November 25, 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.
- Gravitics webpage touts the modules it is building for Axiom’s space station
No new news, just a link to the company’s webpage.
- Landspace touts upgrades it is planning for its Zhuque-3 rocket
It hopes to do the first three launches in 2025 using the older version, and then upgrade. A comparison of its Zhuque-2 and Zhuque-3 rockets can be viewed here. Zhuque-2 has launched three times successfully, though nothing in the past year. Zhuque-3 will attempt to reuse its first stage.
- Mockup of China’s Lanyue manned lunar lander
China hopes to use it to send astronauts to the Moon in 2030.
- News article describing India’s planned Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS)
Nothing new, but provides a good short summary of the overall project.
- European government apparatchiks and officials from Europe’s big space companies whine about Trump
The article describes the comments made during a panel made up of mostly such officials. Their general solution: “Give us more money!” Few said anything about energizing a competitive and free private industry.
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. 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.
- Gravitics webpage touts the modules it is building for Axiom’s space station
No new news, just a link to the company’s webpage.
- Landspace touts upgrades it is planning for its Zhuque-3 rocket
It hopes to do the first three launches in 2025 using the older version, and then upgrade. A comparison of its Zhuque-2 and Zhuque-3 rockets can be viewed here. Zhuque-2 has launched three times successfully, though nothing in the past year. Zhuque-3 will attempt to reuse its first stage.
- Mockup of China’s Lanyue manned lunar lander
China hopes to use it to send astronauts to the Moon in 2030.
- News article describing India’s planned Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS)
Nothing new, but provides a good short summary of the overall project.
- European government apparatchiks and officials from Europe’s big space companies whine about Trump
The article describes the comments made during a panel made up of mostly such officials. Their general solution: “Give us more money!” Few said anything about energizing a competitive and free private industry.
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.
Jeff Foust tonight has a news story of special interest to Behind the Black readers: an update on the three commercial spaceflight companies planning to send landers to the Moon in the coming weeks. The bad news is, they all slipped from 4Q 2024 to 1Q 2025. But the good news is, the slips are pretty small, and seem to be due to a typical mix of last minute testing delays and launch schedule issues. (They are all launching on Falcon 9’s, of course). That’s right: three Western missions are going to the lunar surface shortly, and not one of them is owned by a government (though governments are among the customers with payloads on board each of ’em). And they are all launching on commercially owned rockets!
https://spacenews.com/firefly-sets-january-launch-date-for-first-lunar-lander-mission/
So the first 6 weeks or so of 2025 should be exciting for lunar activity, at any rate.
Speaking of SpaceX launches, they just landed a contract for a big one today!
Full press release: https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-awards-launch-services-contract-for-dragonfly-mission/
That price is almost exactly what SpaceX is charging for the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, by the way. A lot of special payload processing requirements for both of these. (It is worth noting that Dragonfly is powered by an MMRTG, making this the first nuclear payload SpaceX has ever launched.)
“Watching a Rocket Launch at SpaceX with Elon Musk”
Kai Trump
https://youtu.be/ytrtFsXRXGY?t=165
Today’s phys.org had a story called “Earth bound asteroids could be tracked more precisely with new equation” by Oscar de Barco
Coming from the “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.”
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stae2277
Jeff Wright,
Future Want Ad:
Seeking Celestial Mechanic. Must have own tools.