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.

• ESA strikes new deal with NASA in its partnership commitments at ISS
  I read this article earlier today and decided not to post it because it does not make clear what has changed.

• Close-up images of Zhuque-3 first stage engines and tanks coming apart just before impact
  This was that first attempt to land the stage on December 2, 2025.

• New video of the Zhuquie-3 first stage crash
  This footage is quite spectacular.

• On this day in 1973, the Soviet Union launched Luna 21 with their second successful lunar rover, Lunokhod 2
  The tweet shows a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter photo of the rover on the floor of the crater Le Monnier.

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.

• Europe’s Orion service module for Artemis-4 mission arrives at Kennedy tests and integration
  This is for the second SLS/Orion manned landing, likely to happen no earlier than 2030. I would not be surprised if Starship does a commercial landing beforehand.

• The Philippine Coast Guard recovers Chinese rocket debris found floating in its territorial waters on January 1, 2026
  Likely from the Long March 7A that launched on December 30, 2025.

• Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov says it will use Proton and Soyuz rockets based in Baikonur to launch the first modules of its new space station
  In other words, neither its new Angara rocket nor its Vostochny spaceport are capable of doing the job yet, and Russia doesn’t have the resources to get either up to speed quickly. Both have been in development for almost a quarter century.

• China says its Wangyu moon space suits will do electrical , structural , thermal control environment testing in 2026
  They predict the suits to be ready for use by 2028. Whether they will be ready to launch a manned mission to the Moon by that date is less certain.

• On this day in 1610 Galileo first observed the four largest moons of Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto
  They are now called the Galilean satellites, and are joined by at least 95 more Jupiter moons.

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.

• China sends 28 astronauts on week-long underground cave trip
  This is the same PR silliness that NASA and ESA have done. Caving is fun and it does teach survival skills, but those skills also have little to do with what astronauts will do in space or on other worlds.

• Starlink provides free broadband service to the people of Venezuela through February 3
  Gee, isn’t it nice when Americans actually support the idea of freedom and liberation from dictators?

• On this day in 1998, Lunar Prospector was launched to the Moon
  It was the first NASA mission to the Moon in a quarter century. Its data confirmed data from Clementine, an earlier Defense Department lunar orbiter, that suggested there was water ice in the Moon’s permanently shadowed polar craters. That conclusion as yet however remains unproven.

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 Spanish communications satellite suffers ‘space particle’ impact
  It appears the satellite was hit by a very tiny micro-meteoroid, but moving at a high relative speed.

• On this day in 1958 Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, burned up on reentry into Earth’s atmosphere
  It had transmitted signals back to Earth for almost a month before its batteries died.

• On this day in 2004 the rover Spirit landed in Gusev Crater
  Its 90-day mission would last more than 6 years. Its twin, Opportunity, would last more than 14 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.

• Astronomers detect a three-galaxy merger, the third ever discovered
  The headline at the link is utter garbage, designed as clickbait. The headline I have given you describes the story’s text accurately. One other detail: All three galaxies also appear to have active nuclei, suggesting the presence of supermassive black holes.

• SpaceX accounts for more than 70% of the world’s total payload mass launched in 2025
  This graph is a nice additional data point I will use in my annual global launch report.

• On this day in 1924 astronomer Edwin Hubble announced that the spiral nebula Andromeda is a distant galaxy like the Milky Way
  Thus proving that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies in the universe.

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.

• Chinese pseudo-company Interstellor touts testing of the landing thrusters on its CYZ-1 crew capsule
  It blurred the thrusters. Jay rightly asked “What’s there to blur? We all know it is a copy.” To my eye, it appears to be copying Stoke’s concept.

• Chinese pseudo-company Azspace touts absurdly ambitious plans for 2026
  It says they will inaugurate a reusable suborbital capsule for tourists, a commercial space station, a larger orbital spacecraft, and a re-entry capsule. Wanna bet?

