October 22, 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.
- Next American unmanned lunar mission is Firefly before end of year, landing in early ’25, with Intuitive Machines next attempt launching and landing at about the same time
If both go off as promised the end of the year will be quite interesting.
- Intuitive Machines picks Cobalt-60 as fuel for new spacecraft electrical power source
This appears to be the first time Cobalt-60 has ever been used. From Jay: “It is easy to make Co-60, just bombard iron with neutrons. It happens all the time at nuclear reactors when stray neutrons hit steel, but it has a short half life of five years. It puts outs beta decay, that is what they are using for heat, but the gamma rays it puts out worries me with the electronics. They probably licked that problem or else they would not do it.”
- Vast unveils a new website
Nicely done. Simple and easy to navigate.
- Long March 2F and Shenzhou capsule now at launchpad for eighth manned mission to China’s Tiangong-3 space station
The video provides a lot of visual shots of the rocket, the stacked spacecraft, and the launchpad. The grid fins on what I think is the rocket’s upper stage are most intriguing. That stage takes the capsule into orbit. Is China trying to bring it back to Earth for reuse?
- A picture of Laika, the first dog in space, launched November 3, 1957 on Sputnik 2
The Soviets made no plans to bring her back to Earth, and so she died in space.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
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.
- Next American unmanned lunar mission is Firefly before end of year, landing in early ’25, with Intuitive Machines next attempt launching and landing at about the same time
If both go off as promised the end of the year will be quite interesting.
- Intuitive Machines picks Cobalt-60 as fuel for new spacecraft electrical power source
This appears to be the first time Cobalt-60 has ever been used. From Jay: “It is easy to make Co-60, just bombard iron with neutrons. It happens all the time at nuclear reactors when stray neutrons hit steel, but it has a short half life of five years. It puts outs beta decay, that is what they are using for heat, but the gamma rays it puts out worries me with the electronics. They probably licked that problem or else they would not do it.”
- Vast unveils a new website
Nicely done. Simple and easy to navigate.
- Long March 2F and Shenzhou capsule now at launchpad for eighth manned mission to China’s Tiangong-3 space station
The video provides a lot of visual shots of the rocket, the stacked spacecraft, and the launchpad. The grid fins on what I think is the rocket’s upper stage are most intriguing. That stage takes the capsule into orbit. Is China trying to bring it back to Earth for reuse?
- A picture of Laika, the first dog in space, launched November 3, 1957 on Sputnik 2
The Soviets made no plans to bring her back to Earth, and so she died in space.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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:
5. 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Laika: The Tragic Story of the First Dog in Space
https://youtu.be/GW5vQnPuCA4
28:10
R-7/Soyuz also uses grid fins–for aborts.
That’s likely the case here too.
N-1 had them at the base.
Some bombs have them.