Tag: quick space links

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.”

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.

• ESA develops carbon-fiber material that can self-heal
  As with too many European research projects, this one is not tied to any profit-making operation, and has a somewhat leisurely schedule.

• Blue Origin buys 20 acres near Cape Canaveral for $11.5 million
  It appears the company wants to accelerate its launch operation in Florida, an excellent development.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who is off on a two week vacation, so no quick links for awhile. 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 Iranian ballistic missile being destroyed by American technology in the stratosphere, mid-arc, outside Earth’s atmosphere
  It is amazing how effective the U.S. military has suddenly become, simply because it now has good and firm leadership focused on defeating tyrants.

• On this day in 1999, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones started the first nonstop balloon flight around the world

• On this day in 2002, the fourth servicing mission to Hubble was launched
  Astronauts installed the Advanced Camera for Surveys, improving its imaging capability 10-fold. The camera is still working, almost a quarter of a century later.

• On this day in 2007, New Horizons captured a 200-mile-high plume erupting on Jupiter’s moon Io
  The spacecraft was on its long journey to Pluto, using Jupiter to slingshot it on its way.

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.

• Lunar Trailblazer failed because the software pointed the solar panels *away* from the Sun
  Apparently Lockheed Martin failed to test the solar panel pointing software before launch. The NPR article the tweet links to of course advocates more money for NASA, even though comparably budgeted commercial lunar missions have succeeded just fine.

• Changes in leadership at NASA’s commercial crew and space operations programs
  The changes appear linked to Starliner report, which put some blame on those in charge at the time.

• The Starship header tank from test flight 9 has washed up in Madagascar
  SpaceX sent out two contractors to inspect it. If SpaceX doesn’t reclaim it, the locals want to turn it into a monument.

• The January 22nd tank failure on Rocket Lab’s Neutron rocket attributed to manufacturing defect by 3rd party contractor
  Rocket Lab has made changes in the design, and is now building the tank in-house. Neutron’s maiden launch is now targeting the fourth quarter of this year.

• Senate version of NASA re-authorization bill bans NASA from buying more than 50% of its launches from one provider
  The bill also allows NASA to seek waivers. Considering that the options other than SpaceX are presently few, expect this rule, if passed into law, to be waived frequently.

• On this day in 1966 a Saturn-1B rocket launched Apollo capsule/service module on its first unmanned test flight
  The suborbital flight was a test both of the Saturn-1B rocket and the Apollo capsule.

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 graphic of the crew ejection system on the Soviet Union’s Buran shuttle
  The copycat of the American shuttle only flew once, unmanned. For all we know this was never installed or even built.

• None of the Soyuz equipment at French Guiana will be preserved as rocket startup MaiaSpace takes over the launchpad
  Some want it put in a museum. The director of the spaceport: “I’m not of that mindset.”

• Australia’s space agency touts its support for India’s Gaganyaan manned mission
  India’s space agency ISRO has installed a tracking antenna at one of Australia’s facilities.

• On this day in 1972 the Soviet Union’s 2nd lunar sample return mission, Luna 20, returned a core sample to Earth
  The sample came from the Moon’s Sea of Fertility. The tweet shows a 2010 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Luna 20 on the lunar surface.

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.

• DIRECTV and SKY Brasil sign deal with Amazon Leo to offer satellite internet across South America
  I suspect that Amazon is offering great deals in order to attract customers, since it is way behind Starlink in market share and operations.

• The reentry Mengzhou capsule used in the recent launch abort test will remain at sea for further drop tests

• On this day in 1969 Mariner 6 was launched on a Mars flyby mission
  Aimed at the Martian southern cratered highlands because that region was thought to exhibit seasonal changes, the images instead showed a lifeless and cratered Mars, much like the Moon, a very mistaken impression.

• On this day in 2009 the Hubble Space Telescope took this photo of Saturn with of its four moons visible—Titan, Mimas, Dione, and Enceladus

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.

• One of the largest known stars has changed color
  The star is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud 160,000 light years away, and has a diameter believed to be 1,500 times that of the Sun. What is happening is not really understood, but the possibilities are fascinating,

• Perseverance’s software can now more precisely pinpoint the rover’s location
  The article makes a lot of silly claims (such as this is “like GPS”), but all that is happening is the software compares multiple images to gather a 3D picture of its surroundings. And it is simply doing it more precisely than in the past.

• On this day in 1990, Pioneer 11 crossed the orbit of Neptune, the first human spacecraft to travel that far
  Contact was lost in 1995.

• On this day in 1997, the Air Force’s Titan IVB rocket launched for the first time
  The tweet shows a photo from the launch of the Cassini-Huygens mission later that 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.

