September 8, 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.
- Japanese lunar lander startup Ispace and Indian startup Digantara to build private lunar mission
The mission’s goal will be providing “situational awareness” in lunar space, and appears instigated by the Indian government’s future manned space plans.
- Vast touts its testing program of the ventilation fans on its Haven-1 space module
As far as I know, they are still targeting a 2026 launch.
- Air Force awards Blue Origin and Anduril study contracts using rockets to move military cargo around the world
This story is from two weeks ago, but I missed it at the time.
- Indian rocket startup Skyroot describes how it developed its Kalam-1200 solid-fueled motor
The company successfully test fired it on August 8, 2025. It is the most powerful solid-fueled motor ever developed in India. It will be used in the company’s Vikram-1 orbital rocket, which the company hopes to launch for the first time before the end of this year.
- Using data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, scientists claim the main belt asteroid Ceres may have been energetically active
The speculations here are so over the top that I hesitated including it. Moreover, the claim is hardly news, as there has been ample evidence for years that Ceres was once active.
- On this day in 1995 the space shuttle Endeavour launched carrying the Spartan 201 satellite, which flew on five shuttle missions
The satellite would be deployed by the shuttle arm at the start of the mission, provide a testbed for technological and scientific experiments, and be retrieved near the end of the mission for return to Earth.
- On this day in 1944, Germany conducted the first two operational launches of its V-2 rocket, the first long-range ballistic missile
Both rockets, aimed at Paris, failed due to premature engine cutoffs.
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.
- Japanese lunar lander startup Ispace and Indian startup Digantara to build private lunar mission
The mission’s goal will be providing “situational awareness” in lunar space, and appears instigated by the Indian government’s future manned space plans.
- Vast touts its testing program of the ventilation fans on its Haven-1 space module
As far as I know, they are still targeting a 2026 launch.
- Air Force awards Blue Origin and Anduril study contracts using rockets to move military cargo around the world
This story is from two weeks ago, but I missed it at the time.
- Indian rocket startup Skyroot describes how it developed its Kalam-1200 solid-fueled motor
The company successfully test fired it on August 8, 2025. It is the most powerful solid-fueled motor ever developed in India. It will be used in the company’s Vikram-1 orbital rocket, which the company hopes to launch for the first time before the end of this year.
- Using data from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, scientists claim the main belt asteroid Ceres may have been energetically active
The speculations here are so over the top that I hesitated including it. Moreover, the claim is hardly news, as there has been ample evidence for years that Ceres was once active.
- On this day in 1995 the space shuttle Endeavour launched carrying the Spartan 201 satellite, which flew on five shuttle missions
The satellite would be deployed by the shuttle arm at the start of the mission, provide a testbed for technological and scientific experiments, and be retrieved near the end of the mission for return to Earth.
- On this day in 1944, Germany conducted the first two operational launches of its V-2 rocket, the first long-range ballistic missile
Both rockets, aimed at Paris, failed due to premature engine cutoffs.
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