Rocket Lab ships its two Mars Escapade orbiters to Cape Canaveral
Rocket Lab has now shipped the two identical Mars Escapade orbiters to Cape Canaveral for launch in late September on the very first flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
The spacecraft, known as Blue and Gold, recently completed comprehensive assembly, integration, and test at Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Complex and headquarters in Long Beach, California. Following this milestone, the Rocket Lab team conducted final closeout activities, including the installation of spacecraft solar arrays and multi-layer insulation (MLI) blankets, before they were packaged and shipped to Florida for launch.
Once in orbit around Mars, the two spacecraft over eleven months will study the interaction of the Martian atmosphere and its weak magnetoshere with the solar wind and solar storms, providing two different data points for a better geographic perspective.
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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.
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Rocket Lab has now shipped the two identical Mars Escapade orbiters to Cape Canaveral for launch in late September on the very first flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket.
The spacecraft, known as Blue and Gold, recently completed comprehensive assembly, integration, and test at Rocket Lab’s Spacecraft Production Complex and headquarters in Long Beach, California. Following this milestone, the Rocket Lab team conducted final closeout activities, including the installation of spacecraft solar arrays and multi-layer insulation (MLI) blankets, before they were packaged and shipped to Florida for launch.
Once in orbit around Mars, the two spacecraft over eleven months will study the interaction of the Martian atmosphere and its weak magnetoshere with the solar wind and solar storms, providing two different data points for a better geographic perspective.
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.
First Look Inside Blue Origin’s New Glenn Factory w/ Jeff Bezos!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsuqSn7ifpU
Questioner,
I watched that too. Tim Dodd did his usual ace tour guest/interviewer job, but I was surprised there was as much engineering-related talk from Bezos as there was. The man does have an engineering degree, but hasn’t previously given much evidence of being so engaged at the engineering level with Blue’s projects. All good so far as I’m concerned.
That surprised me as well.
He may have had an epiphany on his yacht.
I got the feeling Bezos was trying to show us he really understands the tech.
As I commented in a previous thread:
Bezos is enthusiastic, smart and knows his stuff.
But I get the feeling watching the interview, that Bezos is a student trying to impress the professor with his knowledge.
Bezos runs around pointing to and explaining different things his engineers did.
Musk is different. He doesn’t strive to prove he understands what is there, he doesn’t have to – he was involved in it’s creation.
When Musk walks around and points things out he seems to be constantly mulling over the designs, thinking about whether it’s being done in the optimum way.
Until they failed to produce results, Bezos was happy to let BO be run by other CEOs, it does not seem he was deeply involved in rocket development. But Bezos has had a strong interest in space since his youth so I believe BO is important to him.
But the contrast with Musk is interesting.
Note that the very first flight of New Glenn will have a customer payload. Very different than the way SpaceX does it, more akin to the NASA/Big space contractor model.
Jeff’s rocket design seems, in my impression, a bit over-engineered. For example, the mechanics of the landing legs of the first stage. However, in one aspect, Jeff is ahead of Elon. That is in taking care of his personal health. Despite being older than Musk, Jeff has a well-toned body, while Elon is clearly struggling with weight issues. Elon also doesn’t seem to eat healthily. For instance, he drinks a lot of Coke.
Not clear on one point. Are the two spacecraft going to be launched on a single rocket (New Glenn) ?
Doubting Thomas: Yes.
Dick Eagleson wrote: “The man does have an engineering degree, but hasn’t previously given much evidence of being so engaged at the engineering level with Blue’s projects.”
My recollection is that Bezos stopped running Amazon specifically to concentrate on Blue Origin and for the reason Mitch S. said: “Until they failed to produce results, Bezos was happy to let BO be run by other CEOs …“