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.

• Fire threatens city that serves Russia’s Vostochny spaceport
  Video of the fire here. Russian authorities say all is under control, but that video is quite startling.

• China touts development in only 7 years of its high powered methane-fueled rocket engine
  As Jay notes, “That’s because China did not do the R&D themselves!”

• Intuitive Machines claims issues with the altimeter and lighting caused its Athena lunar lander to fall over after landing
  The company says the fixes are easy, but having had both of its two lunar landers tip over after landing suggests a more fundamental design flaw that is not yet addressed.

• Eutelsat’s OneWeb ground terminal as compared to SpaceX’s Starlink terminal
  The tweet notes that the OneWeb terminal does not come off well when compared to Starlink.

• 75 years ago today the Bell X-1 “Glamorous Glennis” flew for the last time, piloted by Chuck Yaeger
  The plane can be seen at the Air & Space Museum in Washington.

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 begins engine burns on its Pioneer service module for the return of Varda’s third orbiting commercial capsule
  It will land in the Koonibba Test Range in South Australia.

• Vast touts the on-going testing of the primary structure for its Haven-1 space module
  The launch is still targeting May 2026.

• Astronomers use Webb to study Jupiter’s aurora
  As usual, the data didn’t match the predictions, and left them with more questions than answers.

• Pictures of interesting paint job on shell of Long March 2E, scheduled for launch later this week

• China touts the upcoming launch of its Tianwen-2 asteroid probe on a Long March 3B rocket

• SpaceX does 60-second static fire test of Starshp prototype set to launch on 9th test flight
  I’m seeing speculations that the targeted launch date is now May 20, 2025.

• Canadian company MDA Space contemplates finding a new customer for its robot arm should Lunar Gateway be cancelled
  They have four American commercial stations plus India’s space station as potential customers.

• Russian space historian says there is a small chance that the Venera capsule that just came back to Earth might be floating in the Indian Ocean and could be picked up by a passing ship
  The image at the link indicates that the capsule did come down near major shipping lanes.

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 claim to have detected a star being destroyed by a black hole
  I found all the actual data in the press releases of this story to be exceedingly confused and uncertain, but Jay thought it worth a quick link, especially because some news outlets are covering it.

• Video showing the moment Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV-1) undocked from Intelsat satellite
  MEV-1 had docked to the satellite’s engine nozzle (useless because it was out of fuel) and acted as a service module to extend the satellite’s life by five years.

• Politico claims without proof that Trump will revive National Space Council
  The claim might turn out true, but this “news article” contains no source from anyone in the Trump administration backing up the claim.

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 late because I was stuck in a doctor’s office for an extra two hours because the idiots misplaced my file. (Ain’t it great how Obamacare digitized all medical records so they would never get lost?)

• Startup Interlune unveils fullscale prototype of its planned lunar excavator
  The company also announced it has a contract with the Department of Energy to deliver lunar helium-3 to the agency by April 2029. Exciting, but it all relies on Starship getting built and flying.

• French article [translated by Google] says China has abandoned its plan to send Tianwen-4 to Uranus after flying past Jupiter; Instead it will focus on Jupiter’s moon Calisto
  Target launch date is 2030.

• Long March 12 launch scrubbed, rocket rolled back to assembly building
  Jay says there are rumors it had “failures during fueling.”

• Updated prediction for uncontrolled re-entry of 1972 Soviet Venera lander now targets May 10th
  The margin of error is still large, almost 9 hours before or after, which essentially means there is as yet no way to predict where it will fall.

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.

• Long video reviewing Boeing’s Starliner capsule history
  I have not watched it. Jay says it provides a good and detailed overview, but nothing new.

• European Space Agency (ESA) touts proposals for its proposed “reusable tugs” for “low-cost missions to Mars”
  So far this appears mostly governmental fantasy, as the project has not yet gotten budget approval from the ESA.

• Video of Biomass’s 12-meter diameter antenna as it successfully deployed
  More details here.

• Space junk removal startup ClearSpace completes ground-testing of technology for removing defunct satellites from orbit
  Now they need to actually fly it.

