May 6, 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.
- Ispace’s Resilience lunar lander will enter lunar orbit tomorrow
The landing will take place in about a week.
- IEEE Spectrum touts China’s plans to bring a sample back from Venus’s atmosphere by citing speculations by American scientists at MIT
This is one of the most perverse news articles I have ever read. It literally admits it knows nothing really of China’s plans, has no new information to hinge the story on, and then spends the entire text quoting guesses by MIT scientists who have proposed unsuccessfully their own missions. The only real mention of China is in the headline, written almost as press release for China. With nothing to base that press release on.
Makes me wonder if IEEE is in China’s pay. Wouldn’t surprise me.
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.
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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.
- Ispace’s Resilience lunar lander will enter lunar orbit tomorrow
The landing will take place in about a week.
- IEEE Spectrum touts China’s plans to bring a sample back from Venus’s atmosphere by citing speculations by American scientists at MIT
This is one of the most perverse news articles I have ever read. It literally admits it knows nothing really of China’s plans, has no new information to hinge the story on, and then spends the entire text quoting guesses by MIT scientists who have proposed unsuccessfully their own missions. The only real mention of China is in the headline, written almost as press release for China. With nothing to base that press release on.Makes me wonder if IEEE is in China’s pay. Wouldn’t surprise me.
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.
”The landing will take place in about a week.”
The landing will take place on June 5th.
Even Neal Boortz liked the IEEE, and he was stingy.
What China does is actually build concepts American engineers design but can’t get funded due to idiot politicians.
There does seem a great deal of acceptance of PRC PowerPoint and press release engineering at face value by the US press. DOGE has already demonstrated that more than a bit of the US press was in the pay of leftists in the US government. With times being tough for legacy media in recent years I would find it entirely unsurprising if many such outlets are also on the take from the PRC. That certainly includes publications of US-based technical and scientific societies such as the IEEE. These are all joined at the hip with American academe which is certainly in the pay of the PRC to a very considerable degree via the full-price tuitions charged to the PRC’s legions of matriculants in US colleges and universities.