November 15, 2024 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. Hat tip also to Jay for the earlier ABL and Impulse stories. 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.
- Recent secret commercial satellite launched on Electron is listed by the Space Force as ‘Protosat-1’ from Rwanda
The tweet says this means it was built by E-Space, a satellite startup based in France and the U.S. and founded by the same guy who founded OneWeb.
- Rocket Lab’s private Venus mission is now targeting a ’26 launch on Neutron
This is according to the company’s CEO and founder, Peter Beck.
- On this day in 1988 the Soviet Union launched its own space shuttle, Buran
This was its only flight, one orbit.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. Hat tip also to Jay for the earlier ABL and Impulse stories. 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.
- Recent secret commercial satellite launched on Electron is listed by the Space Force as ‘Protosat-1’ from Rwanda
The tweet says this means it was built by E-Space, a satellite startup based in France and the U.S. and founded by the same guy who founded OneWeb.
- Rocket Lab’s private Venus mission is now targeting a ’26 launch on Neutron
This is according to the company’s CEO and founder, Peter Beck.
- On this day in 1988 the Soviet Union launched its own space shuttle, Buran
This was its only flight, one orbit.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
either oxygen or methane
Does not compute. Methane is the propellant, oxygen is the oxidizer. One must have both in rocketry, and that makes one fuel, not two.
“either hydrogen or methane”? That would make more sense.
Except that there is no mention in the link or anything that I can find online about the engine to say that it is in anyway odd in it’s fuel configuration. Not sure what led Bob to say otherwise. Presumably he was just zipping off a very quick post since he certainly knows better than to call Oxygen a fuel.
All: David Eastman is correct, I was working too fast. The company says in its press materials that the engine uses hydrocarbon fuels, implying both hydrogen and oxygen. I have fixed the text.
I will add that this might be incorrect. The company is vague about this.
Looks like Starship Flight Test 6 moved from Monday 18th to Tuesday 19th. Same estimated time for lift-off: 4 pm Central Time. That gives daylight landing splash in Indian Ocean.
One would think that one of the big problems with making a dual hydrogen-methane (and lox) fueled rocket would be the very different proportional sizes for the hydrogen-lox vs. methane-lox fuel/lox tanks.
Dropping this in here,
Vic Flick (May 14, 1937 to November 14, 2024)
The James Bond Theme
https://youtu.be/eeuhXwvb3V8
1:58