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.

• Boeing’s VP Mark Nappi has left his Starliner position for an advisory role before retiring later in February
  This is only one of many management changes that have been going on in Boeing’s space division. Expect more to come.

• Rocket Lab ships its newest Archimedes engine for testing at Stennis
  The new engine is for its new Neutron rocket, which the company hopes to launch for the first time this year.

• SpaceX installs the chopsticks on its second launch tower at Boca Chica
  It appears they want this second tower available soon to support Starship/Superheavy test flights.

• Another new Chinese pseudo-company, Astronston, that is going to use chopsticks to catch its rockets
  It also apparently stole SpaceX artwork created by Alex Svan

• ISRO completes preliminary design of new methane-fuel engine
  It plans to use it on its new larger NGLV rocket, necessary for its planned manned space station program.

• UK space agency touts a £3.5 million grant program to bring internet access to remote places in the country
  It might give you cash, but whether you’ll ever be able to launch anything in the UK is questionable. The paperwork is endless.

• On this day in 1971 Apollo 14 lifted off, carrying Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell

• Modified to fix the issues that caused the Apollo 13 failure, the mission initially had its own problems
  They had difficulty docking the Apollo capsule to the lunar module, requiring six attempts and firing the thrusters to force the docking latches to catch.

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 gets $900 million ESA contract to build descent module for Argonaut lunar lander
  As always, Europe is slow and far behind. It is scheduled for launch in the “2030s” (if then), by which time private companies in the U.S. and Japan will flying numerous such landers and return spacecraft for a fraction of this cost. And that doesn’t include the landers that China and India will be flying by then as well.

• China releases images of satellites it normally keeps under wraps
  One was a technology test satellite, and the second was a five-satellite batch as part of one of its mega-internet satellite constellations.

• On this day in 1964, Ranger 6 was launched
  It was the sixth attempt to take many photos the Moon as the spacecraft approached and then crashed on the surface. It was also the sixth straight failure. It wasn’t until the last Ranger mission six months later, Ranger-7, that success was finally achieved, sending back more than 4,000 pictures.

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

• Sierra Space’s Tenacity Dream Chaser mini-shuttle passes payload intergration tests
  Still no firm word on when it will launch.

• ESA awards Thales-Alenia contract to build Envision probe to Venus
  The launch is not scheduled until “the 2030s” so don’t hold your breath, especially because European planetary probes routinely fall behind schedule, and having a decade to build it might not be enough.

• On this day in 1965 the crawler at the base of the mobile launcher at Kennedy did its first crawl
  The short video at the link reviews the history and touts the success of the mobile launcher, ignoring the insane amount of money NASA has spent in the past decade (more than $2 billion) modifying and then building two new launchers, one of which will only be used twice, at most.

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.

• Orbital images suggest Russia’s “Inspector” satellites are based on the Karat-200 design, aimed at building lots of satellites quickly
  Russia has used these satellites to move from location to location and get close looks at other satellites.

• On this day in 1986 the space shuttle Challenger broke up 73 seconds after lift-off
  Astronauts Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Greg Jarvis, Judith Resnik, Mike Smith, Dick Scobee, and Ron McNair lost their lives.

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.

• Hacking yourself a satellite – recovering BEESAT-1
  Hour long video describing how a satellite with corrupted software and no planned way to update it was brought back to life after a decade.

• China touts the planned addition of two new launchpads at its coastal Wenchang spaceport

• On this day in 1967 the crew of Apollo 1 died when a fire ignited inside their capsule during a dress rehearsal countdown
  Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee died within seconds because they had no way to open the hatch from inside. This failure caused a major change in the Apollo capsule design and a major re-emphasis at NASA at getting it right.

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 also want to thank all my readers for their best wishes and prayers. Both Diane and I appreciate it beyond words.

• Intuitive Machines wins $2.5 million NASA contract to study the logistics and cargo systems necessary for a lunar base

• Sierra Space touts winning a $2.5 million contract to study lunar logistics for a permanent lunar base

  Both contracts are to study the same issues.

