Tag: 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.

• New dates for future American ISS manned missions: Crew 13 (September 12, 2026); Crew 14 (March 2027); Crew 15/Starliner-2 (October 2027)
  Before that Starliner manned mission an unmanned cargo mission must happen first, and it must go off without a hitch.

• On April 24th in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was placed in orbit from the shuttle Discovery

• Video of Russian astronauts during spacewalk in 2018, finding the hole drilled in the Soyuz capsule before launch
  Though they had sealed the hole on the inside of the capsule, they wanted to look at it on the outside to confirm it was man-made. Though the Russians have said they figured out who drilled the hole, eight years later they still refuse to tell anyone.

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 approves providing Europe’s Mars Franklin rover its rocket, landing engines, and radioisotope heater units
  The agency has chosen to purchase a Falcon Heavy for the planned 2028 launch. Meanwhile, the rover’s lander remains unfinished, though Airbus and Sener have contracts to create it. Russia was originally supposed to provide it, but was kicked out of the project when it invaded the Ukraine in 2022.

• Video of a 1959 Project Orion test using chemical explosive charges to lift a capsule
  This was only a preliminary demonstration. Project Orion’s eventual goal was to prove you could propel a spacecraft through a series of nuclear explosions in order to generate thrust.

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.

• Video of a ground test of China’s proposed system to catch rocket first stages using cables
  It looks to be a half scale engineering test prototype. The system seems very Rube Goldberg, but for once China is actually doing something original.

• Drone pictures showing the aftermath of Blue Origin’s incident at their 2CAT facility
  Holes are still visible in the roof with some debris outside.

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.

Jay sent these to me when I didn’t have the wherewithal to post it. I am doing it now, a bit late.

• Rocket Lab touts is satellite deployment system used on Artemis II

• First flight of ugraded Angara-5M rocket, carrying a prototype of Russia’s new manned capsule is delayed until 2027-2028
  A two to three year delay. Does anyone believe this?

• Russia cancels building a reusable version of Angara due to lack of funds
  Russia should thank Putin and his incredibly stupid invasion of the Ukraine for bankrupting his country.

• Blue Origin touts its “scalable, modular system that creates purified oxygen … using Moon-extracted oxygen”
  Once again, we could use less touting and more real hardware from Blue Origin.

• New comet might be visible to the naked eye this weekend
  Comet C/2025 R3 (Pan-STARRS) is in an orbit that has it fly close to the Sun every 170,000 years. It will only be visible to people in the southern hemisphere.

• Vast touts its astronaut flight suit to be used on its Haven-1 single module space station launching next year.
  It definitely looks more comfortable and nicer than SpaceX’s Dragon flight suits.

• Just released: NASA Moon Base User’s Guide [pdf]
  Unlike past NASA releases like this — which try to paint NASA as having all the answers — this short summary is largely focused on the “gaps” in engineering and equipment needed for the Moon base. Thus, it is a guide for the private sector: “This is what we need! If you build it we will buy it!”

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.

I have also scheduled it earlier in the day because I am presently asleep, recovering from knee surgery.

• Artemis-2 Orion capsule being examined by NASA engineers
  The video really shows nothing of note, as the capsule is sitting on the heat shield so it can’t really be seen in any detail.

• India’s space agency ISRO completes tests of landing engine to be used on its Chandrayaan-5 lunar lander
  The mission includes a Japanese-built rover, and is supposed to launch in 2028.

• Details about Chang’e-7’s mini-hopper probe designed to go into the permanently shadowed craters near the lunar south pole and drill for water-ice
  If China gets any reliable evidence of ice back from this hopper it will be a real coup. It is scheduled to launch later this year.

• Roscosmos head tells Putin an “enemy attempted to attack the Plesetsk cosmodrome with drones”
  Apparently the attack — likely from the Ukraine — occurred during the scrubbed first attempt to launch the first 16 satellites of Russia’s Russvet internet constellation in March.

