October 19, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Suborbital Dutch rocket to be launched in 2024 from German ocean platform
The link is in German, requiring a translation tool. From Jay a translation of the lede: “In April 2024, a rocket from the Dutch company T-Minus will be launched for the first time as part of a demonstration mission from a mobile launch platform of the “German-Offshore Spaceport Alliance” (GOSA) in the North Sea.”
- Europe posts revised Ariane-6 test schedule
The schedule as now planned:
October: Combined test, launch rehearsal with ignition of the main stage, Kourou, French Guiana
November: Combined test, long-duration firing of the main stage with Vulcain 2.1 engine, Kourou, French Guiana
December: Upper stage firing test, Lampoldshausen, Germany
They then hope to be ready for a 2024 launch.
- ESA says next Vega launch will not use the deployer mechanism that failed to deploy 2 of 12 satellites on October 9th launch
No other details about the investigation into the failure were released.
- ISRO provides viewing details of Gaganyaan launch abort test on October 21, 2023
The live stream will be here.
- Rocket Lab begins integration and testing of its dual NASA ESCAPADE satellites to study Mars’s magnetosphere
The launch is scheduled for 2024.
- Long March 2F rocket carrying next manned Shenzhou manned capsule rolled to launchpad
The launch is targeting October 26, 2023.
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.
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Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Suborbital Dutch rocket to be launched in 2024 from German ocean platform
The link is in German, requiring a translation tool. From Jay a translation of the lede: “In April 2024, a rocket from the Dutch company T-Minus will be launched for the first time as part of a demonstration mission from a mobile launch platform of the “German-Offshore Spaceport Alliance” (GOSA) in the North Sea.”
- Europe posts revised Ariane-6 test schedule
The schedule as now planned:
October: Combined test, launch rehearsal with ignition of the main stage, Kourou, French Guiana
November: Combined test, long-duration firing of the main stage with Vulcain 2.1 engine, Kourou, French Guiana
December: Upper stage firing test, Lampoldshausen, Germany
They then hope to be ready for a 2024 launch.
- ESA says next Vega launch will not use the deployer mechanism that failed to deploy 2 of 12 satellites on October 9th launch
No other details about the investigation into the failure were released.
- ISRO provides viewing details of Gaganyaan launch abort test on October 21, 2023
The live stream will be here.
- Rocket Lab begins integration and testing of its dual NASA ESCAPADE satellites to study Mars’s magnetosphere
The launch is scheduled for 2024.
- Long March 2F rocket carrying next manned Shenzhou manned capsule rolled to launchpad
The launch is targeting October 26, 2023.
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.
Mr. Z. – given the circumstances you may have missed the article by Jeff Foust in SpaceNews Dot Com titled “Launch industry asks Congress for regulatory reforms”
BtB’s Original Mark: I have a whole essay/post up yesterday on this hearing.
“I have some good news, and I have some bad news….”
Steppenwolf
Track 8, from the album “7”
“Earschplittenloudenboomer” (1-1-70)
https://youtu.be/ukMmJWs8Gyc
(5:00)