November 26, 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.
- ULA confirms it has the engines in house for flights 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Vulcan Centaur
What this means is that Blue Origin is finally figuring out how to produce BE-4 engines on an assembly line basis. Not only does this bode well for Vulcan launches, it bodes well for Blue Origin’s own New Glenn rocket.
- Asteroid that was a temporary moon of the Earth might have come from the Moon itself
Its solar orbit allows it to loop around the Earth periodically, but then escape back into its solar orbit. This time it was captured by the Earth for 57 days.
- Progress hatch now open and cargo unloading is proceeding as planned
The Russians think the “toxic smell” first detected when the hatch was first opened came not from this freighter but from the docking port itself. No further details however have been released.
- Russian government approves sale by Roscosmos of older hardware lacking historical value
This allows Roscosmos to earn quick cash by selling off things like older Soyuz capsules sitting unused in warehouses.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer is reported to have resumed static fire tests of the first stage of its Tianlong-3 rocket
In June during a previous test the stage broke free from its mounts and launched itself.
- Missouri senator touts his effort to reform the space regulatory framework
Lots of blather, but little substance. The bottom line remains that the administrative state has too much power, and the bills this guy helped pass did little to change that.
- Blue Origin has lowered New Glenn at the launchpad from vertical to horizontal
It did so without doing any static fire tests. Either there is an issue that is delaying things again, or the company is still proceeding in its normal leisurely pace that gets nothing done now if it can be done months hence.
- On this day in 1958 NASA chose the name “Mercury” for its first manned space program
This was before there was any plan to send astronauts to the Moon, so the Gemini and Apollo programs did not yet exist. Mercury was the entire American manned program.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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.
- ULA confirms it has the engines in house for flights 3, 4, 5, and 6 of Vulcan Centaur
What this means is that Blue Origin is finally figuring out how to produce BE-4 engines on an assembly line basis. Not only does this bode well for Vulcan launches, it bodes well for Blue Origin’s own New Glenn rocket.
- Asteroid that was a temporary moon of the Earth might have come from the Moon itself
Its solar orbit allows it to loop around the Earth periodically, but then escape back into its solar orbit. This time it was captured by the Earth for 57 days.
- Progress hatch now open and cargo unloading is proceeding as planned
The Russians think the “toxic smell” first detected when the hatch was first opened came not from this freighter but from the docking port itself. No further details however have been released.
- Russian government approves sale by Roscosmos of older hardware lacking historical value
This allows Roscosmos to earn quick cash by selling off things like older Soyuz capsules sitting unused in warehouses.
- Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer is reported to have resumed static fire tests of the first stage of its Tianlong-3 rocket
In June during a previous test the stage broke free from its mounts and launched itself.
- Missouri senator touts his effort to reform the space regulatory framework
Lots of blather, but little substance. The bottom line remains that the administrative state has too much power, and the bills this guy helped pass did little to change that.
- Blue Origin has lowered New Glenn at the launchpad from vertical to horizontal
It did so without doing any static fire tests. Either there is an issue that is delaying things again, or the company is still proceeding in its normal leisurely pace that gets nothing done now if it can be done months hence.
- On this day in 1958 NASA chose the name “Mercury” for its first manned space program
This was before there was any plan to send astronauts to the Moon, so the Gemini and Apollo programs did not yet exist. Mercury was the entire American manned program.
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 print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
A smelly port and a yard sale for Roscosmos. It should invite Jeff Bezos to bid. He has a demonstrated taste for collecting old space hardware and would pay top dollar.
New Glenn went vertical again yesterday – looks like it was for some sort of inspection, but apparently nothing major after all. No word, however, on when the full-up static fire is supposed to happen.
https://x.com/Harry__Stranger/status/1861398655179345963
Meanwhile, BO’s landing ship “Jacklyn” headed out yesterday for more testing at sea.
Blue Origin has some genuine issues in production and hiring (you should see the complaints in the BO subreddit), but I think Dave Limp is driving hard to get this first New Glenn launched ASAP. Stay tuned.
Dropping this in here.
Joe Rogan Experience #2235
Mike Rowe
https://youtu.be/dpx_2eUyvqc
(3:06:01)
It seems to me that the temporary moon-asteroid is just what Obama’s Asteroid Redirect Mission was supposed to catch for study. If only Trump had not repurposed SLS-Orion for lunar missions, we still wouldn’t have had an SLS rocket available to capture that asteroid, which almost captured itself.
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Missouri’s Senator Eric Schmitt blames the FCC for having an antiquated regulatory system too out of date for our modern launch industry. I see another problem from the FCC: the satellite operators.
My recollection is that SpaceX was required to have half its constellation of 7,500 version-2 satellites in orbit by yesterday, November 26th, in order to keep its license for that frequency. I don’t think SpaceX was able to get 3,750 of these satellites into orbit in time. They have their version-1 satellites operating, but they are on a different frequency. Several other companies need to do the same, put half of their constellations into orbit in order to keep their frequencies, but they don’t have launches scheduled to do so in time. Clearly, that FCC requirement, or perhaps the timing within that requirement, is not conducive for the communication constellation industry.
Senator Schmitt also wrote about the commercial manned spaceflight “learning period,” the moratorium on regulation of these commercial flights while the world learns best practices for keeping people alive and safe launching to space, being in space, and returning from space. Because it is taking so long for this industry to become established, this moratorium needs to be greatly extended, otherwise regulations will be created that limit future manned spacecraft to work like Dragon and maybe Starliner. If they started regulating tomorrow, then Starliner would have to work similarly to Dragon, because that is all the experience the regulators would have for setting those regulations. Imagine the lack of safety if regulators had used the Space Shuttle as the starting point for regulating manned spacecraft. We definitely need better examples of the various ways to do it right.
In fact, I’m thinking that government regulation of this budding industry must be very light, if not non-existent, so that future manned spacecraft are not so over-regulated that they are unable to experiment with better ways of doing things. Every regulation reduces freedom, especially the freedom to make improvements, because improvements are likely to violate the current regulations.
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Project Mercury may have been its name, but some people had liked the name “Man in Space Soonest” for the goal of beating the Russians (Soviets) at getting a man in orbit. That would have been an unfortunate name, as its acronym — which are what NASA loves to use — was “MISS.” It was generally thought that such an acronym would provide a foreshadow of failing to reach the goal. The Soviets won that particular race, because they were willing to take more shortcuts and risks than NASA was willing to take. China may be in a similar risk-taking position with its race to return man to the Moon.
”My recollection is that SpaceX was required to have half its constellation of 7,500 version-2 satellites in orbit by yesterday, November 26th, in order to keep its license for that frequency.”
No, not quite. That deadline isn’t until 01 Dec 2028. The deadline that passed recently was the deadline to have 3,759 satellites of the VLEO constellation deployed by 19 Nov 2024. They got zero, so that license will likely be terminated.
The other deadline that passed this year was the deadline to have 2,212 satellites of the gen-1 constellation deployed by 29 Mar 2024, which they did easily. I have the exact number on my other computer, but they managed to deploy about 3,600 before moving on to gen-2. They have until 29 Mar 2027 to get the remaining 825 or so gen-1 satellites deployed. I think they have a request in to finish the gen-1 shells with gen-2 satellites.
Now if I could only figure out what all these new groups are for…
mkent,
Thank you for the detailed correction. This is what happens when I rely upon my (faulty) memory.