Category: Points of Information

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.

• Inversion Space touts its two autonomous drop test vehicles, Jaws and Big Tuna
  The company has been using them in helicopter drops to test targeted precise reentry that its proposed Arc orbital capsule will require.

• Airbus, Thales, and Leonardo reportedly agree to merge their satellite divisions
  The article speculates, without solid evidence, that the combined company will build a satellite constellation to compete with Starlink. Jay instead speculates (more accurately) that it “will will just lobby for laws that ban Starlink or tax the hell out of it.” After all, that is the European way in the 21st century.

• Chang’e-6 lunar sample is “a type of meteorite known as Ivuna-type carbonaceous chondrite”
  What makes this find significant is that these types of primitive meteorites are very fragile, and almost never survive reentry on Earth. Finding this sample on the Moon will help scientists better determine the overall make-up of the solar system’s asteroid population, which will then allow them to better construct its early formation process.

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.

• NASA’s administrator touts the installation of Orion to SLS for next year’s Artemis II mission
  I wonder if Duffy is even aware of the heat shield issues or the lack of testing of the capsule’s environmental system. That NASA is poo-pooing both makes this manned mission around the Moon essentially a repeat of Challenger and Columbia, placing schedule above engineering.

• On board video from Dawn Aerospace’s Mk-II Aurora record-breaking flight in November 2024
  On the flight this small scale unmanned prototype was the first commercial plane to break the sound barrier since the Concorde.

• Video of a Chinese rocket booster crashing into a ranch in Guinan County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai province on October 13, 2025
  This was the launch that day of a Long March 2D rocket from China’s northwest Jiquan spaceport. The rocket uses very toxic hypergolic fuels (note the red clouds) that can dissolve skin. Bad news for this ranch.

• Video of launchpad static fire test of China’s Zhuque-3 rocket
  It is a copy of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, with a tentative launch date of November 3, 2025, according to Jay. It is built by the pseudo-company Landspace, which won’t try recovering the first stage until later launches in 2026.

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.

• SpaceX releases video of Superheavy splash down on 11th flight
  Interestingly the video cuts off before the stage hits the water. It also appears that the booster was simulating a tower chopstick catch, so that its engines shut down significantly above the water

• Arianespace delays first Ariane 6-4 flight to 2026
  This is the most powerful version of Ariane-6, with four side boosters. No reason was given for the delay, but officials indicated it will be the first Ariane-6 launch next year.

• Interesting explanation on how JWST corrects electronic distortions
  Good work, but it is important to remember the correction adds one more layer of human manipulation to the data, which must raise reasonable questions about any conclusions drawn from it.

• Was there an issue with the second SpaceX launch yesterday?
  I noticed the same thing, that the video ended prematurely and the normal callouts for engine cutoff and nominal orbit were not announced. At the same time, the stage’s velocity did not stop abruptly, but slowed to zero in a manner similar to all other times the engines shut down.