• The removal last week by the Air Force of Derek Tournear, head of the Space Development Agency, was apparently related to a bid protest by Viasat
  It appears something he did — not yet revealed — caused Viasat to protest two contract awards.

• Firefly touts the first images of Earth taken by Blue Ghost
  The images are compiled into a very pretty two-second-long movie.

• Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer now says its first launch of its Tianlong-3 rocket will occur in May, with five launches to quickly follow before the end of the year
  This is the company that had a rocket launch itself during a static fire test in June 2024, causing at least a full year delay in its schedule.

• Chinese pseudo-company Star Vision touts its winning a contract to fly a mini-robot on China’s Chang’e-8 lunar landing mission in 2028

• On this day in 1930 Clyde Tombaugh captured one of several images that proved the existence of the planet Pluto

• On this day in 2004 the rover Opportunity landed on Mars
  It ended up operating fourteen years, far exceeding its planned 90-day 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.

• Firefly touts activating another instrument on Blue Ghost
  This instrument appears to be testing using Earth-orbiting GPS-type satellites for tracking.

• Ispace’s Resilience lunar lander yesterday successfully completed its first orbital maneuver
  The press release at the link provides a good summary of the entire mission.

• Chinese pseudo-company Cosmoleap touts video of its testing of its own chopstick launch tower
  It would be nice if there was a bit of information about the rocket, of which very little information has been released.

• Space Force removes head of Space Development Agency, the man who has been pushing for constellations of smallsats instead of big expensive single gold-plated satellites
  There is an investigation underway, but no information was released about it.

• On this day in 1969 the Soviet Union completed the first docking of two manned Soyuz capsules
  The crews then did a spacewalk to transfer crews, as the docking ports had no access tunnel.

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.

• Voyager announces minor name change and major re-organization
  The company has divided itself into three divisions, only one of which is focused on its space station project. The goal is to try to get business in other areas.

• Vast begins lift tests of its engineering module of its Haven-1 module.
  Cool pictures.

• A review of Starliner’s unknown status months after the capsule returned to Earth
  No new information, which in itself bodes badly for Starliner. It appears Boeing is increasingly reluctant to move forward if it will cost it any more money.

• Berger claims multiple sources confirm the arrival of David Limp as CEO of Blue Origin last year saved the company
  No news here either. The change was obvious from day one.

• Hubble faces budget cuts
  To translate: Give us more money! I’d be more sympathetic if NASA was more willing to consider a rescue mission. If not, then there is every reason in the world to begin winding down operations.

• China touts its lunar rover concepts
  The video is in Chinese, has great dramatic background music, but shows nothing but very simple concepts.

• India’s government approves third launchpad at its main spaceport at Sriharikota
  They need more redundancy as their gear up for their first manned 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.

• A video rehash of the Orion heatshield problems during its return to Earth at the end Artemis-1
  Nothing new.

• Gaia mission to end today because its fuel has run out
  The archived data from the mission however has barely been absorbed by the astronomical community, Eventually it will provide very precise distances to billions of stars.

• Vast ships its Haven-1 primary structure qualification article to its testing facility in California
  If this is only a test module, I can’t see how Vast will have the flight model ready for launch later this year.

• On this day in 2006 the Stardust sample capsule returned, bringing with it dust samples from Comet P/Wild-2
  The samples also included the first interstellar particles ever captured.

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.

• Leftist media makes hay because Quantas had to reschedule flights to South Africa due to potential Starship landings in Indian Ocean
  The link goes to The Guardian, but Reuters picked this up as well. There is no story here, but these leftists are trying to gin it up to damage SpaceX and Musk. So what Quantas might have to reschedule a flight or two once every several months? This isn’t an unreasonable burden. In fact, I wonder why the airline didn’t simple re-route the flights to avoid the splashdown zone.

