October 7, 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.
Having visited an eye doctor today and had my eyes dilated, posting this afternoon is difficult. Sorry thus for the lack of additional posts.
- Dawn Aerospace flies world’s only rapidly reusable rocket-powered aircraft twice in one day
This remains a small scale engineering prototype focused on testing the engineering.
- Brightness of first Chinese broadband constellation satellites alarms astronomers
My heart bleeds. All this paper really proves is that any effort to squelch the American satellite constellations will accomplish nothing but squelching the American satellite industry. It will do nothing to save ground-based astronomy. Astronomers should stop whining and focus on building telescopes in space.
- Debris from break-up of Long March 6A upper stage has spread to many altitudes
There is no indication China cares one iota. It certainly does not appear they have taken any action to fix the problems with the Long March 6A upper stage, which has broken up at least twice.
- ViaSat-3 F1 satellite enters commercial service
It is designed to provide internet access to airline customers over North America, including Hawaii. Whether its addition can stave off the competition from SpaceX’s Starlink remains questionable.
- Rocket Lab wins contract from NASA to study ways to bring the Perseverance’s core samples back to Earth
Few details were released, but it appears the company with this study contrct has the inside post on getting the full contract to do this, replacing the complex NASA/ESA/Lockheed Martin proposal that is overbudget, behind schedule, and incoherent in design.
- How Did The Vulcan Rocket Survive This Booster Failure?
Manley’s analysis is good, but he gets it very wrong when he says the FAA will likely ground Vulcan pending completion of its investigation. The FAA quickly announced no investigation was necessary, nor was Vulcan grounded.
- UAE announces a ‘Supreme Space Council’ that will oversee the country’s space activities
It appears a lot of people with power in the UAE want a seat at the table, running the UAE space program. This council gives them this, and illustrates how this is definitely a top-down program with little independent outside competition by non-government entities.
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.
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.
Having visited an eye doctor today and had my eyes dilated, posting this afternoon is difficult. Sorry thus for the lack of additional posts.
- Dawn Aerospace flies world’s only rapidly reusable rocket-powered aircraft twice in one day
This remains a small scale engineering prototype focused on testing the engineering.
- Brightness of first Chinese broadband constellation satellites alarms astronomers
My heart bleeds. All this paper really proves is that any effort to squelch the American satellite constellations will accomplish nothing but squelching the American satellite industry. It will do nothing to save ground-based astronomy. Astronomers should stop whining and focus on building telescopes in space.
- Debris from break-up of Long March 6A upper stage has spread to many altitudes
There is no indication China cares one iota. It certainly does not appear they have taken any action to fix the problems with the Long March 6A upper stage, which has broken up at least twice.
- ViaSat-3 F1 satellite enters commercial service
It is designed to provide internet access to airline customers over North America, including Hawaii. Whether its addition can stave off the competition from SpaceX’s Starlink remains questionable.
- Rocket Lab wins contract from NASA to study ways to bring the Perseverance’s core samples back to Earth
Few details were released, but it appears the company with this study contrct has the inside post on getting the full contract to do this, replacing the complex NASA/ESA/Lockheed Martin proposal that is overbudget, behind schedule, and incoherent in design.
- How Did The Vulcan Rocket Survive This Booster Failure?
Manley’s analysis is good, but he gets it very wrong when he says the FAA will likely ground Vulcan pending completion of its investigation. The FAA quickly announced no investigation was necessary, nor was Vulcan grounded.
- UAE announces a ‘Supreme Space Council’ that will oversee the country’s space activities
It appears a lot of people with power in the UAE want a seat at the table, running the UAE space program. This council gives them this, and illustrates how this is definitely a top-down program with little independent outside competition by non-government entities.
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.
Kudos to Dawn for keeping winged rocket planes alive.
An interesting development underway tonight!
SpaceX tweeted a new press release at 7:37 EST: “Starship’s fifth flight test is preparing to launch as soon as October 13, pending regulatory approval.”
Press Release on the SpaceX website is here: https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-5
Interesting passage:
Eric Berger noted a few days back that he had been hearing that some unnamed federal agencies had been leaning on the FAA behind the scenes to accelerate approval of the ITF-5 license. Looks like, maybe that pressure is having an effect?
MEanwhile, the Starbase team performed another tanking test on the full B12/S30 full stack today: https://twitter.com/enneps/status/1843402632205144360
Richard M,
One would certainly like to think that this news is owed to some quiet arm-twisting of the FAA by some other government organ – perhaps NASA, perhaps one or more sub-units of the DoD. And, if Berger says arms have been twisted, I think one can pretty well take that to the bank. But, given that the FAA’s November Lucy-with-the-football license date was predicated on one of the government tree-hugger agencies needing as much as 60 days to do their “studying,” it might just be that the arms being twisted are those of the tree-hugger bureaucrats the FAA is hiding behind. One imagines the head of such agency calling his opposite number at the FAA and saying, in effect, “Hey, thanks for giving us 60 days to look into that thing you asked about, but it turns out we only need a couple of weeks.”
“Astronomers should stop whining and focus on building telescopes in space.”
Where in space?
On the Moon. Dark side. Polar regions.
LEO in orbit higher than 600 km.
Something like a starlink satellite, or something cheaper.
Why not add small telescopes to starlink satellites?
Worlds only rapidly reusable rocket aircraft…..Anybody know about XCOR from decades back??