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.

• 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.

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.

• Senator raises concerns over Air Force possibly shifting satellite contracts to SpaceX
  Though no decision has yet been made, the plan would abandon the smallsat constellation presently being built and rely on SpaceX’s StarShield constellation instead.

• Space Force adds Rocket Lab and Stoke Space to its list of rocket companies that can bid on certain launch contracts
  Both join already approved Blue Origin, SpaceX, and ULA.

• ULA launchpad at Vandenberg receiving new 70k gallon (265k liter) liquid hydrogen tank for Vulcan upper stage

• More additions to the same ULA launchpad at Vandenberg
  Both tweets are by ULA’s CEO Tory Bruno, touting Vulcan upgrades.

• Chinese satellite pseudo-company Genesat to up satellite production to one satellite per day for its Qianfan/Thousand Sails constellation
  One of several Chinese projects aimed at providing a state-controlled option to Starlink.

• One powerpoint slide outlining China’s Chang’e-7 south pole mission
  Mostly useless unless you read Chinese.

• Overview of China’s present space effort
  A good summary but not much new information.

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 startup Interstellar touts is rocket engine, powered by “liquid biomethane, a renewable fuel”
  Jay looked up “biomethane,” and discovered it is manufactured using manure.

• China touts a toy model display showing the future for its Wencheng coastal spaceport
  The model shows more than a dozen launchpads, packed close together. We shall see what the future really brings.

• ESA confirms that its very successful Gaia spacecraft has gone silent and has been shut down
  Over its decade-long mission it precisely measured the distances to more than a billion objects in the Milky Way, revolutionizing astronomy most significantly.

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’s present planetary exploration roadmap
  • 2028: Tianwen-3 Mars sample return
  • 2029: Tianwen-4 to Jupiter and Callisto
  • 2033: Venus atmospheric sample return
  • 2038: Mars Research Station for ISRU
  • 2039: Probe to Neptune and Triton

  Jay notes correctly that China has apparently dropped a planned mission to Uranus, listed in a similar presentation in February 2023. The schedule has for all these missions also been pushed back significantly.

• On this day in 1948 Chuck Yaeger flew Bell X-1 to the highest velocity and altitude of any piloted airplane up to that time
  The speed record set was Mach 1.45. The altitude record was 71,900 feet.

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.

• SLS core stage for next Artemis mission lifted upright
  This will be for the first Artemis manned mission around the Moon. I fear for those astronauts’ lives.

• China touts the construction progress for its Long March 10 launchpad at Wenchang spaceport
  This is where it hopes to launch its manned Moon missions.

• Video showing disassembly of high bay at Starbase to make room for much larger “Giga Bay”
  The larger bay will allow faster assembly line manufacture of Starship/Superheavy.

• Happy 97th birthday to astronaut Jim Lovell, who in the 1960s and 1970s was the world’s most traveled spaceman
  Lovell flew on Gemini 7 (the first mission lasting two weeks), Gemini 12 (refining docking, rendezvous, and spacewalk technology), Apollo 8 (the first human mission to orbit another world), and Apollo 13 (which started out as a lunar landing mission and instead became one of the greatest space rescue missions of all time).

• On this day in 1655 Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens discovered Titan, Saturn’s largest 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.

• Using Webb to characterize the nature of the dwarf planets in the outer solar system

• Summary of Chinese rockets which plan to have maiden flights in 2025
  Lists ten new rockets. I am willing to bet that half will not fly this year, and a good percentage will never fly. The successes however will be important, since some include reusability.

• On this day in 1965 Ranger 9 successfully crashed on the Moon, as planned
  Link includes a video made up of the photos taken as the spacecraft descended.

• Hubble image showing the impact clouds on Jupiter from Comet Shoemaker-Levy’s collision in 1994
  Fortunately the impact occurred after Hubble’s eyesight was fixed.

• Ten years ago today the Mars rover Opportunity exceeded 26.2 miles, the length of a marathon
  It is still a record for any rover, but expect both Curiosity and Perseverance to eventually break 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.

• NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope ejects its dust cover
  The telescope will compile a spectroscopic sky survey over its two-year prime mission.

• European Space Agency (ESA) releases a report outlining its overall strategy through 2040
  Contains lots of typical bureaucratic blather. It actually means little, as the real strategies are presently being established by the individual European nations independent of this central bureaucracy. Rather than depend on ESA, the member nations are one-by-one encouraging private enterprise, not government projects. ESA is likely going to become a backwater in the next decade, and unnecessary after that.

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

• New Horizons detects too much ultra-violet light coming from blank patch of sky
  Or to put it more clearly, this is just another example of the uncertainty of science.

• Axiom touts new work on its station modules by Thales-Alenia in Italy

• Commercial radar satellite company Iceye assures the Ukraine it will continue to make its orbital data available
  I am sure Iceye is being well paid for its data.

