SpaceX tonight successfully launched another 24 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The first stage was new, successfully completing its first flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
111 SpaceX
48 China
12 Rocket Lab
11 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 111 to 84.
Though it is possible my readers might not have noticed, but it appears there was some major issue today on the website that slowed things to a crawl and could have even been an attack by hackers somewhere. Because of this my web guy Shane had to disable much of the under-the-hood stuff I use to post so he could fix things. Thus, no new posts or cool images today. Those posts that did go up had been scheduled before the problems appeared.
I am hoping to get back to normal tonight and tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for me.
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 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.
"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
An evening pause: This “music” video intentionally illustrates why I prefer live performances over most “official” music videos that show a fake visual story under the music, as if that story and the music have something to do with each other, when they never really do. This video instead shows us what the music video would sound like if you focused instead on this fake story. Quick funny at times.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette, who writes, “Great concept! What happens when you take a Music Video and de-emphasize the music & band performance, and concentrate on the story being told in the background?”
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.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
During his first term as president, Donald Trump attempted to move the headquarters of the Space Force Colorado to Alabama. That move, announced in January 2021, never happened, first because it came so late in his term and second because Biden had no interest in making it happen and eventually rescinded it in 2023.
Today Trump reinstated that decision, once again announcing that the Space Force headquarters will move to Huntsville, Alabama.
The politics for this change have been and will continue to be complicated. Alabama’s lower cost of living would save the government money, but the defense industry is also well clustered in Colorado due to the military’s space operations that have been there for many decades.
In general I have never quite understood Trump’s desire to do this. I suspect there are some quid pro quo agreements in the background with Alabama politicians: “If you bring the Space Force to Alabama, Mr. Trump, we will back you on your other plans.” Then again, Trump might simply want to punish the increasingly leftist haven of Colorado.
Either way, it is now likely to finally happen. Trump 47 has been moving fast on all his initiatives, and is aided in this by a staff that is largely supportive (unlike during Trump 45).
Capitalism in space: As part of Europe’s major shift from its traditional government-run space program that could accomplish little to a commercial and independent space industry, the European Commission has now launched a study asking that new private sector to develop a fast launch capability able to put satellites in orbit quickly and on demand.
In the preamble to the call published on 10 July, the Commission notes that due to an increasing number of threats, both human and natural in origin, spacefaring actors must not only develop sovereign access to space but also create “systems capable of placing satellites into orbit quickly to meet urgent demands.”
In an effort to develop this capability, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space will commission three parallel studies. The primary objectives of the ten-month studies are to identify the commercial and institutional needs for such a capability within the EU, define suitable and affordable solutions across ground and launcher systems, and outline a roadmap towards achieving an operational service. The total budget for the call is €1.95 million, with up to €650,000 available for each study.
The American military has been pursuing this capability now for almost a decade, repeatedly issuing contracts to startups as well as established companies to demonstrate a fast launch. Except for SpaceX, the established companies have not been very successful in doing this. Among the startups, the results have been more promising, with Rocket Lab especially demonstrating the ability to install a payload and launch within days.
Though the European plan still appears to be seeped in bureaucratic requirements and top-down management, it is also working to encourage a robust competitive commercial sector with multiple companies, each producing their own variations on the problem. All told, the trend remains positive.
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
Gone, and likely soon to be forgotten
Link here. The article depends almost entirely on anonymous sources, but unlike most propaganda news stories which typically use such sources to push one pro-government perspective, this article includes sources from a range of viewpoints.
According to those sources who wanted the UK Space Agency (UKSA) gone, the agency was eliminated last month because it simply had not been very effective in building up Great Britain’s space industry. First, it was too focused on doing what the European Space Agency wanted.
The U.K. has had a different approach to space than its European counterparts, such as Germany, France and Italy, the source explained. Historically, the U.K. has dedicated most of its resources to the European Space Agency (ESA) rather than pursuing a multipronged approach involving a strong domestic space program and bilateral partnerships independent of ESA. Therefore, over 80% of UKSA’s budget has been placed into ESA. The perception in the government was that UKSA was acting more in line with ESA’s wishes than with the U.K. government’s needs, the source added.
Second, it not only did nothing to alleviate the red tape hampering the industry, its existence added a layer that made things worse. Numerous studies and hearings before Parliament in the past five years have bewailed the situation. The inability of the rocket companies to get launch licenses — for years — proved their correctness.
Meanwhile, the anonymous sources opposing the agency’s elimination argued that without it Great Britain will be in a weaker position negotiating with its ESA partners as well as projecting itself internationally in the space field.
» Read more
An evening pause: Performed live 1972.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
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.
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on June 29, 2025 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It falls into what I call my “What the heck?!” category of Martian land-forms, simply because their shape is so strange and inexplicable it is difficult to conceive a geological process that could create them.
Nor does it help much that we know what these land-forms are made of. The white dot on the overview map above marks the location, inside the 2,000-mile-wide northern mid-latitude strip I label glacier country, because almost every image taken shows glacial features. In this case, this strange geology is located on the floor of a canyon that is part of a large region of chaos terrain, a landscape typical of glacier country. This floor, as well as all the low areas, seems filled with glacial flows. This particular canyon appears to roughly flow downhill to the northwest, though the downhill grade in the entire region varies widely in all directions.
Based on all the orbital data, these flows are glacial in nature, the ice protected by a thin top layer of dirt and debris. The strange features at the top of all the small mesas in the picture above suggest that the wind possibly blew off the dirt and debris, exposing the ice and allowing it to sublimate away. This in turn produced the knobby hollows at the top of each mesa.
I am guessing, and no one should trust my guess considering I only make believe I’m a geologist on the internet.
The European orbiter Juice, on its way to Jupiter, successfully completed its fly-by of Venus on August 31, 2025, zipping 6,923 miles above the planet’s surface to get some of the velocity needed to get to Jupiter in 2031.
It still has to do two more fly-bys of Earth before it has enough speed to reach Jupiter.
There were no science observations during the Venus fly-by, as the spacecraft had to be oriented so that its large high gain antenna would protect its instruments from the Sun’s heat. It appears however that the science team has confirmed the spacecraft is in fine shape using its medium-gain antenna.
Once in orbit around Jupiter the spacecraft’s prime mission will be to do numerous fly-bys of the large icy Galilean moons, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Its data will also reinforce what Europa Clipper will learn while it does the same, beginning in 2030.
South Korea’s space agency KASA today submitted its proposed budget for 2026 that included a 15% budget increase which would bring its funding to just under $8 billion.
According to the national space agency, the proposed funds will be concentrated in six major areas, which include the strengthening of space transportation capacity and new technology acquisition, advancing satellite-based communications, navigation and observation, as well as fostering future space industries through exploration.
The largest requested increases would be for developing new satellite constellations and rockets.
When the South Korean government established this agency in in 2024, it said its goal was to foster private enterprise. The agency itself repeated that assertion in January 2025 when it announced its long term plans. In both cases, however, I sensed a lack of sincerity in these assertions. The government wanted wanted to help build a prosperous aerospace industry, but it clearly wanted to do so with it in control.
Today’s budget request again reinforces my suspicions. KASA might want to encourage a commercial space industry, but it remains unclear whether it will let the private sector develop the satellites and rockets independently, or pay for the development while insisting it owns and controls everything.
Based on past history at NASA, my instincts say KASA will use this big budget to build an empire for its managers. Stay tuned to see if my instincts are correct.
