Three astronauts return from ISS, landing in Kazakhstan
Three astronauts today safely returned from ISS, landing in a Soyuz capsule in Kazakhstan after six month mission.
The mission included two Russians and one American.
Author: Robert Zimmerman
Chinese pseudo-company almost succeeds in vertically landing test rocket
The Chinese pseudo-company Deep Blue Aerospace this weekend almost succeeded in vertically landing a grasshopper-type test rocket, its engines cutting off just before landing so that when the rocket hit the ground the impact was too much for its landing legs.
I have embedded video of the flight and crash landing below. The footage has a AI feel to it, for several reasons. First the camera is a fisheye lens, creating distortion. Second, this test grasshopper-type rocket is quite small, much smaller than the company wants you to realize, thus allowing the drone to fly around during its flight it in a somewhat spectacular manner.
The company stated that the test completed 10 of 11 engineering goals. It will have to rebuild a new test lander however to achieve that last and most important goal, landing without damage to allow immediate reflight. Regardless, this test means that China is finally getting close to achieving rocket reusablity, something it promised in 2018 it would achieve by 2020.
Note also that though this pseudo-company will likely not release its data to the other Chinese pseudo-companies, if China’s government wants to expropriate it for its own government rockets it will do so, and in fact likely has.
» Read more
China and Rocket Lab complete launches
Yesterday there were two more launches. First China’s Long March 2D rocket in the very early morning hours lifted off from its Taiyuan spaceport in northern China, placing six satellites in orbit.
The satellites are part of a constellation for doing high resolution Earth observations. No word on where the rocket’s lower stages, using very toxic hypergolic fuel, crashed inside China.
Next Rocket Lab successfully launched five satellites for the French satellite company Kinéis. This was the second of five planned launches by Rocket Lab to put the entire 25 satellite internet-of-things constellation into orbit. It was also the second attempt to launch, with the first experiencing a launch abort at T-0 seconds due to a ground-system issue.
The launch pace is beginning to heat up. There were four launches yesterday, two from China, one from SpaceX and one from Rocket Lab. The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
93 SpaceX
41 China
11 Russia
11 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 109 to 63, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world, including American companies, 93 to 79.
September 20, 2024 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Mozart – Piano Concerto No. 23: II Adagio
An evening pause: Performed in 2020 by the National Orchestra of France with a piano solo by Khatia Buniatishvili and a ballet duet by Jordan Kindell and Verity Jacobson.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Boeing replaces the head of its defense/space/security division
Ted Colbert
Boeing today announced that the head of its defense/space/security division, Ted Colbert, has been removed, effective immediately.
New Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg in his first significant move since taking over in August, said Ted Colbert would be leaving and Steve Parker, the unit’s chief operating officer, would assume Colbert’s responsibilities until a replacement is named at a later date.
One project that Colbert was in charge of was Starliner, a program that has cost the company at least $1.6 billion in overruns because of numerous faulty engineering problems.
Colbert might not be to blame for the endless problems at Starliner, but the fish stinks from the head. He also might be very qualified, but sadly, as his picture shows, he is a minority, and since Boeing went all in on DEI racist hiring quotas a few years ago, which makes the skin color and gender of an applicant a major qualification in hiring, one can’t help wondering if he was a DEI (Didn’t Earn It) hire. At Boeing that policy created a goal to increase black staffing by 20%. Its full report [pdf] makes it very clear it no longer made talent, experience, or skill the primary qualification for getting hired, but skin color and sex took precedence.
As I said, one cannot help wondering if Colbert was hired not because of his great management and engineering knowledge, but because he happened to born with a dark skin color. If so, that might help explain the failures in this paricular division.
China’s solid-fueled Kuaizhou-1A rocket launches four satellites
China this afternoon launched four satellites using its solid-fueled Kuaizhou-1A rocket, lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in the southwest of China.
It is unclear what the satellites purpose are, though there are hints they are part of a constellation providing communications for the internet of things. No word was also released where the rocket’s lower stages crashed in China.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
93 SpaceX
40 China
11 Russia
10 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 108 to 62, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world, including American companies, 93 to 77.
September 20, 2024 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Chinese pseudo-company building lunar low-gravity simulation test platform
China developed something similar to test its Zhurong Mars lander. This appears to be an upgraded version.
- Russia’s geosynchronous surveillance satellite moves close to Intelsat satellite
The Russians appear to use this geosynchronous Luch satellite to do reconnaissance of the electronic signals coming from these satellites.
- On this day in 1956 the Jupiter-C rocket was test fired for the first time
This was the rocket used to launch the U.S.’s first orbital satellite, Explorer-1, in 1958.
Land of cracks
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped to post here, was taken on June 28, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Labeled a “terrain sample,” it was likely taken not as part of any specific research project but to fill a gap in the camera’s schedule in order to maintain its proper temperature. When the camera team needs to do this, they try to pick something interesting, but don’t always have that option.
