October 30, 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.
- Blue Origin rolls the first stage of the first New Glenn rocket to launchpad
The upper stage still needs to be stacked. Also, a dress rehearsal countdown with static fire test needs to be done. Still no word on launch date, though it finally appears within sight.
- Chinese pseudo-company AZSpace plans first launch of its cargo capsule to Tiangong-3 in November
It also has unveiled its own New Shepard copycat suborbital capsule. I will consider both real, when they fly.
- Thailand’s government approves signing Artemis Accords
If this happens (it remains unconfirmed from NASA), Thailand would be the first nation to sign on to both Artemis and China’s lunar base project. I wonder if that will fly with the next president.
- Lockheed Martin completes acquisition of smallsat manufacturer Terran Orbital
The final acquisition price was $450 million. Lockheed has been a major investor of Terran since 2017, so the deal made sense in many ways.
- According to Russian officials, Europe has returned its ExoMars lander, minus European components
ESA kicked Russia off the mission to land the Franklin rover on Mars when it invaded the Ukraine. That decision however delayed the rover’s launch now until 2028.
- Short video panning across what the tweet claims is the sharpest image yet taken of the Andromeda galaxy
I think this is a Hubble image, but the tweet provides no information.
- Watch Comet ATLAS (C/2024 S1) evaporate in its close approach to the Sun
This is not Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which has provided a nice show for viewers, but a different comet that astronomers hoped would be even brighter. Instead, the Sun destroyed it.
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.
- Blue Origin rolls the first stage of the first New Glenn rocket to launchpad
The upper stage still needs to be stacked. Also, a dress rehearsal countdown with static fire test needs to be done. Still no word on launch date, though it finally appears within sight.
- Chinese pseudo-company AZSpace plans first launch of its cargo capsule to Tiangong-3 in November
It also has unveiled its own New Shepard copycat suborbital capsule. I will consider both real, when they fly.
- Thailand’s government approves signing Artemis Accords
If this happens (it remains unconfirmed from NASA), Thailand would be the first nation to sign on to both Artemis and China’s lunar base project. I wonder if that will fly with the next president.
- Lockheed Martin completes acquisition of smallsat manufacturer Terran Orbital
The final acquisition price was $450 million. Lockheed has been a major investor of Terran since 2017, so the deal made sense in many ways.
- According to Russian officials, Europe has returned its ExoMars lander, minus European components
ESA kicked Russia off the mission to land the Franklin rover on Mars when it invaded the Ukraine. That decision however delayed the rover’s launch now until 2028.
- Short video panning across what the tweet claims is the sharpest image yet taken of the Andromeda galaxy
I think this is a Hubble image, but the tweet provides no information.
- Watch Comet ATLAS (C/2024 S1) evaporate in its close approach to the Sun
This is not Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which has provided a nice show for viewers, but a different comet that astronomers hoped would be even brighter. Instead, the Sun destroyed it.
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.
ref- Andromeda galaxy image tweet.
Yes, Hubble, released January 2015; Comprising 69,536 x 22,230 pixels,
with a file size of 4.3GB’s.
https://esahubble.org/images/heic1502a/