April 12, 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.
- Gilmour is now targeting a May 4th first test launch of its Eris rocket, subject to launch permit approvals
There have been a string of these press announcements in the past two weeks. The company is apparently doing what SpaceX does, applying public pressure on Australia’s bureaucrats to get them to stop tiddling their thumbs. We shall find out if this will work in the next few weeks. Their permit application went in two years ago.
- Amateur spots what he thinks is the NRO satellite launched on the last Delta-4 Heavy launch
He also mentions two other possibilities, so this conclusion is uncertain.
- Chinese state-run press report describes the upcoming Chang’e-6 lunar sample return mission
The launch is targeting a May launch, and it will bring back the first samples from the Moon’s far side.
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
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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.
- Gilmour is now targeting a May 4th first test launch of its Eris rocket, subject to launch permit approvals
There have been a string of these press announcements in the past two weeks. The company is apparently doing what SpaceX does, applying public pressure on Australia’s bureaucrats to get them to stop tiddling their thumbs. We shall find out if this will work in the next few weeks. Their permit application went in two years ago.
- Amateur spots what he thinks is the NRO satellite launched on the last Delta-4 Heavy launch
He also mentions two other possibilities, so this conclusion is uncertain.
- Chinese state-run press report describes the upcoming Chang’e-6 lunar sample return mission
The launch is targeting a May launch, and it will bring back the first samples from the Moon’s far side.
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.
Robert wrote: “The company is apparently doing what SpaceX does, applying public pressure on Australia’s bureaucrats to get them to stop tiddling their thumbs. We shall find out if this will work in the next few weeks. Their permit application went in two years ago.”
I don’t choose launchers or launch sites for any payloads, but it is good to know that Australia is another quicksand trap that can delay your payload for months beyond the need date.
___________________
Re the first Shuttle launch: I went there with friends and family. It scrubbed on April 10th, and on the 11th we went to the beach, where I got a nasty sunburn (AKA radiation burn — next time: Disney World) on my back (therefore global warming must be true, right?), so the pain kept me awake the night before the launch. The delay is what made its launch coincide with Yuri Gagarin’s flight. It may be the only April 12th that another space event took top billing over Gagarin — at least in the U.S.
In addition, we raced with the Shuttle back to Edwards to watch the landing (being rabbity-fast, we spent a 2-hour stopover in New Orleans, where instead of going into a jazz club on Bourbon Street we looked at Saturn through some guy’s telescope set up on the levy (that’s our priority, right or not), and still beat the Shuttle to Edwards to watch the landing. A fun week of driving, watching, and sunburning.
Edward, it appears you (and your family) had your priorities set correctly at an early age!