November 8, 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.
My posting continues to be light for numerous reasons. Though all is generally well, the present condition of my eyes sometimes makes reading and writing difficult. Today was a particularly bad day, the double vision and blind spot making if very hard to see the words I put on the screen. Sorry.
Note too that next week posting will also be light, because I have relatives visiting from Israel and I am taking them to see the Grand Canyon for their first time. I might be able to post, but can make no guarantees.
My apologizes to my loyal readers for all this. but sometimes life gets in the way.
- New theories suggest fast radio bursts come from high mass galaxies with a lot of star forming regions
The data however remains sparse, so these conclusions can only be viewed as tentative.
- Rough outline of China’s proposed Tianwen-4 mission to Jupiter and its moon Callisto
The mission also will also release a separate probe to fly past Uranus in 2045.
- Chinese pseudo-company Deep Blue touts development status of its Nebula-1 rocket
It hopes to begin vertical hops of the prototype soon.
- Maxar orbital image of China’s X-37B copy
A clearer example of the image is available here. The data suggests it is an “exact” copy of X-37B.
- Russia says it is picking landing sites for doing flights of its version of SpaceX’s Grasshopper
As noted sarcastically at the tweet, “The only things left to do is to build a launch pad, to develop a flight demonstrator, to do the “hop” tests and then to build a real rocket.”
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.
My posting continues to be light for numerous reasons. Though all is generally well, the present condition of my eyes sometimes makes reading and writing difficult. Today was a particularly bad day, the double vision and blind spot making if very hard to see the words I put on the screen. Sorry.
Note too that next week posting will also be light, because I have relatives visiting from Israel and I am taking them to see the Grand Canyon for their first time. I might be able to post, but can make no guarantees.
My apologizes to my loyal readers for all this. but sometimes life gets in the way.
- New theories suggest fast radio bursts come from high mass galaxies with a lot of star forming regions
The data however remains sparse, so these conclusions can only be viewed as tentative.
- Rough outline of China’s proposed Tianwen-4 mission to Jupiter and its moon Callisto
The mission also will also release a separate probe to fly past Uranus in 2045.
- Chinese pseudo-company Deep Blue touts development status of its Nebula-1 rocket
It hopes to begin vertical hops of the prototype soon.
- Maxar orbital image of China’s X-37B copy
A clearer example of the image is available here. The data suggests it is an “exact” copy of X-37B.
- Russia says it is picking landing sites for doing flights of its version of SpaceX’s Grasshopper
As noted sarcastically at the tweet, “The only things left to do is to build a launch pad, to develop a flight demonstrator, to do the “hop” tests and then to build a real rocket.”
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.
Bob:
Go decompress and relax. Show your relatives Monument Valley too, what I like to describe as the anti-canyon. At the Grand Canyon you can easily appreciate the scale which is huge, but in Monument Valley you look at the buttes and then have to imagine how ALL of the material from horizon to horizon had to erode away to leave them standing and that takes a while to sink in and then you just go Wow.
Medicine Hat Rock is a worthwhile sight as well for those looking to be amazed.
Enjoy!
Gosh I hope Elon stays far away from Washington. There is nothing he will be able to accomplish there that republican politicians should/have to do themselves. The country is now fully aware of the Starship rocket program. All regulatory roadblocks will be cleared. What remains is the engineering, the construction, and the focus on an ambitious timeline. SpaceX can accomplish in the next few years what is the equivalent of the 14 years it took to build Falcon 9 and Dragon. There is no time for Elon to spend in meetings on balancing the budget.
As has been demonstrated in a number of different ways already, Elon is probably the only person who can make a meaningful dent in the federal budget. It would just be one more instance of the man pulling off something that conventional wisdom thinks to be impossible.
“… Elon is probably the only person who can make a meaningful dent in the federal budget. …”
If Elon is the only person who can solve the deficit problem then the first order of business is to replace a bunch of congressional representatives. It is congress which needs to hold hearings and figure out how to slash spending. And then congress has to stand there and answer to the millions of people who are upset and fearful that the subsidies they rely on to pay their rent or to be employed have been eliminated.
There are lots of problems looming on the horizon for Trump to handle. Search the name “howard lutnick”. He is a wall street friend of Trump who is telling him that tariffs are great because they raise revenue and spur domestic manufacturing and employment. Lutnick is a likely choice as the secretary of the treasury. The problem with the Lutnick faction is that they could have Trump convinced that the deficit can be reduced by the tariff revenue and economic growth. Which is a big problem for Elon as the guy in Washington working to reduce spending. He will not have the full support of the president. So not only will Elon be distracted from his work at SpaceX. But he will end up making inconsequential progress on spending.
While he can bend and weld steel all day, personalities are far less pliable.
Steve Richter observed:
“If Elon is the only person who can solve the deficit problem then the first order of business is to replace a bunch of congressional representatives.”
So glad I wasn’t drinking anything.
They only way to fix the federal budget is via appropriations and a return of a debt ceiling, instead of continuing resolutions and blank check omi bus slush funds. It will take a protracted government shut-down and rejection of lots of omni bus bills and CRs to force the elected part of the government to do its job. They will actually have to defund some things. Doubt Trump will force it. DOGE is cute, but other than reviewing and fixing spending bills before they’re enacted, it’s a pipe dream.
Also, X is filled with neat video of something re-entering over the southwestern US.
Steve Richter,
The “millions of people who are upset and fearful that the subsidies they rely on to pay their rent or to be employed have been eliminated” all work for federal, state and local governments. And they are mostly Democrats who voted for the Harris-Walz ticket. Elections have consequences.
There are legions of such people whose continued employment in their current jobs is actually injurious to the health of the Republic. Elon won’t have any trouble finding at least $2 trillion in doable cuts to the current federal budget. There are likely at least another $2 trillion in permanent annual reductions possible from state and local government payrolls via furloughing of various classes of bureaucratic parasites. With Trump also planning to seal the border and deport millions of illegals, the U.S. labor market will easily be able to absorb the ex-government cadre – provided they are psychologically capable of doing actual useful work. About many of them, I have serious doubts on that score.
President Reagan’s Remarks Regarding the Grace Report
January 16, 1984
https://youtu.be/tEizct1P19o
14:20
Trumps list of things to do.
https://theblogginghounds.com/2024/11/10/watch-trump-outlines-his-plan-to-destroy-the-deep-state/
DOGE? Do only good everyone? Jordan mentioned it on his psychoanalysis of trumps X-Men.
As for Elon musk, he’s been very busy lately… Making it to the top 20 Game players in Diablo four.
Dave Smith
An Address to the Libertarian Party
11-11-24
https://youtu.be/zOdlx5ivEEo
(1:09:46)
Looks like Elon is going to dedicate blocks of time to the Trump admin. The financial times today has a full page story saying Elon is asking his trusted advisors to spend time in Washington. Two of the principals from the all in podcast, Jason and David Sachs, are mentioned in the article.