May 26, 2023 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
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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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.
I’ve got to make a few comments on this broadcast as well.
1) The OIG report concerned the engines and boosters for the SLS made by Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman, respectively. Neither Lockheed Martin nor Boeing have anything to do with these contracts.
2) The Space Force’s contracting with private companies to build satellites is nothing new. The satellites in question will replace the DMSP satellites built by Lockheed Martin. Almost all Space Force satellites are built by the private sector. For example, the WGS, MUOS, AEHF, GPS, SBIRS, and CBAS satellites are made by Boeing, Lockheed, Lockheed, Lockheed, Lockheed, and Boeing, respectively. Even the NRO’s spy satellites are built by the private sector.
3) Virgin Orbit’s demise was caused by their own mismanagement, not by the UK regulators. Nobody made them suspend launches while waiting for a UK launch license. They could have submitted the license application and continued to fly from Mojave while they waited for approval. (You didn’t see SpaceX suspend launches from Florida and California while waiting for their Boca Chica launch license.) Virgin Orbit chose to sit around and wait. That’s on them, no one else.
In addition, Virgin Orbit chose to devote a staff of 700 people to developing larger launch vehicles before their first vehicle was even cashflow positive. They only laid off those people to focus on flying LauncherOne with their remaining staff of 100 people just two weeks before declaring bankruptcy. Had they deferred development of other vehicles until LauncherOne was financially stable, they would have had *many years’* of money left right now. The UK regulators didn’t force Virgin to do this.
They chose these paths themselves, and they were fatal.
mkent,
What do you think of this whole ALTO thing, Air Launch to Orbit? The two companies that were doing it, were using some rather old aircraft. Both of which aircraft were very expensive to design, manufacture, flight certify, then adapt for rocketry. Even for custom built aircraft you might have only a few compared with the competition making boosters by the dozens.