May 5, 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.
- China releases some payload mass data on its pseudo-commercial SpaceSail satellite constellation, aiming to compete with SpaceX
As Jay notes, the images suggest China’s engineers have somehow stolen SpaceX designs, or are copying them superficially.
- A video “tour” of Vast’s space station facility
I put quotes around “tour” because I was very disappointed with this video. It provided very little real or new information, and instead acted more like a promotional for the company. Largely a waste of time.
- On this day in 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space
It was a short 15 minute suborbital flight.
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.
- China releases some payload mass data on its pseudo-commercial SpaceSail satellite constellation, aiming to compete with SpaceX
As Jay notes, the images suggest China’s engineers have somehow stolen SpaceX designs, or are copying them superficially.
- A video “tour” of Vast’s space station facility
I put quotes around “tour” because I was very disappointed with this video. It provided very little real or new information, and instead acted more like a promotional for the company. Largely a waste of time.
- On this day in 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American to fly in space
It was a short 15 minute suborbital flight.
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.
“”images suggest China’s engineers have somehow stolen SpaceX designs, or are copying them superficially””
Reminds me of the vaunted Soviet Union space shuttle. Did not work out too well.
Yes, I realize the Chicoms are successful in space. I just would hate to be one of the Chicom engineers who fails too much. The engineer might offer up a kidney to remain breathing.
If the PRC was able to steal from SpaceX, it would have had a decent copy of F9 in operation by now instead of just a bunch of subscale look-alikes in the works. What Starlink satellites look like is public domain knowledge. What’s in them, not so much. The PRC are copying the Starlink form factor because it makes sense to do so for birds being built for the same purpose.
Shepard’s suborbital flight was in 1961, not 1962.
Dick Eagleson: Typo fixed. Thank you.
George C. Marshall Space Flight Center Presents…
“Our Man in Space”
https://youtu.be/7LgJHKu7yqw
16:54
I am surprised that film still exists.
Let me tell you guys a secret.
Up until recently-the Air Farce had a bloody Thor in the same spot an Army Redstone used to launch Explorer I
I think I had a light stroke when I first saw that.
Then the Navaho missile got tossed.
Robert,
RE the Vast “tour:” “I put quotes around “tour” because I was very disappointed with this video. It provided very little real or new information, and instead acted more like a promotional for the company. Largely a waste of time.”
The audience for this video is people who are relatively new to space stations. This seems more like a primer than a tour. A few months ago NASASpaceFlight did a tour of the Vast facilities which had people like us in mind as its audience.
Should you have included it as a quick space link? I think so. It gives us something to send to friends and family that they could learn from.
Edward: Note that I did include it. I just found it unnecessarily pandering. Even the uneducated public deserves better.