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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

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February 28, 2023 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Another version of China’s heavy lift Long March 9 unveiled
  • Having the ability to change is not in itself a bad thing, but indecisiveness can be a curse. At present it is not clear which it is for this particular Chinese rocket project. Jay’s comment: “Dr. Long [the designer] … can’t decide which plans to steal and build.”

Jay asks forgiveness for the lateness today of these quick links, as he was overwhelmed with work at his real job. I say, no apology required. Thank you Jay!

Genesis cover

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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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

4 comments

  • sippin_bourbon

    The article does not say it, but for Rocket Lab, this is four additional launches contracted with Capella. They already have one launch scheduled, presumably to launch in March.

  • Richard M Lender

    Here’s one for the next Quick Links, perhaps: Eric Berger reports that ULA may be up for sale.

    https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1630974915674243082?t=rH7eWhn7d_xXhpES6qd8-Q&s=19

    Oh, there’s an article now, too:

    https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/03/sources-say-prominent-us-rocket-maker-united-launch-alliance-is-up-for-sale/

    Which I think is something many of us have expected would happen at some point this decade. But I confess, I didn’t expect it quite this soon. But then again, something like later this year may be the optimum time for Boeing and Lockheed to get the best price: A successful Vulcan debut, and lots of USSF, Kuiper, and Dream Chaser launches locked up on the manifest for the next five years, but before Starship, Neutron, Terran R, and friends saturate the medium/heavy class market with cheap launchers.

  • Dick Eagleson

    I don’t think the deployment method for the new V2.0-mini Starlinks is all that different from the way V1.0 and V1.5 birds are deployed. The main difference seems to be that the stack retaining rods now remain with the second stage instead of being left in the initial deployment orbit. That orbit is fairly low and the rods don’t have especially lengthy on-orbit lifetimes, but this new arrangement allows them to re-enter with the 2nd stage more certainly and promptly. This just looks like an incremental SpaceX improvement in “debris hygiene.”

  • Edward

    The Starlink deployment video is consistent with the launch video of the fairing separation. Fairing separation was viewed from the top of the stack, too. The camera, being on the top of the stack looking back along the spacecraft body, gave us a different view of fairing separation during the launch video. Here we see that the satellite release mechanism was attached to the upper stage and, as Dick Eagleson pointed out, didn’t become orbital debris. When the restraint comes alongside the body of the upper stage, we get a view of the departing Starlink satellites.

    This version of Starlink, V2-minus, is lighter than the full version. The Falcon 9 was able to put up a few more than I had calculated based upon the full version’s weight.

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