June 13, 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.
- Another test LIFE inflatable test module passes preliminary tests
Built by Sierra Space, the flight version of LIFE will be used first on the Orbital Reef station, but will also be made available for purchase by others.
- Blue Origin gets FCC communications license for its first New Glenn launch
This is not a launch license. It provides the company a window for communications on that launch lasting until October 31, 2024.
- ULA accepts delivery on what appears to be the fifth BE-4 engine provided by Blue Origin
ULA’s CEO says in the tweet that they need just one more engine for their 2024 launch manifest, which optimistically hopes to launch three times (2 engines for each launch). It took two months for this new engine to arrive after delivery of the last two.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer readies first stage of its Tiangong-3 Falcon 9 copy for 9-engine static fire test in July
If successful, it is now targeting a September maiden orbital launch, marking a two month delay from previous announcements.
- China’s X-37B copy does very close proximity maneuvers near object it released on May 24th
It is at present unclear whether the object was retrieved and then re-released.
- ESA’s partnership with China on its Moon missions appears about to end
The break-up is because of China’s partnership with Russia, and ESA has broken all ties with Russia due to its Ukraine invasion. The article at the link also notes that Turkey has applied to joint China’s moonbase alliance.
- Virgin Galactic announces 1 to 20 reverse stock split
This action means 20 shares will suddenly be worth only one, even as the stock price tumbles to under a dollar per share. This company is dying, and Wall Street know it.
- Soviet cosmonaut Vyacheslav Zudov dies at 82
He commanded Soyuz 23 in 1976, which because of a failed antenna was unable to dock with Salyut-5 and returned to Earth after only two days in space, crashing through the ice on Lake Tengiz and thus becoming the USSR’s first and only manned splashdown.
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.
- Another test LIFE inflatable test module passes preliminary tests
Built by Sierra Space, the flight version of LIFE will be used first on the Orbital Reef station, but will also be made available for purchase by others.
- Blue Origin gets FCC communications license for its first New Glenn launch
This is not a launch license. It provides the company a window for communications on that launch lasting until October 31, 2024.
- ULA accepts delivery on what appears to be the fifth BE-4 engine provided by Blue Origin
ULA’s CEO says in the tweet that they need just one more engine for their 2024 launch manifest, which optimistically hopes to launch three times (2 engines for each launch). It took two months for this new engine to arrive after delivery of the last two.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer readies first stage of its Tiangong-3 Falcon 9 copy for 9-engine static fire test in July
If successful, it is now targeting a September maiden orbital launch, marking a two month delay from previous announcements.
- China’s X-37B copy does very close proximity maneuvers near object it released on May 24th
It is at present unclear whether the object was retrieved and then re-released.
- ESA’s partnership with China on its Moon missions appears about to end
The break-up is because of China’s partnership with Russia, and ESA has broken all ties with Russia due to its Ukraine invasion. The article at the link also notes that Turkey has applied to joint China’s moonbase alliance.
- Virgin Galactic announces 1 to 20 reverse stock split
This action means 20 shares will suddenly be worth only one, even as the stock price tumbles to under a dollar per share. This company is dying, and Wall Street know it.
- Soviet cosmonaut Vyacheslav Zudov dies at 82
He commanded Soyuz 23 in 1976, which because of a failed antenna was unable to dock with Salyut-5 and returned to Earth after only two days in space, crashing through the ice on Lake Tengiz and thus becoming the USSR’s first and only manned splashdown.
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.
Latinos For Trump
“Trump Latinos” (Aug. 31, 2023)
https://youtu.be/jLWewH0-Lgk
2:46
”ULA accepts delivery on what appears to be the fifth BE-4 engine provided by Blue Origin.”
This is the seventh flight BE-4 engine delivered to ULA by Blue Origin. It is planned to be used on the fourth Vulcan to launch the GPS 3-7 satellite into orbit.
”It took two months for this new engine to arrive after delivery of the last two.”
No, it didn’t. Engine 5 (for the third Vulcan (to be used to launch the USSF-106 satellite for the Space Force)) was delivered in mid-May and engine 6 (also for the third Vulcan) was delivered in late May. Tory Bruno says Blue is delivering BE-4s on a two-week cadence, and for the last two months they have been.
mkent: I am disagreeing or doubting you, but could you give your sources for this information? I searched BtB and found earlier references for determining the count as I reported it. I could have missed some reports, but if so I’d like to have links.
Bob,
My source is the same one you used: Tory Bruno’s Twitter feed. Engine 5 was announced on 14 May and engine 6 on 29 May.
Note also that he has shared a picture of Vulcan s/n 2 (for the Cert-2 DreamChaser flight) with its engines installed along with its Centaur V on the Delta Mariner on their way to the Cape.
mkent: Thank you. This is helpful. I don’t do X. I depend on Jay and the quick links, but he was on business trips those weeks so those Bruno May 14 and May 29 tweets never got posted here.
BE-4 production is so low, they could employ The Count:
“Six! Six engines! Ha! Ha! Ha!”