April 21, 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.
- Lucy successfully completes fly-by of asteroid Donaldjohanson
The spacecraft is healthy. Next engineers will download the data over the next few days.
- NASA touts the launch of Lunar Gateway’s first two modules sometime in 2027
The two modules will be launched by a Falcon Heavy and take a year-long circuitous route to get to their lunar polar orbit. The fourth Artemis mission (following the lunar landing) will bring a manned crew to the station with the habitation module.
Sounds good? Right now it is all fantasy.
- ULA schedules a new launch date of April 28th for placing the first set of Kuiper satellites into orbit
The first launch was scrubbed due to bad weather.
- On April 19, 2021 engineers confirmed Ingenuity’s first powered flight on Mars, the first such achievement in history
Intended to only fly a handful of times over 30 days, Ingenuity ended up completing 72 flights over almost three years.
- On this day in 1961 a man completed the first flight of the Bell Rocket Belt
One of several jetpacks tested in the 1960s, all of which proved very dangerous and unpractical.
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:
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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.
- Lucy successfully completes fly-by of asteroid Donaldjohanson
The spacecraft is healthy. Next engineers will download the data over the next few days.
- NASA touts the launch of Lunar Gateway’s first two modules sometime in 2027
The two modules will be launched by a Falcon Heavy and take a year-long circuitous route to get to their lunar polar orbit. The fourth Artemis mission (following the lunar landing) will bring a manned crew to the station with the habitation module.Sounds good? Right now it is all fantasy.
- ULA schedules a new launch date of April 28th for placing the first set of Kuiper satellites into orbit
The first launch was scrubbed due to bad weather.
- On April 19, 2021 engineers confirmed Ingenuity’s first powered flight on Mars, the first such achievement in history
Intended to only fly a handful of times over 30 days, Ingenuity ended up completing 72 flights over almost three years.
- On this day in 1961 a man completed the first flight of the Bell Rocket Belt
One of several jetpacks tested in the 1960s, all of which proved very dangerous and unpractical.
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.
But the jetpacks were very cool on Lost in Space!
https://youtu.be/xNNmlv8Y3-c?feature=shared
Scott Manley has some photos. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iBEXLKNsyJg
Robert’s April 2 post “Starliner’s troubles were much worse than NASA made clear” is linked and quoted in this article today on American Thinker:
“The Starliner: worse than we thought”
April 21, 2025 by Mike McDaniel
“Now we’re learning the problems with the Starliner were far worse than NASA has admitted.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/04/the_starliner_worse_than_we_thought.html