• Starlink production is apparently moving from California to Texas
  We know this because SpaceX is looking to hire someone to direct the new Texas operations. It is unclear if the company intends to shut down its California operations, though no one should be surprised if it does.

• Virgin Atlantic will begin making Starlink available on its planes sooner, in May
  The original plan was July or later.

• On this day in 1961, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly into space
  He completed one orbit in his Vostok capsule.

• 45 years ago today, the space shuttle Columbia launched on its first orbital spaceflight
  It flew 28 missions before being destroyed in 2003 during re-entry because falling foam from the external tank at launch damaged its thermal protection system.

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.

• Roof and facility damage at Blue Origin’s Cape Canaveral test facility suggests it had a unintentional testing failure
  The tweet says it is related to “a GS2 tank in the 2Cat test facility”.

• Blue Origin announces successful thermal vacuum chamber testing of its unmanned Blue Moon Mark-1 lunar lander
  It is dubbed Endurance, and is now being shipped back to Florida. The company still plans to launch it to the Moon this year.

• Animation of Astrolab’s small Flip demo lunar rover, set to launch later this year on Astrobotic’s Griffin lander
  Astrolab hopes the success of Flip will help it win a NASA contract to build its manned Flex rover.

• Images of Orion in space, taken by the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory
  Its nothing more than a dot, but it is still cool a ground-based telescope can track it.

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.

• Stoke Space shows off factory pictures of its almost complete Nova rocket
  No launch date yet announced.

• Axiom celebrates the fourth anniversary of its first Axiom tourist mission to ISS
  It was ISS’s first private tourist mission, as the early tourist flights were flown by the Russians.

• Images of the strongback rehearsal at the Long March 10B launchpad at China’s Wenchang spaceport
  The tweet says the first launch may be noon April 28th, with an attempt to recover the first stage, captured horizontally by cables on a barge.

• Artemis II crew showcase the American flag that the canceled Apollo 18 mission would have planted on the Moon
  Never flew because Congress cancelled all Apollo missions after Apollo 17. Flying it around the Moon now is a nice gesture.

• On this day in 1964, Gemini 1 launched, an unmanned mission to test the Gemini spacecraft and Titan II rocket

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.

• Elon Musk’s Terafab computer chip project signs partnership deal with Intel
  As always, Musk means it when he says he is going to do something.

• Russia postpones its Luna-28, Luna-29 and Luna-30 missions, again
  Luna-28 was supposed to launch in 2030. The new schedule: Luna-29 in 2032, Luna-30 in 2034, and Luna-28 in 2036. As with all modern Russian space projects, the launch date is an ever receding phenomenon. For some reason it never gets closer.

• Startup Lunar Outposts touts its Owl autonomous lunar excavators, that over 15 days broke up and hauled 12 metric tons of concrete‑hard regolith simulant
  The video is impressive. Get this equipment to the Moon and building a base looks quite doable.

• Russia ships its dust monitoring instrument to China for China’s Chang’e-7 lunar lander
  Russia delivers something! The launch is for later this year.

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.

• 2001 A Space Odyssey Fail
  You have to watch it to understand.

• Video of something going boom during a SpaceX static fire test at its McGregor test facility yesterday
  We don’t know if it was a planned test-to-failure or an unplanned boom.

• Blue Origin touts completion of another BE-7 engine used by its Blue Moon manned and unmanned lunar landers
  I just wish instead of touting things they’d just do more launches.

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.

• Aer Lingus signs with Starlink to provide Wi-Fi on its planes
  The airline expects full deployment on its entire fleet by early 2027.

• Ground-based video showing Orion 200,000 miles from Earth.
  See how fast you can spot it.

• China touts its New Shepard copy, set for an October 2026 maiden flight

• NASA stops work on SLS Mobile Launcher 2
  No surprise. The whole project was a terrible waste of money, from day one. Kudos to Isaacman for finally killing it.

