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.

• Interlune wins $4.8 million grant from Texas Space Commission to build a facility to study lunar regolith simulants at the Johnson Space Center in Houston
  The company has developed a proprietary system it claims can harvest resources from lunar soil, such as helium-3. It will use this facility to further test this system.

• Axiom touts its completion of six custom hatch units to be used on the first two modules of its station
  It is not clear from the tweet whether these are engineering test hatches or the actual flight units. Either way, they have been shipped to Thales-Alenia in Italy for testing.

• Engineers propose new rectangular-shaped telescope for use in space
  The concept produces a mirror that is smaller than Webb&s but with a greater ability to gather light. The article at the link touts this as a way to find alien life, a completely idiotic supposition and typical of the utter stupidity of our modern press.

• On this day in 1988 contact with the Mars-bound Soviet spacecraft Phobos 1 was lost
  The spacecraft shut down due to a faulty command sequence that was sent by mission control. The failure continued the curse that has hounded Russia’s missions to Mars: They all seem to fail before or at arrival.

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 the successful static fire test of the upper stage of its Kinetica-2 rocket
  This engine would be used for missions to geosynchronous orbit or deep space.

• On this day in 1979, Pioneer 11 made its closest approach to Saturn.
  Though it discovered a new ring of Saturn and two new small moons, its main purpose was engineering, proving out the technology for such long interplanetary missions.

• On this day in 1804, asteroid 3 Juno was discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding.

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 shows off a fire-tested Archimedes rocket engine, to be used on its new Neutron rocket.
  According to the tweet, this engine includes parts from a number of different engines.

• French rocket startup MaiaSpace completes pressure testing of subscale prototypes of its Maia rocket’s tanks
  The company also announced it is beginning development of an orbital tug, based on the design of the rocket’s optional third stage.

• Video describing a new Earth observation constellation being built by four Indian startups—Pixxel, PierSight, SatSure, and Dhruva Space
  Another example of India’s shift away from government-built satellites to a private space industry that designs, builds, and owns its products and makes money from them.

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.

• ULA CEO interviews Amanda Bacchetti, one of ULA’s directors for Vulcan development
  Lots of blather, but the key take-away is that they are now focused on iterative development of Vulcan as it launches, similar to SpaceX’s approach, and vastly different than ULA’s past culture. They also hinted a something radical that might involve reuse of the rocket’s upper stage.

• Scientists claim they can date Jupiter’s age from meteorites
  Need I say it how completely and utterly uncertain this is?

• The Starship landing video in the Indian Ocean was taken from a camera bolted to a Starlink terminal sitting in a kiddie pool
  Simple and amazing.

• On this day in 1993, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft flew by asteroid 243 Ida and discovered it had a tiny moon, Dactyl.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who apologizes for the lateness due to a hectic day at work. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Chinese pseudo-company Nayuta Space releases movie animation showing how its proposed first stage will return to Earth
  It would land horizontally, not vertically. Assuming this fantasy ever actually happens.

• Astronomers prove that millimeter radiation is generated close to the core of a supermassive black hole
  Need I say it?

• India’s space agency ISRO touts a fullscale model of the 1st module of India’s Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS)
  The full station will have five modules, assembled in orbit from ’28 to ’35, if all goes as scheduled.

• 60 years ago Gemini-5 was the first mission to use fuel cells to power a manned spacecraft
  Proving out that technology was essential for the Apollo missions, as NASA had determined that solar power was not yet ready.

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

• Starfish gives update on its Otter Pup 2 rendezvous and docking demo mission
  Though the update is vague, it appears the tug is now doing its initial rendezvous maneuvers.

• Another new Chinese pseudo-company, Arktech, touts its Bingchuan-1/Glacier-1 rocket, with a reusable first stage
  As always, these fake Chinese companies produce great graphics, based on already launched American rockets. Whether anything ever gets built is another story.

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.

