December 12, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- India’s Air Force to become the “Air and Space Force,” with plans to launch 100 military satellites in the next 7-8 years
It also says it will complete those launches using India’s private space industry, which is at this moment barely established.
- This week marks the 51st anniversary of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the Moon
If you had told the astronauts then that they’d all be dead before we returned, they would have been outraged. Nonetheless, it looks like they will all be dead before humans once again step forth on the Moon, and worse, the odds of those next steps being taken by Americans is getting lower all the time.
- Satellite imagery suggests Blue Origin did an engine test of its BE-4 engine in early December
The real question is this: How many engines are they mass producing at this point? By next year they will need to produce a lot to meet the demands of both ULA’s Vulcan rocket and Blue Origin’s own New Glenn rocket, both of which have contracts to get a lot of Amazon Kuiper satellites into orbit quickly.
- China is apparently about to launch its own X-37B copy
The images suggest 1) that it is a copy of Boeing’s X-37B and 2) they will be reusing the rocket shroud on this launch. #2 however is unconfirmed.
I apologize to my readers for my lack of any essays so far this week. For maybe the first time in my life I have a kind of writer’s block. I find the news here in the U.S. so distressing I have trouble writing about it. This break might help me regain my writing juices.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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.
- India’s Air Force to become the “Air and Space Force,” with plans to launch 100 military satellites in the next 7-8 years
It also says it will complete those launches using India’s private space industry, which is at this moment barely established.
- This week marks the 51st anniversary of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the Moon
If you had told the astronauts then that they’d all be dead before we returned, they would have been outraged. Nonetheless, it looks like they will all be dead before humans once again step forth on the Moon, and worse, the odds of those next steps being taken by Americans is getting lower all the time.
- Satellite imagery suggests Blue Origin did an engine test of its BE-4 engine in early December
The real question is this: How many engines are they mass producing at this point? By next year they will need to produce a lot to meet the demands of both ULA’s Vulcan rocket and Blue Origin’s own New Glenn rocket, both of which have contracts to get a lot of Amazon Kuiper satellites into orbit quickly.
- China is apparently about to launch its own X-37B copy
The images suggest 1) that it is a copy of Boeing’s X-37B and 2) they will be reusing the rocket shroud on this launch. #2 however is unconfirmed.
I apologize to my readers for my lack of any essays so far this week. For maybe the first time in my life I have a kind of writer’s block. I find the news here in the U.S. so distressing I have trouble writing about it. This break might help me regain my writing juices.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
Some good news for your file
https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/12/12/exclusive-florida-school-punished-allowing-boy-girls-sports/
: A Florida high school has been fined and placed on administrative probation for violating the state’s bylaws by allowing a biologically male student to participate on a female sports team
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A well thought out article on the feasibility of flooding the Gaza tunnels
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2023/11/01/flood_the_gaza_tunnels_989879.html
It has already been done
“Egypt flooded thirty-seven cross-border tunnels in southern Gaza back in 2015 in what stands as a practical proof of concept in this location. Seawater from the Mediterranean would be pumped directly into the tunnel openings through short pipelines.”
The left’s excuse of damaging the local water table does not hold water so to speak
“As with the Egyptian tunnel operations, the impact of flooding on groundwater salinization would no doubt be raised. The extent of saltwater leakage through the tunnels into local groundwater would depend on the depth and construction of the tunnels and the configuration of the local aquifer. Gaza’s shallow aquifer is already over-depleted, however, and ninety-five percent of its groundwater was considered unfit for public consumption as far back as 2017. The reason is that it’s extensively contaminated with chemicals and sewage, as well as saltwater intrusion from the Mediterranean due to a long history of over pumping. Because of that, Gaza relies heavily on desalinization for potable water.”
I am reading “When the Heavens went on sale”
You should read it and do a book review.
I have writer’s block too, but I don’t write so it doesn’t matter.
Here’s the Artemis 1 Orion re-entry real time. It’s neat, you can see they maneuver it to vary the lift vector to control the descent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U88DzZcsubs
A song operators on our side listen to for inspiration when they’re about to go into harm’s way
The Last of the Mohicans – Promentory (Main Theme)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tjdswqGGVg
(6 minutes)
Maybe we shouldn’t have left the keys in the ignition of those lunar rovers after all…