• Axiom touts its progress in 2024 and expected achievements in 2025 in building its space station
  Nothing new, merely pr to convince us all is well. It could be. We shall see.

• Today in 2004 the European probe Huygens landed softly on Saturn’s moon Titan
  The probe obtained some great data, but the real achievement was the landing itself. For Europe’s engineers it was a stellar accomplishment.

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’ first lunar lander apparently entered lunar orbit last year with a low point only 1.3 kilometers above the surface, far lower than expected
  The engineers immediately scheduled an orbital burn to raise this low point to a reasonable number, as there was an actual risk the spacecraft might hit a mountain peak if not corrected.

• ESA’s director touts a joint ESA/China solar probe to study solar wind and magnetosphere
  This tweet has very old information, apparently from before 2021. The probe is now scheduled for launch in 2025 on a Vega-C rocket

• Chinese grasshopper test stage spotted during transport
  It appears the plan is to next test fly it up and down from a sea platform off the coast of Haiyang

• On this day in 1968 the Surveyor-7 spacecraft touched down softly on the Moon
  It landed near the crater Tycho.

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 now targeting January 12, 2025 1 am (Eastern) for first launch of New Glenn
  Just stay up late Saturday night to watch. I will try to post the live stream here. [Note: Link fixed! My error. Sorry.]

• Astra touts testing of its Rocket-4 upper stage tank
  Very puzzling, as the company had said it was delaying construction of Rocket-4 for several years as rebuilds the company from its almost bankruptcy. Maybe now that it is in private hands again things are moving. Or not. We shall see. [Note: Link fixed. My error. Sorry.]

• Rocket Lab touts its progress as prime contractor to build eighteen satellites for the military
  My how things have changed. In the old days, it would take almost a decade for the Pentagon to build and launch one satellite, and it would cost billions. Buying the product from the private sector now means they get it fast many times over, and for far less.

• The orbital debris that fell in Kenya possibly identified as coming from an Ariane-5 launch in 2008
  Nothing is confirmed as yet.

• Vast installs hatch on the “primary qualification unit” for its Haven-1 space station
  It remains unclear whether this unit will become the station module itself, or act merely as a testing unit. If the latter, I wonder if it will be possible for Haven-1 to be launched before the end of 2025, as the company promises.

• On this day in 1972 the Soviet Union launched Luna 21, carrying its second lunar rover, Lunikhod-2

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 honors the memory of John Glenn as it refurbishes the launchpad he used for his first American orbital flight
  The company hopes to launch its Nova two-stage reusable rocket there, though no date as yet been announced.

• Rocket Lab touts its proposal to get Perseverance’s sample back
  The company claims it can do the job for less than $4 billion, with samples returned as early as 2031. This is faster and cheaper than what was NASA is now considering, as described at the press conference yesterday.

• Scientists propose a gentle collusion between Pluto and Charon caused the double planet system
  Very cute sales job with its description as “kiss-and-capture”, but the entire theory is very speculative based on such a tiny amount of knowledge we have both planets that it is absurd to take this too seriously.

• A tweet listing the ten new rockets China hopes to launch for the first time in 2025
  Go here for a more detailed report.

• For its Chang’e-7 lunar mission, China will use electromagnetic currents to make its flag “wave” on the lunar surface

• China touts its own Mars sample return mission, Tianwen-3, targeting 2028
  The mission has been kept very simple by scaling up what China’s engineers learned in doing its two lunar sample return missions. Or to put it another way, they will almost certainly fly at least two of these missions before NASA even comes close to deciding how it get Perseverance’s samples back.

• ISRO once again delays the autonomous docking of its two Spadex orbiting spacecraft
  Apparently during the maneuver to bring the chase satellite within 225 kilometers of the target satellite, engineers detected a “drift … more than expected.” Before attempting the docking they need to know exactly where the two spacecraft are, relatively to each other, and apparently this drift requires more analysis.

