October 23, 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.
- Chinese pseudo-company is accepting reservations for suborbital flights on its New Shepard copycat spacecraft
They are targeting commercial tourist flights by 2027, with test flights beginning next year.
- Astra gets Defense Department contract worth $44 million to develop its Rocket-4 launch system
It appears the Pentagon wants Astra to survive, and has given it this contract for that purpose.
- NASA unveils prototype of its proposed LISA orbiting gravitational-wave telescope
LISA has been under development for almost two decades, has been delayed numerous times and now is not expected to launch until the 2030s. Great work if you can get it.
- NASA negotiating with China about research access to Chang’e-5 lunar samples
The law requires NASA to bring in the FBI in such negotiations to make sure the talks will not release American technology to the Chinese. According to NASA’s administrator Bill Nelson, NASA has not yet done this, but intends to before any samples are delivered to the U.S. In other words, he is violating not only the letter but the spirit of the law, designed to keep China away from American space assets.
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.
- Chinese pseudo-company is accepting reservations for suborbital flights on its New Shepard copycat spacecraft
They are targeting commercial tourist flights by 2027, with test flights beginning next year.
- Astra gets Defense Department contract worth $44 million to develop its Rocket-4 launch system
It appears the Pentagon wants Astra to survive, and has given it this contract for that purpose.
- NASA unveils prototype of its proposed LISA orbiting gravitational-wave telescope
LISA has been under development for almost two decades, has been delayed numerous times and now is not expected to launch until the 2030s. Great work if you can get it.
- NASA negotiating with China about research access to Chang’e-5 lunar samples
The law requires NASA to bring in the FBI in such negotiations to make sure the talks will not release American technology to the Chinese. According to NASA’s administrator Bill Nelson, NASA has not yet done this, but intends to before any samples are delivered to the U.S. In other words, he is violating not only the letter but the spirit of the law, designed to keep China away from American space assets.
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.
It’s scary to realize but with all the oversite and scrutiny NASA is one of the more effectively run government bureaucracies.
(The 5.25-inch floppy disk had a storage capacity of 360 kilobytes or 1.2 megabytes.)
“San Francisco to pay $212 million to end reliance on 5.25-inch floppy disks”
“The system still works fine, but the risk of floppy disk data degradation and challenges in maintaining expertise in 1990s programming languages have further encouraged the SFMTA to seek upgrades.”
“Like with other entities, the SFMTA’s slow move off floppy disks can be attributed to complacency, budget restrictions, and complications in overhauling critical technology systems.”
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/10/212-million-contract-will-finally-get-san-francisco-trains-off-floppy-disks/
How Did DNA Contaminants get into the Covid Vaccine?
Viva Frei (October 24, 2024)
https://youtu.be/JqBRK4WPvyY
10:28
“I hate Trump, but I’m Voting for Donald Trump”
Dave Smith: Part of the Problem
Episode 1184 (October 23, 2024)
https://youtu.be/yyUsJnbUlxQ
(1:06:11)
“How Did DNA Contaminants get into the Covid Vaccine?”
Wayne, I believe when RFK Jr is head of the FDA and CDC all of this is going to come out. When normies learn what was done to them they’re going to take up their pitch forks and torches and call for Nuremberg type trials (informed consent in human experimentation) and public hangings.
There’s already statements by radical leftists, who were calling for the unvaxed to be fired, put in concentration camps and have their children removed, saying we need to forgive and forget, join hands together in joy and sing Kumbaya.
“Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty”
“Let’s focus on the future, and fix the problems we still need to solve.”
By Emily Oster
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/10/covid-response-forgiveness/671879/
“The starting material used to produce the modified RNA that was used in the initial Pfizer clinical trial, was not identical to the upscaled mass-production synthesis product delivered commercially and contains known, detectable, non-human DNA fragments.”