September 7, 2026 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.
- Graphic showing the past flights of the four core engines to be thrown away on the Artemis-3 mission next year
The shuttle was reusable, to a point. SLS is not.
- Graphic showing the size differences between Blue Origin’s manned and unmanned Blue Moon lunar landers
Now all the company has to do is get them launched.
- Cape Canaveral rocket companies Stoke and Relativity advance their launchpad toward first flights
A nice quick summary about the status of each pad
- China proposes a lunar mission deploying 30 cubesats in 2030
It is an international project led by China with Thailand, Serbia, Egypt, Senegal, and Indonesia signed on.
- Video of the September 7, 2013 launch the lunar orbiter LADEE (Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer)
It orbited the Moon for seven months, measuring the dust in the lunar environment.
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

On better 3D prints
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-09-software-tool-users-ai-generated.html
Crack propagation
https://phys.org/news/2026-09-tiny-2d-materials-triggering-sudden.html