What China’s delay means for the US-China moon race

The liftoff of China’s Chang’e 7 mission to the moon has been delayed into 2027. Ars Technica reports that the Chinese are being vague about the exact reasons for the delay, only suggesting it is due to, adhering to “the principle of proceeding prudently and reliably, and ensuring absolute success.”

The further adventures of Anne Frank: An alternate history of a life uninterrupted #CommissionEarned
Why is America Going Back to the Moon (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
The Moon, Mars, and Beyond: Two Tales from the Coming Space Age #CommissionEarned
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned

Sunday, August 23, 2026

How should the moon and Mars be governed?

With the Artemis program going full out to establish a base on the moon and with dreams by SpaceX’s Elon Musk to build a city on Mars, the question arises about how these worlds will be governed once humans are living on them. Adriana C. Ocampo Uria, a planetary scientist and self-described space ethics specialist, has taken to Space News to propose one answer.

Why is America Going Back to the Moon (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again #CommissionEarned
The Moon, Mars, and Beyond: Two Tales from the Coming Space Age #CommissionEarned
USS Lincoln: Performance For the Ages
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
SpaceMD will use Starfall to launch its creation of space pharmaceuticals

Redwire, working through its space-based pharmaceutical subsidiary, SpaceMD, has bought the first operational flight of the SpaceX Starfall to continue the research and development of drugs using microgravity to improve their potency and other qualities. If and when the company creates space-manufactured drugs, they will constitute the first physical product created beyond the Earth.

A Crisis in U.S. Naval Readiness, Revealed Democrats bemoan the USS Abraham Lincoln but won’t fund the Navy.
Why is America Going Back to the Moon (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
NASA has quietly accumulated more than 150 petabytes of data across decades of missions, and under a new White House initiative launched in November 2025, it's betting that AI can find discoveries still hiding in archives too vast to examine by hand
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
A forgotten mission: NASA once planned to send astronauts to Venus

“Star City” — the spinoff of the alternate history television series “For All Mankind” — concerns a Soviet-crewed flyby of Venus taking place in the early 1970s. The mission is fraught with Cold War intrigue and Soviet-era paranoia and corruption.

However, many people do not know that NASA seriously considered a similar space mission during the same timeframe.

The further adventures of Anne Frank: An alternate history of a life uninterrupted #CommissionEarned
Why is America Going Back to the Moon (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned

Monday, August 03, 2026

Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
The Public Pension AI Boom

Sunday, August 02, 2026

Flight 13 of Starship was (mostly) a triumph for SpaceX

The miracle of the latest test flight of the SpaceX Starship was not the launch, as spectacular as it always is. The true miracle of the Starship’s 13th flight occurred at the very end.

Ganymede is a moon, yet it is larger than the planet Mercury, may contain more water than exists on Earth's surface, and even generates its own magnetic field, making it less like a conventional moon than a full-sized world that happens to orbit Jupiter.
Children of Apollo (3 book series) #CommissionEarned
The further adventures of Anne Frank: An alternate history of a life uninterrupted #CommissionEarned
Why is America Going Back to the Moon (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned
Why is it So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned

Sunday, July 26, 2026

JD Vance has some valid questions about space colonies

Recently, Vice President JD Vance appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast for a wide-ranging interview. One of the subjects that came up was space colonies, which is topical, considering the Artemis program and Elon Musk’s dreams of settling Mars.

Blame popular culture for the fear of AI

Recently, Andy Weir, the author of such bestseller science fiction novels as The Martian and Project Hail Mary, announced that he was working on a new book. He did not reveal much about the subject, but hinted that AI would be a plot element. The revelation counts as potential good news for those who believe that the burgeoning technology of artificial intelligence constitutes, on the balance, a boon for humankind.

Children of Apollo (3 book series) #CommissionEarned
The further adventures of Anne Frank: An alternate history of a life uninterrupted #CommissionEarned

Wednesday, July 22, 2026

Why is America Going Back to the Moon (How America went to the moon, stopped, and is returning again) #CommissionEarned