April 7, 2025 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.
- Propaganda press story using only anonymous sources says Musk and SpaceX violated security reporting rules
Could be true, but the leftist source and the lack of confirmed named sources makes me skeptical. And even if true I suspect the story is overblown for political anti-Musk reasons.
- Long detailed interview with NASA’s Voyager project scientist
No new information but as Jay notes, “A good read.”
- Sierra Space to manage on ISS Honda’s test of a “regenerative fuel cell system [to] continuously produce oxygen, hydrogen, and electricity.”
The equipment will be flown to and from ISS on Sierra’s Tenacity Dream Chaser mini-shuttle.
- Next Soyuz crew to launch to ISS at 1:47 am (Eastern) April 8, 2025 from Kazakhstan
The mission includes two Russians and one American.
- Fifty years ago a botched launch stranded two Russians near the Chinese border
Because of a failure of the first stage the Soyuz capsule never reached orbit, landing on a mountain slope 119 miles downrange from launch. This still ranks as the longest manned suborbital flight.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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.
- Propaganda press story using only anonymous sources says Musk and SpaceX violated security reporting rules
Could be true, but the leftist source and the lack of confirmed named sources makes me skeptical. And even if true I suspect the story is overblown for political anti-Musk reasons.
- Long detailed interview with NASA’s Voyager project scientist
No new information but as Jay notes, “A good read.”
- Sierra Space to manage on ISS Honda’s test of a “regenerative fuel cell system [to] continuously produce oxygen, hydrogen, and electricity.”
The equipment will be flown to and from ISS on Sierra’s Tenacity Dream Chaser mini-shuttle.
- Next Soyuz crew to launch to ISS at 1:47 am (Eastern) April 8, 2025 from Kazakhstan
The mission includes two Russians and one American.
- Fifty years ago a botched launch stranded two Russians near the Chinese border
Because of a failure of the first stage the Soyuz capsule never reached orbit, landing on a mountain slope 119 miles downrange from launch. This still ranks as the longest manned suborbital flight.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
The story of the Prime Meridian.
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/1267f23e-29e2-4946-a9aa-a00d8738c13b/episodes/8f634278-f675-4473-b0df-9f5f30528851/everything-everywhere-daily-the-prime-meridian?ref=dm_sh_1kol2turcRhA4zcWS4fcFHmNX
For that Soyuz story, 119 miles downrange didn’t seem very far, I was pretty sure Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom went farther than that on their Mercury-Redstone suborbital flights. The link said 1574 km downrange which is 978 miles.
ZULU–on the other side of Earth–it is the International Date Line–at the North Pole or just shy of it, the maximum number.
Where the Prime Meridian intersects with the Equator (watch for tar and feathering crossing o’er the ‘Line)–you are officially… nowhere
zero lat, zero long
That Soyuz mission was a really wild one, and the only one with a hairier landing was Soyuz 23 the following year (1976). The Soyuz 23 capsule ended up landing in Lake Tengiz in -20 deg C conditions in a snowstorm, and it only got worse once the reserve chutes accidentally activated, heeling the capsule over so far that both the radio transmitter and the hatch were underwater. It was so dire that recovery teams assumed the crew was dead.
The communist system that undertook that space program was evil and loathsome. But you have to have mad respect for the cosmonauts of the 60’s and 70’s who executed those missions. They faced crazy risks, and they all knew it.
is this true? I saw a link to this story on the instapundit site.
China’s megaconstellation launches could litter orbit for more than a century, analysts warn
https://spacenews.com/chinas-megaconstellation-launches-could-litter-orbit-for-more-than-a-century-analysts-warn/
So, Ted Cruz finally met with Jared Isaacman, and he tweeted about it:
Jared replied, of course. https://x.com/rookisaacman/status/1909392856956940384
We know what Ted wants, and what Ted wants is going to matter.
The hearing will be at 10am EST tomorrow.
If China litters LEO with debris, it will only spur development of private companies to mitigate the problem. Capitalism has a way of dealing with issues such as this one. China may find their LEO sats scooped up along with the garbage!
To Steve and David,
Yes, I read that story as well and it brings up again the issue of salvage rights in space. Right now the only rule is that if you launched it, you are responsible for it, and it is yours. The topic was discussed here on BtB in 2011.
I see companies, like Astroscale, talk about garbage mitigation. This is something to research into. Maritime Law? Will countries pay companies to clean up junk and do the companies get to keep it? Disposal or reuse? Of course if it is salvaged, the country, and now companies are released from any liability?
The cosmonauts were not risk averse. We are going to need that intestinal fortitude to conquer space.