In this case, the landscape available included the channel shown to the right. About a half mile wide and only about fifty feet deep, the floor of this canyon appears to have a lot of trapped dust, forming ripple dunes, along with a lot of knobby protrusions, likely small mesas. The canyon walls appear layered, with the erosion processes producing different features on opposite sides. On the southeast the layers appear to produce distinct terraces, while on the northwest the cliff is very steep at the top and then forms a long gently descending slope that appears formed of alluvial fill (from that cliff) and formed from erosion and landslides.
» Read more
A review of Firefly’s new launch facilities in both the U.S. and Sweden
Link here. The company already has leases for launchpads at both Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral, though only the Vandenberg pad is presently operational. It now building new pads in Viriginia at Wallops Island and in Sweden at the commercial Esrange spaceport.
Regarding the purpose of offering a launch site in Europe, Firefly stated to NSF, “The launch cadence will largely be driven by customer demand. With the inaugural Alpha launch from Esrange as early as 2026, the new complex can support commercial customers in the broader European market and enable tactically responsive space missions to further advance national security for NATO countries.”
The company has already completed five launches from Vandenberg, with a sixth upcoming.
Brazil approves space bill that appears to crush that country’s future in space
The Brazillian legislature has now approved a new space regulatory bill that appears to create a whole range of new agencies and regulatory bodies, all designed to heavily supervise all space activities while giving a great deal of arbitrary power to the government.
The quote below says it all. Note that the term “space operators” refers to any private aerospace operation.
The [government] may economically exploit, directly or indirectly, without bidding, the space infrastructure, including ground equipment and logistical resources, installations and computer systems necessary to carry out space activities.
The regulatory authorities, AEB and the Air Force Command, will have free access to the facilities and equipment of space operators. They may, at any time, cancel or change the licenses granted in the event of non-compliance with obligations or when there is a threat to national security or violation of international commitments. Even if its activities are suspended or canceled, the operator remains responsible for the artifacts that are in operation. [emphasis mine]
There is a lot more, all of it adding more heavy regulation while imposing great responsibilities both legal and financial on the private companies, all to the benefit of the government.
Who is going to invest billions, even millions, under such an arbitrary regime? No one, especially because the Brazillian government has already proven its willingness to unilaterially block or take over private companies with its actions in connection with Starlink and X.
SpaceX finds a way to extend the launch window for Europa Clipper
The launch window for SpaceX’s launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper to Jupiter has now been extended a full week because the company has revised the launch process and made hardware changes.
The new launch window runs from October 10th to November 6th.
Usually the two side boosters come back to land at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station so they can be reused and sometimes the core booster is recovered at sea, but not this time. All their fuel will be used to get Europa Clipper on its way to Jupiter. Piloto said SpaceX “made some hardware modifications that enable the launch vehicle to utilize all the fuel in the boosters,” but couldn’t go into detail about what they are because the information is proprietary.
[The NASA official] added that SpaceX has gained experience in flying this configuration — it’s the 11th Falcon Heavy launch — and the company has “come up with a strategy to optimize throttling of the launch vehicle to get more performance out of it.”
NASA and SpaceX have also decided to use NASA’s orbiting communications constellation during the launch instead of ground stations, which increases their flexibility and margins.
I wonder if the FAA has approved these changes. Or even if anyone there even understands them.
SpaceX and Elon Musk blast the FAA’s red tape again
Fight! Fight! Fight! Yesterday both SpaceX and Elon Musk renewed their attack on the FAA’s apparent arbitrary harassment of the company, both by slowing down development of Starship/Superheavy as well as imposing fines and delays on the company for petty issues relating to Falcon 9 launches.
First, Elon Musk sent out a tweet on X, highlighting a successful static fire launchpad engine test of the Starship prototype the company plans to fly on the sixth Starship/Superheavy orbital flight. As he noted with apparent disgust, “Flight 5 is built and ready to fly. Flight 6 will be ready to fly before Flight 5 even gets approved by FAA!”
Second, and with more force, the company released a public letter that it has sent to the leading Republican and Democratic representatives of the House and Senate committees that have direct authority over space activities, outlining its issues with the FAA’s behavior. The letter details at length the irrational and inexplicable slowdown in FAA approvals that caused two launches last summer to occur in a confused manner, with SpaceX clearly given the impression by the FAA that it could go ahead which the FAA now denies. In one case the FAA claims SpaceX removed without its permission a poll of mission control during its countdown procedure. SpaceX in its letter noted bluntly that the regulations do not require that poll, and that the company already requires two other polls during the count.
In another case involving SpaceX’s plan to change to a new mission control center, the company submitted its request in June, and after two months the FAA finally approved the control center’s use for one launch, but had still not approved it for a second. The first launch went off, so SpaceX thus rightly assumed it could use the control center for the second. Yet the FAA is now trying to fine SpaceX for that second launch.
The third case of FAA misconduct appears to be the most egregious. » Read more
SpaceX launches 21 more Starlink satellites
SpaceX this morning successfully launched another 21 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.
The first stage completed its thirteenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
93 SpaceX
39 China
11 Russia
10 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 108 to 61, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world, including American companies, 93 to 76.