• Video from Sierra Space of the Tenacity Dream Chaser tow tests
  Posted last week, but I think it shows the tow tests done in November 2025. As I noted then, these tow tests should have been done years ago, not after final electromagnetic, telemetry, and vibration tests. There is something wrong here that Sierra Space is not telling us.

• On this day in 1966, the USSR launched an adapted Voskhod spacecraft carrying the dogs Veterok and Ugolyok
  The mission lasted 21 days — the first such long term flight — and returned the dogs alive, though in poor health. They had lost weight, but more important was the discovery that weightlessness caused a loss of bone density.

• On this day in 1969, the Soviet Union attempted the first test flight of its giant N-1 rocket
  The launch was a failure, as were the three that followed.

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.

• Starlab touts its full scale Starlab mock-up at the Johnson Space Center
  The video is less than informative, focused more on sizzle and glitz than real content.

• 25 years ago the crew of Atlantis delivered the Destiny module to ISS
  Took three spacewalks. The image at the tweet shows the shuttle afterward, with an empty cargo bay.

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.

• Iran’s space agency head touts his plans for big rockets and a Starlink-type satellite constellation
  The stuff of fantasy.

• Germany’s space agency completes vibration tests of landing legs for Callisto reusable rocket stage demonstrator
  My heart be still. Callisto was first proposed in 2015 by the ESA, as a response to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Since then it has yet to do a single test flight, while SpaceX has landed more than 500 first stages. And its first demo hop flight won’t happen any sooner than ’27.

• Blue Origin touts its proposed Blue Ring orbital and interplanetary tug
  As Jay says, “Talking the talk, but can they launch the launch?” So far, all evidence says no.

• Did NASA-Ames and San Jose State just test an exobrake drag device in de-orbiting a cubesat this week?
  The tweet says yes, based on the cubesat’s very fast loss of altitude. Nothing however is confirmed.

• On this day in 1930 Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto
  He spotted the planet by comparing two photographic plates taken six days apart.

• On this day in 1986 the Soviet Union used a Proton rocket to launch the first module of its Mir space station
  It took more than a decade to complete (delayed significantly by the fall of the Soviet Union), and was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan. I discovered scads of amazing untold tales in writing Leaving Earth.

• On Feb. 18, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully landed in Jezero Crater on Mars
  The video at the link is garbage, typical NASA PR that mixes animation and live footage in ways that are unethical, topped off with a high-powered music score comparable to a comic book movie trailer. This isn’t science, it is childish propaganda.

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 touts completion of launchpad at Cape Canaveral
  The work also included installation of the oxygen, fuel & water farms and the horizontal integration facility for preparing the rocket and its payloads. Still no announced launch date, but the company is obviously getting close.

• Spanish rocket startup PLD gets another launch contract
  The deal is to launch for Sateliot two internet-of-things satellites in ’27. This is PLD’s second launch contract, the first from the European orbital tug company D-Orbit in 2025. The company hopes to do its first launch in ’26.

• On this date in 1965, the Ranger 8 spacecraft was launched on a mission to the Moon
  It took more than 7,000 high-resolution images before impacting the lunar surface.

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.

• Bankrupt Orbex suddenly shows off images of its Prime rocket
  Jay notes the engines appear to be missing. I note that the rocket was closer to launch than not. It simply couldn’t get past the UK’s red tape.

• The Boeing Starliner exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center is literally “out of order”
  The picture is hilarious, and as noted at the link, “The jokes really write themselves.”

• On this day in 2000, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft captured this rotation movie of the asteroid Eros
  It was the first mission specifically designed to study an asteroid.

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.

• Rocket Lab touts its proposed Mars Telecommunications Orbiter
  It along with Blue Origin and others are competing for the contract, and thus we get these kinds of PR tweets.

• Three hour time lapse from Feb 12th Vulcan launch of post payload deployment with Centaur upper stage dumping fuel and doing a possible disposal maneuver
  Footage taken from ground-based cameras.

• On this day in 1996 a Chinese Long March 3B rocket went out of control right after liftoff at the Xichang spaceport, crashing into town and causing substantial but unconfirmed of casualties
  As Jay notes, “30 years later and [China is] still dropping boosters on villages.” It seems its government cares very little for its people.

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.

• The splashed down Long March 10A test stage has been recovered
  More pictures here. Considering its journey it looks pretty good to me, though Jay thinks it’s “a little banged up.”

• SpaceX removes the crew access jetway at Kennedy launchpad LC 39A
  The pad is being rebuilt for Falcon Heavy and Starship/Superheavy, so no more Falcon 9 manned launches from here.

