but certainly extra work SpaceX isn’t likely to do if the straightforward alternative of transfer-by-sea is available. That is especially true given that such transfers are going to be merely a temporary expedient until the Roberts Road Starfactory is up and running.
On robotics
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-humans-robots-smarter-safer-faster.html
“Monash University researchers have trialed a new system demonstrating how humans and robots can team up on the job to make construction faster, safer and less physically demanding.”
Roll out
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-autobot-platform-machine-rapidly-ways.html
“A research team led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has built and successfully demonstrated an automated experimentation platform to optimize the fabrication of advanced materials. The platform, called AutoBot, uses machine learning algorithms to direct robotic devices to rapidly synthesize and characterize materials. “
Old shuttle pdf
https://www.disneylicenseplates.com/RSDSC/Space_Shuttle_Transporter_of_1980s.pdf