Mireille Mathieu – La Marseillaise
An evening pause: Performed live in 1989, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Eiffel Tower. What I especially like are the English subtitles, because for some reason this song is rarely translated. Knowing the meaning of what they are singing in the scene in the movie Casablanca makes that scene even more moving.
Hat tip Tom Biggar.
China launches two GPS-type satellites
China today successfully launched two more BeiDou satellites for its GPS-type navigation constellation, its Long March 3B rocket lifting off from its Xichang spaceport in the southwest of China.
No word on where the strap-on boosters and lower stages crashed in China, all using toxic hypergolic fuels.
The leaders in the 2024 launch race:
92 SpaceX
39 China
11 Russia
10 Rocket Lab
American private enterprise still leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 107 to 61, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world, including American companies, 92 to 76.
September 19, 2024 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.
- Blacksky wins contract from Australian company to use its satellite constellation to gather images of orbiting objects
The company is HEO, and it wants the data for “defense, intelligence, and commcial use.”
- Blue Origin’s New Glenn landing barge, Jacklyn, departed Port Canaveral this morning for sea trials
The company says it will attempt a first stage landing on the first launch of New Glenn, but if so there isn’t much time for these trials before the launch, now targeting sometime before the end of the year.
- China touts the success of Yutu-2, which it says is still working on the Moon’s far side nearly 5 years and 9 months after launch
The tweet says it has now traveled a total distance of 1,613 meters, which is just over one mile.
- On this day in 1962 the weather satellite TIROS 6 was launched
It was the sixth in a series of increasingly sophisticated satellites, following the first in April 1960.
The Democrats: 28% think it would be a good thing if Trump were killed
Click for original image.
The Democrats and their supporters might claim they stand for democracy and freedom and fair elections, but their own words prove this endlessly to be a lie. In a new poll of a 1,000 registered voters, 28% of the Democrats thought the country would be better off if Trump were assassinated.
Sadly, as shown by the graph to the right, 7% of the Republicans polled also thought killing Trump would a good thing.
The difference between the two numbers however illustrates the stark difference between the two parties, and helps explain why there have been two assassination attempts on Trump and none on the Democratic Party candidates. Republicans mostly support democracy and free and fair elections. A large percentage of Democrats no longer do.
Furthermore, Democrats also appear to be so filled with their hatred of Trump and any opposition that they can no longer think rationally about anything. The poll also found that 70% believed it likely or somewhat likely that the second assassination attempt was faked by Trump and his campaign.
All of this hatred among grassroots Democrats is worsened because the leadership of the Democratic Party keeps feeding it. » Read more
Webb takes an infrared look at a galaxy looked at by Hubble
For original images go here and here.
Cool image time! The bottom picture on the right, cropped to post here, is a just released false color infrared image of the galaxy Arp 107, taken by the Webb Space Telescope. The picture at the top is a previously released optical image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and featured as a cool image back in September 2023. The Hubble image was taken as part of a survey project to photograph the entire Arp catalog of 338 “peculiar galaxies,” put together by astronomer Halton Arp in 1966. In this case Arp 107 is peculiar because it is actually two galaxies in the process of merging. It is also peculiar because the galaxy on the left has an active galactic nuclei (AGN), where a supermassive black hole is sucking up material and thus emitting a lot of energy.
The Webb infrared image was taken to supplement that optical image. The blue spiral arms indicate dust and star-forming regions. The bright orange object in the center of the galaxy is that AGN, clearly defined by Webb’s infrared camera.
When I posted the Hubble image in 2023, I noted that “if you ignore the blue whorls of the left galaxy, the two bright cores of these merging galaxies are about the same size.” In the Webb image the two cores still appear about the same size, but in the infrared they produce emissions in decidedly different wavelengths, as shown by the different false colors of orange and blue. The core of the galaxy on the right is dust filled and forming stars, while the core of the left galaxy appears to have less dust with all of its emissions resulting from the energy produced by the material being pulled into the supermassive black hole.
The universe is very active and changing, but to understand that process we humans have to look at everything across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, not just in the optical wavelengths our eyes see.
Newly discovered potentially dangerous asteroid found to be a contact binary
Click for original image.
Radar images taken during the close fly of a newly discovered potentially dangerous asteroid has revealed that it is a contact binary, formed by two objects stuck together to produce a single asteroid with a peanutlike shape.
Discovered by the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on Mauna Loa in Hawaii on July 27, the near-Earth asteroid’s shape resembles that of a peanut. Like the asteroid 2024 JV33 that made close approach with Earth a month earlier, 2024 ON is likely a contact binary, with two rounded lobes separated by a pronounced neck, one lobe about 50% larger than the other. The radar images determined that it is about 755 feet (350 meters) long. Features larger than 12.3 feet (3.75 meters) across can be seen on the surface. Bright radar spots on the asteroid’s surface likely indicate large boulders. The images show about 90% of one rotation over the course of about six hours.
The radar images were taken one day before that close approach of 620,000 miles on September 17, 2024, and once again show that a large number of near-Earth asteroids, as much as 14%, are contact binaries. The data also helped better refine 2024ON’s orbit around the Sun, which show that though the asteroid has the potential to hit the Earth, its path will not do so for the foreseeable future.