November 14, 2022 Quick space links
Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s on-the-ball stringer.
- Starlink now has a website allowing anyone to donate a terminal to charity
While you can pick some categories for where you’d like your donation to go, you cannot pick a specific charity. The final donation destination remains Starlink’s decision.
- Apple to soon provide emergency SOS service to phone customers
Initially it will only be available in the U.S. and Canada.
- A picture of a New Glenn fairing
The photographer says its a new fairing. Maybe. Either way, my heart be still.
- SpaceX Superheavy booster test apparently planned for tomorrow in Boca Chica
The company sent residents a warning notice.
- A six-second video of three exterior experimental payloads on the Tianzhou freighter docked to Tiangong-3
One of the payloads is a hydrogen-oxygen fuel-cell being developed for lunar manned missions.
- VERITAS managers lobby for reprieve from NASA decision to delay mission
There is a lot of political lobbying going on at NASA and at JPL right now for more cash from Congress (including a report that practically demands the taxpayers give JPL more, and give a lot), and this delay appears to be one of NASA’s bargaining chips. “Give us more and VERITAS won’t be delayed!”
- A new Chinese sea launch platform is experiencing a “significant delay.”
It was supposed to begin operations this year. Now construction is not expected to begin until next year.
- AST SpaceMobile has successfully deployed the largest orbital communications array ever
This deployment is a test satellite, dubbed BlueWalker-3, designed to demonstrate technology enabling standard cell phones to use satellites for broadband access in remote areas.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s on-the-ball stringer.
- Starlink now has a website allowing anyone to donate a terminal to charity
While you can pick some categories for where you’d like your donation to go, you cannot pick a specific charity. The final donation destination remains Starlink’s decision.
- Apple to soon provide emergency SOS service to phone customers
Initially it will only be available in the U.S. and Canada.
- A picture of a New Glenn fairing
The photographer says its a new fairing. Maybe. Either way, my heart be still.
- SpaceX Superheavy booster test apparently planned for tomorrow in Boca Chica
The company sent residents a warning notice.
- A six-second video of three exterior experimental payloads on the Tianzhou freighter docked to Tiangong-3
One of the payloads is a hydrogen-oxygen fuel-cell being developed for lunar manned missions.
- VERITAS managers lobby for reprieve from NASA decision to delay mission
There is a lot of political lobbying going on at NASA and at JPL right now for more cash from Congress (including a report that practically demands the taxpayers give JPL more, and give a lot), and this delay appears to be one of NASA’s bargaining chips. “Give us more and VERITAS won’t be delayed!”
- A new Chinese sea launch platform is experiencing a “significant delay.”
It was supposed to begin operations this year. Now construction is not expected to begin until next year.
- AST SpaceMobile has successfully deployed the largest orbital communications array ever
This deployment is a test satellite, dubbed BlueWalker-3, designed to demonstrate technology enabling standard cell phones to use satellites for broadband access in remote areas.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
14 engines fired today.
https://twitter.com/liftport/status/1592276250642587654?s=20&t=q63Pr1Svqv6JxT0jxAHowQ
For those who like to track satellites, the AST Blue Walker 3 is showing up on the Heavens Above satellite site. No estimated magnitudes yet.
https://heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=53807&lat=33.9562&lng=-83.988&loc=Lawrenceville&alt=0&tz=EST