September 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.
- JP Aerospace touts its Ellipse prototype airship
The design is radical and looks nothing like the blimps we are accustomed to seeing.
- Vast: The welds on the flight hull of its demo station Haven-1 are now finished so that testing and integration can follow
The company is still targeting a launch in the spring of 2026 with plans for a manned occupancy during a 30-day mission.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer shows off the extra clamps used during its static fire test this week of its Tianlogn-3 rocket’s first stage
“8 holding points at lower ring + 16 holding points at upper ring + 4 cables at the top to hold down the rocket.”
- Another new Chinese rocket startup pseudo-copmany: Space Spark (Hefei Xinghuo Space Technology Co., Ltd)
Not to be taken seriously at this point.
- On this day in 1976 the cast of Star Trek were present when Enterprise, the space shuttle prototype test vehicle, when it rolled out of the Palmdale facility
The original name, Constitution, was abandoned in response to the demands of Star Trek fans.
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.
- JP Aerospace touts its Ellipse prototype airship
The design is radical and looks nothing like the blimps we are accustomed to seeing.
- Vast: The welds on the flight hull of its demo station Haven-1 are now finished so that testing and integration can follow
The company is still targeting a launch in the spring of 2026 with plans for a manned occupancy during a 30-day mission.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer shows off the extra clamps used during its static fire test this week of its Tianlogn-3 rocket’s first stage
“8 holding points at lower ring + 16 holding points at upper ring + 4 cables at the top to hold down the rocket.”
- Another new Chinese rocket startup pseudo-copmany: Space Spark (Hefei Xinghuo Space Technology Co., Ltd)
Not to be taken seriously at this point.
- On this day in 1976 the cast of Star Trek were present when Enterprise, the space shuttle prototype test vehicle, when it rolled out of the Palmdale facility
The original name, Constitution, was abandoned in response to the demands of Star Trek fans.
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
Friction stir unbound
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-fixturing-friction-technique-barriers.html
Friction stir tools have been attached to robotic arms in the past, but they always required a separate anvil. Self-fixturing friction stir, however, uses an attachment for a robotic arm that includes both the friction stir tool and a miniature backing plate. If the old approach was an arm holding a pencil, the new approach is an arm holding both a pencil and a clipboard.
“Once this is perfected, there will be no fixturing, no anvil, and no force transmitted into the assembly line,” Blocher said. “The only job of the robot will be to hold the friction stir attachment in place and to maintain the correct position.”
“After that, the researchers will package self-fixturing friction stir into a more ergonomic, “industry-hardened” form so that the technology can be applied on real-world assembly lines.”
I remember JP Aerospace at Space Access conferences a couple of decades back. The eventual propulsion that would allow slow acceleration to LEO was a topic of interest.