• On this day in 1972, Pioneer 11 launched on an Atlas Centaur rocket
  It was the second spacecraft to fly by Jupiter and the first to fly past Saturn.

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.

• For those interested… The Orion toilet is in the floor of the spacecraft
  At the moment it is working after a short blip early on.

• Tracking Orion and its upper stage in orbit
  Footage comes from the company s2a, which provides situational awareness imagery for both the military and civilian satellite users.

• Japan’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) spacecraft arrives at Tanegashima spaceport
  Set to launch in ’26, it will attempt to bring back a sample from Phobos.

• Amazon still negotiating its acquisition of Globalstar
  It appears Apple’s 20 per cent stake in Globalstar is complicating the deal.

• Roscosmos head says Russia’s post-ISS station would be assembled at ISS
  Supposedly they will add a new docking hub there, attach new modules, and eventually separate. The real question is whether they can get it built and launched in time, as Roscosmos has not done such a thing in decades.

• On this day in 1960, the world’s first weather satellite, TIROS-1, was launched
  Its imagery was first to see true weather patterns, changing forever the science of meteorology.

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.

• A quick look at SpaceX’s next-generation Raptor 3 engine
  This is apparently a clip from a longer video but no link was provided.

• Delta airlines signs up Amazon’s Leo constellation to provide internet to its fleet
  Scheduled to start in 2028.

• China targets 140 launches in 2026
  China has started the year slow. To meet this goal it will have really pick up the pace.

• Exclusive: NASA’s Jared Isaacman Talks Artemis II, Moon Base, & Gateway Corrosion
  Mostly a repeat of what Isaacman has said before, except for one item: He confirmed the rumors that some parts of Lunar Gateway have become “corroded”, though he denied the corrosion was “beyond repair.”

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.

• Picture of the Qingzhou prototype cargo spacecraft launched two days ago on Kinetica-2’s maiden flight
  It is being developed as a cheaper alternative to the Tianzhou cargo capsule presently being used to supply China’s Tiangong-3 station.

• On this day in 1970 the first American satellite, Explorer 1, re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere after 12 years in orbit
  It made the first detection of the Van Allen radiation belt, returning data until its batteries were exhausted after nearly four months.

• On this day in 1991 the Soviet Union launched Almaz-1 to do military radar imaging
  The Almaz module was originally conceived as a manned surveillance station, but was repurposed for all of the Soviet civilian Salyut stations as well as the basic module for all subsequent Russian stations. After 18 months Almaz-1 was de-orbited on October 17, 1992 over the Pacific Ocean.

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.

• Vast touts the start of the build-out of the intervior of its Haven-1 single module station
  Launch is still targeting the first quarter of ’27.

• Scientists discover large and rare new lunar impact that took place sometime in the late spring of 2024
  The Lunar Reconnaissance images show it to be about 750 feet wide with a depth of about 140 feet.

• China releases picture of Curiosity’s lander heat shield and parachute, taken by its Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter
  X’s translation mis-translates MRO, which stands for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been monitoring this debris for more than a decade.

• Former Soviet astronaut Sergey Krikalev says the first flight of Russia’s new capsule, dubbed Oryol or PTK-NP, is expected in 2028
  If you have faith in this promise I have a bridge in Brooklyn I could sell you cheap.

• Amazon asks FCC approval to test in Northridge, California, “a custom SATCOM user terminal” for its Leo constellation
  Jay suggests this could be a test for the Pentagon, based on the military facilities in Northridge.

• On this day in 1982 the Columbia shuttle landed at White Sands, New Mexico
  It was only shuttle to land outside of Florida and California.

• Messenger’s first picture taken after achieving orbit around Mercury, 15 years ago today
  The picture shows Debussy crater.

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.

• Elon Musk touts SpaceX’s completion of more than 500 rocket landings
  As Al Jolson once said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

• PLD touts successful strongback testing using a full‑scale mockup of its Muira-5 rocket
  The strongback now gets shipped to their French Guina launchpad. First launch still targeting this year.

