February 13, 2024 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. 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.
- Video of factory deployment test of solar sail
The test, in partnership with Redwire and NASA, deployed one quarter of the full sail, which would cover almost 18,000 square feet.
- Stop-action video from Sierra Space showing assembly of Tenacity and its Shooting Star cargo capsule
Launch had been targeting the first half of this year, but at present no launch date has been scheduled.
- SpaceX to de-orbit about 100 early Starlink satellites
The company is concerned a failure might make it impossible to de-orbit them properly, leaving them in orbit as space junk.
- Progress undocks from ISS
This undocking today clears the Zvezda port for a new Progress launching on February 15, 2024. Note the use of Zvezda. When stress fractures were found in that module, Russia had said it would no longer dock there. Apparently the Russians are now satisfied that the repairs done by their astronauts are sufficient to prevent further fractures and leaks. Or maybe the Russians are willing to deal with the risk for the few years left before ISS is retired.
- Cassini’s first good picture of the Saturn moon Mimas, taken on this day in 2010
As Han Solo said in Star Wars, “That’s no moon.”
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. 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.
- Video of factory deployment test of solar sail
The test, in partnership with Redwire and NASA, deployed one quarter of the full sail, which would cover almost 18,000 square feet.
- Stop-action video from Sierra Space showing assembly of Tenacity and its Shooting Star cargo capsule
Launch had been targeting the first half of this year, but at present no launch date has been scheduled.
- SpaceX to de-orbit about 100 early Starlink satellites
The company is concerned a failure might make it impossible to de-orbit them properly, leaving them in orbit as space junk.
- Progress undocks from ISS
This undocking today clears the Zvezda port for a new Progress launching on February 15, 2024. Note the use of Zvezda. When stress fractures were found in that module, Russia had said it would no longer dock there. Apparently the Russians are now satisfied that the repairs done by their astronauts are sufficient to prevent further fractures and leaks. Or maybe the Russians are willing to deal with the risk for the few years left before ISS is retired.
- Cassini’s first good picture of the Saturn moon Mimas, taken on this day in 2010
As Han Solo said in Star Wars, “That’s no moon.”
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
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