• Video describing the history of the many astronauts who got stuck in space longer than planned
  From cosmonauts to astronauts, the Starliner crew’s experience has hardly been unique.

• On this day in 1992 the space shuttle Endeavour launched on its first mission
  Endeavour was the fifth shuttle, and was built to replace Challenger after it was destroyed in the 1986 launch failure.

• Ten years ago today SpaceX completed its first launchpad abort test of Dragon
  The success made possible the first manned flights using the capsule.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Ispace’s Resilience lunar lander will enter lunar orbit tomorrow
  The landing will take place in about a week.

• IEEE Spectrum touts China’s plans to bring a sample back from Venus’s atmosphere by citing speculations by American scientists at MIT
  This is one of the most perverse news articles I have ever read. It literally admits it knows nothing really of China’s plans, has no new information to hinge the story on, and then spends the entire text quoting guesses by MIT scientists who have proposed unsuccessfully their own missions. The only real mention of China is in the headline, written almost as press release for China. With nothing to base that press release on.

  Makes me wonder if IEEE is in China’s pay. Wouldn’t surprise me.

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 releases some payload mass data on its pseudo-commercial SpaceSail satellite constellation, aiming to compete with SpaceX
  As Jay notes, the images suggest China’s engineers have somehow stolen SpaceX designs, or are copying them superficially.

• A video “tour” of Vast’s space station facility
  I put quotes around “tour” because I was very disappointed with this video. It provided very little real or new information, and instead acted more like a promotional for the company. Largely a waste of time.

• On this day in 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space
  It was a short 15 minute suborbital flight.

• An analysis of Amazon’s Kuiper satellite design, based on the limited public information so far released
  Hat tip to reader Gary.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Vast touts the gyroscopes it is building in-house to control the orientation of its Haven-1 space station
  Thse gyros will only have to function for less than a year, as Haven-1 is not intended for long term use.

• Blue Origin touts its LISTER drill that flew on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander
  Released today, it says nothing about the mission itself, which occurred three months ago. Apparently Blue Origin can’t even get its PR published on time.

• Engineers continue their attempts to regain communications with Lunar Trailblazer orbiter
  All contact was lost shortly after launch. They figure they have about a month left before the mission will be considered a total loss.

• On this day in 1925 Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter was born
  He was the second American to orbit the Earth.

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.

• Claiming budget uncertainty, NASA delays by a year deadline for relatively small astrophysics mission proposals
  There are budget uncertainties, but I have no doubt this decision is mostly aimed at ginning up opposition to any cuts at NASA at all. It’s an old NASA tactic: Threaten cuts in a broad indiscriminate manner to get Congress and the President to retreat from any cuts. Today’s specific decision tells me we really need a new hard-nosed administrator at NASA who won’t let lower management play these games. Whether Isaacman is that man however remains unknown.

• Rocket startup Stoke Space touts static fire tests of two of its engines, both running above 100%
  The company had hoped to do its first launch this year, but that will likely slip to 2026, mostly because of environmental red tape at its launch site in Florida.

• India’s space agency touts its astronaut flying on the fourth Axiom tourist mission to ISS
  Launch is now scheduled for May 29, 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.

• Intuitive Machines gets grant worth up to $10 million for developing a re-entry capsule

• Today marks the tenth anniversary of the end of the Messenger mission to Mercury
  The spacecraft was the first to orbit Mercury, and operated there for four 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.

• Japanese rocket startup Interstellar gets another government grant
  It appears the grant is to develop technology for flying many satellites in formation

• China touts a 10m diameter stainless steel tank prototype
  Supposedly for a heavy lift rocket.

• Russia now says its Spectr-UV space telescope will launch in 2031
  It was originally supposed to launch in 1997.

• Russia re-confirms its unmanned lunar program previously outlined in 2023, except now it gives few specific target dates
  Expect Russia to miss even these dates.

• A picture of Russia’s version of its own “Starlink” satellite
  Supposedly going to begin launches in 2026, but if you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I can sell you cheap.

