A routine engine firing to raise the orbit of the International Space Station failed to come off today.
A routine engine firing to raise the orbit of the International Space Station failed to come off today.
Though it appears the engines on the European ATV cargo craft did not fire as scheduled, the report is very vague and does not make clear what actually happened. Stay tuned.
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A routine engine firing to raise the orbit of the International Space Station failed to come off today.
Though it appears the engines on the European ATV cargo craft did not fire as scheduled, the report is very vague and does not make clear what actually happened. Stay tuned.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
The comment “…to adjust for the Earth’s gravity” was rather odd – I thought the only reason an orbit gradually begins to ‘decay’ is that even at 200 or 250 mi. up, there is still some minuscule amount of atmospheric drag. There are many knowledgable people on this site regarding spaceflight – if anyone knows different, please feel free to correct me.
Hopefully the next “burn” will come off OK, but it didn’t sound like a major problem…
You beat me to it Chris. How is it a science reporter screws up the science?
HA HA ! ! Yeah – good question ! !
I suspect that the stringer who wrote this short article for UPI was based in Russia and was not a native English speaker. That the wording in the article is sometimes odd suggests this.
This is not unusual. News services like AP, UPI, Reuters use native stringers all the time. Sometimes they can write better than this. Other times they are downright horrible, as in the case of the Arab stringers used by Reuters and others during the last Israeli-Lebanon conflict. In that case the stringers were more interested in providing pro-Palestinian propaganda than reporting what was happening.