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.

• 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.

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.

• Stratolaunch touts the re-usability of its Talon-A2 hypersonic test vehicle

• Vast touts completion of second major weld (of ten) for the primary hull of its Haven-1 space module
  Time is pressing if they want to launch on schedule in 2026.

• Firefly releases four-camera video taken during Blue Ghost’s lunar landing in March
  The video is quite beautiful.

• Graphic showing images of all eight Chinese pseudo-company prototypes testing vertical rocket landings
  This shows in graphic form the summary of this Chinese effort that I posted on May 29, 2025. There is also a ninth company attempting the same work. It must be underlined that the Chinese government demands that these companies share their results. There is no such thing as propriety data under its totalitarian rule.

• On this day in 1965 Ed White became the first American to do a spacewalk

• On this day in 2003 Europe’s Mars Express orbiter was launched
  It is still operating in orbit around Mars.

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.

• Ispace update: All is well with its Resilience lunar lander, still scheduled to land on June 5, 2025
  The picture of the company’s Tenacious rover is cool: It looks like a Conestoga wagon.

• Picture of offshore engine test stand for Space Pioneer’s Tianlong-3 rocket
  This is the same Chinese pseudo-company that had its rocket break free and launch itself during a staric fire engine test in 2024. I wonder if the Chinese government ordered it to build this offshore test stand after that incident.

• Long tweet detailing why Europe’s government Starlink constellation, IRIS2, is “dead in the water”
  The bottom line is that Germany and Italy want nothing to do with these government projects that cost too much and never get built on time, no matter how much France whines.

• On this day in 1966 Surveyor-1 became the first spacecraft to gently soft land on the Moon
  The Soviets had placed Luna 9 on the Moon in January 1966, but it didn’t soft land, it used giant airbags to protect it when it crashed on the surface, which once deflated allowed the spacecraft to operate three days. For a picture of Surveyor-1 from orbit, taken by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, go here.

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.

• Another Chinese pseudo-company, Astronstone, raises money, proposes copycat rocket
  More here. As noted at the first link, the design appears to be a steal of the rocket being built by another Chinese pseudo-company, Space Epoch. This is not surprising, as the Chinese government requires its fake companies to share all data with the government and other companies. The only design difference is that Astronstone is stealing SpaceX’s chopstick launch tower design for its rocket’s landing.

• Pictures of Space Epoch’s recovered YXZ-1 grasshopper test stage after its soft vertical splashdown in the ocean
  There are dents and some damage, but overall the rocket’s condition looks good. A vertical touch down on land would probably have been less harmful than falling over into the ocean.

• Sources claim Russia will begin deploying its own “Starlink constellation” by the end of this year
  The sources say each launch will place 16 satellites in orbit. We shall see. The Russians have not met any schedule even close now for decades, often missing proposed targets by decades.

• South Korea has approved Starlink, allowing it to sell its service to customers

• On this day in 1971, Mariner 9 was launched, becoming upon arrival the first successful Martian orbiter
  It arrived during a global dust storm, waited it out, and eventually discovered that Mars was not like the Moon as suggested by earlier fly-by missions, but had giant volcanoes, canyons, and many meandering channels suggestive of flowing water.

• On this day in 2020 SpaceX used its Falcon 9 rocket to place two Americans into space, the first American launch from American soil in an American spacecraft on an American rocket in nine 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.

• NASA touts its help to Vast in building the company’s Haven-1 space module
  NASA provided the facilities and advice that allowed the company to test the module’s atmospheric filtering systems.

• China touts the 2-meter diameter of its Xuntian space telescope, designed to closely match Hubble and fly in formation with its Tiangong-3 space station for repair and maintenance
  The link says the launch is now targeting 2026, but a report last year it was probably delayed to 2027. Originally China wanted to launch the telescope in 2024.

• Northrop Grumman touts is new medium launch vehicle, Eclipse, built in partnership with Firefly
  I could be wrong, but at first glance this appears to be the Antares rocket using Firefly’s first stage (replacing its Ukrainian-built first stage), and renamed.

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 acquires Geost, a payload provider for the military
  The company continues to diversify across the entire commercial space landscape.

• Sierra Space wins NASA contract to study using its LIFE inflatable modules on the Moon
  The modules were originally conceived to fly on Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef commercial space station. NASA now wants to see if they can be adapted for planetary colonies.