• Today is the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first Command Computer Subsystem (CCS) on Viking 1
  The link goes to a video about the primitive computer system that both Viking orbiters and landers used, as well as Voyagers 1 and 2, still operating almost a half century after they were turned on.

• Chinese researchers date the formation of the Moon’s Apollo Basin on its far side as occurring 4.16 billion years ago
  They used data from samples brought back by the Chang’e-6 mission.

• Chinese institute proposes an orbiter and lander mission to the Saturn moon Enceladus
  The lander would include a drill able to drill down as much three miles.

• On this day in 1977 Voyager 2 was launched.
  Still working after almost a half century.

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 view from a Kuiper satellite launched last week by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket
  This imagery was captured over a 24-minute period — enough time for the satellite to travel 5,500+ miles in orbit, from over Italy to the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar.

• BlackSky signs seven-figure space domain awareness expansion contract with HEO Space for fully automated non-Earth imaging missions
  Essentially, HEO’s software will be used by its customers to task BlackSky’s satellites “to detect, track, characterize, and classify objects in orbit, as well as assess potential threats and predict their effects.”

• BlackSky touts an image of China’s Tiangong space station at a distance of 83 kilometers, taken by one of its satellites
  Quite spectacular. The station was above Bulgaria, and the picture was taken on March 13, 2025.

• Webb discovers another new moon orbiting Uranus
  It is estimated to be about six miles in diameter, and has an orbit close to the gas giant’s rings. Uranus now has 29 moons, but do not be surprised when that number rises significantly.

• NASA celebrates the Mars helicopter Ingenuity on National Aviation Day, noting it carried a small swatch of material from the Wright Brothers flyer
  All told Ingenuity flew 72 times, the first powered, controlled flights on another planet.

• The head of India’s space agency ISRO says its next rocket will be 40 stories tall and carry 75 tons into orbit
  He made a lot more promises. We shall see.

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.

• Canadian rocket startup Reaction Dynamics gets a mulit-launch contract for its proposed Auroro-8 rocket
  The customer, is a new satellite company Galaxia, which wants to put up its own constellation.

• Stoke Space announces the first launch of its new completely reusable two-stage Nova rocket is set for 2026
  No specific date is set but it appears 2026 is the year.

• The next Cygnus freighter has been named after Columbia STS-107 astronaut Willie McCool
  McCool was the pilot on Columbia’s last mission that broke up upon re-entry. The launch is tentatively scheduled for mid-September on a Falcon 9 rocket.

• On this day in 1960 film reconnaissance satellite Discoverer 14 was launched
  Its re-entry capsule was successfully recovered, bringing back the first orbital reconnaissance film photographs every produced.

• On this day in 1877 astronomer Asaph Hall discovered Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two moons

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 submits its lunar rover proposal for manned missions to the Moon
  Why am I not surprised that it has a high profile, higher than other proposals?

• New Glenn team just finished aft module tests of 1st stage for its second New Glenn launch
  It appears this is the system that deploys the legs. Launch is scheduled for September 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.

• Stoke Space touts manufacturing progress for its Nova rocket, including engines, heat shield, and structural testing
  Still no launch date announced.

• Blue Origin pitches a Mars telecommunications orbiter proposal for Mars Sample return
  Yawn. This company sure pitches a lot of cool graphics, while launching almost nothing.

• On this day in 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched
  More than any other orbiter, images from MRO have proven that Mars is an icy world, not a dry desert.

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.

• Relativity releases its July update of the company’s progress towards first launch of its Terran-R rocket
  Though the company remains tight-lipped about a launch date (no longer promising 2026), it increasingly appears as if 2026 is no longer impossible.

• Relativity touts the layout design of the 13 engines on the Terran-R 1st stage
  Nine will gimbal, four will not.

• Russia again delays the launch of its Luna 27A lunar lander to 2029
  A second lander has also been delayed till 2030. Both were originally supposed to launch by 2025. I predict both will be delayed again. And again. And again. etc.

