May 2, 2025 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.
- Vast touts the gyroscopes it is building in-house to control the orientation of its Haven-1 space station
Thse gyros will only have to function for less than a year, as Haven-1 is not intended for long term use.
- Blue Origin touts its LISTER drill that flew on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander
Released today, it says nothing about the mission itself, which occurred three months ago. Apparently Blue Origin can’t even get its PR published on time.
- Engineers continue their attempts to regain communications with Lunar Trailblazer orbiter
All contact was lost shortly after launch. They figure they have about a month left before the mission will be considered a total loss.
- On this day in 1925 Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter was born
He was the second American to orbit the Earth.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
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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.
- Vast touts the gyroscopes it is building in-house to control the orientation of its Haven-1 space station
Thse gyros will only have to function for less than a year, as Haven-1 is not intended for long term use.
- Blue Origin touts its LISTER drill that flew on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lunar lander
Released today, it says nothing about the mission itself, which occurred three months ago. Apparently Blue Origin can’t even get its PR published on time.
- Engineers continue their attempts to regain communications with Lunar Trailblazer orbiter
All contact was lost shortly after launch. They figure they have about a month left before the mission will be considered a total loss.
- On this day in 1925 Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter was born
He was the second American to orbit the Earth.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID 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. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. 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.
“He [Carpenter] flew on the last Mercury mission”
Hardly. Schirra and Cooper both flew after him.
Call Me Ishmael: You are right of course. I once again made the mistake of relying on my aging memory instead of checking. I have corrected the post.
Anton told his YouTube viewers he had to take time off because of his allergies. He then posts this about astronauts developing allergies once they are in the low gravity of space. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCciQ8wFcVoIIMi-lfu8-cjQ/community?lb=Ugkx38hWTxHy8KdF52VmCCmh8Dm-aH4I2xOu
Last year a study by NASA reported that a lot of astronauts experience developing allergies they never had before by just being in space. Nobody knows why it happens, but apparently low gravity affects our immune system so much that it goes completely out of wack by reawakening ancient viruses and changing the immune response too much. So personally I don’t think I’m ready for outer space
References: https://humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Risks/risk.aspx?i=85
Steve, you are correct about immune systems being persnickety. Also wonder if the ISS is so nasty that it has developed bacteria and fungi that are triggering allergies.
Gary: Based on the Russian’s experience on Mir (which had a mold issue that required constant effort to control), I would expect after a quarter century there are similar issues on ISS.
None of this precludes spaceflight or interplanetary travel. These stations are likely far more sanitary than a typical ocean-going sailing ship from 1492 to 1800. It simply means those who go will have to once again accept some real discomfit.
Robert,
Agreed. I live in Georgia and we have extreme pollen seasons which trigger allergies. Doesn’t keep me from getting enjoying our beautiful North Georgia mountains. Just part of the deal.
You do what you can to mitigate, but your don’t let it stop you.
Ishmael – Speaking of Gordon Cooper.
When he & Pete Conrad flew Gemini V, Conrad ‘broke’ into a song one of the days during the flight. Walter Cronkite ended his nightly news with the following (roughly): “Conrad sang during their mission today. He & Cooper make a great team. Cooper can’t dance.”
Always brings a smile to me.
Anton has a video talking about a recently detected lone black hole. In the video he says the “Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope”, scheduled to launch in 2027, would detect many more of such black holes.
https://youtu.be/7sGRwYCUxhY?si=tCtfJn4r9ZN0ew-4&t=502
The wikipedia page says “… In April 2025, the second Trump administration proposed to cut funding for Roman again as part of its FY2026 budget draft. …”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Grace_Roman_Space_Telescope
Such a cut is despicable, outrageous and uncalled for!! I favor an exception in the budget cutting process in this case. Please print the money needed to speed up the launch of what appears to be an increasingly important telescope.
Speaking of astronomy…
An interesting development in the hunt for “Planet 9” (apologies to Pluto fans), picked up now by a few media outlets. Some Taiwanese astronomers think they may have actually spotted it:
ABC News story here: https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/milky-9-planets-after-astronomers-confirmed-existence/story?id=121395588
Paper here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.17288
There are caveats here, of course. It is not peer reviewed yet. And even if it passes muster, more observational data is needed to confirm it, and figure out its orbit. And I have yet to hear what Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin (the Caltech astronomers who have laid the groundwork for the hunt for Planet 9 by working out an impressive circumstantial case for it) have to say about it. But this is the first time someone has actually identified an observed candidate for this.
If this is confirmed, though….well, this would be some pretty big news.
Richard M: I saw that story and reviewed it plus the paper and was very unimpressed, which is why I did not link to it. Too many assumptions and uncertainties to take very seriously.
Hi Bob,
Well, I think it’s a rather shrewd little strategy they came up with — this thing is going to be very difficult to spot — but clearly this can only be a first step, if that. A “Eureka” cry is not justified at this juncture.
But I think the circumstantial evidence that this planet exists is fairly compelling, and it is worth investing the time to look for. — even if this attempt proves a washout. A Neptune sized planet lurking out in a wild irregular orbit in the Scattered Disc would be very big news.
Richard M: I agree that these results suggest more research should be done, but from my reporter’s perspective, they haven’t yet discovered anything worth reporting.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/is-the-iss-too-clean-for-astronauts-health-new-study-finds-the-space-station-lacks-microbial-diversity-180986141/
Let your kids play in the dirt.