October 14, 2024 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who also sent me the Vast Haven-2 story earlier today. 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.
- Rocket Factory Augsburg calls for changes in how Europe’s space bureaucracy operates
It’s only a slightly long tweet, but this is the key quote: “Europe has ambitious private space players, with innovative ideas, courage and a vision. Unfortunately, they are being held by the long arm and are in danger of withering away while old structures, processes and mindsets are maintained.” The company wants that bureaucracy to stop running things and instead simply become “customers” (their word) investing in the private sector.
- Rumors in China suggest its new Long March 12 rocket will attempt to vertically land its first stage on its maiden flight next year
It is entirely likely that China will achieve this goal soon, as they have been investing a lot of research on the subject by their space government agencies as well as their pseudo-companies, which all share their data. And that doesn’t include any information obtained by China through computer hacking.
- French satellite startup gets $10 million in investment capital from a state-bank investment organization
The money will be used to design the first two test satellites for a constellation of 1,500 satellites providing internet access.
- On this day in 1947 Chuck Yaeger became the first person to fly faster than sound
His plane was the Bell X-1.
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
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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, who also sent me the Vast Haven-2 story earlier today. 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.
- Rocket Factory Augsburg calls for changes in how Europe’s space bureaucracy operates
It’s only a slightly long tweet, but this is the key quote: “Europe has ambitious private space players, with innovative ideas, courage and a vision. Unfortunately, they are being held by the long arm and are in danger of withering away while old structures, processes and mindsets are maintained.” The company wants that bureaucracy to stop running things and instead simply become “customers” (their word) investing in the private sector.
- Rumors in China suggest its new Long March 12 rocket will attempt to vertically land its first stage on its maiden flight next year
It is entirely likely that China will achieve this goal soon, as they have been investing a lot of research on the subject by their space government agencies as well as their pseudo-companies, which all share their data. And that doesn’t include any information obtained by China through computer hacking.
- French satellite startup gets $10 million in investment capital from a state-bank investment organization
The money will be used to design the first two test satellites for a constellation of 1,500 satellites providing internet access.
- On this day in 1947 Chuck Yaeger became the first person to fly faster than sound
His plane was the Bell X-1.
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.
And Chuck was only 24 years old at the time and a wwii vet and married.
Aurora shot from ISS.
https://x.com/astro_pettit/status/1844748089560596542?s=46
Yeager’s flight – Didn’t he have a couple of cracked ribs when doing this? Seems I remember reading in “Right Stuff” that he hid his tumble from horseback from superiors so not to miss flight. Had a friend cut a short piece of broom handle so he could latch cockpit.
While I/we slept:
SpaceX launched two stacks of Starlinks – one from Vandenberg, one from Cape.
So, in less than 48 hours the company has launched 4 times, with 3 different rockets and returned 3 of the boosters. With this flurry of activity that brings annual total to 100 launches.
Impressive.
SpaceX released videos of booster catch.
Tower view
https://x.com/spacex/status/1845922924315938922
Catch fitting view
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1845966756579627167
Tower central view of final descent and catch:
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1845958325948895425
Off into the weeds a bit, but the first pilots to break the sound barrier were WWII fighter pilots. Many did not live to tell about it. The P-47 in particular had a problem coming out of power dives; as the planes went transonic, they became aerodynamically unstable. Some pilots volunteered to find a solution to this. According to my father, who knew the pilot in question, a P-47 pilot named Cass Hough was the first person to break the sound barrier in a P-47 power dive, and to bring the plane back under control for a landing. (As always, a good landing is one you walk away from.) After the war, Cass Hough owned the Daisy Manufacturing company, which made Daisy BB guns, and moved that company to my home town in 1958. My father was Cass Hough’s doctor, so the story comes to me third-hand.
Whether the story is true or an exaggeration, the fact remains that the Bell X-1 was built to solve a known problem, and Chuck Yeager deserves full credit for strapping himself into an experimental plane and flying off into the unknown. But it’s worth remembering the American can-do spirit was alive and well among our war-time pilots.
DW: There were stories out of Edwards in the months before Yeager’s flight of sonic booms during testing of F-86. You don’t get boomed without going supersonic. Cheers –