August 30, 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.
- Axiom touts the near completion of its space station’s Habitat One pressure vessel
The module is being built by Thales-Alenia in Europe and is targeting a 2026 launch date.
- NASA time-lapse video of the assembly of Europa Clipper, focusing on the installation of its solar panels
How nice. Meanwhile the agency is considering launching this multi-billion spacecraft with transistors that will likely fail quickly in the high radiation environment of Jupiter.
- Space Force: China is not as transparent as it should be about its creation of space junk
The story is focused on the debris left by the break-up of several Long March 6A upper stages. Jay succinctly sums it up: “China does not listen to anyone.”
- Video of the launch of China’s Ceres-1 rocket from an offshore barge
You can view another angle, with heroic background music, here. The rocket was built by the Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy, doing its third sea launch.
- Firefly touts the successful ongoing testing of the second stage engine of its Alpha rocket
The engine is dubbed Lightning. This testing will hopefully help overcome the issues the rocket has had with its upper stage on two previous launches.
- The first launch in Russia’s own Starlink constellation likely delayed from 2025 to 2026
As Anthony Zak notes in the tweet, Russian officials are certain of this new date because they have promised “passenger rail/air Internet via sat by 2028. …Good news — Russia still intends to have rail, air service in 2028!”
- On this day forty years ago the space shuttle Discovery was launched on its maiden flight
Discovery right now holds the record as the most reused spacecraft ever, with 39 flights total. Expect that record to be broken within the next five years by a Falcon 9 first stage, and later smashed by Starship.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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.
- Axiom touts the near completion of its space station’s Habitat One pressure vessel
The module is being built by Thales-Alenia in Europe and is targeting a 2026 launch date.
- NASA time-lapse video of the assembly of Europa Clipper, focusing on the installation of its solar panels
How nice. Meanwhile the agency is considering launching this multi-billion spacecraft with transistors that will likely fail quickly in the high radiation environment of Jupiter.
- Space Force: China is not as transparent as it should be about its creation of space junk
The story is focused on the debris left by the break-up of several Long March 6A upper stages. Jay succinctly sums it up: “China does not listen to anyone.”
- Video of the launch of China’s Ceres-1 rocket from an offshore barge
You can view another angle, with heroic background music, here. The rocket was built by the Chinese pseudo-company Galactic Energy, doing its third sea launch.
- Firefly touts the successful ongoing testing of the second stage engine of its Alpha rocket
The engine is dubbed Lightning. This testing will hopefully help overcome the issues the rocket has had with its upper stage on two previous launches.
- The first launch in Russia’s own Starlink constellation likely delayed from 2025 to 2026
As Anthony Zak notes in the tweet, Russian officials are certain of this new date because they have promised “passenger rail/air Internet via sat by 2028. …Good news — Russia still intends to have rail, air service in 2028!”
- On this day forty years ago the space shuttle Discovery was launched on its maiden flight
Discovery right now holds the record as the most reused spacecraft ever, with 39 flights total. Expect that record to be broken within the next five years by a Falcon 9 first stage, and later smashed by Starship.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
“China does not listen to anyone.”
Why should they? They have historically been The Middle Kingdom; not influencing, nor influenced by, outsiders. Western civilization has devolved into ingrown administrative feudal states within nations, as small groups of people vie to obtain, and hold, power. No one is really paying attention to China; they are too busy fighting each other.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/eerie-sounds-triggered-by-plasma-waves-hitting-earths-magnetic-field-captured-in-new-nasa-sound-clip
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/huge-fireball-sparks-panic-as-it-streaks-over-american-states/ar-AA1pLYY9?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=0ae11d8102b1487fa1110ecabae76765&ei=41
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasa-discovers-planet-wide-electric-field-around-earth-that-s-shooting-bits-of-our-atmosphere-into-space/ar-AA1pJCaa?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=bf39d8badbc04913b383f0ad154a8a51&ei=73
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/death-doesn-t-exist-and-may-just-be-an-illusion-according-to-quantum-physics/ss-BB1o1lMU?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=be9ab42cb22a4cffb0211022ce0c4cb9&ei=39
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-most-powerful-explosion-ever-observed-in-the-universe-is-continues-to-raise-new-questions-for-astronomers/vi-BB1lEIGF?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=a83b9b6048c9477eadbe606d87b1e549&ei=15
https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/dark-matter/the-universe-had-a-secret-life-before-the-big-bang-new-study-hints
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/nasa-spots-bizarre-x-shaped-structures-in-earth-s-upper-atmosphere/vi-BB1pCpaq?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=9a1e5e5cf7ef427db7df95412bb1848f&ei=34
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/nasa-captures-giant-swirling-gases-in-the-sky/vi-BB1qGD6D?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=5ebbec2c88c141318096925a5e8a3d53&ei=62
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/a-scientist-says-humans-were-meant-to-live-so-much-longer-then-the-dinosaurs-ruined-it/ar-AA1l3dqB?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=3a7a30b022ef4a93882062f0dc2d4a3a&ei=16
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/solar-maximum-could-arrive-earlier-than-expected/vi-BB1qM29w?ocid=msedgntp&pc=LCTS&cvid=1606783034bb4019a1de238a597d326e&ei=31
Col Beausabre: I approved your list of links this first time, because you deserve a warning. A mere list of links is not a discussion, and borders on spam. I have already warned one other commenter about this, and have been repeatedly deleting his comments whenever he sends a list like this.
Two links per comment is acceptable. Three or more will be moderated. Simple lists like this will be deleted. If you want to send links they should be included with commentary and context.
I don’t want to alarm everybody, but a clip of a strange sound coming from starliner’s speakers is making the rounds. I’m sure it’s not possessed or anything like that. Probably just shoddy software, thank goodness.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/starliners-speaker-began-emitting-strange-sonar-noises-on-saturday/
I’m shocked, shocked that a country which drops toxic fueled first stages on its own people doesn’t seem concerned about polluting space.