October 7, 2022 Quick space links
Thanks to BtB’s stringer Jay, who trolls Twitter so I don’t have to.
- Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA, explains why Vulcan uses Centaur-4 instead of Centaur-3 for upper stage
He mentions ULA spent $200 million to manufacture Centaur-4. Yet, he still can’t launch the Vulcan rocket without the first stage, and the first stage depends not on his engines, but on Blue Origin’s long delayed and not yet flightworthy BE-4 engine.
- UK bureaucracy questions Viasat’s takeover of Inmarsat
I covered this in August, but now the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is setting a deadline, October 13, for the companies to explain why their merger won’t destroy Starlink. Otherwise it will initiate a full probe, blocking the merger.
Typical government stupidity. There is no way this merged company will destroy Starlink. If anything, these companies are merging to survive the competition from Starlink.
- China’s second lunar sample return mission, Chang’e-6, targeting a mid-2024 launch
It plans to collect samples from the Moon’s far side.
- Russians are targeting October 12, 2022 for Proton rocket launch
This will be the first Proton launch since December ’21.
- SpaceX scrubs commercial launch today, reschedules for tomorrow
The decision was made about 30 minutes before launch, and is attributed to a desire to provide time to do more checkouts of the rocket.
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
Thanks to BtB’s stringer Jay, who trolls Twitter so I don’t have to.
- Tory Bruno, CEO of ULA, explains why Vulcan uses Centaur-4 instead of Centaur-3 for upper stage
He mentions ULA spent $200 million to manufacture Centaur-4. Yet, he still can’t launch the Vulcan rocket without the first stage, and the first stage depends not on his engines, but on Blue Origin’s long delayed and not yet flightworthy BE-4 engine.
- UK bureaucracy questions Viasat’s takeover of Inmarsat
I covered this in August, but now the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is setting a deadline, October 13, for the companies to explain why their merger won’t destroy Starlink. Otherwise it will initiate a full probe, blocking the merger.
Typical government stupidity. There is no way this merged company will destroy Starlink. If anything, these companies are merging to survive the competition from Starlink.
- China’s second lunar sample return mission, Chang’e-6, targeting a mid-2024 launch
It plans to collect samples from the Moon’s far side.
- Russians are targeting October 12, 2022 for Proton rocket launch
This will be the first Proton launch since December ’21.
- SpaceX scrubs commercial launch today, reschedules for tomorrow
The decision was made about 30 minutes before launch, and is attributed to a desire to provide time to do more checkouts of the rocket.
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
You mean Centaur V, not Centaur IV?