October 4, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- B2Space touts its proposed balloon-based launch system in a short video
The concept of a “rockoon” is an old one, never implemented for orbital launches despite its potential.
- Amazon outlines the goals of its first two prototype Kuiper satellites
Now scheduled for launch on October 6th on an Atlas-5 rocket. Live stream here.
- China’s outlines rough development plan for its lunar base
Unlike a previous presentation, this presentation made no mention of Russia, China’s supposed partner in this project. No surprise, since no one ever expected Russia to contribute much anyway.
- China presents a global map of those international partners participating in its space station
The map overstates the level of cooperation from these other nations, since in many cases it is not the government but a few individual scientists participating. Moreover, Alaska is not part of Canada, as the map suggests.
- Russia releases final Luna-25 failure report
I hadn’t linked to this previously because it adds nothing significant from the earlier reports.
- Russia once again invites Brazil, Turkey, and South Africa to participate in its own unlaunched space station
Any announcement to partner with Russia is merely going to be for the photo op, as it is highly unlikely any independent Russian station will fly anytime in the near or even far future.
- A reminder that today is the anniversary of the launch of Sputnik in 1957
Thus, the space age began.
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.
- B2Space touts its proposed balloon-based launch system in a short video
The concept of a “rockoon” is an old one, never implemented for orbital launches despite its potential.
- Amazon outlines the goals of its first two prototype Kuiper satellites
Now scheduled for launch on October 6th on an Atlas-5 rocket. Live stream here.
- China’s outlines rough development plan for its lunar base
Unlike a previous presentation, this presentation made no mention of Russia, China’s supposed partner in this project. No surprise, since no one ever expected Russia to contribute much anyway.
- China presents a global map of those international partners participating in its space station
The map overstates the level of cooperation from these other nations, since in many cases it is not the government but a few individual scientists participating. Moreover, Alaska is not part of Canada, as the map suggests.
- Russia releases final Luna-25 failure report
I hadn’t linked to this previously because it adds nothing significant from the earlier reports.
- Russia once again invites Brazil, Turkey, and South Africa to participate in its own unlaunched space station
Any announcement to partner with Russia is merely going to be for the photo op, as it is highly unlikely any independent Russian station will fly anytime in the near or even far future.
- A reminder that today is the anniversary of the launch of Sputnik in 1957
Thus, the space age began.
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
Launching a launch vehicle using a balloon just to save some delta-v is already a bad idea for many practical reasons, and it doesn’t take Elon Musk to come to this conclusion. For example, this creates a lot of problems if the launch preparations for the rocket have to be canceled after the balloon has been launched and the balloon therefore has to land again with the rocket still attached to it, which is hardly possible in practice. The alternative of letting the launch vehicle float to the earth’s surface on a parachute instead is not really convincing either.