Alice In Wonderland – I’m Late
An evening pause: This pause is my apology for forgetting to schedule something tonight. Pauses shall resume as normal tomorrow.
Year: 2022
November 28, 2022 Quick space links
Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s stringer.
- Shenzhou-15, with three astronauts, scheduled to launch at 10:08 am (Eastern) tomorrow
This will be the first time the Tiangong-3 station will be occupied by two three-person crews, performing its first crew rotation.
- Chinese government appears to prefer “Chinese Space Station” over “Tiangong-3”
I suspect officials decided they get more propaganda bang-for-the-buck with the more generic name. And on that note:
- China touts 9 international research projects to launch next year to its “China Space Station.”
Jay notes, with surprise, that this Twitter feed, China ‘N Asia Spaceflight, which mostly plugs China’s space achievements and thus should want to stay on that government’s good side, still tweeted about the lockdown riots in China.
Russia launches last GPS-type satellite in its present Glonass constellation
Using its Soyux-2 rocket, Russia today launched the last GPS-type satellite in the existing Glonass constellation.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
54 SpaceX
52 China
20 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA
The U.S. still leads China 78 to 52 in the national rankings, while trailing the rest of the world combined 82 to 78.
A ghost goddess in space
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The image to the right, cropped, rotated, reduced, and enhanced to post here, is without doubt one of my favorite objects that the Hubble Space Telescope has photographed over the decades. This new image combines imagery obtained by earlier Hubble cameras and the newer cameras installed in 2009.
The delicate sheets and intricate filaments are debris from the cataclysmic death of a massive star that once lived in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. DEM L 190 — also known as LMC N49 — is the brightest supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud and lies approximately 160 000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Dorado.
What makes this supernova remnant so visually appealing to my eye is its ghostly resemblance to a woman’s face, her hair blowing freely to the right. The original 2003 Hubble picture, shown below, has been the desktop image of my computer for almost two decades.
» Read more
Today’s blacklisted American: Professor fired by University of Louisville for expressing his opinion
Allen Josephson, fired for expressing an opinion
They’re coming for you next: After publicly expressing his professional opinion at a 2017 Heritage Foundation conference, where he opposed the abuse of children by the queer movement that now dominates the medical community, Professor Allen Josephson was fired by University of Louisville, specifically because queer activists at the university demanded it.
From Josephson’s lawsuit [pdf], filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom:
[T]he officials at the University’s LGBT Center who became aware of and troubled at Dr. Josephson’s Heritage Foundation presentation included Ms. Stacie Steinbock (the director of the LGBT Center at the University’s Health Science Center) and Mr. Brian W. Buford (then the Executive Director of the LGBT Center). Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford opposed and objected to the viewpoints Dr. Josephson expressed at the Heritage Foundation.
…Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford (or other officials at the LGBT Center acting at their direction) contacted Dr. Christine Brady (an assistant professor in the Division) regarding Dr. Josephson’s Heritage Foundation presentation. Like Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford, Dr. Brady opposed and objected to the viewpoints Dr. Josephson expressed at the Heritage Foundation.
Upon information and belief, Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford (or other officials at the LGBT Center acting at their direction) discussed with Dr. Brady the need to ensure that some disciplinary or punitive actions were taken against Dr. Josephson due to the views he expressed at the Heritage Foundation. Ms. Steinbock and Mr. Buford (or other officials at the LGBT Center acting at their direction) repeatedly asked Dr. Brady what would be done about Dr. Josephson’s Heritage Foundation remarks. [emphasis mine]
The highlighted words illustrate the storm-trooper attitude of these queer activists. » Read more
Dragon freighter docks with ISS
Capitalism in space: An unmanned Dragon freighter successfully docked with ISS yesterday, bring with it 7,700 pounds of cargo, including two new solar arrays for the station.
Two International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays, or iROSAs, launched aboard SpaceX’s 22nd commercial resupply mission for the agency and were installed in 2021. These solar panels, which roll out using stored kinetic energy, expand the energy-production capabilities of the space station. The second set launching in the Dragon’s trunk once installed, will be a part of the overall plan to provide a 20% to 30% increase in power for space station research and operations.
These arrays, the second of three packages, will complete the upgrade of half the station’s power channels.
The graphic to the right shows the station as of today, with six different spacecraft docked to six different ports. No wonder there is a significant limit to the number of private missions that can fly to ISS. The needs of the station, as dictated by the international partnership of governments that run it, too often fill those ports.