• Typical mainstream propaganda piece opposing White House proposal to close the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado
  Mainstream outlets (in this case Space News) always oppose all government budget cuts, blindly and without any thought. This is just another example. I have become very bored with their empty-headed predictability.

• NASA touts Perseverance’s excellent health, bragging it can function until at least 2031
  This story was from a week or two ago. It is just NASA lobbying for cash. Perseverance was always expected to last that long, if not longer, especially as it has upgrades that Curiosity lacks. And yet Curiosity is still going strong after more than a dozen years.

• A nice summary of what was learned when Voyager 1 and 2 passed through the boundary of our solar system, the heliopause
  Voyager 1 crossed in 2012. Voyager 2 did it in 2018. Both are still functioning, though their lifespan is only another few years.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay and 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.

• Oblique panorama of Pluto produced by images taken by New Horizons in 2015
  A truly wonderful cool image, well worth viewing.

• Chinese scientists model how charged lunar dust grains stick to spacecraft
  The research was published in August 2024, but highlighted this week at the link. The model is also a variation of many other comparable theories, including some that have already been harnessed in actual experiments, including one by Blue Ghost on the Moon.

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.

• Russia patents space station designed to generate artificial gravity
  And I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you cheap! The chances of Russia building this in the next decade is nil. Nor does this patent have any force of law outside Russia. The idea is not original.

• Apollo 8 entered lunar orbit this week
  Nice picture at the link, but if you really want to know what happened on this mission, you need to read Genesis: The story of Apollo 8.

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.

• Sidus Space wins contract from Missile Defense Agency
  The press release is very vague, par for the course for these kind of defense contract awards. It appears the program could be worth up to $151 billion, but I doubt that is all going to Sidus.

• Video from Chile shows Japan’s H3 rocket’s second stage burning up after its launch failure two days ago
  The location suggests it survived just one orbit.

• Video of the Long March 12A first stage break-up prior to landing
  The video doesn’t show much, other than the stage appeared to fail prior to landing.

• On this day in 1999, astronauts worked the first of three spacewalks for the third Hubble servicing mission
  The crew replaced failed gyroscopes and installed a new computer and fine guidance sensor.

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.

• Smallsat company Axelspace signs multi-launch agreement with launch integrator Exolaunch
  Exolaunch acts as the agent for the satellite company to find the right launch provider.

• Pale Blue to provide thrusters for Axelspace microsatellite
  The deal is for a demo flight in 2027.

• Video of Dawn Aerospace’s Mk-II Aurora drone as it reaches 20 kilometer altitude in 118 seconds
  Beats the F-15 Streak Eagle’s 1975 record by 4 seconds.

• ISRO successfully tests deployment of the Gaganyaan drogue parachutes
  Fun video of the test.

• NordSpace’s commercial Atlantic Spaceport Complex (ASX) on Newfoundland gets its environmental assessment approved
  One of two new spaceport startups on Canada’s eastern seaboard.

• Rocket Lab wins its largest satellite contract award yet, $816 million to build 18 missile tracking satellites for the Pentagon
  Rocket Lab continues to establish itself strongly in all aspects of space, from rockets to satellites.

• Notice to Airman (NOTAM) suggests China will attempt the first launch of its reusable Long March 12A on December 23, 2025
  The launch will be from China’s Jiuquan spaceport, with the interior landing zone probably the same used by the Zhuque-3 rocket two weeks ago. Note that this is not the first Long March 12A NOTAM, so there are no certainties about this launch.

• Today, December 21, 2025, marks the tenth year anniversary of SpaceX’s the first successful landing of an orbital class Falcon 9 booster
  The video at the link, by National Geographic, unfortunately turns this historic event into a fake movie drama, with music and editing to rob it of its reality. Go here to watch the actual live stream.

  That landing changed rocketry forever. As I wrote the next day:

  Despite living in a time when freedom is denigrated, when free speech is squelched, and when oppressive regulation and government control is the answer to every problem, the enduring spirit of the human soul still pushed through to do an amazing thing.