• On this day in 1960 the reentry capsule of the military surveillance satellite Discoverer-13 became the first human-made object to be recovered from orbit
  It was the eleventh attempt, carrying only sensors to track its flight. With this success the next mission a week later carried a film camera for reconnaissance.

• On this day in 1977 the test shuttle Enterprise flew its first manned test flight
  Piloted by Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton, it was released from an airplane at 22,800 feet and glided down to a landing 5.3 min later.

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 March 10’s first stage is geared up for its first static fire of all seven engines
  This is the heavy lift rocket China is developing for its manned lunar missions, capable of putting 70 tons in Earth orbit and 27 tons toward the Moon. Jay: “They did a firing of just three of the engines a couple months ago.” First test launch is targeting 2026.

• On this day in 1966 Lunar Orbiter 1 was launched to the Moon
  Its main goal was to provide high resolution images of the planned Apollo landing sites. It also got the first Earthrise picture, as well as high resolution images of 50% of the far side of the Moon. Its orbit also revealed the first hint of the Moon’s uneven gravity and underground mass concentrations (mascons), making all orbits unstable.

• On this day in 1990 the Magellan spacecraft entered orbit around Venus
  It mapped 90% of Venus’ surface using radar, revealing a planet with millions of volcanoes and no obvious plate tectonics.

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.

• Dawn Aerospace completes first suborbital flight of its subscale unmanned spaceplane carrying a surveillance payload
  Though it reached supersonic speeds, calling this a spaceplane is a considerable exaggeration.

• Blue Origin touts its small NASA orbital tug study contract, especially in connection with its Blue Ring tug
  Wouldn’t be nice if the company started flying things finally, rather than studying the idea?

• SpaceX shows off the dumpster it uses for junk engines, apparently required by the State Department’s ITAR rules

• On this day in 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov became the first person to spend over a day in space and the second person 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.

Sorry this is so late, but I was on my way home this evening and only just got in.

• British rocket startup Skyrora gets license for suborbital launches at Saxavord
  Don’t expect much. Skyrora has been around forever promising an orbital rocket, and has only managed a handful of small suborbital launches of rockets not much bigger than model rockets.

• A look at what might be causing the delay in launching Sierra Space’s Tenacity Dream Chaser mini-shuttle
  Lots of guesses, similar to the guesses I have been making for the past year. All suggest there are fundamental problems preventing launch.

• India’s space agency ISRO touts a new lunar/Mars simulation facility

• China touts the launch of the drone ship for landing pseudo-company Ispace’s Hyperbola-3 first stage

• On this day in 2011 Juno was launched
  It arrived in Jupiter orbit 2016.

• On this day in 2012 Curiosity landed in Gale Crater on Mars

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

• Intuitive Machines wins $9.8 million government contract to further develop its orbital tug
  The press release makes it clear the contract is NOT from NASA, but does not reveal the agency involved.

• Vast touts the testing of the radio systems on its Haven Demo spacecraft
  Haven Demo is simply a satellite to test in space the systems Vast plans to use on its Haven-1 space station, with launch before the end of the year. Haven-1 will follow in 2026.

• 54 years ago today Apollo 15 landed on the Moon, bringing with it the first manned lunar car

• On this day in 2008 scientists announced that the Mars Phoenix lander had detected ice water in the Martian soil

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, including the exoplanet piece I posted earlier today. 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.

• ULA touts the work it is doing on new Vandenberg launchpad
  It says the work is 76% done and will be finished by the end of the year.

• Firefly touts its defense work using its Elytra space tug
  It touts this work about once a month since it won the contract in April.

• Sean Duffy says that Gynne Shotwell has guaranteed the Starship lunar lander will be ready for the Artemis-3 manned landing mission presently scheduled for 2027
  See my essay today: The word that best describes our present NASA lunar program is “delusional.”

