September 19, 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.
- Blacksky wins contract from Australian company to use its satellite constellation to gather images of orbiting objects
The company is HEO, and it wants the data for “defense, intelligence, and commcial use.”
- Blue Origin’s New Glenn landing barge, Jacklyn, departed Port Canaveral this morning for sea trials
The company says it will attempt a first stage landing on the first launch of New Glenn, but if so there isn’t much time for these trials before the launch, now targeting sometime before the end of the year.
- China touts the success of Yutu-2, which it says is still working on the Moon’s far side nearly 5 years and 9 months after launch
The tweet says it has now traveled a total distance of 1,613 meters, which is just over one mile.
- On this day in 1962 the weather satellite TIROS 6 was launched
It was the sixth in a series of increasingly sophisticated satellites, following the first in April 1960.
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
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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.
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.
- Blacksky wins contract from Australian company to use its satellite constellation to gather images of orbiting objects
The company is HEO, and it wants the data for “defense, intelligence, and commcial use.”
- Blue Origin’s New Glenn landing barge, Jacklyn, departed Port Canaveral this morning for sea trials
The company says it will attempt a first stage landing on the first launch of New Glenn, but if so there isn’t much time for these trials before the launch, now targeting sometime before the end of the year.
- China touts the success of Yutu-2, which it says is still working on the Moon’s far side nearly 5 years and 9 months after launch
The tweet says it has now traveled a total distance of 1,613 meters, which is just over one mile.
- On this day in 1962 the weather satellite TIROS 6 was launched
It was the sixth in a series of increasingly sophisticated satellites, following the first in April 1960.
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.
SpaceNews had an image of a Starlink satellite from Black sky
–only it was a picture of ISS…(corrected now)
SpaceX letter to Congress.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1836923457960919224?s=46
Regarding the SpaceX letter to Congress: Yeah, this really has to be read to be believed.
There’s one episode involving the Echostar-3 launch (Part 3(j)) related in here which bears some discussion: In the letter, SpaceX points out the FAA did not elect to stop the launch with the unapproved tank farm, even though they had the opportunity to do so. SpaceX sees this as an implicit agreement of safety/approval.
A commenter on the SpaceXLounge subreddit, Know-Your_Rites, makes a great point about this claim:
“It’s a little more complicated. SpaceX says the FAA did not elect to use its authority “on console” to stop the launch, but that the FAA did send SpaceX a letter in the middle of the launch countdown. SpaceX pointedly does not tell us what that mid-countdown letter said, but from context it seems like the letter said “you’re still not approved for launch.”
“Apparently SpaceX then called up the FAA and said “this is a crazy and potentially unsafe way to tell us our launch isn’t approved,” and the FAA guy said, “yeah probably” and didn’t explicitly order a stand down, so SpaceX took that as permission to go ahead and launch.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/1fkmp65/spacexs_letter_to_congress_regarding_the_current/
I would say that it’s mind-boggling that the FAA staff had several weeks to review this, and literally only gets back to SpaceX in the middle of the launch countdown for the mission with a letter suggesting the change is not approved after all, and then sheepishly admits that this isn’t exactly the safest way to run their regulatory railroad — except that, well, it’s kinda not.
The FAA’s space division feels like an operation built to operate at telegraph speed, suddenly thrust into the age of repeater satellites and optical fibers.
Richard M: Another point that must be noted is that these incidents all occurred more than a year ago. Yet the FAA felt no need to do anything until now, right after SpaceX finally went public with its criticisms about the FAA’s red tape related to Starship/Superheavy.
I also must say at this point I feel somewhat vindicated. A lot of people in the space community accused me of being unfair to the FAA with my criticisms of it since 2022, when in truth my criticisms now appear right on the money. As I said repeatedly, something corrupt is going on in the bowels of FAA management, likely connected to political pressure from higher ups in the White House.
What remains tragic to me is that very few others in the press — even in the space press — were willing to hold the FAA’s feet to the fire. Instead, they went out of their way to belittle my concerns or defend the FAA or lay the blame on SpaceX. Yet, it is the job of the press to make government people uncomfortable, not criticize other press people for doing so. As such, this story is just another example of our vaunted free press getting captured by the government to act as its agent.