  SpaceX’s success is only the beginning. The ability to reuse the engines and first stage will allow them to lower their launch costs significantly, meaning that access to space will now be possible for hundreds if not thousands of new entrepeneurs who previously had ideas about developing the resources of the solar system but could not achieve them because the launch costs were too high.

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.

• ICEYE and Rheinmetall win major contract from Germany worth billions for space radar reconnaissance
  The contract runs through 2030.

• A 360 degree view of the Gemini-7 capsule interior where Frank Borman and Jim Lovell spent 14 days together in 1965
  You can pan as well as zoom in. Jay: “Look at that Bulova clock in the instrumentation!” As Borman told me when I interviewed him for Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, it was like sitting in a Volkswagon with another guy for two weeks, the doors locked and the steering wheel turned all the way to the left making you go around in circles endlessly.

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.

• Saturn’s biggest moon might not have an ocean after all
  Or it may. Lots of uncertainties based on the limited available data.

• Graphic showing the nine small commercial launchers being developed in India
  The tweet also notes it left out two more because they are in very early stages of development.

• Movie created from Perseverance’s navigation cameras, showing what it saw during its June 20, 2025 longest record drive, 1,350.7 feet
  The drive was so long because the rover was returning across ground it had already traveled, and so it knew exactly what to expect.

• Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS makes its closest approach to Earth this week
  You will still need a telescope to see it.

• On this day in 1903 the Wright Brothers achieved the first powered, heavier-than-air, manned airplane flight
  And the rest is history, as nicely illustrated by the next link.

• On this day in 1972 Apollo 17 astronaut Ron Evans did a spacewalk on the way back from the Moon
  The tweet shows some beautiful enhanced 16mm film of that spacewalk, done to retrieve film canisters from the outside of the Apollo service module.

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.

• Roskosmos promises it will have its Soyuz launch pad in Baikonur operational “by the end of winter”
  It is claiming it will be ready for a Progress launch to ISS as early as March 11.

• Blue Origin touts testing of system for getting astronauts from its Blue Moon MK2 manned lunar lander to the ground
  The tweet implies these tests included a Blue Origin pressurized spacesuit as well, but I can find no information elsewhere about such a thing. I suspect the tests used an engineering pressurized suit (attached to a NASA system to simulate lunar gravity) to simulate egress from the lander.

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 puts out a call for proposals for microgravity research on its Haven-1 station
  This is a great opportunity for college students, as the approval process is going to be far simpler and faster than NASA’s for ISS.

• Chinese pseudo-company Astronstone touts the construction and testing of its own tower chopsticks
  Only they are not yet on a tower, but held up with scaffolding near the ground.

• Blue Origin completes testing of the BE-7 engine to fly on its unmanned Blue Moon MK1 lunar lander
  The engine has now been shipped to Florida for integration with lander for launch next year.

• South Korean rocket startup Innospace has moved its HANBIT-Nano rocket to the launchpad in Brazil for final checks
  Launch is scheduled for December 16, 2025 at 10:45 pm (Mountain). Live stream here.

• On this day in 1965 Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford launched on Gemini-6 to rendezvous with Gemini-7, already in orbit
  They completed world’s controlled first rendezvous of two spacecraft.

• On this day in 1984, the Soviet Union launched Vega 1, the first of two Vegas to fly by Venus (dropping off landers) and then continuing on to Halley’s Comet
  As of today, the two Vega landers remain the last missions to touch the surface of Venus and return data.

• On this day in 2010 Mars Odyssey became the longest-operating spacecraft ever sent to Mars
  It is still operating after 24 years, and now mostly acts as a communications satellite for other Mars missions.

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.

• Walk through of the Zhuque-3 landing site & debris field
  Though in Chinese, it provides a very good close look. The stage missed the center of the landing zone by only a bit, and that’s likely because the engines failed. The tweet suggests the next attempt will be in six months.

