December 20, 2022 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Fiscal year 2023 omnibus bill provides $25.4 billion for NASA
Increases the budget by 5.6% from last year. Overall, it appears Congress is funding everything as NASA wishes, while maintaining pork projects like SLS and Orion.
- Is Virgin Orbit a Phantom in the UK?
Interesting article, but in a word, the answer has always been “Yes!” Virgin Orbit wants to launch from Cornwall in the UK, but its factories and management is all U.S. based. Since its launch vehicle is an airplane, it is not likely to bring much else to the UK for a very long time. For anyone in Britain to think otherwise is to live in a fantasy world.
- Virgin pumps another $20M into Virgin Orbit. $25M was pumped in last month.
This money is once again needed to cover the loss of revenue because of its lack of launches in the second half of 2022, caused partly by red tape in the UK and partly from rocket technical problems.
- The secret payloads of Russia’s Glonass navigation satellites
Detailed historical article, much of it describing detectors designed to monitor nuclear tests to make sure the U.S. did not violate any test ban treaties. The U.S. equivalent was its Vela satellites.
- Video of fairing release test of new Tianlong-2 rocket from Chinese pseudo-company Space-Pioneer
According to Jay, “Tianlong-2 is almost a knockoff of the expendable Falcon-1 rocket, but it has twice the payload.”
Three quick links providing graphics of China’s next generation crew spacecraft, suggesting it will be larger. None should be taken very seriously, as yet.
- Graphic showing the new crew spacecraft compared to Shenzhou crew capsule
The new version is wider, 5 meters in diameter, and appears to not use fairings during launch.
- Animation showing new crew spacecraft docking a Tiangong-3 with an additional module
The new spacecraft is docking with the bottom port, so that much of it is not visible.
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 BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Fiscal year 2023 omnibus bill provides $25.4 billion for NASA
Increases the budget by 5.6% from last year. Overall, it appears Congress is funding everything as NASA wishes, while maintaining pork projects like SLS and Orion.
- Is Virgin Orbit a Phantom in the UK?
Interesting article, but in a word, the answer has always been “Yes!” Virgin Orbit wants to launch from Cornwall in the UK, but its factories and management is all U.S. based. Since its launch vehicle is an airplane, it is not likely to bring much else to the UK for a very long time. For anyone in Britain to think otherwise is to live in a fantasy world.
- Virgin pumps another $20M into Virgin Orbit. $25M was pumped in last month.
This money is once again needed to cover the loss of revenue because of its lack of launches in the second half of 2022, caused partly by red tape in the UK and partly from rocket technical problems.
- The secret payloads of Russia’s Glonass navigation satellites
Detailed historical article, much of it describing detectors designed to monitor nuclear tests to make sure the U.S. did not violate any test ban treaties. The U.S. equivalent was its Vela satellites.
- Video of fairing release test of new Tianlong-2 rocket from Chinese pseudo-company Space-Pioneer
According to Jay, “Tianlong-2 is almost a knockoff of the expendable Falcon-1 rocket, but it has twice the payload.”
Three quick links providing graphics of China’s next generation crew spacecraft, suggesting it will be larger. None should be taken very seriously, as yet.
- Graphic showing the new crew spacecraft compared to Shenzhou crew capsule
The new version is wider, 5 meters in diameter, and appears to not use fairings during launch.
- Animation showing new crew spacecraft docking a Tiangong-3 with an additional module
The new spacecraft is docking with the bottom port, so that much of it is not visible.
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
Is Arianespace’s Vega-C rocket flight animation based on actual performance telemetry, or or not?
Spoiler alert: not. The Vega-C second stage was shown merrily blasting upward toward orbit, while in the background a curve was plotted that resembled the track of the losing effort in a cliffside anvil-tossing contest, backed up by an altitude readout unwinding 90km, 89km, 88km….
NASA pulls the plug on Insight https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/groundbreaking-mars-mission-comes-to-an-end/ar-AA15xbH5?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=8b4fd60035de4686a9610c3756b1563f