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.

• Amazon confirms the 24 satellites launched yesterday by SpaceX are all functioning as planned
  It also says they were deployed every 20 seconds over 8 minutes.

• Boeing touts its progress in building SLS’s more powerful upper stage, intended to increase SLS’s power to approximately match the Saturn-5
  As Jay notes, “This is kind of painful to watch and read.”

• On this day in 1945 the first nuclear bomb was tested by the U.S. at the Trinity site in New Mexico

• On July 16, 1969 Apollo 11 was launched
  The tweet is by Buzz Aldrin, still going strong.

• Air & Space touts the re-opening of an exhibit on the Bell X-1 that Chuck Yeager used to break the sound barrier
  Re-opens July 28, 2025.

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.

• Sierra Space wins contract from Mitsubishi to deliver hardware to ISS
  Though the press release does not say, we must assume delivery will be via Sierra’s Tenacity mini-shuttle, which still has not flown and is years behind schedule. That the release does not mention Tenacity however is not a good thing, suggesting Sierra is not sure it will be available for use and will need to find other alternatives.

• Gilmour again scrubs the first launch today of its new Eris rocket due to weather
  It has set a new launch window beginning on July 27th.

• Video of SpaceX’s Grace capsule over California as it re-entered the atmosphere yesterday carrying Axiom’s Ax-4 commercial manned mission

• On this day fifty years ago the last Apollo capsule was launched on the last Saturn-1B rocket
  The mission would dock with the Soviet Union’s Soyuz capsule and complete the first U.S.-Soviet joint 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.

• Amazon touts tomorrow’s first launch of 24 Kuiper satelites using SpaceX’s Falcon 9
  Amazon initially excluded SpaceX in its Kuiper launch contracts, going with the then unlaunched new and more expensive rockets of ULA (Vulcan), Arianespace (Ariane-6), and Blue Origin (New Glenn). When stockholders sued, its management then quickly gave SpaceX a small three-launch contract. Since then there have been rumors that Amazon has switched several more flights to SpaceX.

• On this day in 1965 Mariner-4 captured the first close-up images of Mars
  The fly-by was arranged to capture images of what we now know as the southern cratered highlands, chosen because it was that region that showed changes seasonally from Earth. The 21 images thus gave us the wrong impression that Mars was like the Moon. More here.

• On this day in 2015 New Horizons did its fly-by of Pluto
  As usual, these first close-up images revealed a planet completely unique from every other solar system object visited within the solar 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.

• Orlando Sentinel details the NASA perks in the just passed reconciliation bill, including money to move the space shuttle Discovery on display in DC to Texas
  The article is behind a paywall, but if you scan it quick you can get the gist. My sense is that this is a typical press report, naively in favor of all spending.

• On this day in 1995 the space shuttle Discovery finally launched after a several week delay because woodpeckers poked 200 holes in the external tank’s foam insulation

• On this day in 1969 the Soviet Union launched Luna-15 in a desperate attempt to get lunar samples back to Earth ahead of Apollo 11
  The mission failed, with the lander crashing.

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 thermal vacuum testing of the power distribution unit for its Haven-1 space station
  It says this is the unit’s “final qualification milestone”. Whether they are still on schedule for a launch in early 2026 remains unclear.

• Firefly files papers in preparation for its first public stock offering
  The number of shares and their price has not yet been determined. Nor is there any date set for the offering.

• ESA successfully communicates with the Psyche probe using optical lasers over a distance of 165 million miles

• Blue Origin shows off the seven BE-4 engines it plans to install on the first stage of the second New Glenn rocket launch
  As always, this company moves like frozen molasses. The first launch was seven months ago. Only now they are thinking of assembling the second rocket? Did it take that long to build these BE-4 engines? Or is the company simply twiddling its thumbs while Jeff Bezos gets married?

• Axiom’s spacesuit visor, built for it by the subcontractor Oakley in California
  The company’s visor design used technology found in the sunglasses it sells commercially.

