September 22, 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.
- UAE touts its Rashid-2 lunar rover, now undergoing thermal vacuum tests
It will be carried to the Moon in 2026 on a Firefly Blue Ghost lander.
- SpaceX launched 88.5% of all satellites in second quarter of ’25, on track to hit the 90% for the year, as Elon Musk predicted
It also put up 86% of the mass.
- NASA’s corrupt safety panel once lambasts SpaceX for the delays in its Starship program, even though the main culprit was red tape during the Biden administration
I wonder when our propaganda press will stop paying attention to this junk panel, that hasn’t gotten anything right in years. It continues to ignore or poo-poo the real safety issues with Orion and Starliner, while consistently attacking SpaceX wrongly.
- On this day in 1974 Mariner 10 had its second encounter with Mercury
The science team did this by using the gravity of Venus to slingshot the spacecraft back to Mercury. This was the first time such a technique had been tried.
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.
- UAE touts its Rashid-2 lunar rover, now undergoing thermal vacuum tests
It will be carried to the Moon in 2026 on a Firefly Blue Ghost lander.
- SpaceX launched 88.5% of all satellites in second quarter of ’25, on track to hit the 90% for the year, as Elon Musk predicted
It also put up 86% of the mass.
- NASA’s corrupt safety panel once lambasts SpaceX for the delays in its Starship program, even though the main culprit was red tape during the Biden administration
I wonder when our propaganda press will stop paying attention to this junk panel, that hasn’t gotten anything right in years. It continues to ignore or poo-poo the real safety issues with Orion and Starliner, while consistently attacking SpaceX wrongly.
- On this day in 1974 Mariner 10 had its second encounter with Mercury
The science team did this by using the gravity of Venus to slingshot the spacecraft back to Mercury. This was the first time such a technique had been tried.
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
Oak Ridge announced something called RidgeAlloy today…some talk about Gravitinos–both at phys.org.