December 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.
As Jay noted to me in his email, not much news today. I have been working on a long essay outlining my recommendations for NASA and Jared Isaacman, should he cancel SLS and Orion as I expect he will. Hopefully it will be finished by tomorrow. I might post it here, or see if some other venue might be interested.
- Blue Origin’s CEO touts its prep work on New Glenn on the launchpad
Blue Origin also sent out an email today saying the Blue Ring demo payload for the launch is also ready. Yet, the key quote from the tweet above was this:: “While we wait for regulatory approvals for hotfire and launch…” Why the hell is the FAA holding up this launch? For what reason? Or is it simply that the agency wants to be an equal opportunity red tape destroyer of everyone?
- Redwire to acquire military satellite builder Hera Systems
Redwire is also partnering with Vast in building its privately funded Haven-1 space station.
- An uncontrolled Soyuz-2 upper stage weighing 3 to 4 tons missed China’s Tiangong-3 space station by about one mile yesterday
Jay says there will be another close encounter in two days.
- This week in 1972 an Apollo 17 astronaut took what would be the only color photograph of a full Earth available for decades
There were many Apollo color pictures of Earth, but always with the Earth either waning or waxing. The timing of Apollo 17 took place when the Earth was full. It wasn’t until decades later that other probes or satellites looked back at Earth from a sufficient distance to see the full globe.
- On this day in 1978 Pioneer Venus-2 dropped four probes into the atmosphere of Venus
Two probes survived long enough to impact the ground, with one transmitting data afterward for more than an hour.
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.
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.
As Jay noted to me in his email, not much news today. I have been working on a long essay outlining my recommendations for NASA and Jared Isaacman, should he cancel SLS and Orion as I expect he will. Hopefully it will be finished by tomorrow. I might post it here, or see if some other venue might be interested.
- Blue Origin’s CEO touts its prep work on New Glenn on the launchpad
Blue Origin also sent out an email today saying the Blue Ring demo payload for the launch is also ready. Yet, the key quote from the tweet above was this:: “While we wait for regulatory approvals for hotfire and launch…” Why the hell is the FAA holding up this launch? For what reason? Or is it simply that the agency wants to be an equal opportunity red tape destroyer of everyone?
- Redwire to acquire military satellite builder Hera Systems
Redwire is also partnering with Vast in building its privately funded Haven-1 space station.
- An uncontrolled Soyuz-2 upper stage weighing 3 to 4 tons missed China’s Tiangong-3 space station by about one mile yesterday
Jay says there will be another close encounter in two days.
- This week in 1972 an Apollo 17 astronaut took what would be the only color photograph of a full Earth available for decades
There were many Apollo color pictures of Earth, but always with the Earth either waning or waxing. The timing of Apollo 17 took place when the Earth was full. It wasn’t until decades later that other probes or satellites looked back at Earth from a sufficient distance to see the full globe.
- On this day in 1978 Pioneer Venus-2 dropped four probes into the atmosphere of Venus
Two probes survived long enough to impact the ground, with one transmitting data afterward for more than an hour.
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.
They are holding up the Blue Origin launch so that they say to the new kids on the block “See, we are doing our jobs making sure ALL the new launches are safe”.
John Fisher: As I said, they wish to be an equal opportunity piece of garbage.
Wow, an ~1.5km approach of an item that large, with that much closing velocity, is a scary event. An impact on that scale would have almost certainly resulted in total destruction of the station and a huge debris event. I am not aware of any approaches that significant to ISS, all the ones I’ve heard of are either not that close, or not nearly as massive an object, usually both.
I wonder if there’s any possibility of seeing the thing go by, assuming daylight at the time. Probably not, closing speed way faster than a bullet. But it’s a BIG bullet!
On the cancellation of SLS.. Mike Griffin recently put up this revised proposal to land on the moon with two SLS Block II launches, and a new lander. He argues that this mitigates risks such as all the unproven refuelling needed for SLS, etc. He of course ignores the huge risks of:
1. Design and build a new lander. 10 years, $10 billion, minimum.
2. Launch not one, but two, SLS Block II, within the mission timeframe. There is handwaving about the duration of the lander in lunar orbit not being time limited by boiloff, but realistically it would have to be no more than a few months. What kind of infrastructure and process changes would it require to be able to have two SLS Block IIs being stacked at the same time? Would it require another Block II rated MLP? That’s another 10 years and $20 billion…
But the main takeaway here isn’t anything about this proposal, but the fact that SLS is not going to die without a huge fight. I’m not convinced that Jared Isaacman will have the pull to manage that. He might even have to promise that he’ll do no such thing just to get confirmed.
Christian Davenport of WaPo tweeted this last night: “I’m told that it’s tight but feasible that FAA grants approval for a December launch of the inaugural flight of New Glenn. Blue Origin has done “an exceptional job of developing their application.” But there’s still some work ahead.”
https://x.com/wapodavenport/status/1865884520869736859
I guess that even if you’re exceptional, you still get the three-toed sloth to process the application.
They regulate hotfires, too? What don’t they regulate?
I’ll play devil’s advocate and post that maybe Blue Origen’s slow pace is because they working some issues, and the FAA is correctly tracking that. – hence the “But there is still some work ahead”.
Not sure if I’m trolling or not, it is the FAA we’re talking about.
A transparent government correctly functioning in a free nation would alleviate our speculation, of course.
There is a method know as “test to failure.” A sure fire method to determine the real limits of something. At least two of SpaceX’s “failures” were exactly this. The Drive-By Media, of course, got it all wrong. Part of the reasons for the incredible success of reusability is knowing the limits of the materials. I mention all this because I do not remember any Blue Origin tests to failure. I do hope that it eventually works.
It’s hard to believe, but Mike Griffin is still at it, flogging his dream of resurrecting Constellation on steroids. Eric Berger posted last night: “Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin recently released an updated version of his dual-launch Artemis plan to get humans to the Moon. It relies on two SLS Block II launches and a lander that doesn’t exist.”
https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/A_System_Architecture_for_Human_Lunar_Return_12_Oct_2024_pdf/27237888?file=49818390
https://x.com/SciGuySpace/status/1866159337997029856
MarkWhittington: “Astonishing.”
Eric Berger: “Yes. Yes, it is.”
Rand Simberg: “Rip Van Griffin.”
Tom Mueller, chief of Impulse Space but still best known as SpaceX Employee #1, observes: “Hard for me to process that this is the same man that helped us form SpaceX 23 years ago.”
To David
I also want Block 2…and Pyrios
Vulcan is what needs to die.
But SLS should be a probe launcher–no solids–NTR probes.
I am angry at Mike Griffin because that doofus pushed Ares I when he should have pushed for Ares V.