• China wins international award for its Chang’e-6 mission that brought back samples from the Moon’s far side

• This week in 2005 astronaut Steve Robinson did the first in-orbit repair of the shuttle’s thermal heat shield
  Attached to the robot arm, he removed gap fillers that were sticking out between the tiles.

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

• Blue Origin touts its progress in reducing propellant boil-off while stored in tanks in space
  This capability is essential for creating viable orbiting fuel depots.

• Astronomers claim to have detected a rogue exoplanet floating unattached to any star, using microlensing
  Need I say it?

• A video overview of what we now know about Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas
  Not much new information, though it does describe briefly the unlikely (and very unrealistic) proposal of sending one of the Mars orbiters to rendezvous with it.

• Chinese pseudo-company AZSpace shows off its fully assembled Dear-5 cargo freighter
  Its launch is now scheduled for August. It is not clear if it will dock with Tiangong-3, resupplying it, or is instead a free-flyer that will return to Earth for recovery.

• This week in 1958 President Eisenhower signed the law that established NASA

• On this day in 2020 the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter were launched to Mars

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

• The next X-37B mission is now targeting an August 21, 2025 launch
  No mention of the length of the mission, or which of the Space Force’s two X-37Bs will fly.

• In reviewing two decades of archive data, astronomers discover a pulsar with repeated abrupt changes in its rotation rate
  The changes occur roughly every 550 days. In addition, the overall rate of rotation has slowly sped up and slowed down during these same time periods.

• China touts the opening of a new facility for solid and liquid rockets and satellites

• Chinese pseudo-company Space Epoch has successfully fired the engine recovered from its May test hop

• On this day in 1973 the second crew to occupy Skylab launched on a Saturn-1B rocket
  Their mission lasted just under sixty days.

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

• Axiom touts the last weld performed by Thales Alenia in Europe on the first module of its planned space station
  The module still needs to be shipped to Houston for further integration and tests, but it appears construction is on schedule.

• This weekend in 2005 the shuttle Discovery made the first flight following the 2003 Columbia failure
  Following that failure, NASA on this flight, the 114th in the shuttle program, finally did the kind of inspections and review of the shuttle’s thermal tile system — aimed at improving their design and robustness — that it should have been doing from day one. Compare this to SpaceX, which is reviewing and significantly revising the thermal tiles on Starship after each test 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.

• Video of the salvaged Superheavy prototype #13 being transported back to Starbase

• Lockheed Martin is considering offering Orion for private manned commercial flights
  The company would have to launch it on a different rocket, as no one except our spendthrift federal government can afford paying for an SLS launch. As Orion is overweight and very wide, it is not clear there is any other rocket available. I welcome my readers to chime in with their thoughts.

• The Air & Space museum shows off a piece of the Wright Brothers plane that flew to the Moon and back on Apollo 11

• On this day in 1950 the first rocket launch took place at Cape Canaveral
  As the tweet notes, in the subsequent 75 years thousands of rockets have lifted off from there. And as I have noted repeatedly, these launches have done no measurable harm to environment, thus illustrating the utter absurdity of the heavy environmental red tape that the FAA and the federal government have imposed on new launch companies seeking to build launchpads.

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

• Chinese pseudo-company and Turkish university team up to send two small robots on China’s Chang’e-8 lunar lander

• Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer touts completion of its launchpad at Jiuquan spaceport
  It is hard to tell how much of the video are 3D graphics and how much is real. The pad is for its Tianlong-3 rocket, essentially a copy of the Falcon 9. This is also the same company that has a first stage launch itself during a static fire test in 2024. It had said it would do its first launch this summer, but it is not clear when that will happen.

• Axiom touts its ownership of the Rafaello multi-purpose logistics module that flew to ISS four times
  The company acquired it in 2023. It is not clear how they will use it, since they no longer have the shuttle to put it into orbit.