• Italy’s private high speed train company Italo signs agreement with Starlink
  It will charge passengers nothing for this Wi-Fi access.

• On this day in 2001 the NEAR-Shoemaker probe became the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid
  It had spent about a year flying in formation with Eros. The landing was improvised, as the spacecraft had not been designed to do that.

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.

• Isar Aerospace touts its new 40,000 square meter headquarters/rocket factory
  It plans to produce up to 40 rockets per year once fully operational. Of course, the company needs to successfully launch its rocket first.

• New ‘sungrazing’ comet could become visible to the naked eye, if the sun doesn’t destroy it
  The odds of it surviving its close approach, around a half million miles on April 4, are very slim.

• France commits €1 billion to support replenishment of Eutelsat’s OneWeb constellation
  The writer of the tweet thinks this deal by France is absurd and will simply be a waste of money. And based on OneWeb’s performance so far in competing with Starlink, this opinion could very well be right.

• On this day in 1970 Japan became the fourth country to launch its own satellite on its own rocket
  The satellite, Ohsumi, operated for less than a day, though it remained in orbit until 2003.

• On this day in 1984, Challenger became the first shuttle to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida
  Previously all shuttles landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

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 Long March 10A first stage landing vertically in the ocean during test launch yesterday
  The footage shows the stage landed near the structure of cables that has been designed to catch it. Either it missed, or engineers decided to miss intentionally on this first attempt.

• FCC approves Amazon’s second-generation Leo system, expanding constellation to 7,000+ satellites
  This approval suggests the FCC is going to also approve Amazon’s request for a waiver on its original license requirement to get 1,616 satellites launched by July.

• On this day in 2001 ISS’s first laboratory module, Destiny, was installed by the crew of STS-98
  The tweet includes a great picture of the entire station taken by that crew as the shuttle was leaving.

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 & Boeing still targeting April for unmanned Starliner cargo mission to ISS

• Firefly successfully completes 20-second static fire of Alpha rocket first stage
  The launch window opens no earlier than February 18, 2026, and will hopefully be the first successful Alpha launch since July 2024.

• The first Boeing 747-100 “Jumbo Jet” made its first flight near Seattle on this day in 1969
  The link shows a picture of Boeing’s Seattle factory c1970 with 25 747s parked outside. Now most of Boeing’s facilities have left for other states (with more to follow) to avoid the increasingly oppressive leftist government of Washington, with its high taxes and regulations.

• On this day in 1971 Apollo 14 returned to Earth after a 9-day mission to the Moon
  The crew was Al Shepard, Ed Mitchell, and Stu Roosa, with Shepard hitting a golf ball during the second EVA.

• On that Apollo 14 flight Roosa’s personal kit carried hundreds of tree seeds, part of a joint NASA/USFS project
  Many became the “Moon trees” that were later planted across the nation.

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.

• The only known public image of China’s just launched X-37B copycat
  Called Shenlong, it launched yesterday for its fourth mission.

• The head of the UK Space Agency steps down
  No surprise, as this was expected when the Starmer government decided in August to close down the agency.

• Musk: SpaceX has for the moment shifted focus from Mars to the Moon
  This really isn’t that big a news story. SpaceX’s contracts to land NASA astronauts on the Moon using Starship was going to force the company to do a lot of Moon work. That work is also great for developing the engineering needed by the Mars colony to follow. Even if Musk didn’t declare this change it would have happened naturally.

• Canadian satellite startup Terrestar will partner with “middle power” countries to build its direct-to-cell constellation
  Its main competitors are Starlink and AST SpaceMobile, both of which have a gigantic head start.

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.

• Isaacman: NASA astronauts can now use their smartphones on ISS and Orion
  It appears Isaacman is slashing some old hidebound NASA rules about using commercial store-bought equipment.

• Boeing is shifting 787 Dreamliner work from Washington state to South Carolina
  This accelerated this shift, which began five years ago. The flight from Democratic Party strongholds continues.

• EU’s European Commission awards consortium led by French rocket startup HyPrSpace the contract to develop a fast launch capability
  At present this appears to just be an initial design study, not an actual launch contract.

• Starlink now available in the former Soviet Republic of Tajikistan
  Everyone’s getting it but Russia. It seems invading your neighbors is bad for business in all ways.

• Senate committee delays consideration of bill to streamline FCC satellite licensing
  More shenanigans by stupid members of the swamp. In this case the delay is caused by senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), who appears to want to flex her muscles.

• On this day in 1974 Mariner 10 reached Venus and returned the first close-up photo of the planet
  The image, using an ultraviolet filter, revealed the dark absorption streaks caused by some material in Venus’ atmosphere that still remains unknown. The spacecraft also discovered the super-rotation of that atmosphere, 60 times faster than the planet’s rotation.