This limitation will begin changing when Axiom launches its first module for ISS in about two years, followed soon thereafter by the launch of a number of other private independent stations by different American companies.
Rocket startup Agnikul Cosmos opens first commercial launchpad in India
Capitalism in space: The Indian rocket startup Agnikul Cosmos has completed construction on the first privately owned launchpad in India, with the first suborbital launch planned before the end of this year.
Agnikul’s infrastructure comprises a launchpad and a Mission Control center 4 kilometres away, both within ISRO’s facilities on the island located off the coast of Chennai. The space pad was designed by Agnikul, constructed over two months, and is a part of the MoU signed between ISRO and Agnikul (among other space startups) under the new regulatory authority IN-SPACe’s first batch of support projects for private companies from ISRO.
Currently, it is capable of launching Agnikul’s rocket, the Agnibaan. [emphasis mine]
The first test launch is apparently not going to be orbital, but a technology test of the launch pad, its fueling facilities, and the 3D-printed engine Agnikul has built for Agnibaan.
The highlighted words once again note the effort by the Indian government to emulate the U.S. policy in the past decade to transition from a government-run space program to a privately-run competing and chaotic space industry. This MoU (memorandum of understanding) probably resembles the first space act agreements NASA issued to SpaceX and Orbital ATK. The agreements gave private companies aid and assistance, but the companies retained full ownership of what they build, and were left free to design things as they saw fit, not as the government dictated.
That two different Indian companies, Agnikul and Skyroot, are on the verge of their first orbital launches signals that this policy is succeeding. Agnikul has tested its engines and built its launchpad. Skyroot has completed its first suborbital launch.
November 26, 2022 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts. This is a longer podcast than normal, as it wasn’t for CBS but for John Batchelor’s podcasts, so we were not constrained for time.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 successfully launches Dragon freighter to ISS
SpaceX today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch a Dragon freighter to ISS.
The first stage landed successfully on a drone ship in the Atlantic, completing its first flight, only the third time this year out of 54 total launches that SpaceX had to use a new first stage. All other launches were with reused boosters.
The Dragon freighter is scheduled to dock with ISS at 7:30 am (Eastern) tomorrow.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
54 SpaceX
52 China
19 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA
The U.S. now leads China 78 to 52 in the national rankings, but trails the rest of the world combined 81 to 78.
Smallsat rocket startup Phantom Space gets NASA launch contract
The smallsat rocket startup Phantom Space has been awarded a NASA launch contract designed to encourage new companies.
Phantom Space Corp. announced today it has been awarded four new NASA task orders to launch CubeSat satellites into space as part of the new VADR contract. NASA’s VADR missions (for Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) missions intend to meet the agency’s needs for NASA payloads while also fostering the development of new launch vehicles from both emerging and established launch providers. VADR increases access to space by significantly reducing costs using less NASA oversight to achieve lower launch costs with payloads that can accept a higher risk tolerance.
…The company plans to stage the first space flights in 2024, and the NASA CubeSats will be among the first payloads. Two will be onboard the second Phantom flight, and the other two will be on the fourth flight. The CubeSat launches for NASA will occur at the Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Space Launch Complex 8.
The Tucson-based company’s Daytona rocket will use ten Hadley engines being built by the rocket engine startup Ursa Major.
One of Phantom’s founders, Jim Cantrell, gave me a tour of their facility in May. Cantrell had been head of the rocket startup Vector, and when that failed because its own engines were underpowered, formed Phantom. Phantom however does not build its own engines but gets them from Ursa Major, a company founded by former SpaceX engineeers.
India successfully places 1 satellite and 8 smallsats in orbit
Using its PSLV rocket, India’s space agency ISRO successfully launched one ocean science satellite plus eight smallsats into orbit early on November 26, 2022.
This was India’s fourth successful orbital launch in 2022, tying it with Europe’s Arianespace. The leaders in the 2022 launch race however remain the same:
53 SpaceX
52 China
19 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA
The U.S. still leads China 77 to 52 in the national rankings, but trails the rest of the world combined 81 to 77.
Lucy Thomas – Hallelujah
An evening pause: A brilliant simple cover of the Leonard Cohen song. Seems right to start the holiday season, right after Thanksgiving.
Hat tip Dan Morris.