May 24, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Next-to-last Delta-4-Heavy launch scheduled for June 21, 2023
The payload is a National Reconnaissance Office surveillance satellite.
- Progress freighter today docked with ISS, a little more than four hours after launch
It will remain at ISS until November.
- China releases new designs for its proposed Long March 8 rocket
The tweet implies China has abandoned developing reusability on this rocket but none of this means much, as at this point it is merely engineering by powerpoint.
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Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Next-to-last Delta-4-Heavy launch scheduled for June 21, 2023
The payload is a National Reconnaissance Office surveillance satellite.
- Progress freighter today docked with ISS, a little more than four hours after launch
It will remain at ISS until November.
- China releases new designs for its proposed Long March 8 rocket
The tweet implies China has abandoned developing reusability on this rocket but none of this means much, as at this point it is merely engineering by powerpoint.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
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.
I assumed that ULA was discontinuing the Hydrolox Delta 4 Heavy (with a perfect record) because BO had decided that Methalox was the way to go with the BE-4, which would power New Glenn and Vulcan.
Then I hear that Lockheed is going to use Hydrolox for their parts of the BO lunar lander system. And that Hydrolox to Mars is far from a done deal…
I understand no combo is best for all, but does anyone have a straightforward explanation?
Ray, the answer to why Delta Heavy IV and Delta IV were used may well be less in the propellant combination the vehicles used. It may have been more in the geographical location the vehicles were designed, built, supported within. Too often, the answer is Northern Alabama. That brings it down to one Richard Shelby, Alabama politician from 1963-2021, and high Seniority Senator till 2021.
Senator Shelby chaired committees involving the budgets for NASA, and eventually used his leverage to “recruit” Boeing, Rocketdyne, ULA, and other companies to invest in major facilities in Northern Alabama, near Marshal Space Flight Center. ULA also built their Atlas V there. If they wanted contracts passed through Shelby’s sub-committees, and eventually the full Senate Appropriations Committee, they made sure that Senator Shelby’s voters were highly-paid and happily voting for incumbents.
HydroLOX had strong advantages in the Moon Race years, when the emphasis was doing the job fast, and with one launch per mission. ISP performance über alles was the key to single launch/single mission Apollo getting to the Moon before the decade turned from 1960s to 1970s.
*After* 1972, the key to funding became high-paying jobs in the right congressional districts. That meant using already employed engineers and craftsmen continuing what they knew as much as possible. What they all too often knew best about was HydroLOX.
Hydrogen has more energy per unit mass, which makes it more efficient, delivering higher (400s+) impulse. That’s more useful on second stages and vehicles operating in space than it is at sea level, which is why you still see it used so often in the former roles (Vulcan’s Centaur upper stage is still using hydrolox, via upgrades of the trusty old RL-10’s). So in this respect, it makes more sense for a lander, which will only operate in space. Therefore, the same has to be true of the lander’s refueling vehicle . . . and that is what Lockheed is building.
Hydrogen, at least so far as we know, is going to be easier to produce via ISRU on the Moon (because, water!), for purposes of refueling the lander on the surface down the road. So, in this respect, too, it makes sense for a lander.
SpaceX standardized on methane for both stages of Starship despite its lower efficiency because a) simplified architecture and supply chain, b) less “pain in the ass” factor on the pad, and c) methane is much more readily synthesized on Mars, which is what Starship was design to go visit.
Bob,
For your next “Quick Space Links,” but honestly, this may deserve its own post! It turns out that ASAP is wigging out over safety concerns with Boeing’s Starliner: “The chair of a NASA safety panel urged the agency not to rush into a crewed test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner vehicle, calling for an independent “deep look” at technical issues with the spacecraft.”
https://spacenews.com/nasa-safety-panel-skeptical-of-starliner-readiness-for-crewed-flight/
Richard M: I will report this tomorrow, though why anyone at this point takes anything that safety panel says seriously is baffling to me. Its track record is abysmal, not only in spotting real safety issues but in focusing on its real task.