March 4, 2025 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.
- Starlab’s space station design passes its preliminary design review in collaboration with NASA
The company says it is now starting full development, but the list of things it plans to do in the next year look more like prep work at relatively low cost while it waits to see if it will win the big contract from NASA.
- Astronomers use Webb to detect features of free-floating object 20 light years away that could be super-Jupiter exoplanet or a brown dwarf
The uncertainty of science.
- On this day in 1959 Pioneer 4 launched attempting (and failing) to do a close fly-by of the Moon
It was however the first American spacecraft to achieve solar orbit. It also provided more detail on the Van Allen radiation belts that circle the Earth.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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.
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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.
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.
- Starlab’s space station design passes its preliminary design review in collaboration with NASA
The company says it is now starting full development, but the list of things it plans to do in the next year look more like prep work at relatively low cost while it waits to see if it will win the big contract from NASA.
- Astronomers use Webb to detect features of free-floating object 20 light years away that could be super-Jupiter exoplanet or a brown dwarf
The uncertainty of science.
- On this day in 1959 Pioneer 4 launched attempting (and failing) to do a close fly-by of the Moon
It was however the first American spacecraft to achieve solar orbit. It also provided more detail on the Van Allen radiation belts that circle the Earth.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. 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.
“Time And Space” (1959)
JPL/NASA
The Story of Pioneer 4
https://youtu.be/oo3i50jmkcY
27:17
Yeah, it does kinda read that way.
Disappointing given how hard they have been working to build up European relationships and interest in the station. But I guess they think they still need a NASA contract to close the business case.
Whatever Isaacman does, I think Commercial LEO Destrinations is something that he needs to get sorted out, quickly. They can’t wait until next year on this. But the station developers need to be looking harder at lining up as much non-NASA business as possible in the meanwhile.