April 11, 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.
- Firefly touts new software available to its customers in orbit
They already have a new customer who will demonstrate this new software for them.
- Chinese pseudo-company Ispace to build a rocket assembly facility at China’s coastal Wenchang spaceport
Including Ispace, four pseudo-companies have similar plans at Wenchang, but the government is building only one pad for their use. Since it appears the governement is retaining control over launches, it will either have to build more pads, or decide at some point more to shutdown some of these pseudo-companies. Since this is China, the companies aren’t real, and can be confiscated or shuttered at will by the communists.
- FAA denies stories that it plans to tax commercial space launches
The NYTimes had reported that the Biden administration was considering these taxes. I guarantee it still is, and will push for them should it remain in power after November.
- On this day in 1970 Apollo 13 launched
The mission became a desperate rescue mission, not a lunar mission, when an explosion in the Apollo capsule’s service module occurred on the way to the Moon. It took some amazing improvisions in space and on the ground to get the crew home safely.
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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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c/o Robert Zimmerman
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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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
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.
- Firefly touts new software available to its customers in orbit
They already have a new customer who will demonstrate this new software for them.
- Chinese pseudo-company Ispace to build a rocket assembly facility at China’s coastal Wenchang spaceport
Including Ispace, four pseudo-companies have similar plans at Wenchang, but the government is building only one pad for their use. Since it appears the governement is retaining control over launches, it will either have to build more pads, or decide at some point more to shutdown some of these pseudo-companies. Since this is China, the companies aren’t real, and can be confiscated or shuttered at will by the communists.
- FAA denies stories that it plans to tax commercial space launches
The NYTimes had reported that the Biden administration was considering these taxes. I guarantee it still is, and will push for them should it remain in power after November.
- On this day in 1970 Apollo 13 launched
The mission became a desperate rescue mission, not a lunar mission, when an explosion in the Apollo capsule’s service module occurred on the way to the Moon. It took some amazing improvisions in space and on the ground to get the crew home safely.
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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Wenchang is a large military facility.
I google mapped the area and a large portion was image different than the rest with less information than all the surrounding areas. typical of a poor editing job.
I could not find any image or map of the “foggy” area anyplace on the web.