• According to the Zhuque-3’s chief engineer, they have retrieved the black-box & telemetry data

• Skyroot’s Vikram-1 orbital rocket is presently being assembled at India’s Sriharikota spaceport
  Lift-off is now scheduled in two months, and will be the first orbital launch by a private Indian rocket startup.

• On this day in 1962 Mariner 2 flew past Venus, the first fully successful planetary flyby in human history
  It was also the first time we beat the Soviets in something in space.

• On this day 1972 the lunar module rendezvoused and docked with the Apollo 17 command module
  The tweet shows the magnificent 16mm film of that event, taken from the command module.

• On this day in 1986 Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager took off on the Rutan Voyager
  They completed the first nonstop and non-refueled airplane flight around the world.

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 Senate may vote on Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator as soon as Monday or Tuesday
  No vote however has yet been scheduled.

• Shocking graph showing the large number of upper stages China has left stranded in orbit as space junk in the past three years
  That pace has also accelerated, with eight more stranded in just the past three months. Unlike SpaceX and most western rocket companies, China apparently does not do a de-orbit burn to get these out of the way.

• Oklahoma to build hanger for Dawn Aerospace’s small unmanned supersonic MK-II Aurora spaceplane as part of plan to bring it to its Burns Flat airport
  The state has already awarded the company a $17 million grant.

• First X-ray data of Comet 3I/ATLAS detects evidence of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen
  While not unusual for solar system comets, the earlier interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov did not produce this signal. In other words, in this one context (and only this context), 3I/Atlas is more like comets in our solar system.

• Short video describing the status of China’s new Qingzhou cargo spacecraft
  The prototype has begun integrated testing. This is part of China’s effort to have multiple cargo freighters supplying its Tiangong-3 station.

• Firefly and UAE tout UAE’s Rashid-2 rover, set to fly on Blue Ghost 2 to the far side of the Moon
  Launch is now targeting late 2026, though it appears that date is tentative.

• The first launch of the reusable Long March 12A is now targeting December 17, 2025
  According to Jay, launch time is “5:54pm (Pacific) … confirmed with two other sources.” The launch will be from China’s Jiuquan spaceport, with the interior landing zone probably the same used by the Zhuque-3 rocket last week.

• The spectacular 16mm film footage taken from inside the Apollo 17 lunar module Challenger as it descended to the surface of the Moon on December 11, 1972
  This footage was released about a week after the crew returned to Earth. I very distinctly remember watching it on the television news, because it really is breath-taking.

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.

• American Airlines considering replacing ViaSat with Amazon Leo or Starlink for WiFi on its airplanes
  The company appears to be favoring Leo, but nothing is confirmed or settled.

• European aerospace companies Kongserg and Helsing form partnership
  It appears their capabilities are very complimentary.

• Webb detects supernova only only 730 million years after the Big Bang, the earliest seen yet
  The big take-away is how little it differs from supernovae in our own time.

• Scientists simulate what an exoplanet super-Jupiter look like
  Data said it was red with a very dusty and stormy atmosphere and they modeled its appearance based on this.

• Flaring black hole produces 60,000 kilometer per second winds
  It has a mass of 30 million Suns, and sits at the center of a galaxy.

• Firefly gets a new commercial payload for its second Blue Ghost mission, going to the far side of the Moon
  The company is Volta Space Technologies, and its payload is a demonstration test of its wireless power receiver for its proposed lunar power grid.

• L3Harris satellite-jamming system approved for export to close U.S. allies
  Those allies are the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

• Perseverance detects static electricity produced by Martian dust devils
  I didn’t post this story last week when it was first announced because the media framed it as “Lightning found on Mar!” That’s balderdash. What was actually found was that the dust moving in dust devils produces static charges that have now been detected. I should have clarified this point then. I thank Jay for getting me to correct this omission.

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.

• Axiom Space and KBR successfully complete first uncrewed thermal vacuum test of the spacesuit
  These tests are to make sure it can survive the Moon’s harsh environment. The suit has already been tested manned underwater.

