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.
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 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. 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.
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 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
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.
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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!