August 10, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Virgin Galactic completes its first commercial tourist flight
This suborbital hop no longer rates more than a mention here in quick links. Compared to the growing orbital manned tourism, who cares that Branson’s con job has finally begin flying passengers, two decades late?
- Japanese startup Interstellar aims for orbital launch in 2025
Japan desperately needs some new independent launch companies, as the big space launch systems provided by JAXA and Mitsubishi have certainly not served that country’s private aerospace industry well.
- Viasat not ready to declare Viasat-3 Americas a total loss
The antenna turned out to be defective. There were stories that the company made an insurance claim, but I suspect this story reflects some pushback from that insurance company.
- Ingenuity’s next flight, its 55th, has been scheduled for some time today
The plan is to fly 820 feet for 134 seconds.
- JPL touts Curiosity images of mud polygons in Gale Crater
The full press release is here. Such features have been seen many times before on Mars, and this press release is merely rehashing a 2017 report.
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.
- Virgin Galactic completes its first commercial tourist flight
This suborbital hop no longer rates more than a mention here in quick links. Compared to the growing orbital manned tourism, who cares that Branson’s con job has finally begin flying passengers, two decades late?
- Japanese startup Interstellar aims for orbital launch in 2025
Japan desperately needs some new independent launch companies, as the big space launch systems provided by JAXA and Mitsubishi have certainly not served that country’s private aerospace industry well.
- Viasat not ready to declare Viasat-3 Americas a total loss
The antenna turned out to be defective. There were stories that the company made an insurance claim, but I suspect this story reflects some pushback from that insurance company.
- Ingenuity’s next flight, its 55th, has been scheduled for some time today
The plan is to fly 820 feet for 134 seconds.
- JPL touts Curiosity images of mud polygons in Gale Crater
The full press release is here. Such features have been seen many times before on Mars, and this press release is merely rehashing a 2017 report.
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
VG performing another flight is not notable as long as they happen at the current pace of every year or two.
But should they be able to up the pace to one flight/week, should they succeed in flying 50 times without serious incident and with a full load of paying passengers, then they will have achieved something notable .
Mitch S.,
I disagree. The start of revenue operations for any company is notable. It is like a baby’s first breath.