September 21, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- New agreement between Axiom and Hungary strengthens the plan to send Hungarian to Axiom’s space station
This is simply a continuation of the ongoing negotiations from last year, whereby Hungary pays Axiom $100 million for its services.
- “Anomaly” during September Ariane-6 engine test causes cancellation of next first stage static fire test on October 3, 2023
Engineers need time to investigate, which now raises the question about when in 2024 Ariane-6 will finally fly. These issues might push that launch into the latter half of the year, further lengthening the time Europe will be forced to rely on non-European rocket companies for its large launch needs.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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.
- New agreement between Axiom and Hungary strengthens the plan to send Hungarian to Axiom’s space station
This is simply a continuation of the ongoing negotiations from last year, whereby Hungary pays Axiom $100 million for its services.
- “Anomaly” during September Ariane-6 engine test causes cancellation of next first stage static fire test on October 3, 2023
Engineers need time to investigate, which now raises the question about when in 2024 Ariane-6 will finally fly. These issues might push that launch into the latter half of the year, further lengthening the time Europe will be forced to rely on non-European rocket companies for its large launch needs.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
For today’s Quick Links, if Jay didn’t get to it already: Orlando Figueroa’s independent review board finally released their study of Mars Sample Return yesterday, and despite the board’s obvious desire to salvage it, they have been forced to conclude that it’s a disaster on wheels:
“MSR is a deep-space exploration priority for NASA,” the report states. “However, MSR was established with unrealistic budget and schedule expectations from the beginning. MSR was also organized under an unwieldy structure. As a result, there is currently no credible, congruent technical, nor properly margined schedule, cost, and technical baseline that can be accomplished with the likely available funding.”
Yikes.
Eric Berger article: https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/09/independent-review-finds-mars-sample-return-mission-important-but-broken/
Link to Full Report: https://www.nasa.gov/news/reports/index.html
I think we all would love to get some samples back from Mars. But this clearly isn’t a realistic or affordable way to go about it. Time to take this mule out behind the barn and shoot it.
Richard M: This will be a full post on BtB.