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As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

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Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket successfully places Cygnus freighter into orbit

Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket tonight successfully launched a Cygnus freighter into orbit to ISS, flying for the last time with a first stage built in the Ukraine with engines from Russia.

Until Firefly can provide Northrop Grumman with a new American-made first stage, for the next three Cygnus cargo missions to ISS the company has purchased SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

This was Northrop Grumman’s first launch in 2023, so there is no change to the leader board in the 2023 launch race:

51 SpaceX
30 China
9 Russia
6 Rocket Lab
6 India

American private enterprise now leads China in successful launches 59 to 30, and the entire world combined 59 to 50, with SpaceX by itself still leading the entire world (excluding American companies) 51 to 50.

Genesis cover

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

2 comments

  • geoffc

    In some ways, Cygnus is a real accomplishment. It will be launching on 5 different vehicles…

    Antares 1xx series
    Atlas V
    Antares 2xx series
    Falcon 9
    Antares 3xx series

    That is kind of cool Mayb only GPS comes close to that record of different launch vehicles?

    Falcon 9, Atlas V, Atlas II what else? I cannot be bothered to look it up.

  • Edward

    geoffc kind of asked: “That is kind of cool Mayb only GPS comes close to that record of different launch vehicles?

    Iridium initially launched on a wide variety of launch vehicles, too. Wikipedia says the first generation launched on four vehicles: U.S. Delta II, Russia’s Proton-K/DM2 and /strong>Rokot/Briz-KM, and China’s Long March 2C/SD.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation#First_generation

    The point is a good one, though. Most satellites and probes are designed to be able to handle the conditions and fairing envelopes of three or so launch vehicles, in case a backup is necessary, but not many get to fly on very many different vehicles. Even each generation of GPS may not have flown on five different vehicles. Some of the GPS antennas were sensitive information, so it probably only launched on U.S. vehicles, limiting the number of different vehicles for each generation of satellite.

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