• Muon Space wins $1.9 million military contract to develop its infrared sensors for missile tracking
  It apparently is adapting the sensors it uses for commercial “global thermal detection” applications.

• Startup Lunar Outpost selected to fly NASA dust experiment on second manned lunar landing, Artemis-4
  This contract is not for its big manned lunar lander. NASA hasn’t yet awarded that contract. It is for its small red-wagon-sized MAPP rover, which will position itself away from the manned lander when it lifts off to measure the dust produced at lift-off.

• On this day in 1964, the last ASSET re-entry engineering test vehicle launched from Cape Canaveral
  It tested re-entry profiles for the military’s proposed X-20 Dyna-Soar spaceplane program, which was canceled shortly thereafter without ever having flown a mission.

• On this day 1978 the Pioneer Venus Probe sent five probes into the atmosphere of Venus
  The data confirmed the data from 14 previous Soviet and American spacecraft: Venus’ atmosphere is hellishly hot and dense with a layer of sulfuric acid.

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 ships Neutron’s reusable fairing and upper module to Wallops Island launch site
  Both have apparently passed qualification and acceptance testing. The spring first launch of Neutron seems increasingly likely.

• China touts a new Long March 12 being transported to the launchpad
  This expendable version has already flown three times. The 12A version will try to land the first stage, with its first launch scheduled before the end of the month, with a launchpad static fire test occurring two days ago.

• The Air & Space Museum shows off the color global view of the Earth taken this week in 1972 by an astronaut on Apollo 17
  It would be years before the U.S. had another spacecraft in a position to get a similar color view.

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.

• Chinese pseudo-company Interstellor touts on-going assembly of test article for its New Shepard copycat suborbital capsule
  The test article will be used for an upcoming drop test.

• China’s Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) last week appointed what it called “quality supervision representatives” for its manned program
  From the google translation of the press announcement, these appointees appear to be systems engineers independent of the projects’ themselves, assigned the task of maintaining proper quality control over the work being done.

• On this day in 1972, Apollo 17 launched, the last Apollo Moon mission
  The astronauts were Gene Cernan, Ron Evans, and Harrison Schmitt. They landed in a 4.5-mile-wide valley between 2-mile-high mountains in the Taurus-Littrow region.

• On this day in 1985, NASA transferred title of the engineering test space shuttle Enterprise to the Air & Space Museum
  It was on display at the Udvar-Hazy Center from 2003 until 2012, then moved to the Intrepid Museum in New York when the shuttle Discovery replaced it.

• On this day in 1995 Galileo arrived at Jupiter, the first spacecraft to orbit the planet
  Because its high gain antenna never unfolded, the data stream from the spacecraft was severely limited. Despite this, Galileo did provide us a good first look at Jupiter’s main moons and their strange unexpected surfaces.

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.

• Astrobotic touts a series of successful hot-fire tests of a “flight-representative replica” of its lunar lander, Griffin-1
  The tests validated the lander’s propulsion system. Launch has been delayed repeatedly since its first target launch date of 2023. It is now targeting a July 2026 launch.

• OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman is pushing to challenge Elon Musk in space
  The article describes several attempts by Altman to enter the space business, including an effort to buy the rocket startup Stoke Space, which according to another source has fallen through.

• Scientists use Gaia data to map the chemistry of the Milky Way’s inner arms
  They used the detected chemistry to map the arms themselves. Lots of uncertainty of course.

• On this day in 1965 Frank Borman and Jim Lovell launched on Gemini-7
  They spent two weeks in orbit (a record at the time), proving humans could live in weightlessness long enough to go to and from the Moon. They also became the target vehicle for Gemini-6, which completed the first orbital rendezvous in history.

• On this day in 1996, Mars Pathfinder launched carrying the Mars rover Sojourner
  The success of that mission jump-started NASA’s entire Mars planetary program for the next quarter century, including rovers, orbiters, and landers.