• Astroscale touts its almost year-long ADRAS‑J rendezvous demo mission, now preparing for de-orbit
  It did fly-around observations within 50 feet of an abandoned upper stage. The company plans a follow-up mission to de-orbit that stage in 2027.

• Chinese pseudo-company Sustain Space completes a week-long first set of tests of an early robotic refueling arm onboard its Xiyuan-0 satellite
  Nice video at the link. More info here. No fueling was done. They were testing the arm’s ability to move and hit a refueling port.

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.

• Vast issues a statement supporting NASA new space station plans
  Not surprising, as their module development program can easily fit with NASA’s own core module proposal.

• JAXA posts update on the most recent launch failure of its H3 rocket
  Engineers have “almost pinpointed” the failure to a honeycomb panel, a failure apparently noted previously. Two solutions are being considered.

• Astroforge touts its precision laser mining system that extracts material without the need for a drill
  Still needs to be tested in space or on the Moon.

• Namibia rejects Starlink because SpaceX refused to give it ownership rights
  And like South Africa, SpaceX said nope! And so Namibia remains in the dark age.

• Today in 1655 Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovered Titan, Saturn’s largest moon

• In 1999, NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter was lost when one team used imperial units (pounds) and another used metric units (newtons)
  One of the most egregious failures by NASA ever.

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.

• Astronomers think they have imaged two exoplanets forming in disk around young star
  I reported this discovery in October 2025. The scientists have now published their paper [pdf].

• On this day in 1961 Explorer 10 was launched to study the Earth’s magnetic field
  It was the first satellite to measure the “shock wave” generated by a solar flare.

• Tom Mueller, SpaceX employee #1, marks the first launch of Falcon 1 20 years ago today
  He notes, “Very short flight less than a minute up and back down to crash on the reef. We learned a lot that day.”

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.

• Amazon outlines its effort to accelerate the launch of its Leo satellites
  Sounds good, but it will all depend on whether the rockets it depends on, other than SpaceX or ULA, can get off the ground. Right now it is questionable Blue Origin’s New Glenn and Arianespace’s Ariane-6 can launch soon or very quickly.

• A Florida-based company, Seagate Space, is developing modular offshore launch platforms
  It joins two European companies attempting to do the same.

• Blue Origin touts the ongoing assembly of its 2nd Blue Moon MK1 unmanned lunar lander
  Blue Origin still has to launch the first.

• Rocket Lab touts its Rutherford rocket engine, having launched more than 800 so far on its Electron rocket
  The company hopes in 2026 to launch another 200+.

• More moons for Jupiter and Saturn!
  Jupiter now has 101, while Saturn has 285. Nor should anyone expect these numbers to remain this low.

• Gus Grissom and John Young became the first astronauts to fly the Gemini spacecraft on this day in 1965
  The 5-hour Gemini-3 mission tested the new maneuverable Gemini spacecraft, designed expressly to demonstrate docking and rendezvous as well as missions from one to two-weeks long.

• On March 23, 1983, the Soviet Union launched the Astron-1 space telescope on its Proton rocket from Baikonur
  It operated in a highly elliptical orbit to study sources of UV and X-rays and functioned for about 6-8 years.

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.

• New study says giant exoplanets spin fast while brown dwarf stars spin slow
  The distinction, if confirmed, will help astronomers figure out which is which, since sometimes it has been hard to tell them apart.

• Summary of new Chinese papers describing its manned lunar mission
  Specifically, the papers outline the Mengzhou command module’s abort plans if something goes wrong in lunar orbit, and the Lanyue lunar lander’s mission profile for landing on the Moon

• “If the astronomers don’t like Starlink satellites, they haven’t seen nothing yet”
  There are a lot more much larger satellite constellations coming. Time for astronomy to get off the Earth and above this stuff.

