November 8, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- DHL touts its deal with Astrobotic to send more than 100,000 messages to the Moon
Anyone can send a picture, which will go digitally on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander scheduled for launch late this year.
- Lynk satellite constellation starts cell phone to satellite service in Solomon Islands
Because Lynk only has three satellites in orbit, the service is presently limited to text and emergency messages.
- ESA shifts control of Vega-C rocket from Arianespace to the private Italian company Avio
The press release at the link summarizes all the actions taken by ESA at its just ended conference, all except this story had been covered here previously. Avio essentially builds Vega-C. It will now have full ownership and control. Arianespace — the government middle-man that never made a profit — is meanwhile slowly going away.
- Three companies tout their partnership to develop nuclear power propulsion for interplanetary travel
Lockheed Martin is the lead contractor for DARPA. The contract was awarded in July 2023.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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.
- DHL touts its deal with Astrobotic to send more than 100,000 messages to the Moon
Anyone can send a picture, which will go digitally on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander scheduled for launch late this year.
- Lynk satellite constellation starts cell phone to satellite service in Solomon Islands
Because Lynk only has three satellites in orbit, the service is presently limited to text and emergency messages.
- ESA shifts control of Vega-C rocket from Arianespace to the private Italian company Avio
The press release at the link summarizes all the actions taken by ESA at its just ended conference, all except this story had been covered here previously. Avio essentially builds Vega-C. It will now have full ownership and control. Arianespace — the government middle-man that never made a profit — is meanwhile slowly going away.
- Three companies tout their partnership to develop nuclear power propulsion for interplanetary travel
Lockheed Martin is the lead contractor for DARPA. The contract was awarded in July 2023.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
Line from the nuclear power story:
This technology has the potential to ….
How many times have we heard that?
Oh, and any program with a cringeworthy backronym like JETSON immediately tells me it is just another PR stunt.
(I’ll take back these words if they can manage to get anything flying in the next 5 years)
‘backronym’
Haven’t heard that in a very long time, although at one point, it had some currency in the language. Thanks to Concerned for reviving an oldie-but-goodie.