April 29, 2024 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who has returned from a weeklong work trip in “the People’s Republic of California.” 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.
- SES’s O3b mPOWER satellite constellation starts providing service
That makes at least three constellations (including Starlink and OneWeb) in orbit ahead of and operational before Amazon has launched a single satelltie in its Kuiper constellation
- Hyimpulse’s suborbital test launch from Southern Launch in Australia is now targeting May 2, 2024
Though I saw no announcement, they apparently got their launch licence from the Australian government.
- Long March 5 ready to launch China’s Chang’e-6 sample return mission to the Moon’s far side
According to the article, the core stage will not reach orbit and thus not make an uncontrolled re-entry, as the core stage of the more powerful Long March 5B varient does.
- Chinese reporter notes the increase in hotel prices near the Wenchang spaceport when a manned launch is scheduled
The communists might claim they think capitalism is bad and they are building a Marxist utopia, but the invisible hand of capitalism always rules.
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
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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, who has returned from a weeklong work trip in “the People’s Republic of California.” 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.
- SES’s O3b mPOWER satellite constellation starts providing service
That makes at least three constellations (including Starlink and OneWeb) in orbit ahead of and operational before Amazon has launched a single satelltie in its Kuiper constellation
- Hyimpulse’s suborbital test launch from Southern Launch in Australia is now targeting May 2, 2024
Though I saw no announcement, they apparently got their launch licence from the Australian government.
- Long March 5 ready to launch China’s Chang’e-6 sample return mission to the Moon’s far side
According to the article, the core stage will not reach orbit and thus not make an uncontrolled re-entry, as the core stage of the more powerful Long March 5B varient does.
- Chinese reporter notes the increase in hotel prices near the Wenchang spaceport when a manned launch is scheduled
The communists might claim they think capitalism is bad and they are building a Marxist utopia, but the invisible hand of capitalism always rules.
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.
The engines in the Long March 12; good old kerosene fuel made me think of this thread.
What technology do you most remember disappearing from your earliest memory?
For me it was the kerosene lamp used with the roadside construction site traffic barrel. This tech did not go away until the transistor controlled battery operated flashing light became available and cheap and reliable enough for the application. Old barrels continued to be used well into the 1970s almost 100 years after https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/thomas-edisons-patent-application-for-the-light-bulb
Dialing 211 to get the long-distance operator to place an out-of-area call.
Tube radios, Still have a few that work.
Calcium carbide minors lamps
Tobacco pipes and that smell. Reminds me of my great grandpa sitting on the porch after dinner.
Real watches that wound up.
The third peddle in the car. God I love those vehicles. And who remembers the floor starting switch? Or the high/low button.
People who could read a road map without a GPS device.
Shooting clubs in high schools.
Miners not minors.
The Long March 5 is actually more powerful than the pesky Long March 5B because it’s basically a Long March 5B with an upper stage atop the core stage to power payloads beyond LEO. The Long March 5’s core stage doesn’t reach orbit, in consequence, and does not become a randomly falling nuisance.
It’s like R-7 in that regard–parallel and in-line staging both—only bigger.
It looks like upper-stage ice was impinging upon the tops of the strap-on booster foam—Columbia style.
You guys see that?