• Documentary describing the maiden flight of the space shuttle Challenger in 1983
  I haven’t watched it so I cannot vouch for it. It does appear to be assembled from historic footage.

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’s Haven Demo satellite successfully completes initial de-orbit burn
  Video at the link. The burn proves the company’s technology for doing these kinds of maneuvers on its upcoming Haven-1 station

• Space Forge’s ForgeStar-1 orbiting furnace generates plasma
  This is demonstration technology for manufacturing pure products in space for sale on Earth that can only be made in weightlessness, such as advanced crystals and semiconductor chips

• An image of China’s next generation Mengzhou manned capsule being lifted up onto a Long March 10A test stage
  China hopes to do a test orbital launch of the rocket and capsule 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.

• Vast touts its full-scale life support testing for its Haven-1 single module space station
  It is my understanding that some of these life support functions will be handled by the Dragon capsule that brings up the crew.

• House NASA authorization bill demands numerous reports and paperwork
  While it is good Congress wants to maintain oversight, this bill simply forces NASA to write seven reports (essentially paperwork) that will add little knowledge not already in public domain and that no one will read.

• On this day in 1956 the Soviet Union launched the world’s first ballistic missile carrying a nuclear warhead
  The R-5M rocket flew 740 miles in 10.5 minutes, delivering a nuclear warhead to the Aral Karakum region with a yield of 300 tons of TNT.

• On this day in 1966 the Soviet Union’s Luna 9 became the world’s first spacecraft to land on the Moon and function thereafter
  It returned data for three days. The landing was not soft, as the spacecraft used giant airbags to protect it as it hit the ground hard and bounced several times.

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 picture of the memorial plaque to the crew of Columbia attached to the Spirit rover on Mars
  The shuttle failure occurred just as the rover team at JPL was finishing prepping Spirit for launch, and the team wanted to pay tribute to them.

• China shows off images of ship it will use to recover its Mengzhou manned capsule returning from the Moon
  The tweet notes that the next test of the Long March 10 rocket will be a launch abort test.

• The 2nd stage of first Zhuque-3 rocket launched in December reentered today in the ocean near Antarctica
  It seems the press in Europe was surprisingly interested in this event, for reasons that are unclear.

• JPL touts Perseverance’s first drives using “generative AI”.
  The drives took place on December 8, and 10, 2025. In many ways this story is bogus. They have been using a variation of AI now on both Curiosity and Perseverance for almost two decades. This Perservance thing was just a slightly longer push.

• To block Russian drones from using Starlink, the satellites won’t send data to anything moving faster than 75 km/hour
  Apparently, the Russian drones fly at higher speeds. The limitation however is lifted for registered Ukrainian terminals.

• On this day in 1977, the test engineering shuttle Enterprise traveled 35 miles from factory to Edwards Air Force Base on a 90-wheel trailer
  It moved at approximately 3 miles per hour.

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.

• PLD provides detailed update on construction of its MIURA 5 rocket
  Very impressive video. They continue to appear on schedule for a 2026 launch.

• Astrolab touts its FLEX unmanned demo lunar rover, and its compact configuration during transport
  Once on the Moon it will unfold.

• Chinese pseudo-company Ispace admits the first launch of its Hyperbola-3 rocket will be postponed
  The tweet touts tests of their strongback, and only mentions the delay as an aside. Jay says the company is now saying it will slip to 2027.

• SpaceX to offer at no cost to all satellite operators the data from its Stargaze system used by Starlink satellites to determine positions precisely
  It is doing this to help avoid collisions. Others should do the same, though no one knows what the large Chinese satellite constellation operators will do.

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.

• Blue Origin successfully completes soft capture test of docking system to be used on its manned lunar lander and Orbital Reef space station
  As far as I know, this could be the first real hardware Blue Origin has built for Orbital Reef.

• Declassifying JUMPSEAT, a surveillance satellite program from the ’70s and ’80s
  The satellites used a high elliptical orbit that favored high latitude observations, excellent for monitoring Soviet military operations.

• I bought “Remove Before Flight” tags on eBay in 2010—it turns out they’re from Challenger’s final flight
  Very interesting story about collecting miscellaneous space memorabilia that turns out to come from a very significant space mission.

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.

• MAVEN engineers resume effort to reestablish contact with Mars orbiter
  Don’t get your hopes up. It is almost certainly lost.

• On this day in 1961 the Air Force selected the Titan II rocket to launch its proposed X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane
  The program was cancelled before it ever flew.

• On this day in 1986 Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Uranus
  A short video at the link gives a nice short summary of what the spacecraft learned.