Northrop Grumman launches U.S. reconnaissance satellites
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.
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"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
Capitalism in space: Northrop Grumman today successfully used its Minotaur-4 rocket to launch four U.S. reconnaissance satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office.
Minotaur-4 is essentially re-purposed military ICBM that had been decommissioned, refurbished, and upgraded for orbital flight. This was its first launch from Wallops Island in Virginia. This was also Northrop Grumman’s second launch this year, which still leaves them out of the 2020 launch race leader board:
16 China
10 SpaceX
7 Russia
3 ULA
Today’s launch however puts the U.S. ahead of China in the national rankings, 17 to 16.
Readers!
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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.
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
Capitalism in space: Northrop Grumman today successfully used its Minotaur-4 rocket to launch four U.S. reconnaissance satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office.
Minotaur-4 is essentially re-purposed military ICBM that had been decommissioned, refurbished, and upgraded for orbital flight. This was its first launch from Wallops Island in Virginia. This was also Northrop Grumman’s second launch this year, which still leaves them out of the 2020 launch race leader board:
16 China
10 SpaceX
7 Russia
3 ULA
Today’s launch however puts the U.S. ahead of China in the national rankings, 17 to 16.
My July fund-raiser for Behind the Black is now over. The support from my readers was unprecedented, making this July campaign the best ever, twice over. What a marvelous way to celebrate the website's tenth anniversary!
Thank you! The number of donations in July, and continuing now at the beginning of August, is too many for me to thank you all personally. Please forgive me by accepting my thank you here, in public, on the website.
If you did not donate or subscribe in July and still wish to, note that the tip jar remains available year round.
Regular readers can support Behind The Black with a contribution via paypal:
If Paypal doesn't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
Do we have any idea of how many tons to Leo? I suspect that not all launches are the same in this regard.
@David K
I once tried to have a look at that. And it’s a mess! It’s no secret what each rocket can launch to lowest possible orbit, but how much they actually launch depends on what orbit the cargo is going into. And they rarely always launch at full capacity. NRO will launch a satellite only half the capacity of an Atlas V 501, the Japanese who always launch on their own rockets put satellites of different weight inside that nose cone.
Basic physics tells us that the energy required to put anything anywhere, increases by the square of the velocity, but only linearly with the mass. So where something is launched to is more important than the mass of what is put there. A useful benchmark would be geosynchronous orbit since so many satellites are put there. But with things like Starlink in LEO, that is perhaps not so useful anymore.
One measure could be the amount of fuel and oxidizer used per launch (adjusted for whether it is kerosene, hydrogen or hypergolic or solid). But that too is a mess. They use safety margins in space flight, understandably. Depending on launch window they need a bit more or less fuel in the rocket. And for example when Curiosity was launched to Mars, its Sky Crane arrived with 140 kg extra fuel. The rover itself weighs barely a ton, so that’s pretty substantial. Considering the expenses for lowering the mass of everything that goes to space. But that seems to end now with SpaceX’ giant steel rocket. Bigger, faster and bigger again! And bigger. (And faster.)
LGM-118 MX Peacekeeper ICBM
https://youtu.be/RHlYc_MzvLk
6:15
LocalFluff wrote: “But that seems to end now with SpaceX’ giant steel rocket. Bigger, faster and bigger again! And bigger. (And faster.)”
Please remember the popularity of the cubesat and other smallsats that are now being built by the hundred (e.g. Starlink). There are plenty of small launchers being developed and one that is operational in a very successful way.
SpaceX’s large sized rocket is due to its aspiration to get a lot of people and equipment to Mars. Space, today, seems to be going in both directions, large and small, with a little in between.