• ISRO touts the rocket it is building for its proposed lunar manned missions
  Don’t hold your breath. They are targeting the 2040s for the mission. If built the rocket will be bigger than SLS and only slightly shorter than Starship/Superheavy.

• On this day in 1978 Skylab fell to Earth, with some pieces hitting the ground in Australia
  The original plan had been to use the space shuttle to dock with it, raise its orbit, and then use both together. Shuttle development however was late and thus there was no way to prevent Skylab’s orbit from decaying, with its de-orbit an uncontrolled one.

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.

• Space Forge signs deal to use Intuitive Machines’ proposed orbital capsule for in-space product manufacturing
  Space Forge manufactures semi-conductors, but it has also partnered with Rhodium Scientific, a biotech manufacturer, so the plan is to produce both pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

• Interlune touts its NASA contract to develop its lunar trenching and excavation technology

• Rocket Lab hires Bollinger Shipyard to modify its ship as a landing platform for its Neutron rocket
  Delivery is scheduled for early 2026. Since Rocket Lab has been targeting its first Neutron launch for this year, this either means the schedule has been pushed back, or the company doesn’t expect to recover the rocket on the first launch.

• NASA touts Parker images of the Sun
  A short video summary describing Parker’s results so far, though heavy on platitudes.

• ESA and France sign new agreement for expanding commercial launch operations at French Guiana
  The deal runs through 2035, allowing continued launches of Ariane-6 and Vega-C, but expands opportunities for new commercial rocket startups.

• Juno is about to do its 74th close fly-by of Jupiter

• On this day in 1962 AT&T launched the first private satellite, Telstar-1
  It demonstrated relatively inexpensive broadcast and communication between Europe and North America. AT&T’s plan then was to launch a full constellation to provide phone and broadcast service worldwide, replacing the expensive and very limited undersea cables. The plan ended up getting blocked by Congress and President Kennedy, who instead created a monopoly run by the pseudo-company Comsat, partly owned by the government. While Comsat launched a number of geosynchronous satellites, it never came close to the success promised.

  Had the government stayed out, we would have had large satellite constellations in the early 1960s and a robust private launch industry. Instead, it all died on the vine, and it would be more than a half century before the American commercial space industry recovered.

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 touts the first underwater tests of its commercial spacesuit

• Trump appoints Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as interim NASA administrator
  At first glance this does NOT bode well for NASA as an agency. It suggests Trump is beginning to think of it as an after thought. Then again, it could mean he has decided action needs to be taken to help the agency. We can only wait and see.

• Starfish Space touts the nominal operations of its Otter Pup-2 robotic docking demo satellite
  It will demonstrate rendezvous, proximity operations, and then a docking. The company is proving out its standardized docking system for sale to satellite companies.

• Relativity provides update of what it has accomplished in June
  The company continues to move aggressively towards a first launch of its Terran-R rocket.

• Jeff Bezos wins the IAF World Space Award for 2025
  For WHAT? As Jay notes, “One New Glenn launch? Best lawn outside of KSC? Biggest check to IAF?”

• Blue Origin touts the integration of propellant tanks on the first flight vehicle of its Blue Ring orbital tug
  It would be nice if this damn company would finally begin actual commercial operations of something.

• Tianzhou-8 freighter has burned up during re-entry after undocking from China’s Tiangong-3 space station

• On this day in 1979 Voyager-2 made its closest fly-by of Jupiter
  The video provides a nice summary of what was learned, with the volcanoes of Io the biggest discovery.

• On this day in 2011 the space shuttle Atlantis was launched on the program’s last mission
  It was a supply mission to ISS. Replacing the shuttle with cheaper commercial spacecraft took time. In about ten months the first cargo Dragon would launch to ISS, followed by the first cargo Cygnus in 2013, and the first manned Dragon in 2020.

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.

