April 15, 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.
- Airbus planning a giant module for the private Starlab space station that will require Starship to launch
More details here [pdf]. They are targeting a 2028 launch.
- Washington Post article helping astronomers push to save Chandra
It is all a lobbying game. As part of typical budget negotiations, NASA has proposed terminating Chandra, in order to force Congress to give it more money. Articles like this are part of the game.
- China’s own GPS-type constellation almost certainly provided Iran the location data for its Israel drone attack
The tweet suggests if so it will hurt China’s space reputation. I say the only ones who will be surprised by this are the utterly naive, or China’s fellow travelers.
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:
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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.
- Airbus planning a giant module for the private Starlab space station that will require Starship to launch
More details here [pdf]. They are targeting a 2028 launch.
- Washington Post article helping astronomers push to save Chandra
It is all a lobbying game. As part of typical budget negotiations, NASA has proposed terminating Chandra, in order to force Congress to give it more money. Articles like this are part of the game.
- China’s own GPS-type constellation almost certainly provided Iran the location data for its Israel drone attack
The tweet suggests if so it will hurt China’s space reputation. I say the only ones who will be surprised by this are the utterly naive, or China’s fellow travelers.
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.
It is possible to buy quad constellation satnav chips quite cheaply (well under US$100). I’d bet any nav equipment used in weapons was quad constellation with the ability to turn each system off selectively. As for using the military channel this is now unnecessary as there are at least two civilian frequencies used in all systems now. A dual frequency receiver (the one referred to above) does ionospheric corrections which increase accuracy to 1 to 2 metres. It is interesting to sit there and watch as each fix is within a 2 metre sphere (mostly 1 metre). Along with that you get 3 D velocities to better than 1 cm/second, done straight from the Doppler shifts of the satellites.
A second receiver or two and you get highly accurate pitch, roll and heading using what is called moving base RTK. You only need a couple of metre baseline between antennas to get pitch and heading to better than 0.1 degrees which is comparable to tactical grade inertial systems.
This bird is long gone, no point getting upset.
“Airbus planning a giant module for the private Starlab space station that will require Starship to launch”
Mo money, Mo betta. The more players planning for Starship, the less relevant the US Government will become. Fielding calls from unhappy Heads of State wondering when you are going to get off the schneid, is not the same as stringing along domestic companies.
Also like the renderings in the .pdf. So nice and neat and clean, when we know what a space station really looks like.
https://bgr.com/science/iss-street-view-google/
I’m posting less and less here because it is becoming more and more an echo chamber for right wingers who paint anyone slightly left of the far right as some kind of threat to society,and lets be honest… Most of the posters here, including our host have become more furvent right wing during the last difficult few years.
If anyone bothered clicking on the Iran china link they would see that it was “deemed unlikely” that Iran had access to any satellite GPS system… As the fortunate great fail of their attack on Israel kinda proves
My beef here is the comentery from our host, who obviously ran an opinion without reading the post linked.
I have no arguable opinions on the state of the middle east right now. Obviously Hamas were wrong to do what they did, it was an atrocious act, and obviously Israel is wrong to indiscriminately bomb the heck out of everything in Palestine, killing many innocent folk…now we have Iran trying to start war with Israel… With the state of the world right now, we are closer to world war 3 than any time in my lifetime.
I just hope that calmer ( and wiser )heads than ours, including myself, can find a solution.. although I sadly doubt it.
“With the state of the world right now, we are closer to world war 3 than any time in my lifetime.”
And weakness in leadership, I.E. the “progressive” / weak RINO politics of the day has delivered us all to where we are.
It is really just that simple.
The only answer? Strong benevolent leadership.
If there are no consequences for bad acts depending on your perspective, then there will continue to be bad acts.
But things certainly are much more complicated by design than that as the weak radical Socialists who must have absolute authoritarian power and compliance with their agenda who will do anything in order to force their perspective have control of power.
The Socialist authoritarian force is strong.
And you are clearly seeing exactly that on going in America right now as the destroy Trump at any cost juggernaut rolls on pushing the limits of the law and justice system.
Who is the greatest threat to the Socialist authoritarian agenda?
THE BEST JOURNALISTS? ONES GOVERNMENT FEARS MOST
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/who-are-the-best-journalists-the-ones-government-fears-most
Lee S: I will be sorry to see you go, but then, i agree there is no point. You take me to task for not checking a link sent by another commenter, but then you spew the utter falsehood that “Israel is wrong to indiscriminately bomb the heck out of everything in Palestine, killing many innocent folk.” That statement tells me that, as I noted previously to you, you purposely avoid learning anything about what Israel is actually doing.
It isn’t indiscriminately bombing anything. It isn’t fighting any war in Palestine, but in Gaza. And it isn’t trying to kill innocent folk. If you sent even twenty seconds reading about the actual methods of its military operations, instead of relying on Hamas propaganda spouted by the leftist press you love so much, you would know this.
Your responses prove my point exactly… I didn’t place the blame for the current poo storm in the the middle east on anyone’s doorstep… I believe all the actors to be wrong.
To be fair…. The Hamas attack was terrible…. An awful atrocious event, but the Israeli response has been completely disproportionate… I understand the want / need to take out Hamas, but at what cost?
It seems like it’s “at any cost”. The 30,000+ dead figure seems not to be disputed anywhere I can find. I doubt anyone can give me a link that proves that literally millions of innocent folk haven’t had their homes and basic infrastructure destroyed. I find the whole situation blood curdlingly tragic. Every life is sacred, no matter what creed or colour, but from where I stand, it seems in the middle east right now many civilians are worth less than others because they were born in the wrong place.
And non of the above posts address my point that the link regarding Iran and China’s GPS system actually says it is doubtful that Iran could/did make use of it. Not that it did.
I also said that I see no easy solutions to the problems over there.
If anyone can alter my opinion that “I don’t know the answer”, and have an answer to the situation, that doesn’t include thousands of innocent lives lost, then feel free to correct me, but first let the leaders of the nations involved know.
And I’m literally cutting and pasting the tweet the link goes to… Proving that no one here actually reads anything…
“CNSA Beidou navigation system’s military-grade PNT was reportedly accessible to Iran & Pakistan. However, assuming Iran received full/active support from it for suicide “drone attack” on Israel’s sovereignty could be irresponsible/unfounded, undermining CNSA/CASC’s reputation”
Hardly a smoking gun. I’m not saying Iran did or didn’t, I’m saying that the news source you linked to is both 1. Bogus… It’s twitter! And 2. How it was reported here is completely wrong. It actually reports the opposite of the implications suggested here.
There is no argument to be had on this point.
“but the Israeli response has been completely disproportionate”
The appropriate response to something on the level of the Hamas attack, if you can accomplish it, is the total destruction of Hamas.
There is no such thing as proportionality in such matters.
Hamas and Iran can choose to live in peace, but they choose otherwise. As I understand it.
And keeping in mind that we are all being lied to in some way shape or form.
At some point even Lee S will have to choose.
Why does Lee S choose to no longer post here on BTB?
Because like most all Liberals and radical “Progressives” your perspective is based on only nuggets of cherry-picked facts and so-called moralistic truths.
At some point someone is going to have to take care of business.
My politics may differ from that of Lee, but he has a valid point. I long since quit bothering with the “they bad/we are victims” screeds. Too many similarities to victim cultures.
Victor Davis Hanson –
“How a Border War in Europe Led to WWII”
(Sept. 2017)
https://youtu.be/tQq-ORA4fHw
1:14:03