• New images of failed 1972 Soviet-era Venera lander whose Earth orbit is about to decay
  The pictures don’t really show much, except that it appears smaller than a typical Starlink satellite (shown in comparison). Designed however to survive Venus’s thick and hot atmosphere, it will still likely hit the ground when its orbit decays in the second week of May.

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.

• Soviet-era lander module from failed 1972 Venus mission to re-enter atmosphere in mid-May
  Designed to survive Venus’s thick atmosphere, there is an excellent chance it will hit the ground intact when it comes down, with no way to control it. It is not a big object, and the risk to habitable areas remains small, but not zero. More updates to follow.

• ISRO engineers have undocked the two Spadex satellites after raising their orbit
  More docking tests are expected.

• Lockheed Martin touts the successful pressure tests for its own inflatable station module
  The company does not tell us the scale of this test item, but it does indicate it exceeded specififications.

• On this day in 2001 Dennis Tito became the first space tourist, launching as a paying passenger on a Russian Soyuz capsule to ISS
  Tito paid the Russian’s $20 million for the flight, and NASA fought hard to stop this perfect example of freedom and capitalism. By the start of this century the U.S. government was no longer a big supporter of such things, something that sadly continues largely to this day.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Startup Radian Aerospace announces its development of a spacecraft coating that can be used “operate repeatedly without degradation”
  The company claims this coating surpasses the thermal tiles presently used by SpaceX.

• NASA Dragonfly mission to Titan passes its critical design review
  All this means that construction can now begin.

• In answering further questions by science committee senators, Jared Isaacman calls proposed budget cuts to NASA not “optimal”
  Of course he did. Congress critters never want any budget cuts, no matter which party they belong to. He needs their votes to get confirmed. He is therefore always going to tell them what they want to hear. What he actually believes remains unknown.

• China touts a pseudo-commercial new cargo ferry for its space station
  It is scheduled for its first flight later this year. Jay notes that it is not reusable.

• On this day in 1967 Vladimir Komarov died when the parachutes on the first Soyuz capsule tangled during re-entry and the capsule crashed
  The Soyuz really wasn’t ready, and Komarov was having serious technical problems almost immediately after reaching 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.

• Senate committee schedules April 30, 2025 for its vote on Jared Isaacman’s nomination for NASA administrator
  If approved, his nomination will then advance to the full Senate for a vote. Expect this to proceed with little opposition.

• Sierra Space touts the micrometeorite impact testing it is doing for its LIFE inflatable manned modules
  Unlike its Orbital Reef space station partner, Blue Origin, Sierra Space continues to cut metal and do testing of hardware in developing its part of that proposed station.

• Boeing reports progress on Starliner
  Not really. This article as well as the company’s conference call provided little real information, other than the company does appear to be committed to getting Starliner finally operational.

• Rocket Lab wins another contract for its HASTE suborbital version of its Electron rocket
  The contract is for doing a hypersonic test for the Defense Department, and I suspect it is part of a larger Pentagon award announced earlier this week.

• Blue Origin touts a successful 15-second static fire test of an upgraded New Glenn upper stage
  This is in preparation for the second New Glenn launch, tentatively scheduled for May.

• China touts a viewgraph outlining the plan for its Mars sample return mission
  An additional propaganda video provides more information in the text on the screen. All this is part of the PR push China initiated today in conjunction with the launch of three astronauts to its Tiangong-3 station.

• FAA reschedules virtual meeting for public comment on SpaceX’s request to increase launches in Florida from 50 to 120 per year
  The previous meeting was scrubbed due to a major Zoom outage. The meeting relates to the FAA’s environmental reassessment, which though still delaying things somehow seems to be less of a threat with Trump in office. At a minimum the FAA is no longer delaying things simply because it needs to fill out some paperwork.

• ESA/NASA release some new Hubble Space Telescope images to celebrate the telescope’s 35 anniversay in space
  Some very cool images at the link. However, in truth the telescope didn’t start to really do its thing until three years later, after astronauts installed equipment to correct its out-of-focus mirror.

