January 18, 2024 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. Note: This post is now officially an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, not just the links below.
- China’s deputy chief of its manned space program gives an update for 2024
They have 6 major tasks, including 4 launch missions and 2 recovery missions, with the six astronauts for those missions already chosen.
- China’s has reduced launches of its Tianzhou cargo freighter from 2 ships per year to 3 ships every two years
The reduction is because the construction phase of the Tiangong-3 station is now complete, and shifted into its operational phase. At the same time, China notes it can fly the Long March 7 rocket that carries Tianzhou twice within 3 months, if necessary.
- Rocket Lab will once again attempt to recover its Electron 1st stage on its next launch
They have added additional hardware to protect the engines better during return and splashdown.
- House committee backs Artemis despite latest delay
Another boring congressional hearing that will change little.
- Viasat demonstrates technology that the UK can use to replace the EU’s GPS-type system
After Brexit the UK lost access to some EU systems. This Viasat system can replace it.
- Astroscale reveals its proposed in-orbit refueling spacecraft
Essentially it will be fuel truck that will bring fuel from a depot to a satellite.
- Sergey Krikalev appointed “Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on international cooperation in the field of space”
Krikalev, one of Russia’s most famous astronauts, had been laid off from his job in Roscosmos, apparently due to differences with the agency’s administrator. This appointment appears to be a consolation prize.
- Image from Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander as it reapproaches Earth
Re-entry is expected later today.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
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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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. Note: This post is now officially an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, not just the links below.
- China’s deputy chief of its manned space program gives an update for 2024
They have 6 major tasks, including 4 launch missions and 2 recovery missions, with the six astronauts for those missions already chosen.
- China’s has reduced launches of its Tianzhou cargo freighter from 2 ships per year to 3 ships every two years
The reduction is because the construction phase of the Tiangong-3 station is now complete, and shifted into its operational phase. At the same time, China notes it can fly the Long March 7 rocket that carries Tianzhou twice within 3 months, if necessary.
- Rocket Lab will once again attempt to recover its Electron 1st stage on its next launch
They have added additional hardware to protect the engines better during return and splashdown.
- House committee backs Artemis despite latest delay
Another boring congressional hearing that will change little.
- Viasat demonstrates technology that the UK can use to replace the EU’s GPS-type system
After Brexit the UK lost access to some EU systems. This Viasat system can replace it.
- Astroscale reveals its proposed in-orbit refueling spacecraft
Essentially it will be fuel truck that will bring fuel from a depot to a satellite.
- Sergey Krikalev appointed “Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on international cooperation in the field of space”
Krikalev, one of Russia’s most famous astronauts, had been laid off from his job in Roscosmos, apparently due to differences with the agency’s administrator. This appointment appears to be a consolation prize.
- Image from Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander as it reapproaches Earth
Re-entry is expected later today.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
The Jan. 17 hearing of the House Science Committee’s space subcommittee
(it can be viewed here:) https://www.c-span.org/video/?532930-1/nasa-officials-testify-moon-exploration
was another unsettling reminder of just how out of touch and woefully uninformed most of the people involved in the oversight process appear to be. I don’t know how many people watched the latest round of Kabuki theater on C-SPAN2 last night, but it was every bit as unenlightening and embarrassing as one might have feared.
With a few exceptions, notably Rep. Issa (R-CA) and Michael Griffin, it was the standard song and dance about the ‘wonderful’ work NASA is doing and how, with a bit more bureaucratic oversight (and tweaking those pesky supply chains), everything will be fine and we’ll be back on the moon by around 2027 or so. Perhaps — with enough additional funding from Congress — even before the Chinese get there to set up shop. Rep. Issa kept trying to spoil the fun by suggesting that NASA had “done” all of this before (with slide rules) way back in the 1960s, but his argument didn’t seem to get much traction.
Former NASA administrator Griffin seemed to be especially frustrated with all of this, and he was not very sanguine about Artemis’ prospects for success. Likewise, as the author of the post in SPACENEWS observes, no one there seemed very interested in trying to expedite things by looking at alternatives at this point.
Surprisingly, there was zero mention of SpaceX or the fact that there was no going back to the moon’s surface without them. And, tellingly, no one asked any questions about the interminable delays at Boca Chica, why things were proceeding so slowly there, and why this might be happening. Crickets. At one point, NASA’s Ms. Koerner inadvertently slipped and said “SpaceX” (the entity whose name shall not be spoken) when she apparently meant to say something else. Like John Kerry’s methane emissions, a very awkward moment.
Finally, with respect to most of the NASA Panel, I have never seen such a collection of dour, unhappy looking people — watch the video — and they seemed to be just going through the motions with all of the enthusiasm that might accompany a trip to the dentist. As for their congressional interrogators, again with several exceptions, you would be hard pressed to find a dimmer and more ill-informed appearing lot of people. Very, very sad.
More on Mike Griffin. Eric Berger not impressed.
https://x.com/sciguyspace/status/1748011404127277382?s=46
Gary, thank you for sharing that. Mr. Berger’s comments seem to be spot on, and, once again, point out that we are in a new era of commercial space exploration where returning to NASA’s old style of doing things simply won’t work, isn’t sustainable, and can’t be afforded. (How long has this been a consistent theme at Behind the Black?)
The problem is, this new vision doesn’t seem to have penetrated the thinking of Congress, or at least the understanding of some of the representatives that we saw on Wednesday night. And, if Mr. Griffin is sponsoring a rear view mirror approach, who in Congress is championing the future? Indeed, is the idea of NASA purchasing needed hardware systems from the private sector — hardly a novel approach — still somehow so ‘controversial’ that the name of SpaceX can’t even be uttered?
It would be nice, in short, to have ‘leaders’ — and representatives — who are bright enough and knowledgeable enough to have a coherent vision of America’s future in space, but this does not seem to obtain at the moment.