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 provides a detailed overview of its Blue Ghost mission to land on the Moon
  Launch is presently scheduled for 1 am (Eastern) on January 15, 2025 on a Falcon 9 rocket.

• On this day in 1998 Lunar Prospector was launched, the first American mission to the Moon since the Apollo days
  It photographed Moon’s entire surface, with its most significant finding the possibility of water in permanently shadowed craters near the poles.

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.

• SpaceX touts some of the changes in the latest Starship prototype
  More information here. The 7th test flight will deploy 10 Starlink dummy satellites to test the deployment engineering. Superheavy will also re-use an engine that flew on the October test flight.

• On this day in 1999 the Mars Polar Lander was launched
  The mission failed when the spacecraft crashed on landing.

• On this day in 2004 the probe Stardust made its close approach to Comet Wild-2 in order to capture samples
  Those samples were successfully brought back to Earth two years later.

• On this day in 2004 the rover Spirit landed on Mars
  Built to last 90 days, it continued to rove for six years, traveling almost five 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.

• The rough specs of the Chinese Halong re-usable mini-shuttle being built to ferry cargo to the Tiangong-3 space station
  It can carry two tons of cargo and stay docked for three months, then return with cargo.

• Chinese pseudo-company Landspace touts completion of nine engines for its Zhuque-3 rocket
  The rocket is essentially a copy of the Falcon 9, with a re-usable first stage. The first three launches in ’25 will use an older version, followed by the upgraded re-usable version.

• A detailed survey of the new rockets China will launch in 2025
  Most of the rockets are coming from pseudo-companies, with several aiming for re-usability soon thereafter.

• Astronomers now posit that at least one fast radio burst came from the magnetosphere of neutron star
  Interesting study, with a lot of uncertainty.

• Eutelsat-OneWeb constellation down for two days, now back in operation
  The outage was caused because software did not realize 2024 was a leap year.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who surprised me today with these links. I had assumed he’d take the day off!

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 touts a static fire test of its Alpha rocket
  The tweet also suggests the company will launch “multiple” times in 2025. We shall see.

• FCC allocates additional spectrum for commercial launches

• India’s space agency announces it will telecast the docking of its Spadex satellites
  The unmanned docking is scheduled to take place at 4 pm (Indian standard time) on January 7, 2025.

• Video of the two Spadex spacecraft in orbit yesterday
  Over the next week the chase satellite will approach the target increasingly closer, 5 km, 1.5 km, 500 m, 225 m, 15 m, and 3 m, followed by the January 7th docking.

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.

Before we get to the links, I think it is time to send a hearty Happy New Year to all my readers. Thank you again for making 2024 the best year so far. And best of all, next year should even be better!

• SpaceX touts the completion of its fifth manned Dragon capsule
  The tweet says this will be the last manned Dragon capsule, but Jay suspects that means the “last built in California.” He thinks future capsules will be built in Florida, the work driven from California due to its almost communist government. I’m not so sure. SpaceX remember is hoping Starship will replace the capsules in the future. Why build more in that case?

• Chinese graphic outlines the many mission configurations available for mounting missions to the Moon, the asteroids, and Mars
  Jay says the graphic includes the option of nuclear propulsion to get to Mars.

• Anatoly Zak notes the Russia launch rate in 2024 fell to its lowest level this century
  I will have more to say about this in my annual global launch report, coming soon!

• Air & Space museum honors the memory of five great astronauts who died in 2024
  The men: – Bill Anders, Joe Engle, Jon McBride, Tom Stafford, Richard Truly

• One hundred years ago this week astronomer Edwin Hubble announced that the spiral nebula Andromeda is a distant galaxy, not part of the Milky Way
  His evidence proved that the universe was filled with many distinct galaxies, with the Milky Way only one of many.

