May 15, 2025 Quick space links

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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

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May 15, 2025 3:26 pm Robert Zimmerman

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.

Chinese pseudo-company Landspace scrubs third launch of its Zhuque-2 rocket for “technical reasons”
This rocket was the first to reach orbit using methane fuel, in 2023. For the second launch in November 2024 it upgraded the fueling system to copy SpaceX’s methods. The company says it will launch this year its larger Zhuque-3, designed to have the first stage return vertically, but based on the launch pace of Zhuque-2, I have doubts.

On this day in 1963 Gordon Cooper flew on the final Mercury mission
He orbited the Earth 22 times.

6 comments

Richard M
May 16, 2025 at 5:57 am
On this day in 1963 Gordon Cooper flew on the final Mercury mission
He orbited the Earth 22 times.

As the narrator put it at the end of The Right Stuff: “But on that glorious day in May 1963, Gordo Cooper went higher, farther, and faster than any other American – 22 complete orbits around the world; he was the last American ever to go into space alone. And for a brief moment, Gordo Cooper became the greatest pilot anyone had ever seen.”
Richard M
May 16, 2025 at 6:04 am
In other news, the Brits are so good at red-taping their own space industry that they’re moving into exporting this talent to America: Propublica: After Two SpaceX Explosions, U.K. Officials Ask FAA to Change Starship Flight Plans [May 15]

British officials told the U.S. they are concerned about the safety of SpaceX’s plans to fly its next Starship rocket over British territories in the Caribbean, where debris fell earlier this year after two of the company’s rockets exploded, according to documents reviewed by ProPublica.

The worries from the U.K. government, detailed in a letter to a top American diplomat on Wednesday, follow the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision last week to grant SpaceX’s request for a fivefold increase in the number of Starship launches allowed this year, from five to 25. Growing the number of launches of the most powerful rocket ever built is a priority for SpaceX head Elon Musk, who is also one of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers.

Of particular concern to British officials is the public’s safety in the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla and the Turks and Caicos Islands — all of which could face debris risk from Starship 9.

[…]

The British letter to a U.S. State Department official, Ambassador Lisa Kenna, asks the U.S. to consider changing the launch site or trajectory of Starship 9. If that isn’t possible, the request — from Stephen Doughty, the United Kingdom’s minister of state for Europe, North America and U.K. Overseas Territories — asks that agencies like the FAA consider altering the launch’s timing to minimize safety risks and the economic impact for the British territories.

The letter also requests that the U.S. government provide the United Kingdom more information on increased safety measures that will be put in place before Starship 9 launches, and that British territories be given enough warning to communicate with the public about those measures.

“We have been working closely with US Government partners regarding Starship Flight 9 to protect the safety of the UK Overseas Territories and to ensure appropriate measures are in place,” a  UK government spokesperson said Thursday in response to ProPublica’s questions about the letter.
Don C.
May 16, 2025 at 6:57 am
Richard M – ‘Twas not the first time a Brit beseechery was sent to an American-in-charge.

Recently discovered in the vaults of the National Archives, this memo:

0630 29SEP
To: Gen G. Washington,
In light of the circumstances under which we meet, there should be some understanding for the future of our relationship. It behooves you to send some early warning before commencing any rocket fusillade, to lessen damage to non-combatants.

His Majesty’s servant,
LGen C. Cornwallis
Richard M
May 16, 2025 at 7:35 am
Hello Don,

LOL
Steve Richter
May 16, 2025 at 8:26 am
Anton posted a video on gas clouds close to our solar system
https://youtu.be/xYHoIHt0O-Q?si=_G38FjHN5s_guJZH

How close are the hydrogen atoms of a gas cloud to each other? And would a voyager like craft be able to travel into and through a gas cloud without being damaged by atmosphere like impact? Would the spacecraft accelerate as it approached the cloud and then slow down once it was within the confines? Sounds pretty fascinating that gas clouds in the milky way are currently producing new stars ( I think the video says that ). Meaning there will be clumps of compressed gas within a cloud which have not yet ignited into a nuclear reaction?
Dick Eagleson
May 16, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Richard M,

In addition to the stunning visuals, I remember a lot of both the narration and dialogue from The Right Stuff, one of the best movies ever made. Gordo Cooper was one of Dennis Quaid’s best portrayals in a career that has also included notable turns as Ronald Reagan and Adm. William F. “Bull” Halsey. I would happily quote some of my own favorite lines from TRS, but I would run afoul of our host’s rules of verbal decorum should I do so – particularly any of the Gus Grissom stuff.

Anent the Brits, this is exactly the sort of whiny peevishness that has characterized the entire tenure-to-date of the Karen Starmer government. Here’s to a clean IFT-9 flight and successors – and to no further attention needing to be paid, even in passing, to Whitehall hanky twisters.

May 15, 2025 Quick space links

6 comments

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