• On this day in 2001 Russia’s Mir space station burned up over the Pacific, after 15 years in space
  In interviewing many Russian astronauts in 2003 they were routinely appalled the Russia didn’t try to salvage some parts of it, if only for studying how its materials were impacted after so many years in space.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. The last link also comes from reader Gary. 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.

• K2 Space has shipped its first demo satellite, called Gravitas, to the launch site
  The satellite is aimed at producing a lot of power, 20 kilowatts of electricity, for a variety of customers, including the proposed data center constellations.

• Portal Space Systems and Paladin Space partner to launch commercial orbiting debris removal service
  Starlab has signed a letter of intent to use it, should the partnership demonstrate it can do what it promises

• Meteorite hunters scour Ohio for fragments of 7-ton space rock that crashed into Earth
  Two pieces apparently have already been found, with one spotted by someone near their garage as they leaving for work.

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.

• Documentary about OTRAG, a 1970s attempt by the Germans to build a private rocket launching from Zaire
  Worth watching. They had one successful suborbital launch, followed by a spectacular failure seconds after launch.

• A report about another private startup studying ideas on grabbing an asteroid
  Everything is very preliminary.

• Nice animation showing the deployment of Max Space’s proposed inflatable Thunderbird space station
  The narration says the company hopes to fly it in ’29, but first it has to successfully fly a smaller demo mission planned in ’27.

• Vast touts the gyroscopes it is developing in-house to provide attitude control its space stations
  Haven-1, scheduled for launch in ’27, will use these, as well the larger Haven-2 station, if built.

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.

• Picture looking out from the new service platform for the Soyuz-2 launchpad at Baikonur
  You can see a Soyuz-2 rocket on its side, approaching on the right.

• Blue Origin’s CEO touts the work at its BE-4 engine shop
  He notes they are ready to install the BE-4 engines on the next New Glenn first stage for launch.

• Chinese official describes China’s 1st planetary defense test mission at a conference
  Launch is scheduled for December 2027 on a Long March-3B, and will include an “impactor” and observer spacecraft. The target is unclear, as well as their specific plans. Based on this vague description, it sounds like a copy of the Dart mission.

• On this day in 1965 the Soviet Union launched Voskhod-2, carrying Pavel Belyayev and Alexei Leonov
  Leonov would use an inflatable airlock to do the first spacewalk. When his own suit expanded, he could not squeeze back in. After eight minutes of fruitless struggle, he only managed to re-enter the capsule by expelling air from his own suit.

• This week in 2011 Messenger entered orbit around Mercury after a seven year journey
  It operated for more than four years, mapping the planet’s surface while discovering there might be water ice in its polar craters.

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.

• Firefly touts its planned constellation of lunar Elytra satellites providing relay communications to Earth
  Each of the next three Blue Ghost lander missions will deploy an Elytra in lunar orbit, which will also provide imagery and mapping data for other landing missions.

• The Parker Solar Probe completed its 27th close fly-by of the Sun on March 11, 2026
  It flew just 3.8 million miles from the solar surface at a record-matching 430,000 mph, and began sending the data back from that fly-by today.

• On this day in 1966 Neil Armstrong and David Scott launched aboard Gemini VIII
  Six hours later they accomplished the first ever docking of two spacecraft in orbit, only to be forced to do an emergency undocking and return-to-Earth when a thruster began misfiring 27 minutes after docking, spinning both spacecraft uncontrollably.

• Today marks 100 years since Robert Goddard completed the first successful test of a liquid-fueled rocket
  Though the rocket flew just 41 feet in the air, landing in a nearby cabbage patch, the engineering achievement has become the foundation of almost all rocketry.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, whom we welcome back from his vacation. 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.

• The Shahroud Space Center in northeastern Iran suffered extensive damage from U.S./Israeli air strikes
  According to the tweet, 27 locations were hit at the center, with nearly 70% of its existing building stock destroyed.

