August 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.
- Tim Dodd of Everyday Astronaut to air first tour of Blue Origin’s New Glenn factory with Jeff Bezos
It will be released on August 15, 2025. More and more it appears Bezos is trying to get his so-far failed company off the ground.
- NASA buys payload space to put camera on Blue Origin’s first lunar lander mission
A similar camera flew on the Intuitive Machines mission, and is scheduled to fly on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander.
- Soyuz-2 rocket carrying next Progress to ISS is now vertical on launchpad
The launch is scheduled for August 15, 2024.
- China’s policy for disposal of rocket upper stage’s in orbit (to reduce space junk) is merely recommended, not mandatory
Doesn’t matter much even if it was mandatory if the upper stages break up into hundreds of pieces, right after launch, as China’s Long March 6A has now done on two of seven launches.
- On this day in 1977 the Enterprise space shuttle test vehicle made its first free flight and runway landing, crewed by Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton
That was the flight in which Haise commented afterward, “It flies like a brick.” He meant that as a complement, because even so the shuttle made a perfect glided landing.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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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.
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.
- Tim Dodd of Everyday Astronaut to air first tour of Blue Origin’s New Glenn factory with Jeff Bezos
It will be released on August 15, 2025. More and more it appears Bezos is trying to get his so-far failed company off the ground.
- NASA buys payload space to put camera on Blue Origin’s first lunar lander mission
A similar camera flew on the Intuitive Machines mission, and is scheduled to fly on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander.
- Soyuz-2 rocket carrying next Progress to ISS is now vertical on launchpad
The launch is scheduled for August 15, 2024.
- China’s policy for disposal of rocket upper stage’s in orbit (to reduce space junk) is merely recommended, not mandatory
Doesn’t matter much even if it was mandatory if the upper stages break up into hundreds of pieces, right after launch, as China’s Long March 6A has now done on two of seven launches.
- On this day in 1977 the Enterprise space shuttle test vehicle made its first free flight and runway landing, crewed by Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton
That was the flight in which Haise commented afterward, “It flies like a brick.” He meant that as a complement, because even so the shuttle made a perfect glided landing.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. 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.
Doesn’t matter much even if it was mandatory if the upper stages break up into hundreds of pieces, right after launch, as China’s Long March 6A has now done on two of seven launches.
Actually…it seems like it has happened on four of Long March 6A’s 7 launches, not two!
“After the release of the Yunhai 3 following the Y2 launch of 11 November 2022, the Long March 6’s upper stage broke up into more than 50 pieces of debris, which expanded to more than 781 pieces. The vehicle was supposed to re-enter in one piece and then burn up. Following the November 2022 breakup, similar events were observed after the 26 March 2024, 4 July 2024, and 6 August 2024 launches. The reason for the break ups are unclear, but may be related to upper stage passivation or insulation.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_March_6A
So, anyone listening to the Elon Musk conversation with Trump?
Scheduled for 8pm on X but they had a coordinated attack on the platform coupled with large number of people logging in.
Re-started around 8:30, and Musk will upload the whole thing immediately thereafter.
This may hurt Musk more than it helps Trump.
Bezos keeps his head down for the most part.
Starliner decision “no earlier than next week.”
https://x.com/nasaspaceops/status/1823112217241506223?s=46
Starliner,,
“Two Weeks!”
I heard part of it – mostly about electric vehicles, energy and global warming/atmospheric CO2 build-up – on Dillon Loomis’s Electrified video podcast. I’ll be listening to the whole thing sometime in the next few days.
A second Trump administration with Elon Musk in Trump’s “Kitchen Cabinet” bids fair to be significantly better than his first administration during which the two were mostly at odds. The ruthless lunacy of the worldwide progressive left and the depredations of the U.S. Deep State have touched both men significantly in the meantime and made them allies. The whole situation puts me in mind of the final line from Casablanca.
Dick-
Good stuff!
It will be interesting to see if the discussion with Bezos by Tim Dood will be as in-depth as the one’s he has had with Elon Musk. Tim and Elon discussed technical issues encompassing propulsion, thrust, weight, economics, manufacturing and more. It still seems to me that this is more venture for Bezos than an intellectual commitment with deep understanding of what Blue Origin is all about.
My guess is Tim Dodd will treat much differently than he did with Elon.
Why doesn’t SpaceX launch just the first stage of Starship, and catch it on the tower?
Or launch the second stage, as it did, a long time, ago, and then catch it on the tower?
gbaikie,
First stage only, second stage only or both together, SpaceX can’t launch and try a catch without FAA paperwork.
wayne,
Thanks. More to follow.
DJ,
Tim Dodd is a real pro by now. He always trims his sails to the prevailing breeze on these factory tours – he’s a very polite guest. Bezos wouldn’t be having him in if the goal wasn’t to improve Blue’s crummy rep for transparency anent SpaceX. I don’t expect any chat from Bezos about Isp or thermodynamics and I don’t think Dodd is expecting any. Dodd is not a “gotcha” guy pimping for cheap clicks – he has an established and sizable following which does not require that in order to show up. I expect this tour to be interesting, just probably not as interesting as Dodd’s tours of Starbase and the facilities of Stoke, RFA and Isar.
Jeff Wright,
I expect the interview to help both of them. The left and the Deep State already loathe and detest both men and the Biden regime has been assailing both, non-stop, since the get-go. Trump got an extended-play opportunity to demonstrate that he isn’t the cartoon Hitler the left likes to portray him as and Musk solidified his bona fides on the right – which he’s been busily doing ever since he bought Twitter.
You need to understand that these guys are rock stars and are now, effectively, a duo. They’re Butch and Sundance, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott, Bogart and Rains, Han and Luke.
gbaikie asked: “<emWhy doesn’t SpaceX launch just the first stage of Starship, and catch it on the tower?
Or launch the second stage, as it did, a long time, ago, and then catch it on the tower?”
Catching a rocket with chopsticks is a tricky thing to do, and there is a real possibility (probability?) of catastrophic disaster. It may behoove SpaceX to have someone look over their test plan and preparations just to have a second set of eyes.
Although, it might have been better if the second set of eyes were from a subject matter expert, if there are any.