March 26, 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.
- China’s present planetary exploration roadmap
- 2028: Tianwen-3 Mars sample return
- 2029: Tianwen-4 to Jupiter and Callisto
- 2033: Venus atmospheric sample return
- 2038: Mars Research Station for ISRU
- 2039: Probe to Neptune and Triton
Jay notes correctly that China has apparently dropped a planned mission to Uranus, listed in a similar presentation in February 2023. The schedule has for all these missions also been pushed back significantly.
- On this day in 1948 Chuck Yaeger flew Bell X-1 to the highest velocity and altitude of any piloted airplane up to that time
The speed record set was Mach 1.45. The altitude record was 71,900 feet.
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.
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.
- China’s present planetary exploration roadmap
- 2028: Tianwen-3 Mars sample return
- 2029: Tianwen-4 to Jupiter and Callisto
- 2033: Venus atmospheric sample return
- 2038: Mars Research Station for ISRU
- 2039: Probe to Neptune and Triton
Jay notes correctly that China has apparently dropped a planned mission to Uranus, listed in a similar presentation in February 2023. The schedule has for all these missions also been pushed back significantly.
- On this day in 1948 Chuck Yaeger flew Bell X-1 to the highest velocity and altitude of any piloted airplane up to that time
The speed record set was Mach 1.45. The altitude record was 71,900 feet.
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.
Hello Bob,
I’m having some issues with my Google account, so I’m posting this here instead….
Tonight, Eric Berger is reporting that Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo ship for its next resupply mission (NG-22) to ISS has been determined to be . . . too damaged in shipping to be able to safely fly. So NASA is scrambling to load more consumables on the Cargo Dragon mission going up next month while it figures out what to do for the rest of this year’s ISS manifest.
Berger had a sharp observation to make:
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/03/nasa-sidelines-cygnus-spacecraft-after-damage-in-transit-to-launch-site/
I believe you were saying something about the value of redundancy in contracting the other day? :)
Richard M: Heh.
I am right now rereading some classic Greek tragedies. In one there is a character who was given second sight by the gods and can always predict what will happen quite accurately. Her problem: No one ever listens to her.
Describes my entire life in the space business. ;)
Looking Behind the Black, we discover a Cassandra!
Thank God for SpaceX. Where would we be without them? But we need other capable vendors in the trade space, desperately.
Dr. Jordan Peterson
“The Story Begins with Abzu & Tiamat”
2017 Maps of Meaning excerpt
https://youtu.be/NC6-QA-kCng
11:27
“Thank God for SpaceX.”
Thank Elon and Gwynne for SpaceX and the people they motivated and employed to build magnificent machines.