September 25, 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.
- CEO Chris Kent of rocket startup Astra calls Firefly’s engines garbage during presentation
Firefly has put an unmanned lander on the Moon. It also has a rocket that has had launch successes. Astra doesn’t have anything at the moment. You decide the credibility of Kemp’s statement.
- Isar Aerospace gets multi-launch contract from satellite startup R-Space
The first launch in ’26 will put two satellites in orbit, with later launches through ’27.
- Vast touts its partnership with watch company IWC, its “Official Timekeeper”
Mostly vapid PR, except that almost as an aside during the video Vast revealed that it now plans to keep its demo Haven-1 single-module station operational for three years during which it will be visited by four 2-week manned missions.
- NASA touts the credentials of one of its new astronauts named this week: Dr. Lauren Edgar
Edgar spent 17 years working on various Mars rover operations, including Curiosity.
- Yesterday was the anniversary of the discovery of Neptune by German astronomer Johann Galle in 1846
He found it using French astronomer Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier’s calculations predicting its location.
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.
- CEO Chris Kent of rocket startup Astra calls Firefly’s engines garbage during presentation
Firefly has put an unmanned lander on the Moon. It also has a rocket that has had launch successes. Astra doesn’t have anything at the moment. You decide the credibility of Kemp’s statement.
- Isar Aerospace gets multi-launch contract from satellite startup R-Space
The first launch in ’26 will put two satellites in orbit, with later launches through ’27.
- Vast touts its partnership with watch company IWC, its “Official Timekeeper”
Mostly vapid PR, except that almost as an aside during the video Vast revealed that it now plans to keep its demo Haven-1 single-module station operational for three years during which it will be visited by four 2-week manned missions.
- NASA touts the credentials of one of its new astronauts named this week: Dr. Lauren Edgar
Edgar spent 17 years working on various Mars rover operations, including Curiosity.
- Yesterday was the anniversary of the discovery of Neptune by German astronomer Johann Galle in 1846
He found it using French astronomer Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier’s calculations predicting its location.
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 just did a quick netsearch of Kemp. The only word that justifies his plethora of comments is schizophrenia.
He has all kinds of opinions about SpaceX. Here are a few of the more amusing ones:
Re: SpaceX work environment: Kemp contrasted Astra’s work environment with that of SpaceX, framing Astra as a more relaxed and positive workplace.
Re: Starbase location: He took a jab at the location of SpaceX’s Starbase facility near the Mexican border, joking that at Astra, employees don’t have to worry about being “behead[ed] if you accidentally take a left turn”.
Re: Working hours: Kemp suggested that Astra doesn’t require the same long, demanding work schedules as SpaceX. He said, “you don’t have to live in a trailer. And we don’t make you work six and a half days a week, 12 hours a day. It’s appreciated if you do, but not required”.
I think about all of those hundreds (thousands?) of SpaceX employees we see each major launch. They appear pretty happy to me!
When the Mechazilla / Chopsticks captured SuperHeavy ON THE FIRST ATTEMPT, I’ll bet there were not very many SpaceX employees complaining about the long hours.
Right now, Elon Musk reminds me of the great Rush Limbaugh. For much of Rush’s 33 years of EIB, “there was not even anyone in his rear view mirror.” 650 radio stations “across the fruited plain” carried Rush’s show. The only entities that haven’t hired SpaceX are the Chicoms. The EU, heck, even Amazon took advantage of the price and consistency of SpaceX’s reliability. Yes, capitalism in space is the way to move forward. If Blue Origin does not step up, someone else will. I hope I live long enough to witness more than one new space station in orbit, and a few Starships hanging out on the surface of Mars.
Kent must be trying to talk that stock down a bit more. Maybe he went short!
Great post above by R. M.
Galileo was a little earlier than Johann Galle. Galileo viewed Neptune in late December 1612 or early January 1613. Stillman Drake and Charles Kowal accessed Galileo’s original notebooks. Unfortunately, cloudy skies near Padua, Italy, prevented a second view. Scientific American, “Galileo’s Sighting of Neptune”, December 1980, pages 74-81.
The two of them were following up on a planet occultation article written by Steven Albers (Mutual Occultations of Planets: 1557 to 2230, Sky & Telescope, March 1979, pages 220-222). The reason Mr. Albers referenced this event, is that Jupiter occulted Neptune in the early morning of January 1613. He wondered whether anyone might have observed this somewhat rare occultation, which occurred at the beginning of telescopic observations. Jupiter of course, was a ‘solar system’ in its own right, and could be readily observed.
I haven’t seen it mentioned here yet, but Sierra Space announced today that they are pivoting to the defense market and delaying the first flight of Dream Chaser to no earlier than late 2026. That flight will be a free-flight orbital test flight that will not dock to the ISS. NASA has modified its contract with Sierra to drop all obligations to purchase cargo delivery flights to the ISS, and it says that NASA support for DreamChaser going forward will be minimal.
With Antares 330 also being continuously delayed, I would not be surprised if a few Starliner flights got converted to cargo flights. Interesting developments.
mkent,
Thank you for that unfortunate news. Looks like a lot of these space startups are going to the military contracts. Just like Ursa Major making solid rocket engines for the military, and I forgot the name of the company… they have switched over to work on the US version of “Iron Dome”.
Although Sierra Space didn’t address the matter, I’m guessing this Dream Chaser news may also make Sierra Space’s inflatable space station module work somewhat more problematical too. Combined with Blue Origin’s concentration on New Glenn, Blue Moon Mk 1 and Mk 2 and Blue Ring, the prospects of ever seeing Orbital Reef built look dimmer than ever. That does, of course, make our host’s long-time tail-end ranking of Orbital Reef on the probability list of post-ISS space station projects look even more prescient.
Kent might be right about the border deal–right after a mission trip to Cone Oasis where a small church was built, I learned about that nest of Satanists in nearby Matamoros–1985 or so.