August 18, 2022 Quick space links
As stringer Jay correctly noted to me in an email today, “Slow news day.” None of the stories below merit a full post, even though they are pretty much all of today’s space news.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer tests its rocket strongback
The company hopes to complete its first orbital launch before the end of the year.
- Sierra Space completes design review of system to extract oxygen from lunar soil
The press release makes this sound more exciting than it is. All that has happened is the company has completed its first design review. Nothing has been built or tested.
- Chinese pseudo-company StarSpace develops 600w Hall-effect ion thrusters
Jay adds, “This company has currently raised ten million Yuan ($US 1.5M) in investments. Tiangong Space Station has these engines but I can not find any specs on it. [For context] the University of Michigan built a 100kw engine and NASA has built a 40kw engine and a 6kw engine that will be used on the Lunar Gateway.”
- NASA to announce this Friday the lunar landing site for the third Artemis/SLS launch in ’26
Wanna bet this doesn’t launch in ’26? Or ever?
However, the graphic NASA uses for its tweet, of Starship on the Moon, indicates that even NASA knows this, and is increasingly expecting its lunar program to shift away from SLS in the near future.
- Two upcoming Chinese launches announced for August, on August 19th and August 22nd
Both are launching from interior spaceports and will, based on the map of their launch paths at the link, dump their first stages on China. One will also fly over Taiwan.
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 $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
As stringer Jay correctly noted to me in an email today, “Slow news day.” None of the stories below merit a full post, even though they are pretty much all of today’s space news.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer tests its rocket strongback
- Sierra Space completes design review of system to extract oxygen from lunar soil
- Chinese pseudo-company StarSpace develops 600w Hall-effect ion thrusters
- NASA to announce this Friday the lunar landing site for the third Artemis/SLS launch in ’26
- Two upcoming Chinese launches announced for August, on August 19th and August 22nd
The company hopes to complete its first orbital launch before the end of the year.
The press release makes this sound more exciting than it is. All that has happened is the company has completed its first design review. Nothing has been built or tested.
Jay adds, “This company has currently raised ten million Yuan ($US 1.5M) in investments. Tiangong Space Station has these engines but I can not find any specs on it. [For context] the University of Michigan built a 100kw engine and NASA has built a 40kw engine and a 6kw engine that will be used on the Lunar Gateway.”
Wanna bet this doesn’t launch in ’26? Or ever?
However, the graphic NASA uses for its tweet, of Starship on the Moon, indicates that even NASA knows this, and is increasingly expecting its lunar program to shift away from SLS in the near future.
Both are launching from interior spaceports and will, based on the map of their launch paths at the link, dump their first stages on China. One will also fly over Taiwan.
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
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