October 14, 2024 Quick space linksCourtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who also sent me the Vast Haven-2 story earlier today. 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.
- Rocket Factory Augsburg calls for changes in how Europe’s space bureaucracy operates
It’s only a slightly long tweet, but this is the key quote: “Europe has ambitious private space players, with innovative ideas, courage and a vision. Unfortunately, they are being held by the long arm and are in danger of withering away while old structures, processes and mindsets are maintained.” The company wants that bureaucracy to stop running things and instead simply become “customers” (their word) investing in the private sector.
- Rumors in China suggest its new Long March 12 rocket will attempt to vertically land its first stage on its maiden flight next year
It is entirely likely that China will achieve this goal soon, as they have been investing a lot of research on the subject by their space government agencies as well as their pseudo-companies, which all share their data. And that doesn’t include any information obtained by China through computer hacking.
- French satellite startup gets $10 million in investment capital from a state-bank investment organization
The money will be used to design the first two test satellites for a constellation of 1,500 satellites providing internet access.
- On this day in 1947 Chuck Yaeger became the first person to fly faster than sound
His plane was the Bell X-1.
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, who also sent me the Vast Haven-2 story earlier today. 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.
- Rocket Factory Augsburg calls for changes in how Europe’s space bureaucracy operates
It’s only a slightly long tweet, but this is the key quote: “Europe has ambitious private space players, with innovative ideas, courage and a vision. Unfortunately, they are being held by the long arm and are in danger of withering away while old structures, processes and mindsets are maintained.” The company wants that bureaucracy to stop running things and instead simply become “customers” (their word) investing in the private sector.
- Rumors in China suggest its new Long March 12 rocket will attempt to vertically land its first stage on its maiden flight next year
It is entirely likely that China will achieve this goal soon, as they have been investing a lot of research on the subject by their space government agencies as well as their pseudo-companies, which all share their data. And that doesn’t include any information obtained by China through computer hacking.
- French satellite startup gets $10 million in investment capital from a state-bank investment organization
The money will be used to design the first two test satellites for a constellation of 1,500 satellites providing internet access.
- On this day in 1947 Chuck Yaeger became the first person to fly faster than sound
His plane was the Bell X-1.
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
And Chuck was only 24 years old at the time and a wwii vet and married.
Aurora shot from ISS.
https://x.com/astro_pettit/status/1844748089560596542?s=46
Yeager’s flight – Didn’t he have a couple of cracked ribs when doing this? Seems I remember reading in “Right Stuff” that he hid his tumble from horseback from superiors so not to miss flight. Had a friend cut a short piece of broom handle so he could latch cockpit.
While I/we slept:
SpaceX launched two stacks of Starlinks – one from Vandenberg, one from Cape.
So, in less than 48 hours the company has launched 4 times, with 3 different rockets and returned 3 of the boosters. With this flurry of activity that brings annual total to 100 launches.
Impressive.
SpaceX released videos of booster catch.
Tower view
https://x.com/spacex/status/1845922924315938922
Catch fitting view
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1845966756579627167
Tower central view of final descent and catch:
https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1845958325948895425
Off into the weeds a bit, but the first pilots to break the sound barrier were WWII fighter pilots. Many did not live to tell about it. The P-47 in particular had a problem coming out of power dives; as the planes went transonic, they became aerodynamically unstable. Some pilots volunteered to find a solution to this. According to my father, who knew the pilot in question, a P-47 pilot named Cass Hough was the first person to break the sound barrier in a P-47 power dive, and to bring the plane back under control for a landing. (As always, a good landing is one you walk away from.) After the war, Cass Hough owned the Daisy Manufacturing company, which made Daisy BB guns, and moved that company to my home town in 1958. My father was Cass Hough’s doctor, so the story comes to me third-hand.
Whether the story is true or an exaggeration, the fact remains that the Bell X-1 was built to solve a known problem, and Chuck Yeager deserves full credit for strapping himself into an experimental plane and flying off into the unknown. But it’s worth remembering the American can-do spirit was alive and well among our war-time pilots.
DW: There were stories out of Edwards in the months before Yeager’s flight of sonic booms during testing of F-86. You don’t get boomed without going supersonic. Cheers –
That would not surprise me.
I see a lot of self-congratulatory backslapping is to be had at the Space News Icon awards–to find all the not-Musks, they had to look pretty far down the phone book.