• Cool image of the upper stage still in orbit of an Ariane-4 rocket launched on this day in 1999
  The image was captured by the Blacksky satellite constellation. The rocket launched two French satellites, one experimental smallsat and a reconnaissance satellite that failed prematurely.

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 a successful fit check of its Haven-1 docking adapter
  The company still looks good for a spring launch of this demo single module space station.

• An interview with Spinlaunch’s CEO
  The bulk of the discussion is about the company’s planned satellite constellation, which it has now put ahead of its spinlaunch concept.

• China releases Chang’e-6’s scientific data
  The tweet includes images of the small test rover that was deployed during the mission.

• Russia agrees to transfer 100% of the technology of its RD-191M semi-cryogenic rocket engines to India’s space agency ISRO
  ISRO will use it on its largest GLSV rocket to increase its payload capacity.

• On this day in 1973 Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to fly past Jupiter
  For some reason the tweet features a painting, not any of the real photographs, probably because they aren’t that good compared to what we are now used to. Go here to see some. At the time these images were ground-breaking.

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.

• Scientists discover 53 quasars shooting out jets up to 50 times wider than our Milky Way

• On this day in 1995 the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) was launched
  Despite being designed to only last two years, and a number of failures of key equipment, engineers have kept it going now for three decades. Kudos to them!

• On this day in 1993, the first servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope was launched
  The shuttle was Endeavour, and the mission saved the telescope. On spacewalks on five consecutive days they fixed its out-of-focus mirror, replaced its wobbly defective solar panels, replaced three gyroscopes that had failed, and fixed a number of other issues. The rest is history.

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.

• Great photo of 3I/ATLAS taken by astronomers using a Texas ground-based telescope
  The image is one of the best of the comet’s tail. As noted at the link, “Comet 3I/ATLAS appears relatively normal when compared to Solar System comets, therefore providing more evidence that our Solar System is a somewhat typical star system.”

• New rumors circulating today suggest that the Zhuque-3 launch could be back on for December 3
  According to Jay, the airspace closures have been updated to reflect this date, but nothing as yet been confirmed by China. My guess is that the new bosses now supervising China’s pseudo-rocket companies first demanded a delay so they could “review” things, and were quickly made to realize a long delay made no sense.

• A short detailed video describing the construction of Vulcan at ULA’s Decatur facility
  Nicely done.

• China touts the ongoing construction of a new antenna to be used in its own Deep Space Network for communicating with interplanetary missions
  This antenna appears essential especially for its Chang’e-7 lander to the Moon’s south pole, targeting a launch next year.

• On this day in 2018 InSight’s air pressure sensor and seismometer captured the vibrations from the Martian wind
  The press release claimed we were hearing the wind of Mars, but that’s bunk. The sounds recorded were from vibrations on the solar panels from that wind.

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.

• Chinese pseudo-company Landspace has apparently postponed indefinitely the first launch of its Zhuque-3 rocket
  Jay says Landspace claims “they canceled because of ‘improper paint on the landing pad.'” Neither he nor I believe that tale. I suspect this delay is related to the creation by the Chinese government of a new agency to supervise all of its pseudo-rocket companies. When rumors of that agency appeared in late October, it was speculated that it would delay this launch as the new bosses stepped in a take over.

• The marine platform to recover the first stage of China’s Long March 10 rocket was delivered yesterday
  The tweet includes a video claiming that first stage will be captured on this platform using a complex “cable-catching” system that made no sense, as described.

• On this day in 1955 Neil Armstrong completed the first of his seven X-15 flights
  He was a most unusual man, at that time a civilian test pilot working for whoever would hire him to test radical airplane designs. The X-15 was then the most radical, only to be superseded soon thereafter by rockets, which Armstrong then transitioned to as a NASA astronaut.

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.

• Northrop Grumman touts successful tests of its hypersonic inertial guidance system on Stratolaunch’s Talon-A
  It does appear that Stratolaunch is getting some business, even though much of its planned military hypersonic testing market has been grabbed by Rocket Lab’s HASTE suborbital launch vehicle.

