Launches by China and Russia
Earlier today both China and Russia successfully completed launches.
First, China launched a Chinese-built Pakistani communications satellite into orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport from the southwest of China.
No real information was released about the satellite, or the fate of the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters, all of which use toxic hypergolic fuels and certainly crashed somewhere in China.
Next, Russia successfully launched a new Progress cargo ship to ISS, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The freighter will dock with ISS tomorrow. I have embedded video of the launch below, cued to T-30 seconds.
The rocket’s flight path took it over Kazakstan, Russia, and China, with drop zones for the lower stages in the first two. No word on whether the lower stages and four strap-on boosters crashed near habitable areas.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
57 SpaceX
25 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads the world combined in successful launches, 65 to 39, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including other American companies, 57 to 47.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Earlier today both China and Russia successfully completed launches.
First, China launched a Chinese-built Pakistani communications satellite into orbit, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport from the southwest of China.
No real information was released about the satellite, or the fate of the rocket’s lower stages and four strap-on boosters, all of which use toxic hypergolic fuels and certainly crashed somewhere in China.
Next, Russia successfully launched a new Progress cargo ship to ISS, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. The freighter will dock with ISS tomorrow. I have embedded video of the launch below, cued to T-30 seconds.
The rocket’s flight path took it over Kazakstan, Russia, and China, with drop zones for the lower stages in the first two. No word on whether the lower stages and four strap-on boosters crashed near habitable areas.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
57 SpaceX
25 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads the world combined in successful launches, 65 to 39, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including other American companies, 57 to 47.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
By the way, am I the only one who read the AP article criticizing SpaceX competitive practices? Practically a whole newspaper page moaning about Musk undercutting the competition, with no mention of “reusability”. What priceless insights.
That AP article came from the shallow brains of the New York Times, whose only goal is to act as PR agents for the Democratic Party and Joe Biden. Musk is considered a bad guy by these partisan hacks, and so they must find ways to slander him for political purposes.
The article was so stupid I felt I had lost brain capacity trying to read it.
When Trump was elected, the head of the AP said: “…we must now abandon objectivity…”, which means they must now start to lie to their readers! As if they hadn‘t been lying already!
As a young boy in the sixties I remember during a visit to my grandparents house my grandfather showing me a section of the Pittsburgh Press – a Scripts publication. There the motto:
“Give light and the people will find their own way” was shown with a small graphic as I recall with a flood light. This was a quote from Ella Baker, a civil rights activist.
After showing me this Grampap proceeded to tell me what a true crock (insert Bob Zimmerman edit) this was coming from such an organization as Scripts.
Media bias is not new – but still must be resisted just the same.