• Kennedy Space Center touts Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser mini-shuttle
  I have no idea why, as it is hasn’t yet flown, is five years late, and there are even doubts it will ever fly.

• Former NASA science chiefs sign letter demanding Congress reject Trump’s proposed NASA budget
  Of course they do. I ask: Why does anyone take them seriously? NASA’s recent work, especially with Mars Sample Return, surely does not speak well of its management. And that’s where the biggest cut is in the science budget.

• Next launch of Kuiper satellites will take place on a Falcon 9, on July 16, 2025
  SpaceX got its Kuiper launch contract last (after ULA, Blue Origin, and Arianespace), has only three scheduled, and yet it will likely complete all three before the three other companies get going.

• On this day in 2003 the Mars rover Opportunity was launched
  Designed to work on Mars for 90 days, it ended up operating on the Martian surface for fourteen 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.

• Gilmour Space once again delays first launch of its Eris rocket
  The new target launch date is July 16th.

• On this day in 1985 Europe’s Giotto probe was launched to visit Halley’s Comet
  The fly-by occurred on year later.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, as well as reader Gary for the last link. 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 to contribute two science instruments to China’s Chang’e-8 lunar south pole lander

• Another Chinese pseudo-company unveils its proposed Falcon 9 copycat rocket
  It calls itself New Space, or Xiamen in Chinese. As far as I can tell, it makes great computer graphics, but nothing else.

• Vast touts the beginning of thermal vacuum testing of what it calls its Haven Demo
  It is unclear if this Haven Demo is actually the Haven-1 module being built at this time for launch next year.

• ArianeGroup touts completion of static fire tests of its Prometheus rocket engine
  The engine will first fly on a suborbital test flight of Europe’s Themis demonstrator, but later will be the main engine used on Maiaspace’s Maia smallsat rocket.

• New geometry discovery could stop lunar landers from falling over
  This is the stupid-story-of-the-day. A lot of news outlets have picked it up, but it only takes a nano-second of thought to realize this is hardly a solution to keep lunar landers from tipping over. It is far too complicated a solution to what is really a very simple problem: extend the legs out more and keep the center of gravity low.

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 only the second time in recorded history there are now two novae visible to the naked eye

• Astronomers confirm a new gas giant exoplanet, helped by citizen scientists worldwide

• Rocket Lab completes design review of its 18-satellite communications constellation for the Space Force
  The military is considering canceling this program and going with SpaceX’s Starshield constellation instead, but that decision has not been made.

• Progress undocks from ISS in preparation of arrival of new Progress on July 3, 2025
  It will be de-orbited to burn up over the Pacific Ocean.

• Another Chinese pseudo-company, Space Transportation, proposes a new rocket
  The video shows the first stage landing on a net, without landing legs. To Jay (and myself) the net more resembled a trampoline. Like a lot of these Chinese pseudo-companies, it is dangerous to take any of this seriously.

• China announces creation of the International Deep Space Exploration Association (IDSEA)
  This is another attempt by China to build an international alliance in space, with it in the lead. It is hard to say how many others will join. Its lunar base alliance has not garnered a large number of nations.

• Time-lapse showing yesterday’s docking and docking of China’s unmanned Shijian-25 and Shijian-21 servicing satellites
  This appears to be the third docking, with at least one in which we think the former refueled the latter.

• On this day in 1976 the Air & Space Museum in DC opened
  Apollo 11 astronaut Mike Collins was head of the museum at the time, and was instrumental in getting it established.

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.

• Weather forces Australian rocket startup Gilmour Space to delay today’s first launch attempt of its Eris rocket
  The new date: July 3, 2025.

• Russia touts the assembly of its next Soyuz-2 rocket, which will launch a Progress freighter to ISS
  The launch is set for July 3rd, and also commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Soyuz-Apollo mission.

