April 29, 2024 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who has returned from a weeklong work trip in “the People’s Republic of California.” 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.
- SES’s O3b mPOWER satellite constellation starts providing service
That makes at least three constellations (including Starlink and OneWeb) in orbit ahead of and operational before Amazon has launched a single satelltie in its Kuiper constellation
- Hyimpulse’s suborbital test launch from Southern Launch in Australia is now targeting May 2, 2024
Though I saw no announcement, they apparently got their launch licence from the Australian government.
- Long March 5 ready to launch China’s Chang’e-6 sample return mission to the Moon’s far side
According to the article, the core stage will not reach orbit and thus not make an uncontrolled re-entry, as the core stage of the more powerful Long March 5B varient does.
- Chinese reporter notes the increase in hotel prices near the Wenchang spaceport when a manned launch is scheduled
The communists might claim they think capitalism is bad and they are building a Marxist utopia, but the invisible hand of capitalism always rules.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who has returned from a weeklong work trip in “the People’s Republic of California.” 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.
- SES’s O3b mPOWER satellite constellation starts providing service
That makes at least three constellations (including Starlink and OneWeb) in orbit ahead of and operational before Amazon has launched a single satelltie in its Kuiper constellation
- Hyimpulse’s suborbital test launch from Southern Launch in Australia is now targeting May 2, 2024
Though I saw no announcement, they apparently got their launch licence from the Australian government.
- Long March 5 ready to launch China’s Chang’e-6 sample return mission to the Moon’s far side
According to the article, the core stage will not reach orbit and thus not make an uncontrolled re-entry, as the core stage of the more powerful Long March 5B varient does.
- Chinese reporter notes the increase in hotel prices near the Wenchang spaceport when a manned launch is scheduled
The communists might claim they think capitalism is bad and they are building a Marxist utopia, but the invisible hand of capitalism always rules.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The engines in the Long March 12; good old kerosene fuel made me think of this thread.
What technology do you most remember disappearing from your earliest memory?
For me it was the kerosene lamp used with the roadside construction site traffic barrel. This tech did not go away until the transistor controlled battery operated flashing light became available and cheap and reliable enough for the application. Old barrels continued to be used well into the 1970s almost 100 years after https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/thomas-edisons-patent-application-for-the-light-bulb
Dialing 211 to get the long-distance operator to place an out-of-area call.
Tube radios, Still have a few that work.
Calcium carbide minors lamps
Tobacco pipes and that smell. Reminds me of my great grandpa sitting on the porch after dinner.
Real watches that wound up.
The third peddle in the car. God I love those vehicles. And who remembers the floor starting switch? Or the high/low button.
People who could read a road map without a GPS device.
Shooting clubs in high schools.
Miners not minors.
The Long March 5 is actually more powerful than the pesky Long March 5B because it’s basically a Long March 5B with an upper stage atop the core stage to power payloads beyond LEO. The Long March 5’s core stage doesn’t reach orbit, in consequence, and does not become a randomly falling nuisance.
It’s like R-7 in that regard–parallel and in-line staging both—only bigger.
It looks like upper-stage ice was impinging upon the tops of the strap-on booster foam—Columbia style.
You guys see that?