• Juno detects unusual plasma waves above Jupiter’s north pole

• Amateur astronomer posts his own pictures of interstellar comet 3I/Atlas
  Expect a lot more of these in the coming months.

• Russia’s next Bion returnable capsule arrives in Baikonur for launch in August
  It will fly for 30 days, then use its Vostok landing capsule to bring back its “biomedical experiments.”

• On this day in 1962 Telstar-1 relayed the first live transatlantic television broadcast from across the U.S. and Europe.
  Ah, what could have been! Privately designed, privately financed, and privately launched, this AT&T satellite was created to demonstrate that company’s plans for commercial satellite operations, for profit, plans that got banned when Congress and President Kennedy passed a communications bill that created the failed government corporation COMSAT.

• Air & Space shows off the spacesuits from Apollo 11

• On this day in 1999 the Chandra X-ray observatory was placed in 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.

• Lunar Outpost touts driving tests of its manned lunar rover prototype
  The company dubs this test rover “Eagle”, and tries very hard to make exciting a video of what is simply an off road vehicle driving in the desert.

• Chinese government orders all pseudo-companies to increase quality control while forcing them to push their first test flights forward to the fourth quarter of 2025
  Clear proof once again that these are not real private companies, but subdivisions within the Chinese government that have been allowed to operate somewhat like private companies. I wonder if this top-down order to hurry things is going to cause more problems.

• Iran completes a suborbital rocket launch
  The flight is “claimed as a tech development test for future orbital missions.”

• On this day in 1994 Comet Shoemaker-Levy collided with Jupiter
  Fortunately, Hubble’s out-of-focus optics had been fixed six months earlier, allowing numerous high resolutions images to be taken of the multiple impacts.

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 launch today of two SES communications satellites aborted at T-11 seconds
  No reason was given on the live stream, nor was a new launch date indicated.

• SKY Perfect JSAT and Planet Labs partner to build a Earth observation satellite constellation
  The former is investing $230 million and using Planet’s newest satellite design.

• Vast opens its new headquarters in California
  According to the tweet, the company hopes to launch a “Haven Demo” module this year, and the Haven-1 manned station module in 2026. The demo appears to be a relatively new addition to its program.

• Astronomers use Gemini North telescope in Hawaii to make first detection of Betelgeuse’s companion star

• ESA recertifies the parachutes it will use to slow descent of its Franklin Mars lander
  Video here. The test was necessary because the chutes have been sitting in storage for so long because of delays in launching this lander.

• China targets 2026 for the first astronauts from the former British and Portuguese controlled cities of Hong Kong and Macao to fly to its Tiangong-3 station
  Clearly China is using these astronauts to further cement its control over those cities.

• The NASA-ISRO joint NISAR satellite now scheduled for launch by India on July 30th
  ISRO proudly notes that “At a cost of $1.5 billion, NISAR will be the most expensive Earth observation satellite ever launched!” I don’t think this is something to brag about.

• On this day in 1961, Gus Grissom became the second American to fly in space
  The suborbital flight in his Liberty Bell 7 Mercury capsule lasted fifteen minutes. Grissom had to quickly evacuate the capsule after splash down when its hatch blew open and it began to sink.

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 French startup The Exploration Company touts the successful test of thrusters to be used on its Nyx capsule
  It also said these thrusters would be used on a lunar lander version of Nyx.

• Video clip from the July 10, 2025 NASA Starliner update
  It is a short clip. More information here. No real news. As has been noted repeatedly for about six months, NASA is considering flying the next Starliner flight as an unmanned ISS cargo mission, and won’t fly it until next year.

• Blue Origin touts the second launch of New Glenn, carrying NASA’s two Escapade Mars smallsat orbiters
  No launch date however has been announced. Escapade is supposed to launch August 15th, but there have numerous rumors that this date is off the table.

• Felix Baumgartner, who jumped from the stratosphere in 2012, has died in a paragliding accident in Italy
  Baumgartner was 56 years old.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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