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 wins Air Force contract to develop ceramic-based nozzles for upper stages
  The concept is expected to lower the weight and speed production of nozzles.

• China touts what it calls a “Lunar Soil Brick Machine” for using lunar materials to make bricks
  Jay notes that “Astroport Space Technologies out of Belgium has been doing this for over a year. Looks like another Chinese theft.”

• Trump administration urges other nations to stop doing business with China’s pseudo-satellite companies
  Not surprisingly, the government is worried that China uses these deals to steal sensitive technology.

• Picture of a SpaceX Raptor-3 engine during road transport

• Bloomberg reports (behind a paywall) that Amazon is having production problems producing Kuiper satellites
  It seems that “faulty components and a complex design” are making assembly line production difficult. If this story has any truth, than Amazon’s ability to meet its FCC license requirement of having 1,600 satellites in orbit by mid-2026 is increasingly unlikely. It also might explain why ULA has not seemed to be in a hurry to get these satellites off the ground.

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 touts its twin vehicle assembly buildings for its Long March 10 rocket, used for manned missions
  The second VAB is for a back up rocket. Seems to me to be a very wasteful way to do things, but then that’s how governments operate.

Both Jay and I have found it to be a relatively slow news day in space.

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.

• Lucy successfully completes fly-by of asteroid Donaldjohanson
  The spacecraft is healthy. Next engineers will download the data over the next few days.

• NASA touts the launch of Lunar Gateway’s first two modules sometime in 2027
  The two modules will be launched by a Falcon Heavy and take a year-long circuitous route to get to their lunar polar orbit. The fourth Artemis mission (following the lunar landing) will bring a manned crew to the station with the habitation module.

  Sounds good? Right now it is all fantasy.

• ULA schedules a new launch date of April 28th for placing the first set of Kuiper satellites into orbit
  The first launch was scrubbed due to bad weather.

• On April 19, 2021 engineers confirmed Ingenuity’s first powered flight on Mars, the first such achievement in history
  Intended to only fly a handful of times over 30 days, Ingenuity ended up completing 72 flights over almost three years.

• On this day in 1961 a man completed the first flight of the Bell Rocket Belt
  One of several jetpacks tested in the 1960s, all of which proved very dangerous and unpractical.

• This week in 1972 the Apollo 16 astronauts deployed the first astronomical telescope 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.

• The military has a reason for delaying the next Atlas-5 launch but it won’t tell us why
  Essentially there appears to be some military-relating scheduling conflict at Cape Canaveral that has caused ULA to hold up the first Atlas-5 launch of Amazon’s Kuiper satellites.

• An exoplanet has been discovered circling binary star system with an orbit tilted 90 degrees to their orbit
  As Jay notes, “Nice visualization of the orbits of this system.” Jay also adds that the system is “…120 light years away in the constellation Libra, and it is not just a binary system, it is a triple system with 2M1510C and possible sighting of a fourth brown dwarf to make it a quadruple system.”

• Firefly touts the rocket engines it has built at its own Texas facilities

• Cute artwork on the elevator doors in a building at the Johnson Space Center
  This graphic of Starliner routinely docks more reliably than the real thing.

• Zhuque-2 and Zhuque-3 rockets of the Chinese pseudo-company Landspace on the factory floor.
  Zhuque-2 was the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit. Zhuque-3 is a Falcon-9 copycat that the company hopes to launch for the first time this year. Later upgrades will have a reusable first stage.

• Video of China’s next manned rocket launch rolling to the launchpad
  Launch is scheduled for April 24, 2025.

• Rumors abound concerning China’s program to send humans to the Moon
  Nothing concrete, except the rumors imply both delays along with attempts to accelerate the schedule.

• Indian rocket startup Skyroot touts the successfully 200 second static fire test of the engine for use on its Vikram-1 rocket’s fourth stage
  The company has completed engine tests for most of this rocket’s engines, but there is no word when it will attempt a first launch.

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.

• View a NASA documentary describing its effort to identify potentially dangerous asteroids
  It’s an hour and fifteen minutes long, so I admit I haven’t watched it. It is also touted by NASA as “gripping”, with the researchers involved “dedicated,” “tireless,” and “unsung heroes,” the kind of propaganda words that always turn me off. Nothing against these scientists, but it is absurd to describe them in this manner.

