April 9, 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.
Note also that your host today is under the weather, so no culture/political column. I’m posting the quick links early also so I can hit the sack.
- Vast’s Haven-1 announces its Haven-1 commercial space station will use Starlink for internet communications
Vast hopes to launch this first station module by August 2025, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Two manned missions are supposedly already scheduled to follow.
- Video of Angara launch abort early today
The abort was caused by “a center core oxidizer tank pressurization system anomaly,” according to Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov. You can hear some sound burst at T-2:43, but there is nothing visible, so the sound could simply be some expected venting. They are going to try again tomorrow.
- Astrobotic’s own mini-rover, CubeRover, is now going to fly on the company’s Griffin lunar lander
To me, this suggests they have unsold payload space. They might as well fly this rover to demonstrate its capabilities.
- On this day 55 years ago NASA introduced the seven astronauts it had selected for its Mercury manned space program
They were Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper, Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, and Scott Carpenter.
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.
Note also that your host today is under the weather, so no culture/political column. I’m posting the quick links early also so I can hit the sack.
- Vast’s Haven-1 announces its Haven-1 commercial space station will use Starlink for internet communications
Vast hopes to launch this first station module by August 2025, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Two manned missions are supposedly already scheduled to follow.
- Video of Angara launch abort early today
The abort was caused by “a center core oxidizer tank pressurization system anomaly,” according to Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov. You can hear some sound burst at T-2:43, but there is nothing visible, so the sound could simply be some expected venting. They are going to try again tomorrow.
- Astrobotic’s own mini-rover, CubeRover, is now going to fly on the company’s Griffin lunar lander
To me, this suggests they have unsold payload space. They might as well fly this rover to demonstrate its capabilities.
- On this day 55 years ago NASA introduced the seven astronauts it had selected for its Mercury manned space program
They were Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, Gordon Cooper, Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn, and Scott Carpenter.
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
Someone at the National Air and Space Museum can’t do arithmetic. The Mercury Seven were announced in 1959 – 65 years ago. I’m old enough to remember the occasion.
The imagery of the eclipse from a Starlink satellite is interesting. It is not too surprising that they have cameras since today’s CCD sensors are so small, but it makes one speculate about how game changing it could be if 10 years from now about 10,000 Starlink V3 satellites also offer near realtime high resolution telephoto imagery of any location on the planet from high quality integrated cameras. No more time lag to wait for a satellite pass.
I’d expect this to be part of military Starshield satellites at the least. And probably SAR radar too.
MDN,
Almost certainly SAR. About all it would take to make a Starlink bird into a SAR bird is a modestly modified software load.
“… if 10 years from now about 10,000 Starlink V3 satellites also offer near realtime high resolution telephoto imagery of any location on the planet…”
Combined with the AI of a decade from now, I think that would tickle the Deep State’s fancy!!