• SpaceX’s launch tonight will use a first stage booster less than ten days after its previous launch, a new turnaround record

• Starlink competitor in the Falklands touts his company as superior
  It appears he is trying to hold onto his monopoly, and failing.

• On Gemini 3 this week in 1965 astronaut John Young took out a corned beef sandwich, bought at a local restaurant, and ate it while in orbit
  The NASA bureaucracy, mighty pissed off at Young for doing this, imposed new stricter rules thereafter on what astronauts could take on board their flight. Young, who was one of America’s truly great space pioneers, never suffered however, flying two Gemini missions, two Apollo missions, and two shuttle missions.

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

• Andoya spaceport signs partnership deal with satellite packager Exolaunch
  Exolaunch will act to help Andoya integrate satellites on future launches.

• Chinese pseudo-company touts its capsules for both manned and cargo flights
  It claims it will begin test flights in “2027 or 2028,” but the graphic at the link mostly shows copies of Dragon and Cygnus capsules.

• Exlabs and Antares form partnership to develop spacecraft using nuclear power for operations
  The idea is to create better on-board power systems so that interplanetary missions will be less reliant on solar power.

• This week in 2011 NASA’s Messenger spacecraft became the first to enter Mercury orbit
  It operated for four years, collecting data and images.

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 another new rocket doing tower tests
  No information other than two pictures.

• Update on the testing status of Sierra Nevada’s first Dream Chaser cargo shuttle, Tenacity
  Includes almost no new information. Suggests the first launch will occur “this year,” which seems remarkable vague considering previously they thought they would launch last spring.

• On this day in 1965 Russian Alexei Leonov became the first person to do a spacewalk
  The spacewalk had been quickly improvised to beat the planned American spacewalk during its Gemini program, and so the spacesuit ballooned out so much during the walk Leonov initially could not get back through the hatch. He had to literally dump some of his own air to shrink the suit enough to squeeze back in.

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.

• South Korean rocket startup Innospace touts video of tests of its rocket strongback
  It is targeting a July 2025 first launch attempt.

• Rocket Lab touts its fairing design for its new Neutron rocket
  Rather than separating, the fairings are integral to the reusable first stage, and merely hinge open.

• China opens its Mars sample return mission to international participation
  Considering the mess the NASA/ESA sample return mission is in, it might make sense for neutral countries to consider hitching a ride with China.

• China shows off graphic of its own Webb copycat space telescope
  Merely a powerpoint slide. Nothing real as yet.

• NASA touts Lucy’s next asteroid rendezvous
  The release cites some theories about the age of the asteroid, but mostly it touts Lucy.

• ISRO gets approval from government for joint Chandrayaan-5 mission with Japan
  Includes an Indian lander and a Japanese rover landing somewhere in the south polar regions of the Moon. Expect more information by tomorrow.

• On this day in 1958 the U.S. launched its second satellite, Vanguard 1.
  It was the first to be solar powered. It is also still in orbit, and is expected to remain so for at least another 150-plus 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.

• Varda releases video showing the inside view during its second capsule’s return from space
  The capsule returned on February 27, 2025.

• Cool video of Blue Ghost shooting four tethered electrodes from an 8-foot mast at the top of the lander
  The electrodes flew quite a distance, though the fisheye lens exaggerates that impression.

• NASA and the press team up to lobby against possible significant cuts to the agency’s science budget
  I have been following NASA science work for decades, and though much of it is extremely worthwhile, much of it is also fat that could be trimmed, most especially centers and programs that have been shown to fudge climate numbers to fit the theory of human-caused global warming (I’m most specifically looking at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York). These should be shut down as fast as possible.

• China’s government endorses its pseudo-commercial space industry
  It definitely likes the innovation and lower costs that come with competition, but it also still retains a very tight grip of control over these pseudo-companies. They do nothing on their own, but do what the government wants them to do.

• X-37B successfully de-orbited early this morning, landing at Vandenberg in California
  More information to come.

• On March 6, 2009 the Kepler space telescope was launched
  Over nine years of observations it discovered over 2,600 transiting exoplanets.

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.

• Astroforge releases a detailed debrief of its Odin mission failure once in space
  It seems their engineers have gained a great deal of experience that can be applied to future missions, whether with Astroforge or elsewhere.

• The shipping container transporting the next Cygnus freighter to its launch site has been damaged
  It is presently unknown whether the capsule was unharmed. NASA is putting more ISS cargo on the next SpaceX Dragon, just in case.

• Axiom and Red Hat are partnering to launch a data-center unit to ISS in 2025

• On this day in 1969 Russell “Rusty” Schweickart performed the first spacewalk of the Apollo program during the Apollo 9 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.

