October 28, 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.
This is late today because I was attending an event at the local Tucson rocket startup Phantom Space. More on that tomorrow.
- China touts the operation of its Quequiao-2 relay satellite orbiting the Moon
The tweet says it has a planned lifespan of eight years.
- Chinese pseudo-company Ispace says it has completed its investigation into the launch failure of its Hyperbola-1 rocket
No details were disclosed. The rocket has failed 4 times out of 7 launches.
- NASA official says that it has found the root cause to the Orion heat shield damage on Artemis-1
According to the tweet, the official also declined to disclose that root cause.
- On this day in 2009 NASA completed a test suborbital launch of its Ares-1-X rocket
Only one in a long list of non-achievements during the never-ending Ares/Constellation-SLS/Artemis program
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.
This is late today because I was attending an event at the local Tucson rocket startup Phantom Space. More on that tomorrow.
- China touts the operation of its Quequiao-2 relay satellite orbiting the Moon
The tweet says it has a planned lifespan of eight years.
- Chinese pseudo-company Ispace says it has completed its investigation into the launch failure of its Hyperbola-1 rocket
No details were disclosed. The rocket has failed 4 times out of 7 launches.
- NASA official says that it has found the root cause to the Orion heat shield damage on Artemis-1
According to the tweet, the official also declined to disclose that root cause.
- On this day in 2009 NASA completed a test suborbital launch of its Ares-1-X rocket
Only one in a long list of non-achievements during the never-ending Ares/Constellation-SLS/Artemis program
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.
Regarding the heatshield of the the Orion Capsule. IIRC, several years ago, this same Orion vehicle that was shipped back to AVCO Wilmington (Massachusetts) for checkout of the existing heat shield. Being too wide for normal freight, the Orion was flown by an ultrawide body aircraft (similar to the Super Guppy) from Cape Canaveral to Laurence G Hanscom Field, Bedford, Massachusetts, then trucked to AVCO.
The “keep the heatshield formula secret” story mimics a lecture I attended by Steve Squyres, Principal Investigator for the science payload on the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. They had one of the rovers come across the re-entry heat shield of one of the rovers on the Martian surface, and asked if they (JPL) could use the RAT Tool to test the heatshield.
Word came back from the heatshield owner (perhaps Lockheed-Martin? unsure) to please NOT test it. The heatshield makers were more concerned that their “secret sauce” might become public knowledge.
The Steve Squyres lecture was presented at Clarkson University, an engineering school in upstate NY.
The same tone of keeping trade secrets as secret seems to be at work here.
“NASA official says that it has found the root cause to the Orion heat shield damage on Artemis-1
According to the tweet, the official also declined to disclose that root cause”
As a taxpayer, I demand they revel what the problem is.
Defunding NASA is starting to look good.
Non-achievements? Ares I could have been Omega.
Teri Garr (Dec. 11, 1944 – Oct. 29, 2024)
Star Trek Original: Assignment Earth
“Roberta Meets Gary Seven”
https://youtu.be/FqYpMUHbPj8
(2:57)
The Ares 1 never flew Jeff. The 1X flight was a Shuttle SRB with a mock up segment and mock up upper material.
The J-2, though heavy, would have worked–a rough ride, yes..but like Falcon, could have flown depressed trajectory.
Griffin just didn’t like the EELVs pawned off on NASA, and thought Ares I would be what Falcon is now.
I wish Squares should have ignored LockMart.
Information wants to be free.