3 Doors Down – Kryptonite
An evening pause: Performed live 2025.
Hat tip Wayne DeVette.
Amazon’s Kuiper constellation wins contract from Australian telecom
The Australian telecommunications company NBN has now signed a contract with Amazon to use its Kuiper constellation of satellites, once operational, to provide internet access to its customers.
It appears that Amazon will sell its Kuiper terminals through NBN, instead of directly to customers, unlike Starlink which generally sells direct (unless local law forbids it). In this case it could be the Australian government is requiring these constellations to make such deals. It is also possible that government is playing favorites, favoring Amazon (not operational) over Starlink (now operational for years with millions of customers.
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.
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
Firefly raises stock price for its initial public offering
Firefly now expects the stock price for its initial public offering (IPO) from $35-$39 per share to $41-$43, increasing the expected capital it will raise to as much as almost $700 million.
This will raise the company’s value to as much as $6 billion.
Rocket Lab and China complete launches
Two launches since yesterday. First Rocket Lab used its Electron rocket to place a Japanese commercial radar satellite into orbit, lifting off from one of its two launchpads in New Zealand.
Next China’s Long March 12 rocket lifted off from its Wencheng coastal spaceport, placing another set of satellites in orbit for one of China’s mega-constellations intended to compete with Starlink..
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
97 SpaceX
42 China
11 Rocket Lab
9 Russia
SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 97 to 73.
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.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“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.
Bananarama – Cruel Summer
An evening pause: Performed live c2010, in Italy.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
August 4, 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.
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.
Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.
"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
SpaceX launches 28 more Starlink satellites
SpaceX last night successfully launched 28 more Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.
The first stage completed its 21st flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.
The leaders in the 2025 launch race:
97 SpaceX
41 China
10 Rocket Lab
9 Russia
SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 97 to 71.
On the road volunteering
Posting shall be light through Tuesday, as I am participating as a volunteer in north Arizona for Luke5Adventures.
Basically I am combining hiking with service, for fun. I will try to post in my free time, but don’t expect any essays.
August 1, 2025 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
B1M – Building the newest biggest neutrino telescope
An evening pause: Worth watching, though this underground telescope won’t be operational any earlier than 2032, and considering the present political situation related to government funding, it might never get finished at all.
Hat tip Cotour.
August 1, 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.
- Intuitive Machines wins $9.8 million government contract to further develop its orbital tug
The press release makes it clear the contract is NOT from NASA, but does not reveal the agency involved.
- Vast touts the testing of the radio systems on its Haven Demo spacecraft
Haven Demo is simply a satellite to test in space the systems Vast plans to use on its Haven-1 space station, with launch before the end of the year. Haven-1 will follow in 2026.
Echostar issues contract to build satellites for direct-to-phone constellation
Echostar has awarded the satellite company MDA Space a $1.3 billion contract to build the first 100 satellites in its proposed direct-to-phone constellation that will compete directly with the constellations of SpaceX’s Starlink and AST SpaceMobile.
The initial contract, valued at approximately US$1.3 billion (approx. C$1.8 billion), includes the design, manufacturing and testing of over 100 software-defined MDA AURORA™ D2D satellites. With contract options, enabling a full initial configuration of a network of over 200 satellites, the value of the contract would increase to an approximate total value of US$2.5 billion (approx. C$3.5 billion). EchoStar envisions future growth to thousands of satellites, as demand requires, to provide global talk, text and broadband services directly to standard 5G handheld devices.
The constellation will be fully compliant with the newly created NTN and 3GPP standards, allowing EchoStar to provide messaging, voice, broadband data, and video services upon launch to all phones configured to this standard, without modifications. Additionally, the constellation will connect to an array of sensor and mobile vehicles.
All three constellations are designed to provide cell service in areas where there are no cell towers. The satellites themselves become the cell towers, in orbit.
Since most people today access the internet via their smartphones, I can see these direct-to-phone constellations eventually becoming the prime method for accessing the web. Why have a separate provider for your web services when these constellations can give you that as well as phone service. It is for this reason I suspect Echostar is jumping on the bandwagon.
This move also suggests the older Starlink and Kuiper constellations, that only provide web service, are going to eventually get superseded. For Starlink this isn’t really a threat, as it is already beginning the transition to this new technology and can likely shift its millions of customers to it easily when the time comes. For Amazon’s Kuiper constellation, however, it appears it might be arriving too late in the game.
More proof that in capitalism speed is essential. Amazon has simply moved too slowly in launching its constellation.
Hat tip Btb’s stringer Jay.