• Space Force ponders shakeup to LEO satellite strategy, potentially hiring SpaceX for data relay
  The new strategy would abandon some of the other commercial constellations presently being developed and launched by other satellite companies. Understandably, there is already a lot of push back to this plan.

• Thirty years ago today the space shuttle Atlantis become the first American spacecraft to dock with the Soviet/Russian Mir space station
  The docking was part of Clinton’s foreign policy to keep Russia’s non-military space programs afloat, sending them cash in the 1990s as a component of flying joint missions to Mir.

• Sixty years ago today Joe Engle flew the X-15 to an altitude of more than 50 miles, qualifying him for astronaut wings
  He later flew on the space shuttle, becoming the only person to do both.

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.

• Lockheed Martin touts its $3 billion proposal to get Perseverance’s Mars samples back to Earth
  It offers its plan as a fixed-price contract, which is a refreshing change from an old big space company. The press release however says a lot of blather but provides few specific details.

• Blue Origin touts delivery of a very large cylindrical-shaped container to its Florida launch facility
  Jay thinks, “It is the Blue Moon Lander mid-module,” a smaller test lander that the company says it will send to the Moon this year. We shall see.

• Amazon signs agreement with National Science Foundation to mitigate the impact of its Kuiper constellation on ground-based astronomy
  The actions proposed are similar to those taken by SpaceX’s Starlink constellation.

• New rocket startup based in Colorado dubbed Leap
  It says its rocket and spaceplane will both be a single-stage-to-orbit and reusable. Seems far-fetched. The company also is building its own orbital tug.

• The Trump reconciliation budget bill being considered right now by Congress would give the Space Force a $40 billion budget
  Boy, those trees with leaves of money must really be blooming. That more than a 30% increase.

• Chinese pseudo-company Space Epoch provides positive update on the state of the recovered engine from vertical test hop in late May
  The next launch will attempt to reach orbit.

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.

• Budget bill shifts $1 billion to Space Force’s X-37B program
  It is not clear if the legislature shifted money from other programs, or simply plucked the cash off of the trees these elected officials think money grows from.

• Sierra Space touts opening of new facility to build space-hardened solar arrays
  More and more I suspect the company is shifting away from manned space. I especially wonder if there is something seriously wrong with its Dream Chaser Tenacity mini-shuttle, which has been undergoing final ground testing for more than a year with its launch repeatedly delayed.

• Another new Chinese pseudo-company, Welight, touts a reusable rocket
  Jay notes, “I love the comment: ‘Every other month we get to see a new Chinese Space company'”. I note that the Xi government requires all of its rocket pseudo-companies to share data, which means anyone in that government can steal this information to form their own pseudo-company, and use their position of power to get favored treatment when it comes time to compete for government contracts. It is therefore not surprising that so many new pseudo-companies keep popping up.

• Chinese scientists propose sending a fleet of smallsats probes to visit Apophis when it flies past the Earth in April 2029
  It isn’t clear from the article whether this project has been funded or not by the Chinese government.

• On this day in 2008 the Phoenix Mars Lander did its first “wet chemistry experiment” on Martian soil

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 and India rocket startup Skyroot sign partnership deal
  This agreement suggests a willingness of Axiom to use Skyroot’s rocket for supplying its space station, assuming Skyroot ever gets that rocket off the ground.

• Australian rocket startup Gilmour Space is now targeting July 1, 2025 for the first launch of its Eris rocket
  Gilmour’s previous launch attempt was aborted when the fairing was released on the launchpad. It now says it has fixed this issue, reinstalled the fairing, and tested everything.

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 link below.

• Rocket startup Hyprspace signs deal with French military to launch new suborbital rocket from missile test range inside mainland France
  Believe it or not, the company has named this new suborbital rocket Baguette-1. Jay and I both have great doubts about this whole deal.

Slow day. No other quick 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.

• Space Forge touts the upcoming launch of its capsule designed for “in-space manufacturing”

• Sweden and the U.S. sign deal allowing American companies to launch from Esrange
  The deal removes state department restrictions designed to prevent the theft of U.S. technology by hostile foreign powers.