• Texas Space Commission awards another $26 million in grants to five companies
  All five are small companies doing a variety of background work that makes the industry function.

• On this day in 1970 the Apollo 13 capsule returned to Earth, safely bringing its three astronauts home after a near disaster
  The blackout period during descent lasted about 90 seconds longer than expected, which added one last teeth-gritting moment to this nerve-racking rescue flight.

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.

• Explosion destroys Northrop Grumman building in Utah
  No one was injured. What caused the explosion remains unknown at this point.

• China releases images of recovered Long March 3B core stage that used parachutes
  The stage is not in any condition to reuse, but it appears the use of parachutes was part of a very intermittent program to bring these stages, which use very toxic fuels, back to Earth in a controlled manner.

• The battle over the location of Space Force headquarters, either Colorado or Alabama, continues
  Trump has wanted to move the force’s headquarters to Alabama. Before the creation of the force the Pentagon’s space management has generally been based in Colorado. Right now the critters in Congress are fighting over it.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft completes suborbital all-female tourist flight
  The press is giving this flight lots of coverage because of the nature of the crew, but in terms of the future of space, this suborbital flight is less than trivial in importance.

• Space Force awards Outpost contract to develop deployable heat shield for payloads returning from orbit

• Australian rocket startup Gilmour touts its satellite platform for satellite companies
  Meanwhile, the company’s first launch on March 15, 2025 never happened, and the company remains very tight-lipped about the situation.

• On this day in 1970 the Apollo 13 crew improvised a system for using the carbon dioxide filters from its crippled command module in its lunar module lifeboat
  The fix involved “bags, a flight plan card, some hoses, and a lot of duct tape.”

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 touts Mars program using proposed Long March 9 rocket
  China claims the first stage will always be reusable, while the upper stage will be eventually. At the moment however this is all powerpoint presentations, no more.

• Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer delays first launch of its Tianlong-3 Falcon-9 copycat rocket until the summer 2025
  This same pseudo-company had a test first stage break free and launch itself last year during a static fire test.

• Rocket fairing found on road in Anhui in eastern China
  No information about the rocket or launch is provided. To quote: “It may have been accidentally dropped during transportation after recovery. Or maybe it was blown away by the wind from a previous launch months ago?” Since China has said nothing about any attempts to recover fairings, this remains a mystery.

• Telesat amends its FCC licence, reducing its Lightspeed constellation from 1,671 satellites to only 300
  The company has not provided an explanation as to why.

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 signs deal with nuclear energy startup Zeno Power
  Zeno is to develop radioisotope power systems for future Ispace lunar landers.

• Space Forge about to launch its first space manufacturing smallsat demo mission

• Trump White House budget proposal eviscerates science funding at NASA
  One of several such sob-story articles today in the propaganda press. As usual, cutting any government program will cause disaster and death. What the truth is however is unclear, since all of these stories were based on anonymous sources and reek of political lobbying. I will have more to say on Monday.

• Webb data on what is thought to be a star swallowing a planet

• Europe’s XMM-Newton space telescope sees long energetic burst from formerly inactive black hole

• On this day in 1970 Apollo 13 launched, the third American manned lunar mission
  It instead became one of the most challenging rescue missions ever.

• On this day in 2019 astronomers released what the claimed was the first image of a black hole
  The data was real and the knowledge gained was wonderful, but to call it a real image is an exaggeration, as the data was compiled from multiple telescopes worldwide and massaged into place using computer modeling.

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.

• NOAA touts upcoming test to monitor radiation for Artemis astronauts on the way to the Moon
  Blather. This is what they are hired to do. They aren’t doing anything special.

• France signals readiness to bail out EutelsatGroup and OneWeb
  It appears investment capital from previous sources is now drying up.

• Amazon’s CEO touts the Kuiper constellation to shareholders
  He also admits that it is going to require a lot of investment capital before any income comes in.

