January 31, 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.
- Video of Sierra Space’s Tenacity Dream Chaser mini-shuttle being mounted on test vibration table
This is part of final testing prior to its launch on a Vulcan rocket later this year.
- Another rocky exoplanet discovered orbiting its star in only days
It is slightly larger than the Earth but has a mass 2.5 times greater. With an orbital year only 13. 7 hours long, it will be a very hot place to live, estimated to average about 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit.
- First launch of Ariane-6 remains on schedule for a June 15 to July 31, 2024 window
They expect to ship the rocket to French Guiana next month.
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.
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.
- Video of Sierra Space’s Tenacity Dream Chaser mini-shuttle being mounted on test vibration table
This is part of final testing prior to its launch on a Vulcan rocket later this year.
- Another rocky exoplanet discovered orbiting its star in only days
It is slightly larger than the Earth but has a mass 2.5 times greater. With an orbital year only 13. 7 hours long, it will be a very hot place to live, estimated to average about 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit.
- First launch of Ariane-6 remains on schedule for a June 15 to July 31, 2024 window
They expect to ship the rocket to French Guiana next month.
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.
“With an orbital year only 13. 7 years …”
Hours, right?
Call Me Ishmael: Yup. Fixed. Thanks.
I just watched the movie Gravity on DVD. It reminded me of a Buster Keaton movie with the improbable stunts and humor. Loved it
GeorgeC:
Can’t readily find it, but there’s a good clip of a (clueless) reporter asking the director of Gravity, what it was like filming in space….
https://www.conservativereview.com/william-shatner-rips-into-european-officials-trying-to-ban-classic-star-trek-motto-over-gender-exclusion-2667128265.html
First launch of a US satellite in 1958: This was thankfully achieved by Wernher von Braun’s team with the help of a further developed V2 (A4) rocket (Redstone missile).
The bureaucracy attacks Musk personally, trying to negate his compensation package.
Vivek Ramaswamy gives a very good summary..
https://x.com/alanmyron/status/1752939448822792633?s=46
Follow up on Musk.
https://x.com/kanekoathegreat/status/1752967434439663935?s=46
First launch of a US satellite in 1958: I never forget that date, when I was born,
Gary wrote: “The bureaucracy attacks Musk personally …”
Keep in mind that a year or two ago Biden said that he thought Musk should be investigated. Ever since then, the bureaucracy has been harassing Musk and his companies. Now the courts are getting into the act. At least, unlike Trump, they haven’t yet gone after any of Musk’s friends, colleagues, family, or employees.
The fundamentally transformed America, where the administration’s friends are rewarded and its enemies punished.