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.
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
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.
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
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.