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 Arca unveils clothing fashion line, “made with materials used to fabricate rockets and spacecraft”
  The company was destroyed in 2018 when its CEO was twice arrested (though cleared), first by state officials and then by Homeland Security. At the time it was testing an aerospike engine with prospects for launch soon. All that vanished after his persecution by government officials. It appears whoever runs the company now is trying to earn revenue from the remaining assets.

• Chinese pseudo-company CosmicLeap completes testing of its “chopstick” launch tower
  As Jay notes, “Easy to build the tower, where is the rocket?”

• On this day in 1930 Robert Goddard completed his first rocket flight in Roswell, New Mexico
  He had shifted operations there when he scaled up operations. The southwest gave him better weather and plenty of room for testing.

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.

• Chart showing total mass put in orbit in 2024 by various companies and nations
  Not surprisingly, SpaceX has launched more mass than everyone else combined.

• Air & Space touts the navigational work done by Jim Lovell during Apollo 8 in 1968
  For most of the mission, Lovell’s work was merely a back-up to calculations provided by ground computers and plugged into the capsule computer for use with its inertial measuring unit (IMU). Only once was Lovell’s navigation necessary, when he accidentally rebooted the IMU so it thought it was on the launchpad, not on its way back to Earth. To reprogram it he had to do his sextant sightings and enter those numbers into the computer.

• On this day in 1984 the Martian meteorite that scientists later claimed carried evidence of microscopic life was collected on the Antarctica ice cap
  Other scientists later challenged the claim, and today it is generally dismissed.

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 authorization bill focuses on commercial space stations and science mission cost overruns
  Doesn’t mean that much, as it is unlikely to be passed before the end of the term. The increased interest and enthusiasm for space station development however is encouraging, though what these swamp creatures will do with it is always a worry.

• On this day in 1928 Robert Goddard completed the third flight of a liquid-fueled rocket
  The flight lasted 3.2 seconds.

• On this day in 1974 the Soviet Union launched Salyut 4
  This single module space station was visited by two crews, spending 30 and 63 days on board respectively.

Today has been, not surprisingly, a very slow news day, so I’ve been spending it trolling the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) archive for more cool images from Mars.

BtB’s stringer Jay however found some quick links, so here they are. 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.

• Santa today will travel many times faster than the Parker Solar Probe, even as the probe sets a new speed record for human-engineered objects

• Image from the Martian south pole taken by China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter on April 25, 2024
  Lacking specific location information, my guess based on the formations as this is in or on the edge of the south pole’s dry ice cap.

• Chinese pseudo-company touts its space products
  And it is doing so through Space News, which is now publishing press release advertising in exchange for money.

• “Look at that picture over there! Here’s the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!”
  The words of Frank Borman as he saw his first Earthrise while orbiting the Moon, Christmas Eve 1968. The Air and Space Museum tweet shows the picture that Bill Anders took of that Earthrise, but orientates it incorrectly, as almost everyone on Earth always does. with the horizon on the bottom. Anders however framed it with the horizon on the right, as he told me himself when I interviewed him for Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8.

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

• South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter detects the strongest gamma ray burst (GRB) so far this century
  Their GRB detector supplements other orbiting GRB survey instruments.

• ESA Comet Interceptor mission to launch in ’29 will be parked in space to await the arrival of a new comet
  Interestingly, the probe could also conceivably rendezvous with an interstellar object, should it be arriving in the right direction. Either way, the goal is to get a good look at a very pristine comet before it passes the Sun.

• Blue Origin releases another short propaganda video, touting how wonderful it is
  I think everyone would much rather have the company announce an actual launch date for the first New Glenn rocket, now approaching five years behind schedule,

• Vast touts the “wet trash” disposal system it is building for its Haven-1 space station
  The module toilets will apparently have eight disposable tanks. As each fills it is sealed and vented to a vacuum to keep the station’s atmosphere free of unpleasant odors.

• This week in 1968 Apollo 8 headed to the Moon, the first time humans ever traveled to another planet
  Want to know more? I hear someone wrote a book about 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.

