November 22, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who with I wish everyone a great Thanksgiving tomorrow.
- China touts concept for two-stage to orbit reusable space plane
Cute looking, but right now nothing more than engineering by PowerPoint.
- Chinese pseudo-company shows off video of separation test of its large fairing
The fairing will be used on a launch scheduled for December.
- Commercial lunar rover startup announces eight payload customers for 2026 mission
The company, Astrolab, has a contract to fly on SpaceX’s Starship to the Moon. The customers have contracts with Astrolab equaling $160 million. Everything involved however is extremely tentative and in the early development stages, even the lunar landing version of Starship.
- South Korea camera catches North Korean launch, showing 1st stage separation and its apparent destruction immediately thereafter
The video, part of a meteor-survey project, suggests the North Koreans might have purposely destroyed that first stage so that the South Korean military could not recover it, as was done after the May failed launch.
- Blue Origin shows off the now welded first stage tanks of its New Glenn rocket
It is assumed these are for the first launch, whenever that might be. Since there are no workers on the factory floor, Jay speculates it was taken after hours. I wonder, since this lack of activity has been seen in every such picture of this rocket assembly operation. I really wonder how many people even work there.
- Jeff Bezos sells off $240 million more Amazon shares
Though the reporters on the CNBC video at the link speculate this money is for Blue Origin, there is no evidence of this. In fact, recently Bezos has appeared to donate almost all his stock sale cash to leftist political charities, not Blue Origin.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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.
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who with I wish everyone a great Thanksgiving tomorrow.
- China touts concept for two-stage to orbit reusable space plane
Cute looking, but right now nothing more than engineering by PowerPoint.
- Chinese pseudo-company shows off video of separation test of its large fairing
The fairing will be used on a launch scheduled for December.
- Commercial lunar rover startup announces eight payload customers for 2026 mission
The company, Astrolab, has a contract to fly on SpaceX’s Starship to the Moon. The customers have contracts with Astrolab equaling $160 million. Everything involved however is extremely tentative and in the early development stages, even the lunar landing version of Starship.
- South Korea camera catches North Korean launch, showing 1st stage separation and its apparent destruction immediately thereafter
The video, part of a meteor-survey project, suggests the North Koreans might have purposely destroyed that first stage so that the South Korean military could not recover it, as was done after the May failed launch.
- Blue Origin shows off the now welded first stage tanks of its New Glenn rocket
It is assumed these are for the first launch, whenever that might be. Since there are no workers on the factory floor, Jay speculates it was taken after hours. I wonder, since this lack of activity has been seen in every such picture of this rocket assembly operation. I really wonder how many people even work there.
- Jeff Bezos sells off $240 million more Amazon shares
Though the reporters on the CNBC video at the link speculate this money is for Blue Origin, there is no evidence of this. In fact, recently Bezos has appeared to donate almost all his stock sale cash to leftist political charities, not Blue Origin.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the 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. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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 China TSTO isn’t showing
Jeff Wright: The link works, shows their computer concept graphic.
It doesn‘t work on my old flip-phone, either. I just get a large “X” in the middle of the screen. BtB is one of the few web sites that still supports older equipment!
David M. Cook: That X tells us the problem is at X. For some reason your flip phone it is stalling as it tries to load.
X under Elon Musk is interesting. About five months ago there was a major upgrade of html code, that made a lot of webpages using that code unreadable by the older version of Firefox that I prefer. While many websites still whine at me that my “browser is out of date you must upgrade”, X instead fixed the problem. For the first few months I needed to use Brave to view X posts. About a month ago X suddenly worked again on my old version of Firefox.
I predict that with time, X will work again on your flip phone.
Some other ideas of interest
Lightcell power generator
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=59844.0
ISEP
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=59812.msg2543983#msg2543983
Thoughts on the recent Starship flight
https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=59871.700
Looks like the DY-100
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/11/optimized-nuclear-thermal-rocket-for-45-days-to-mars.html
It may be quite some time before Starship itself can carry astronauts….but I could see SLS launching this unmanned:
http://www.frassanito.com/work/strategic.html
(Second image)—with an insertion stage supplied by SuperHeavy (no tiles).
Crew transfers via Dragon…lander by Blue Origin.
Starkicker is shed…lander docks in its place.
Biconic craft returns similar to this:
http://www.astronautix.com/m/mtkva.html