• Blue Origin shows off a fullscale mockup of its Blue Moon-MK2 crew cabin at the Johnson Space Center
  MK2 is the manned version of the MK1 Blue Moon. It is designed to hold four astronauts for up to 30 days on the Moon. It will be very nice if Blue Origin gets it built as promised. It will also be a surprise. The company still needs to shake its reputation for great graphics and mockups, and little real hardware.

• The Ukraine destroys Russian A-60 aircraft rumored to have a laser designed to shoot down aircraft and disable satellite sensors
  None of this is confirmed, including the A-60 so-called laser capabilities.

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 short commercial from Amazon touting its Amazon Leo constellation (formerly Kuiper)
  As Jay says, “These numbers are meaningless without birds in orbit.”

• Chinese researchers propose an explanation for the stickier regolith found by Chang’e-6
  The explanation is complex, and essentially relates to the different local make-up of the soil.

• Scientists release final data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope project
  The data, collected over almost two decades, confirm the conflict in the predicted number for the Hubble constant (the universe’s expansion rate), where two different methods of observations have produced two reliable but different numbers. At present no theory successfully explains the conflict.

• Chinese pseudo-company Sepoch claims its proposed copycat Falcon-9 rocket will be caught by tower chopsticks on a drone ship
  As Jay notes, “Talk, like CGI, is cheap.”

• Detailed article outlining the range issues at Cape Canaveral as launch rates rise
  The article is mostly focused on bashing SpaceX’s plans to launch Starship/Superheavy from Florida next year, noting the generally weak objections filed by ULA and Blue Origin. If you put that aside, it does provide a good overview of the issues involved.

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 aerial views of the damaged Superheavy booster-18 from RGVAerial
  I can’t help it: That interior reminds me of Hans Giger’s art for the sci-fi movie Alien.

• The Long March-2F carrying Shenzhou-22 is now on the launchpad
  It will carry only cargo to provide a lifeboat for the astronauts on Tiangon-3. While many in the west are speculating it will launch on November 25th due to road closure notices, all China has said so far is that it is “scheduled for launch in the near future.”

• ULA has begun stacking its Atlas-5, the next rocket it will launch
  The targeted launch date is December 15, 2025, carrying another 27 Amazon LEO satellites.

• Luxembourg startup Space Cargo signs deal with French Dassault to fly its BentoBox service module on the latter’s proposed Vortex reusable space plane
  Vortex appears to be the orbital version of an ESA suborbital “demonstrator” that Dassault is building but whose funding at this moment is not finalized. If it gets built and the orbital version follows, the BentoBox will fly with it carrying commercial payloads.

• Webb discovers rapidly growing black hole in the very early universe
  As has become common for Webb’s observations close to the Big Bang, it is bigger than expected, making things difficult for the present theories of cosmology.

• On this day in 1960 the second weather satellite, TIROS 2, was launched
  It had problems with its wide-field camera, but its close-up camera produced good data, though of limited value for weather prediction.

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.

• Scientists think they have identified a new ancient population of Kuiper Belt objects at about 43 astronomical units from the Sun
  That’s about four billion miles. It is however not yet confirmed if the objects found at this distance really form a distinct ancient population

• Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy completes its investigation into its failed Ceres-1 launch on November 10th
  It appears the insulation on a cable melted from too much heat, causing a short circuit.

• Another Chinese pseudo-company, dubbed Fstspace
  Its copycat Falcon 9 will use 9 engines in the 1st stage, fueled by methane. There are a LOT of these Chinese rocket startups. Most will never see the light of day.

• On this day in 1998, the first module of ISS was launched from Baikonur
  Dubbed Zarya, it was built by Russia but paid for by the U.S., which still owns it. Though it is the oldest module on ISS, it is the Russian Zvezda module, launched two years later, that presently has the stress fractures in its hull from which the station’s atmosphere is leaking, and which threaten the station’s survival in the next four years.