June 3, 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.
- DARPA awards small contract to startup Momentus to study how to build large structures in space
Momentus will fly small experiments that will be flown the company’s Vigoride orbital tugs.
- Chinese pseudo-company Deep Blue touts video of leg deployment and drop test of the first stage of its proposed Nebula-1 rocket
The drop was from about 3-5 feet off the ground.
- Another Chinese pseudo-company touts a proposed new rocket
The company is called Fancy Space, and it apparently has nothing at this point but a cool video.
- On this day in 1965, Ed White performed the first American spacewalk during the Gemini-4 mission
White died in the Apollo-1 launchpad fire in 1967.
- On this day in 1966, the Gemini-9 mission launched, crewed by Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan
The goal was to achieve the first completely successful docking in space, but the shroud on the target spacecraft only partly released, preventing the docking. Instead, Stafford and Cernan flew in formation, taking great pictures of that spacecraft, looking like “an angry alligator.”
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 the past two weeks has the 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 refuses 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:
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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.
- DARPA awards small contract to startup Momentus to study how to build large structures in space
Momentus will fly small experiments that will be flown the company’s Vigoride orbital tugs.
- Chinese pseudo-company Deep Blue touts video of leg deployment and drop test of the first stage of its proposed Nebula-1 rocket
The drop was from about 3-5 feet off the ground.
- Another Chinese pseudo-company touts a proposed new rocket
The company is called Fancy Space, and it apparently has nothing at this point but a cool video.
- On this day in 1965, Ed White performed the first American spacewalk during the Gemini-4 mission
White died in the Apollo-1 launchpad fire in 1967.
- On this day in 1966, the Gemini-9 mission launched, crewed by Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan
The goal was to achieve the first completely successful docking in space, but the shroud on the target spacecraft only partly released, preventing the docking. Instead, Stafford and Cernan flew in formation, taking great pictures of that spacecraft, looking like “an angry alligator.”
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 the past two weeks has the 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 refuses 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.
Minor correction, White flew Gemini 4.
I’ll drop this in here:
Gemini 9A Full Mission
Retro Space (2023)
https://youtu.be/EIUTv9OM008
(51:31)
“The Gemini IX mission, entirely based on historical narration, mission audio and footage. The full mission is covered, showing training, launch, Agena rendezvous, EVA, recovery and results.”
Patrick Underwood. Typo fixed. I misread the roman numerals, when I should have just used my own brain. Thanks.
and this one.
(very well done)
The Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium (2014)
Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Rapids, Mi.
https://youtu.be/8QYRGP9S8pM
6:23
The first docking in space was achieved by Gemini 8
Chris–
Gemini 8 –
“We’ve Got Serious Problems Here….”
https://youtu.be/WniA1hsqsPs
(1:04:15)
“The crew perform the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit, which is followed, not long afterwards, with the near catastrophic incident. Unknown to the crew, a thruster on Gemini becomes stuck open and the docked spacecraft begin to yaw. Thinking the issue is with the Agena, the crew separate from it, but the yaw turns into a spin as the thruster continues to spew fuel out the side of the spacecraft. As the crew regains contact with CSQ the drama unfolds…..”
On the northeast side of San Antonio, there is a middle school name Ed White Middle School. Named for THE Ed White, of course.
Chris: I should have said the “first completely successful docking”, as Gemini 8 has serious problems that caused an immediate mission abort only 30 minutes after that docking. Though the problem, an out of control attitude thruster, was believed to be independent of the docking, no one could be sure until it was done again.
I have added the appropriate words.
Catch Thirty-Thr33-
Good stuff.
Apparently, there’s a Roger B. Chaffee Elementary School, and the Virgil Grissom High School, in Huntsville, Alabama.