February 5, 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’s commercial passenger flight to ISS targeting an undocking and return to Earth tomorrow.
Undocking will be at 9:05 am (Eastern), depending on weather conditions at the splashdown point.
- Chinese pseudo-company planning G60 satellite constellation competitive with Starlink raises about $1 billion
Clearly Chinese investors expect to make money on this constellation. They of course must hope the communists don’t decide to confisicate it at any point.
- Spaceport America in New Mexico tries to convince everyone to launch rockets from its inland location
A dumb article and a dumb idea. No one is going to approve orbital launches from an inland spaceport until rockets become a lot more reliable landing their first stages.
- Oleg Kononenko sets new record for the most time spent, exceeding 878 days over five flights
In June he will exceed 1000 days.
- Teasing details about India’s proposed space station
First module will fly uninhabited and will be used to practice rendezvous and docking technologies.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
- Axiom’s commercial passenger flight to ISS targeting an undocking and return to Earth tomorrow.
Undocking will be at 9:05 am (Eastern), depending on weather conditions at the splashdown point.
- Chinese pseudo-company planning G60 satellite constellation competitive with Starlink raises about $1 billion
Clearly Chinese investors expect to make money on this constellation. They of course must hope the communists don’t decide to confisicate it at any point.
- Spaceport America in New Mexico tries to convince everyone to launch rockets from its inland location
A dumb article and a dumb idea. No one is going to approve orbital launches from an inland spaceport until rockets become a lot more reliable landing their first stages.
- Oleg Kononenko sets new record for the most time spent, exceeding 878 days over five flights
In June he will exceed 1000 days.
- Teasing details about India’s proposed space station
First module will fly uninhabited and will be used to practice rendezvous and docking technologies.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
Apollo 13. 11 was in the summer.
Actually Apollo *14*
Robert and Morgan: Of course. I have fixed the typo. Thank you.
some very good film…
Apollo 14 Launch
https://youtu.be/lVbHRrxG6Yk
9:47
Then there’s the Apollo 14 lunar liftoff (shot looking out from within the lunar module) – which is the only time the flag on the surface can be seen to wave in the wind! The ascending lunar module’s rocket blast wind, that is…
Wayne:
A little disappointed there wasn’t footage of the first stage landin . . . oh, wait.
Thanks! That stuff never gets old.
Space Port America is a joke.
A joke on the citizens of that state.
The only people who are ever going to profit from it are the construction companies who build it.
It might make a nice airport but launching rockets never. The very same environmental groups will stop them just like they are trying to stop Musk.
Heck some people want to shut down regular airports because to many birds get killed. They do not understand that its the airports open spaces that attract them.