Behind The Black – Robert Zimmerman

An evening pause: On the Dean Martin Show during the 1965-66 season.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

Though the 14th orbital test flight of Starship/Superheavy is not expected until next week, SpaceX is already doing tank tests of both the ship and booster that will fly on the 15th test flight.

The first two rockets in the wave Though there have been a number of stories in the press recently lamenting the present inability of the rocket industry in the capitalist west to meet the exploding demand of getting new payloads of all types into orbit,…

Structural test model of Nyx, as of September 2026.

The space station startup Vast yesterday announced a deal with both the European Space Agency (ESA) and Greece to fly a Greek astronaut as the third passenger on the company’s manned short-term mission to ISS in 2027.

Another two more launches occurred since last night, continuing the increasing growth of global rocketry.

Proposed or active spaceports in north Europe Firefly yesterday announced it has won a two-launch contract for its Alpha-2 rocket from SSC Space, the company that operates the Esrange spaceport for the Sweden’s government.

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An evening pause: Performed live 1979.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, though today the links come from me and Nate P., as Jay was having issues with X.

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Using the Chandra X-ray space telescope, astronomers have discovered a new class of unusually low-energy X-ray objects that also emit high ultraviolet radiation but are not linked to any visible objects or star clusters at their locations.

A good product strikes fear in old established telecoms Though not confirmed as yet publicly, four long-established European telecommunications companies appear to be in negotiations to form a joint effort to obtain spectrum for developing a phone-to-sate…

An evening pause: Hat tip Cotour.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

Comet 3I/Atlas as seen by Hubble in November 2025.

The turf war between the private sector and India’s space agency ISRO heats up In a replay of the same turf war that occurred in the U.S. in the 2010s when NASA first began shifting away from building everything itself to instead using the capitalism model

The Labor government presently running the United Kingdom today released a new space strategy using a new $10.5 billion fund designed to jump start that nation’s space industry Backed by a record £7.8 billion ($10.5 billion) until 2030, the UK Space Strat…

Structural test model of Nyx.

Click for original graphic.

Proposed or active spaceports in north Europe The Saxavord spaceport in the Shetland Islands of Scotland announced today that it has gotten a £30 million ($35 million) investment from the government of the United Kingdom, that must also be matched by addi…

An evening pause: Performed live 1977.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

Click for interactive map.

The launch of a Russian Progress freighter to ISS, scheduled for September 9, 2026, has been canceled due to undisclosed issue with the third stage of its Soyuz-2 rocket.

SpaceX today successfully placed another 27 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Spectrum just after clearing the launch tower After one launch failure last year and three scrubs in January, in March, and in June, German startup Isar Aerospace today successfully launched its Spectrum rocket for the first time, lifting off from Norway’s

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