• Samples from the Chang’e-6 mission to the Moon’s far side have provided scientists added detail about its magnetic history
  The tweet provides little information. Go here for more information.

• Stratolaunch’s giant Roc airplane completes another flight test
  No hypersonic Talon craft was seen attached below it, suggesting either none was flown or it had been dropped for a test prior to anyone spotting the plane.

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.

• Astroscale begins work on next space junk removal mission
  The next mission will do further proximity and rendezvous testing in orbit, but do it approaching “large satellite debris” rather than an intact upper stage, as done in the first mission.

• Taiwan studying locations for a possible spaceport, even as it discusses a collaboration with Amazon on space matters
  Not much real information to go on.

• ISRO to attempt a “tethered satellite capture via robotic arm experiment” on next launch
  The launch, using a PSLV rocket, is presently scheduled for December 30, 2024, will launch a payload designed to test autonomous docking. This specific test will involve using a robot arm to capture a tethered cubesat, and is aimed at developing technology for orbital servicing and space junk removal.

• On this day in 1972 Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, completing the last mission to land humans on the Moon
  That was 52 years ago. I wonder when Americans will ever do it again.

• On this day in 1999, the shuttle Discovery launched on the third Hubble repair mission
  The launch had been moved up six months because of gyroscope failures on Hubble that had put it in safe mode. During three space walks astronauts replaced all six gyroscopes on the telescope, putting it back in operation.

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 confirms its Resilience lunar lander will launch on the same SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will launch Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander
  The launch is presently scheduled for a six-day window in mid-January 2025.

• Biden administration releases its final space policy for exploring the Moon
  While some proposals have value, it is largely meaningless with a new administration about to arrive.

• On this day in 1965 Frank Borman and Jim Lovell of Gemini 7 splashed down after completing 14 days in orbit
  This flight was the longest ever at the time and proved that humans could live in weightlessness long enough to get to and from the Moon. Borman and Lovell followed this up when in 1968 they crewed the Apollo 8 mission, with Bill Anders, the first mission to actually circle 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.

• Airbus wins contract to build 100 OneWeb satellites
  These 2nd generation satellites are to maintain the constellation presently in orbit.

• On this day in 1903 the Wright Brothers completed the first heavier-than-air powered manned 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.

• After its spectrum approval was withdrawn by Liechtenstein, satellite company Rivada searches for another national regulatory body to give its approval
  It is unclear why Liechtenstein withdrew its license for this 600 satellite constellation. The company has since applied in Germany.

• Chinese researchers publish paper on using simulated lunar soil to test construction techniques

• ULA touts its Vulcan upper stage as a military “space interceptor”
  It is really unclear how this would work.

• Today in 1965 Pioneer 6 was launched, the first of a four-satellite constellation to study the solar wind
  The satellites discovered that the solar wind is made up of a fast and slow wind, and that the solar cycle correlated with the rise and fall of cosmic radiation entering the solar system.

• On this day in 1965 Gemini-6 astronauts suddenly reported seeing an unidentified “satellite going from north to south, probably in a polar orbit”
  They then began playing “Jingle Bells” on a harmonica and bell set, indicating the “satellite” involved a sled and reindeer.

On this day in 1984 the Soviet Union launched Vega-1
The spacecraft not only flew past Venus on its way to flying past Halley’s Comet, it also put a lander on Venus and a French balloon in its atmosphere.

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 is considering creating an online electronic process for applying for launch licenses
  This is pap. Stupid government bureaucrats always wave the newest technology like a bright object as if that changes anything. It doesn’t. What will change things will be to throw out the bad regulations that don’t really follow the law, and demand that stupid government bureaucrats stop getting in the way — or go find another job.

• On this day in 1998, Mars Climate Orbiter was launched on a Delta-2 rocket
  The mission was a failure, missing its orbital insertion point because one set of engineers used metric and another English measurements, and didn’t talk to each other.