May 8, 2024 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 shows off the primary interior structure of its Haven-1 space station module
This is the only one of four private American space stations being built without federal funding, and it is likely going to be the first to launch.
- Video of today’s static fire test of Starship prototype #30
SpaceX continues to meet its target date of late May for the next Starship/Superheavy test flight. No word yet on if the FAA will go along.
- On this day in 1990 Hubble deployed from space shuttle Discovery
It was only supposed to operate in orbit for fifteen years.
- On this day in 1963 the private communications satellite Telstar 2 was launched on a Delta B rocket
Twas an entirely private mission, built and paid for by AT&T, with the near term goal of building in the mid-60s a satellite constellation to provide global telephone communications. That plan was shut down by Congress and President Kennedy, who restricted all American satellites for the next decade to a quasi-goverment corporation called Comsat, essentially destroying the American commercial satellite industry for about 20 years.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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 shows off the primary interior structure of its Haven-1 space station module
This is the only one of four private American space stations being built without federal funding, and it is likely going to be the first to launch.
- Video of today’s static fire test of Starship prototype #30
SpaceX continues to meet its target date of late May for the next Starship/Superheavy test flight. No word yet on if the FAA will go along.
- On this day in 1990 Hubble deployed from space shuttle Discovery
It was only supposed to operate in orbit for fifteen years.
- On this day in 1963 the private communications satellite Telstar 2 was launched on a Delta B rocket
Twas an entirely private mission, built and paid for by AT&T, with the near term goal of building in the mid-60s a satellite constellation to provide global telephone communications. That plan was shut down by Congress and President Kennedy, who restricted all American satellites for the next decade to a quasi-goverment corporation called Comsat, essentially destroying the American commercial satellite industry for about 20 years.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
i checked… Telstar 2 was decommissioned in May of ’65 so the longevity of mars rovers and telescopes has not always been expected. In the movies the aliens ™ are always leaving stuff that still functions after aeons but we do what we can i ‘spose.