• The live stream of Ispace’s press conference of its investigation of its Resilience landing failure, scheduled for 6 pm (Pacific) tonight

• Chinese pseudo-company AZSpace apparently renamed a spacecraft from DEAR-4 to DEAR-5 because the word “four” in Chinese sounds like the word “death”
  That’s the theory at least.

• Arianespace official says it must increase the launch cadence of Ariane-6
  He also admits just getting to 10 per year will be difficult.

• On this day in 1960 the first U.S. radar reconnaissance satellite was launched
  Its classified name was Grab-1. At the time its public name was Solrad-1, with the government only telling the public about its solar research instruments.

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.

• As planned, Psyche has resumed engine firing, using a back-up propellant line
  The spacecraft is still targeting an arrival at the metal asteroid Psyche in August 2029.

• Astronomers get a detailed look at the filaments that wrap around supermassive black hole

• ESA touts the shipment of the first stage of its Themis grasshopper demonstrator
  ESA touted its completion three days ago, and now is bragging how it is now ready to shipped by truck. Meanwhile, this test vehicle is only three years late, and even if its short test hops are successful it will still leave Europe years away from having a reusable 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.

This is also late today because my IP, Centurylink, went down in the Tucson area for about three hours. As is usual for this crap company, their customer service line was down also, stupidly telling me to go to their webpage to get service, even though I was calling because I had no service. Idiots.

• Astronomers detect activity in C/2014 UN271 Bernardinelli-Bernstein, the largest comet known

• Chinese government pseudo-company CAS-Space touts successful static fire test of engine to be used in its copy of Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital spacecraft

• On this day in 1976 Viking-1 arrived in Mars orbit
  The orbiter would release the lander a month later, soft landing on July 20, 1976 (the anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing).

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, Blue Origin, and Thales Alenia sign agreement to vaguely work together in low Earth orbit
  It appears the deal will increase the participation of Thales Alenia and the European Space Agency in the development of Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station, including Thales Alenia likely building some of the station’s modules. Where Orbital Reef partner Sierra Space stands in this with its LIFE modules is unclear.

• Firefly now offers a “lunar imaging service” using its Elytra orbiters

• Chinese pseudo-company Azspace touts the final assembly of its first small cargo capsule
  No indication of a launch date.

• Varda touts completion of its fourth Winnebago orbital capsule, this time built entirely in-house
  It will launch this week on a Falcon 9. The company has also obtained a five year FAA license to bring all its capsules back at the Koonibba Test Range in southern Australia.

• On this day in 1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly in space
  During her space shuttle mission the crew deployed two satellites.

• On this day in 2009 Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched
  It has been in lunar orbit ever since, is still operating, and has produced very high resolution maps of the entire 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.

• ESA touts completion of main stage of its Themis reusable demonstrator
  Years in the making at a pace that turtles would beat. First test hop next year at the soonest, years late.

• China touts a launch abort test of its lunar manned capsule, Mengzhou.
  This might instead be a test of the capsule’s launch system off of the Moon.

• The Exploration Company outlines its plans to upgrade its Nyx cargo capsule for manned operations
  Don’t expect it to fly anytime soon. The company is targeting a 2035 launch date, and is pitching the idea for funding from the European Space Agency.

• Rocket engine company Ursa Major wins $32.9 million contract to deliver 16 Hadley engines to Stratolaunch
  Stratolaunch is using the engine to power its Talon-A hypersonic testbed during military flights.

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.

• Blacksky expanding the capabilities of its imaging and surveillance satellite constellation
  This decision was apparently fueled by the recent successful launches of Blacksky satellites by Rocket Lab.

• NASA’s 96-minute long documentary on the building of the Webb Space Telescope
  I haven’t watched it and likely won’t, because I can’t imagine NASA telling the real story of the budget overruns, endless delays, and chronic bad management that plagued Webb from day one.

