October 6, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Axiom and ESA sign deal to do more business together
The agreement includes access to Axiom’s proposed station, training of ESA astronauts using its spacesuits, and possible future commercial astronaut missions.
- Chinese pseudo-company sold two remote sensing satellites to private Wagner military group
I suspect Russia now controls those satellites, since Wagner’s leader was killed in suspicious plane crash.
- Video of dismantling of Saturn-1B rocket at Alabama rest stop
The rocket had been on display there for decades and could no longer be maintained properly. The decision was made in January to remove it and renovate the rest stop entirely.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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.
- Axiom and ESA sign deal to do more business together
The agreement includes access to Axiom’s proposed station, training of ESA astronauts using its spacesuits, and possible future commercial astronaut missions.
- Chinese pseudo-company sold two remote sensing satellites to private Wagner military group
I suspect Russia now controls those satellites, since Wagner’s leader was killed in suspicious plane crash.
- Video of dismantling of Saturn-1B rocket at Alabama rest stop
The rocket had been on display there for decades and could no longer be maintained properly. The decision was made in January to remove it and renovate the rest stop entirely.
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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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
That makes me so angry
Jeff,
I said a few expletives out loud when I saw them drop it.
Just one more example of NASA being a poor custodian of its own history.
The story about the sale of two PRC spysats to the Wagner Group is most likely confirmation of something that has been suspected for awhile, namely that Russia has no remaining functional spysats of its own and that it cannot make more.
Regarding the Axiom/ESA partnership, I had long expected commercial space companies to be hired by various nations in order to give those nations inexpensive access to space so that the nations could have their own space programs without the cost of developing launch vehicles, manned spacecraft, or space stations. What I didn’t expect was for well established space programs would rely so heavily on the new and coming commercial space companies.
Axiom seems to have a robust plan for its future space station. Sierra Space also has their Life module, so I suspect that their space station can probably survive the loss of Blue Origin. Northrup Grumman’s abandonment of its own space station in NASA’s competition is disappointing, as they had a viable spacecraft that is ready-made for adaptation for use as a space station module — in my mind, they suffer from a lack of innovation, as they were ahead of the competition and are now falling back on the old tried-and-true resupply mission for their Cignus spacecraft.
The loss of Bigelow habitats was a tremendous disappointment, as I believe that they would already have had their own space station in orbit by now, with Dragon taking crews to and from the Bigelow space station(s), and Starliner not far behind.
If SpaceX adapts a Starship as a huge space station, that is practically cheating, as Starship was designed for a tremendous amount of versatility, like a chassis that could fit a tanker, a cargo bed, or a passenger bus, depending upon the customer’s needs, and at a construction cost much lower than any single module that the current competitors can make.
Despite the shakeout that is happening in this competition, Axiom’s apparent strength leaves me believing that this commercial space station industry will be a huge success. With NASA an eager customer and ESA another eager customer, I think we will see great things in the 2030s.