May 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.
- Anther new startup, Cochrane Exploration, proposes two direct-to-orbit spaceplanes
So far nothing more than great graphics.
- Computer simulations say Jupiter was once twice its size and had a much more powerful magnetic field
To say there is uncertainty in these conclusions is a mild understatement.
- Axiom touts its partnership with Omega watches
As Jay notes, “I remember Mel Brooks from Space Balls: ‘Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made.'”
- Video of fire at SpaceX test stand during static fire test
The tweet speculates this might have been a failure of a Raptor-3 engine.
- French parliament report worries about job losses if Airbus and Thalia Alenia merger goes through
The report also worried about decreasing interest in ESA’s government Iris2 constellation, proposed to compete with Starlink but far more expensive and not expected to launch for years.
The second point is actually more important. It signals the shift among European governments away from the failed government model, something that the French parliament is apparently not yet able to comprehend.
- On this day in 1978 Pioneer Venus was launched to orbit Venus
It was the first orbiter to arrive there, and operated from late 1978 until October 1992.
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
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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.
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.
- Anther new startup, Cochrane Exploration, proposes two direct-to-orbit spaceplanes
So far nothing more than great graphics.
- Computer simulations say Jupiter was once twice its size and had a much more powerful magnetic field
To say there is uncertainty in these conclusions is a mild understatement.
- Axiom touts its partnership with Omega watches
As Jay notes, “I remember Mel Brooks from Space Balls: ‘Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made.'”
- Video of fire at SpaceX test stand during static fire test
The tweet speculates this might have been a failure of a Raptor-3 engine.
- French parliament report worries about job losses if Airbus and Thalia Alenia merger goes through
The report also worried about decreasing interest in ESA’s government Iris2 constellation, proposed to compete with Starlink but far more expensive and not expected to launch for years.The second point is actually more important. It signals the shift among European governments away from the failed government model, something that the French parliament is apparently not yet able to comprehend.
- On this day in 1978 Pioneer Venus was launched to orbit Venus
It was the first orbiter to arrive there, and operated from late 1978 until October 1992.
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.
The one condition George Lucas gave Mel Brooks when he okayed Spaceballs was “No merchandising”
I thought the reusable booster made direct takeoff space planes even less viable.
“It signals the shift among European governments away from the failed government model, something that the French parliament is apparently not yet able to comprehend.”
The French are fairly socialist, and marxist principles tend to dictate that government should control jobs and employment. It is not surprising that they think space should have a top-down control for its exploration, exploitation, and other ventures.
For the U.S., which prides itself on free market capitalism, driven by We the People and not government, we really should be surprised that a government agency, NASA, was our accepted space program. Perhaps it was because we expect our government to do what we want it to do (it is our government, after all) that we thought NASA was going to bring us the space stations that Disney and von Braun showed us and that we thought we would get the shuttles and Moon bases that Kubrick and Clarke showed us.
Fortunately, We the People are now doing our regular American way in space: bottom up, free market capitalist ventures that aspire to accomplish;lish what customers are willing to pay for. There are plenty of companies finding out what can be sold from space and plenty of companies launching those efforts into space at a much more reasonable price than when government was in control.
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Amy Shira Teitel, space historian of The Vintage Space YouTube channel, has recently released a video on why we haven’t gone back to the Moon, and it has changed the way I have seen the early space industry. For one, she confirms that NASA was pretty much always a political tool: James Webb had thought that NASA needed an engineer or scientist to lead it, but that was not the purpose of NASA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FcuV4hvGDM#t=647 (1¾ hours)
“I need somebody who understands policy. You’ve been undersecretary of state, and director of the budget. This program involves great issues of national and international policy, and that’s why I want you to do it.“ — John F Kennedy to James Webb, to convince him to be administrator of NASA
Something else about Eisenhower and Sputnik: I read a book, a decade or so ago, in which the author explains that Eisenhower saw a problem with the first satellite to orbit Earth. A nation’s airspace had no upper limit, and any satellite would necessarily have to fly over many nations in their airspace. If the U.S. were first to put up a satellite but it could be seen as military, then the Soviets could complain that their airspace was violated, and artificial satellites could forever be banned. When Sputnik 1 was launched, instead of an American civil science satellite, then precedence was settled that artificial satellites could overfly any and every country. Eisenhower was satisfied.
Miss Teitel does explain in her video that it was the large size and mass of Sputnik 2 that made everyone concerned about the ability of nuclear strikes from rockets and from artificial satellites.