• Starship in orbit yesterday, as photographed from Namibia in Africa
  As noted at the link, a substantial tail had already formed as the spacecraft dropped into the atmosphere uncontrolled.

• This week in 2012 the first SpaceX cargo Dragon was berthed at ISS
  And at that moment capitalism, freedom, and competition took over.

• On this day in 2002 NASA announced that Mars Odyssey had discovered enormous amounts of near surface ice on Mars
  And yet, almost a quarter of a century later news organizations (excluding Behind the Black) still think Mars lacks water and is nothing but a dry desert.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who also notes as I do the overall lack of news stories today. As he says, “Everyone is waiting for Starship 9 to launch.”

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.

• Ispace explains why its Resilience lander will set down at Mare Frigoris on the Moon
  Landing is still targeting June 5, 2025.

• South Korean rocket startup Innospace delays its first launch from July 2025 to second half of 2025
  It appears they discovered issues with a first stage electric pump.

• Astronomers detect a seasonal wobble in Titan’s atmosphere by reviewing Cassini and Huygens archival data
  As always there is great uncertainty to these conclusions.

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 touts underwater tests of its manned lunar lander design
  Essentially divers tested the ladder and hatch design for getting astronauts and cargo in and out of the lander.

• Ispace reports Resilience is continuing to operate as planned in lunar orbit
  The landing is still planned for June 5, 2025.

• The UAE hires Firefly’s Blue Ghost to land its Rashid-2 rover on the far side of the Moon
  UAE’s first Rashid rover had been carried by Ispace’s first lunar lander, Hakuto-R1, which crashed. It appears the UAE chose Firefly this time after its successful landing of Blue Ghost earlier this year.

• Chinese astronauts on Tiangong-3 complete their first spacewalk
  They installed “a debris protection device at its designated location.” It appears they are testing this shield’s effectiveness against micrometeorites and space junk at various locations on the station.

• On this day in 1969 Apollo 10 descended to within nine miles of the lunar surface, testing both the Apollo capsule and Lunar Module in lunar orbit
  This was a complete dress rehearsal prior to the Apollo 11 landing two months later. It accomplished everything but the landing itself.

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.

• Anther new startup, Cochrane Exploration, proposes two direct-to-orbit spaceplanes
  So far nothing more than great graphics.

• Computer simulations say Jupiter was once twice its size and had a much more powerful magnetic field
  To say there is uncertainty in these conclusions is a mild understatement.

• Axiom touts its partnership with Omega watches
  As Jay notes, “I remember Mel Brooks from Space Balls: ‘Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made.'”

• Video of fire at SpaceX test stand during static fire test
  The tweet speculates this might have been a failure of a Raptor-3 engine.

• French parliament report worries about job losses if Airbus and Thalia Alenia merger goes through
  The report also worried about decreasing interest in ESA’s government Iris2 constellation, proposed to compete with Starlink but far more expensive and not expected to launch for years.

  The second point is actually more important. It signals the shift among European governments away from the failed government model, something that the French parliament is apparently not yet able to comprehend.

• On this day in 1978 Pioneer Venus was launched to orbit Venus
  It was the first American orbiter to arrive there, and operated from late 1978 until October 1992.

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.

• Starfish’s second Otter Pup tug will attempt this summer its first docking using the company’s docking technology
  The demo mission is aimed at attracting business for either de-orbiting defunct satellites or servicing them.

• SaxaVord touts its spaceport to NATO officials
  The tour also showed off Rocket Factory Augsberg’s launchpad.

• Blue Origin shows off “an illustration” of its fuel tanker needed for its Blue Moon manned lunar lander
  My heart be still. Blue Origin drew a picture! And it only took two years, since it won the contract!

• Blue Origin officials claim the company will do an unmanned lunar landing demo mission later this year
  No one believes this claim, and if you do, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you cheap.

• Relativity touts the ongoing construction of its facilities at Cape Canaveral
  It does appear that things are finally moving for this company, after what appeared to be a four year pause that was coincidentally timed with the increased red tape during the Biden administration.