• Boom and NASA partner to create imagery showing its XB-1 supersonic plane breaking the sound barrier during its February 10, 2025 test flight

• Starlab’s space station design passes its preliminary design review in collaboration with NASA
  The company says it is now starting full development, but the list of things it plans to do in the next year look more like prep work at relatively low cost while it waits to see if it will win the big contract from NASA.

• Astronomers use Webb to detect features of free-floating object 20 light years away that could be super-Jupiter exoplanet or a brown dwarf
  The uncertainty of science.

• On this day in 1959 Pioneer 4 launched attempting (and failing) to do a close fly-by of the Moon
  It was however the first American spacecraft to achieve solar orbit. It also provided more detail on the Van Allen radiation belts that circle the Earth.

• On this day in 1979 Voyager-1 detected the first evidence of a ring around Jupiter

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 has successfully completed a deep space engine burn as it works its way for a May landing
  As the company notes, it “is now on a path towards the boundaries of the Earth gravitational influence, a region so far from Earth that the gravity of the Sun starts to be relevant.”

• Intuitive Machines’ Athena lunar lander has successfully inserted into lunar orbit in advance of a March 6, 2025 landing

• Arianespace scrubbed its second Ariane-6 launch today, providing no explanation so far as to why
  The launch itself was delayed six months because of issues with the engine on the upper stage during the first launch.

• Earlier this week protesters blocked the entrance to one of the space facilities of India’s space agency ISRO
  They also tried to deface “the hindi text” on some signs. No word on what they were protesting.

• On this day in 1969 Apollo 9 launched, on a mission to do the first in-space tests in Earth orbit of the lunar module

• On this day in 1972 Pioneer 10 was launched, the first American mission to the outer planets
  It flew past Jupiter in December 1973, surviving both its journey through the asteroid belt to get there as well the harsh environment around Jupiter. Its flight also proved that Jupiter’s gravity could be used successfully to slingshot missions to other locations, a technique that is now standard on almost all interplanetary missions.

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

• Stoke Space touts another video of a 30-second static fire engine test of its multi-nozzle Andromeda upper stage rocket engine
  Apparently the test destroyed the camera, though it did its job. Stoke seems to be closing in on getting that reusable upper stage with its very radical design ready for launch.

• NASA uploads the directive that approved the return of Starliner unmanned [pdf]
  A lot is redacted, and the rest really doesn’t add anything to what we already know, as far as I could see.

• China agrees to carry Pakistani astronaut to its Tiangong-3 space station
  China has very few substantial partners in its lunar base alliance, so this deal is to highlight one.

• Rocket Lab touts its new “flatellite” satellite design for launching large constellations
  It is designed to be built quickly in an assembly-line manner and launched stacked to maximum the number on each launch. The company provides the satellite basics, all a customer need do is add on its own instruments, whether for communications, remote sensing, or whatever.

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’s demo payload on the first launch of its Eris rocket will be a jar of Vegemite
  Launch is scheduled for March 15, 2025, and if successful will be the first private launch by an Australian company, from Australia.

• Astroforge has issues communicating with Odin asteroid probe launched yesterday
  It appears, with the help of ham radio operators they have a plan to fix the issue. More here.

• Vast touts the testing of “trace contaminant control system” to be used to scrub its Haven-1 environment
  They also plan to use this same system on future Haven modules.

• AST SpaceMobile wins $43 million contract from the Pentagon’s Space Development Agency
  It appears the contract is to upgrade its phone-to-satellite satellite technology for secure military use.

• A map showing the part of the Moon captured by one of Blue Ghost’s recent lunar orbital movies
  The region was in the southwest quadrant of the Moon’s far side.

• On this day NASA pilot Bill Dana flew the experimental HL-10 lifting body to 90,030 feet
  It is that lifting body design that Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser uses, as well as the military’s X-37B. The Soviets also copied it and did the only lifting body orbital test flights. It only took almost a half century for someone in the U.S. to finally utilize it as a method for returning from 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.

• Blue Origin’s New Shepard flies another suborbital hop

• Two of NASA’s Deep Space Network antennas look up at Jupiter and Mars
  The Mars antenna is in contact with the orbiter Maven, and the Jupiter antenna is talking to Juno.

• Data from China’s Zhurong rover suggests an ocean once existed in the northern Martian lowlands
  As always, the assumption of liquid water is very uncertain. It could have been ice.

• Scott Pace, NASA swamp creature who pushed SLS for years, suddenly questions its practicality
  Pace was a completely useless advisor to Trump’s National Space Council in the first administration, as he routinely pushed for big NASA projects built by NASA in league with the old space companies. He had no use for private space, and actually worked to hinder it. To suddenly change his tune now is nice, but it simply illustrates why he is not someone Trump or any NASA official should go to for worthwhile advice.