• Japan’s space agency JAXA unveils its upgraded HTV-X unmanned cargo freighter for ISS
  It will be launched on Japan’s new H3 rocket later this year, the first of five HTV-X supply missions to ISS.

• Chinese pseudo-company Interstellar Glory says the first flight of its Hyperbola-3 rocket will occur by the end of 2025
  The rocket is essentially attempting to copy what the Falcon 9 does. Whether the company will recover the first stage on the first launch is definitely uncertain.

• ESA releases first images from its solar telescope Proba-3
  It uses a separate “occulter” satellite to block the Sun’s light in order to study the Sun’s corona, its atmosphere.

• On this day in 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space
  It would almost two decades before a second Russian woman would fly in space.

• Cockpit footage of Iranian ballistic missiles launching towards Israel, taken from a commercial flight over Dubai
  Expect fewer and fewer of these launches in the coming days.

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 find nine brown dwarfs using Webb

• Firefly touts is Spectre engines, used by its Blue Ghost lunar landers

• Russia claims the repairs this month sealed the leaks in Zvezda
  Then why did NASA scrub the Axiom manned mission, claiming otherwise?

• Short video describing the goals of Venus Aerospace and its rotating detonation rocket engine
  The company recently successfully tested the engine on a short vertical flight.

• On this day in 1967, the Soviet Union launched Venera 4, which made the first measurements of Venus’s atmosphere
  It operated for 93 minutes as it descended 20 miles on parachutes.

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 CAS-Space touts static fire engine test of the core stage of its Kinetica-2 rocket
  The company wants to use the rocket to launch the Qingzhou-1 cargo freighter.

• SpaceX demolishes the former ULA Delta-4 rocket launch facility at Cape Canaveral
  The video shows the action. This site is where SpaceX is building its own Starship/Superheavy launch facility.

• Dawn Aerospace signs deal to fly its suborbital spaceplane, Aurora Mark 2, from Oklahoma airport
  This is the same airport that touted itself as a spaceport two decades ago with the startup Rocketplane Kistler. That company went bankrupt, and never flew anything.

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.

• Proposed Nova Scotia spaceport gets $10 million government grant
  This spaceport was first proposed in 2016, and has yet to launch anything of significance. It remains to be seen if this is nothing more than more government waste and corruption.

• Sierra Space creates a division focused solely on military contracts
  The company is attempting to latch onto money coming from Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” project. It is also telling us indirectly that its space division might be having problems. The first launch of its Tenacity mini-shuttle remains endlessly delayed (for unexplained reasons that could be unfortunate) and its partner in the Orbital Reef space station project, Blue Origin, continues to disappoint. It could be that management is now going where the money is, even if it isn’t in space exploration.

• Falklands government finally removes major obstacles preventing its citizens from buying Starlink
  The service isn’t yet available as there are more licensing issues, but it looks like it will happen.

• On this day in 2004 Cassini flew past the Saturn moon Phoebe
  The image at the link is definitely cool.

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 post this early because I have a hour-long taping with Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas this afternoon, and want to get it up beforehand.

• Astrolab touts the prototype it is using on Earth to test its Flip lunar rover
  They are using it to do trials of the rover’s remote control systems.

• Relativity provides a May update of its work developing its Terran-R rocket
  It certainly does appear real progress is being made toward a 2026 launch date, though an earlier report suggested that schedule will slip.

• Astronomers develop new numbers for the mass, spin, and accretion rate for the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87
  The mass is estimated at 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. The spin is estimated to be 80% of the speed of light. The accretion rate says material is falling into the black hole at about 20% of the speed of light, and is catching about 40% of the Sun’s mass per year.

• United shuts down Starlink on its regional jets because it was causing interference with the pilot’s radio equipment
  Jay notes that he has experienced a lot of WiFi issues on United, not just its regional jets, and thinks the company might be trying to pin the blame for own equipment issues on Starlink.

