October 24, 2022 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. To my readers, I am having an off day, so please forgive the low output from me.
- China schedules December 3rd orbital launch of rocket fueled by oxygen-methane
The other methane-fueled rocket engines come from SpaceX (on Starship/Superheavy) and Blue Origin. ULA was supposed to have launched with Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine two years ago. The launch won’t happen before 2023. SpaceX’s first Starship orbital attempt could happen any time before the end of the year.
This Chinese rocket could thus be the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit.
- Australia agrees to let the sample return capsule from Japan’s Mars Moon Exploration mission (MMX) to Phobos land there
The tentative return date is 2029. The launch itself is set for next year.
- ULA Atlas-5 launch of NOAA satellite on November 1st will include inflatable heat shield test
From the link:
Launching with JPSS-2 is NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) technology demonstration. After JPSS-2 safely reaches orbit, LOFTID will follow a re-entry trajectory from low-Earth orbit to demonstrate the inflatable heat shield’s ability to slow down and survive re-entry.
- Firefly adds former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine to its own advisory board
This is merely the company bringing Bridenstine in to grease the wheels of Washington’s increasingly oppressive bureaucracy. He won’t add any engineering or management skills to Firefly, in the slightest.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
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. To my readers, I am having an off day, so please forgive the low output from me.
- China schedules December 3rd orbital launch of rocket fueled by oxygen-methane
The other methane-fueled rocket engines come from SpaceX (on Starship/Superheavy) and Blue Origin. ULA was supposed to have launched with Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine two years ago. The launch won’t happen before 2023. SpaceX’s first Starship orbital attempt could happen any time before the end of the year.
This Chinese rocket could thus be the first methane-fueled rocket to reach orbit.
- Australia agrees to let the sample return capsule from Japan’s Mars Moon Exploration mission (MMX) to Phobos land there
The tentative return date is 2029. The launch itself is set for next year.
- ULA Atlas-5 launch of NOAA satellite on November 1st will include inflatable heat shield test
From the link:
Launching with JPSS-2 is NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) technology demonstration. After JPSS-2 safely reaches orbit, LOFTID will follow a re-entry trajectory from low-Earth orbit to demonstrate the inflatable heat shield’s ability to slow down and survive re-entry.
- Firefly adds former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine to its own advisory board
This is merely the company bringing Bridenstine in to grease the wheels of Washington’s increasingly oppressive bureaucracy. He won’t add any engineering or management skills to Firefly, in the slightest.
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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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
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