July 10, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- DARPA’s Blackjack smallsat test constellation reduced from 20 to 4 satellites
The project, started in 2017, was to prove smallsat could provide the military what it needed faster and cheaper. It appears DARPA has concluded, after launching four satellites, that such a technology test program was no longer needed. Commercial space has proved the point, hands down, far faster than the government.
- China’s Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter snaps another picture of itself over the Mars north pole
Not particular interesting, but it allows China to tout its work.
- Rumors suggest Dish and Echostar are considering a merger
From Jay: “Both companies are owned by the same guy. They originally split in 2008.” Since the sources are anonymous, we must treat this story with some skepticism.
Your host is under the weather today, so no political column. Hopefully I’ll feel better later tonight or tomorrow.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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.
- DARPA’s Blackjack smallsat test constellation reduced from 20 to 4 satellites
The project, started in 2017, was to prove smallsat could provide the military what it needed faster and cheaper. It appears DARPA has concluded, after launching four satellites, that such a technology test program was no longer needed. Commercial space has proved the point, hands down, far faster than the government.
- China’s Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter snaps another picture of itself over the Mars north pole
Not particular interesting, but it allows China to tout its work.
- Rumors suggest Dish and Echostar are considering a merger
From Jay: “Both companies are owned by the same guy. They originally split in 2008.” Since the sources are anonymous, we must treat this story with some skepticism.
Your host is under the weather today, so no political column. Hopefully I’ll feel better later tonight or tomorrow.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
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