• On this day in 2003 the rover Spirit was launched on a Delta-2 rocket
  The rover, designed for a 90-day mission, operated on the surface of Mars for six years, traveling 4.8 miles.

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 still uncertain about next Starliner test flight
  The agency still doesn’t know if the next flight will be manned or cargo, and is still aiming for a launch in early ’26. Nothing has changed still its last statement at the end of March.

• Analysis of status of ULA’s Vulcan rocket suggests launch cadence in 2nd half of 2025 will be robust, possibly 2x per month
  Only the first half of the video has new information. The company says it has 15 rockets in storage ready to fly, and customers screaming for them to get off the ground. We shall see.

• NASA releases image by Mars Odyssey of the giant Martian volcano Arsia Mons
  The image is cool, looking at the volcano obliquely as it peeks up through a layer of clouds

• On this day in 1988 astronomers using the Kuiper Airborne Observatory made the first direct observation of Pluto’s atmosphere
  That atmosphere comes and goes depending on where Pluto is in its 250-year-long year, orbiting the Sun in a relatively eccentric orbit.

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 founder Tom Markusic (pushed out in 2022) is now starting a company building a suborbital space plane
  The concept is to provide fast point-to-point transport. Not much info, and he enters an increasingly crowded field.

• China says its Tianwen-2 asteroid probe is operating as expected, and releases the first picture of it
  You can see the picture here, showing one of its deployed solar panels, which looks remarkably like the solar panels on the Lucy asteroid probe.

• Video of yesterday’s Long March 6A launch, showing booster and stage separation
  Still no word on where those boosters and core stages crashed inside China.

• Video of short static fire test of Superheavy prototype #16 in preparation for test flight 10
  No word yet on when that flight will happen.

• Spanish rocket startup PLD touts the engineering on the engines for its Miura-5 rocket
  The engine is now entering production leading to full engine qualification testing later this month.

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.

• Scientist detect what they think is the most powerful explosion yet seen
  Lots of hyperbole in the press release. The data however is quite intriguing.

• Chinese pseudo-company Space Epoch reports its recovered XZY-1 stage is in good shape after splashing down softly in the ocean
  They plan to dissemble the prototype for a detailed inspection.

• Musk threatens to cancel his Dragon capsule contracts with NASA in response to Trump’s threat to do the same
  Trump & Musk are right now behaving like 2-year-olds. They should both grow up. At the same time, Musk actually doesn’t need the government or NASA money anymore (Starlink revenue now exceeds NASA’s entire budget), and his threat here is an indication of that.

• On this day in 1966 Gene Cernan became the third person and second American to do a spacewalk

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 paper speculates alternative to the Big Bang
  Fun stuff only a tiny bit different than fantasy. The author does however provide a nice summary of some of the basic problems with the Big Bang theory itself, problems that until recently it was generally considered inappropriate for any cosmologist to mention.

• Video of the launch and recovery of Space Epoch’s XZY-1 grasshopper rocket during its test flight May 29, 2025
  As usual for these kinds of promo pieces, the video includes epic music.

• X user notes that China has not released a single picture of its Tianwen-2 asteroid probe, now on its way
  Makes me wonder if the spacecraft looks too much like someone else’s (such as Osiris-Rex or Hayabusa-2), thus indicating its design was stolen, and China wants to hide this fact.

• Two Chinese satellites appear to be approaching each other, suggesting they are attempting a autonomous docking and/or servicing test

• Firefly touts the successful full duration static fire test of the Miranda engine it is developing for the first stages of both the Antares and Eclipse rockets
  The video is quite impressive. This engines does appear powerful. Seven will be mounted at the base of Eclipse.

• Arsonists on trial in the UK for setting fire to a business supplying Starlink terminals to the Ukraine
  The accused apparently were hired by the military Wagner Group that Russia used to pay to fight in the Ukraine.