• China invites India to join its International Lunar Research Station project
  The offer is just for PR purposes. It will be a shock if India accepts, considering its hostile relations generally with China. Furthermore, the Chinese alliance includes Pakistan, which is also not a friend to India.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who apologies for their lateness. 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 I noted to him when he sent these links, I had read all these stories and considered them bottom of the barrel and not worth a full post. They do rate however as quick links.

• Startup Venus Aerospace does successful suborbital test of its “Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine”
  Video here. This is still not much more than at the large model rocket stage, but the potential is great.

• Jared Isaacman posts two tweets (here and here) noting how budgets are limited and we must face the reality of NASA budget cuts.
  He specifically slams SLS and the issuance of two lunar lander contracts, to SpaceX and Blue Origin. Says we can’t afford it, while robbing NASA of money it could use for “dozens of scientific programs.”

  He must be confident he has enough confirmation votes in the Senate or he wouldn’t say these things now.

• Headline: “SpaceX launches 1,000th Starlink satellite of the year during Friday morning mission”
  This was the May 16, 2025 launch. Jay calls this an “insane headline,” adding “I remember back when there were only about 1000 active satellites total, as in for the whole world.”

• Russia & China ink agreement for Russia to supply a nuclear power source for Chinese lunar base
  Anatoly Zak I think correctly notes, “I think that ‘collaboration’ was actually a simple purchase of the Russian hardware with no Russian access to the resources of the project.” Russia has a very limited ability to send much of anything to China’s lunar base. It will deliver some hardware and let the Chinese deliver it to the Moon.

• Hubble takes colorful image of the Large Magellanic Cloud
  More details here.

• On this day in 2009 the last shuttle servicing mission to Hubble ended, with the robot arm releasing the telescope after major repairs
  At the time Hubble’s engineers estimated the repairs would give the telescope a minimum of another five years of operation (see the afterword in the paperback edition of The Universe in a Mirror for more details). It is now sixteen years later. The telescope is still functioning but it is also definitely on thin ice, with only two working gyroscopes.

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 inside Varda’s third capsule as it returned to Earth May 13, 2025

• Scientists claim tree ring data shows impact of biggest solar storm ever in 12,350 BC
  I have three words: The uncertainty of science.

• Ispace reports Resilience lunar lander is in good shape in lunar orbit, preparing for June 5, 2025 landing
  You can see a Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image of the landing zone here.

• China’s intended manned capsule for its lunar missions, dubbed Mengzhou, is about to undergo launch abort tests
  The tweet really provides no real info.

• Japan’s MMX spacecraft for bringing back samples from the Martian moon Phobos undergoing ground thermal vacuum tests
  Due to problems with Japan’s H3 rocket, its launch was delayed from August ’25 to December ’26.

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 scrubs third launch of its Zhuque-2 rocket for “technical reasons”
  This rocket was the first to reach orbit using methane fuel, in 2023. For the second launch in November 2024 it upgraded the fueling system to copy SpaceX’s methods. The company says it will launch this year its larger Zhuque-3, designed to have the first stage return vertically, but based on the launch pace of Zhuque-2, I have doubts.

• On this day in 1963 Gordon Cooper flew on the final Mercury mission
  He orbited the Earth 22 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.

• New rocket startup HStar Space proposes its own heavy-lift reusable rocket
  It wants to launch from French Guiana, Wallops, and Australia. This is a very new company, so our expectations should at this point be very skeptical.

• Firefly touts its composite dome for the tanks on its Alpha rocket planned medium launch rocket as well as its first stage for Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket.
  Corrected as per my reader Dick Eagleson below. Thank you.

• The New Horizons team notes that the spacecraft continues to detect “high dust impact rates” as it flies outward beyond Pluto in the Kuiper belt
  This was first reported in Feburary 2024, but the continuing high impact rate suggests the Kuiper Belt has more in it than predicted.

• On this day in 1973 the last Saturn 5 rocket launched, carrying the first American space station, Skylab, into orbit
  Three crews in 1973 occupied the station, for 28, 59, and 84 days respectively. The first mission however had to do major improvised repairs to make the next two missions possible, because during launch a heat shield on the hull ripped off, destroying one solar panel and preventing a second from deploying. Astronauts on that first mission, led by Apollo astronaut Pete Conrad, had to install a new umbrella shield to control the station’s internal temperature, and during a spacewalk released the remaining solar panel. More details in Leaving Earth.