• The Soviet Union’s Salyut 3 station, launched in 1974 supposedly “carried a modified 23mm R-23M aircraft autocannon” on its exterior
  The tweet says the Soviets tested it successfully just before de-orbiting the then unmanned station in 1975. While I know the Russians included handguns on some of its early stations, I have never heard this story before, so I must admit I am somewhat skeptical.

As BtB’s stringer Jay is on vacation, here are a few links I spotted that don’t deserve full posts. 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 to lower the orbits of 1,600 Starlink satellites to improve customer signal quality
  The reduction is about 70 kilometers, and the company plans to lower as many 4,400 satellites before it is done.

• The head of Amazon’s Leo constellation suddenly left the company in February
  No replacement has as yet been named, but a further management shake-up is expected.

• ISRO completes static fire test of the engine for its LVM rocket at higher thrusts
  The Indian space agency has been upgrading and testing this engine for the past several months. The LVM is the rocket it wishes to use for its manned, space station, and planetary missions.

As BtB’s stringer Jay is on vacation, here are a few links I spotted that don’t deserve full posts. 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.

• Scientists: Our Sun formed with a bunch of similar stars which migrated out from galaxy’s center
  You can read the papers here and here. Lots of uncertainty and assumptions, but intriguing nonetheless.

• Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first liquid-fueled rocket launch by Robert Goddard
  A great man who should not be forgotten.

As BtB’s stringer Jay is on vacation, here are a few links I spotted that don’t deserve full posts. 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.

• The Paso Robles city council approves plan to make its airport a spaceport
  Don’t bet on any orbital launches from this California city, for years if ever. There are no horizontal rockets presently operational, few are in development, and launching from California’s burdensome regulatory and anti-business government will discourage any that eventually start flying to come here. There are too many far better choices.

• Meteorite breaks up over Europe, with some pieces crashing on a German home
  It is estimated the asteroid was a few meters in diameter.

• NASA inspector general generally approves its commercial manned lunar lander program
  You can read the report here [pdf]. While it identifies a number of relatively minor management issues, it admits that relying on private companies to build the lunar lander has controlled cost, kept it low, and is proceeding at reasonable speed. It whines about whether either SpaceX or Blue Origin will be ready for a 2028 manned landing, but recognizes that both are proceeding with all due speed. Note too that this report is out-of-date, as it does not include the recent reshaping of the entire Artemis program.

As BtB’s stringer Jay is on vacation, here are two links I spotted that don’t deserve full posts. 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.

• Texas Supreme Court hears oral arguments in lawsuit against SpaceX’s ability to limit access to public beachs
  The plaintiffs are the usual suspects — Save RGV, the Sierra Club and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas — the same fringe activist groups that have been trying to block SpaceX in Boca Chica from day one. Based on the judges’ questions, I suspect this lawsuit has about as much chance of winning as a snowflake in hell.

• Scientists grow chickpeas in simulated lunar soil
  They found that the lunar soil became viable for chickpeas when about 25% included a specific fungus and a byproduct of red wiggler earthworm.

As BtB’s stringer Jay is on vacation, there wasn’t going to be a quick links today. Then Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas sent me the two links below. Thank you Robert!

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.

• Burning up the last JP7 fuel, specially created for SR-71
  “They were ordered to get rid of the rest of the JP7 SR 71 fuel, so it was agreed…. Let’s burn it.!”

• Firefly’s interstage for Northrop Grumman’s Antares 330 rocket has passed qualification testing
  No word yet on when this Antares-330 rocket will finally fly, using Firefly’s first stage.

As BtB’s stringer Jay is on vacation, here are a few links I spotted that don’t deserve full posts. 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.

• Redwire touts its new solar array available for sale to spacecraft and satellites
  The company says it produces 50% more power while being smaller and lighter.

• China successfully conducts laser communications between a geosynchronous satellite and ground station
  According to China’s state-run press, it did “two-way data transmission at 1 gigabit per second over a distance exceeding 40,000 kilometers.”