• SpaceX signs deal to offer Starlink direct-to-cell service in Japan
  While OneWeb and Amazon dither, SpaceX keeps scooping up the customers.

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’s Deep Space Network breaks ground on new antenna dish in Australia
  The event (on March 19th) also celebrated sixty years operating out of Australia.

• Mission profile for a Chinese mission to target a 30 meter asteroid
  Launch is scheduled for 2027. I like Jay’s comment: “The asteroid will be deflected by a power-point presentation.”

• On this day in 1959 NASA introduced its first class of seven astronauts for its Mercury program
  Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper, Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, and Scott Carpenter. All but Slayton flew Mercury missions. Slayton eventually flew on the Apollo-Soyus docking mission in 1975.

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.

• Intuitive Machines awards SpaceX the launch contract for its 4th lunar lander mission
  Launch is targeting 2027, and will also carry two lunar orbiters for relaying data and communications.

• New Horizons begins six months of science operations after being roused from hibernation

• On this day in 2001 Mars Odyssey was launched
  Since completing the first global mineral map of Mars it has mostly been used as a relay satellite for data and communications.

• On this day in 1964 Gemini 1 launched
  Unmanned, the mission’s purpose was to test the capsule and Titan II rocket.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Thales Alenia completes primary structure of the HALO (Habitation and Logistics Outpost) module for NASA’s Lunar Gateway space station
  The tweet, not from Thales Alenia, specifically notes the debate on whether Gateway “has any meaningful purpose.” That this is even mentioned suggests the political winds are building against it.

• Astra claims to have raised $80 million in private investment funds
  The company founder, Chris Kemp, says they will use the funds to get back into the launch game. We shall see.

• Spanish rocket startup PLD signs another launch contract, with the European orbital tug company D-Orbit
  All the company now has to do is to launch.

• Perseverance spots dust devils
  Some nice visuals, but nothing particularly new.

• On this day in 1983 the space shuttle Challenger launched on its first flight
  The mission placed in orbit NASA’s first dedicated satellite for manned orbital communications, Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-1 (TDRS-1)

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 startup True Anomaly touts its new “Jackal spacecraft for GEO and Cislunar space”
  The company is angling for defense work.

• Vast signs deal with NASA’s Glenn center to do environmental testing of its Haven-1 manned space station
  This testing is set for early ’26, which makes for a very tight schedule to meet the present May ’26 launch date.

• Space Force awards Northrop Grumman two contracts to demonstrate in-space refueling technologies

• Rocket Lab touts its satellite radio units

• SpaceX completes static fire test of Superheavy booster recovered from the seventh test flight
  The tweet says this booster could very well be reused on test flight 9, the next planned test flight.

• Kongsberg to deliver 280 microsatellites to SpinLaunch’s LEO satellite communication constellation
  My readers might remember SpinLaunch as the startup aiming to put payloads into orbit by spinning them to high speeds and then releasing them. They did some tests, got some investment capital, and then apparently switched focus to satellite communications.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Rocket Lab touts the qualification of the upper stage of its new Neutron rocket
  They are still targeting a first launch this year.

• On this day in 1960 the first weather satellite, Tiros-1, was launched
  Took the first weather images from space, reshaping how weather would be forecast for the rest of history.

• On this day in 1968 “2001: A Space Odyssey” premiered at the Uptown Theater in Washington, DC
  While many still rave about this film, and I myself literally had a mind-blowing experience watching it for the first time (without any drugs in my system), the movie has not aged well. Each time I watch it my opinion of it as a film goes down.

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.

• FAA confirms that it has closed its investigation into the seventh flight of Starship/Superheavy
  The FAA also noted the flight’s failure posed no safety issues, something that was clear almost immedately.

• Cuba’s state-run press attacks the arrival of Starlink in Cuba, claiming it is a plot by Trump and Musk to “destabilze” the island
  In other words, Cuba’s communist dictators don’t like it that its citizens might now have other options for getting information that those dictators don’t control.

• On this day in 1997 Pioneer-10’s mission ended, 25 years after launch
  It continued to send signals back through 2003.