October 7, 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.
Having visited an eye doctor today and had my eyes dilated, posting this afternoon is difficult. Sorry thus for the lack of additional posts.
- Dawn Aerospace flies world’s only rapidly reusable rocket-powered aircraft twice in one day
This remains a small scale engineering prototype focused on testing the engineering.
- Brightness of first Chinese broadband constellation satellites alarms astronomers
My heart bleeds. All this paper really proves is that any effort to squelch the American satellite constellations will accomplish nothing but squelching the American satellite industry. It will do nothing to save ground-based astronomy. Astronomers should stop whining and focus on building telescopes in space.
- Debris from break-up of Long March 6A upper stage has spread to many altitudes
There is no indication China cares one iota. It certainly does not appear they have taken any action to fix the problems with the Long March 6A upper stage, which has broken up at least twice.
- ViaSat-3 F1 satellite enters commercial service
It is designed to provide internet access to airline customers over North America, including Hawaii. Whether its addition can stave off the competition from SpaceX’s Starlink remains questionable.
- Rocket Lab wins contract from NASA to study ways to bring the Perseverance’s core samples back to Earth
Few details were released, but it appears the company with this study contrct has the inside post on getting the full contract to do this, replacing the complex NASA/ESA/Lockheed Martin proposal that is overbudget, behind schedule, and incoherent in design.
- How Did The Vulcan Rocket Survive This Booster Failure?
Manley’s analysis is good, but he gets it very wrong when he says the FAA will likely ground Vulcan pending completion of its investigation. The FAA quickly announced no investigation was necessary, nor was Vulcan grounded.
- UAE announces a ‘Supreme Space Council’ that will oversee the country’s space activities
It appears a lot of people with power in the UAE want a seat at the table, running the UAE space program. This council gives them this, and illustrates how this is definitely a top-down program with little independent outside competition by non-government entities.
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. 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.
Having visited an eye doctor today and had my eyes dilated, posting this afternoon is difficult. Sorry thus for the lack of additional posts.
- Dawn Aerospace flies world’s only rapidly reusable rocket-powered aircraft twice in one day
This remains a small scale engineering prototype focused on testing the engineering.
- Brightness of first Chinese broadband constellation satellites alarms astronomers
My heart bleeds. All this paper really proves is that any effort to squelch the American satellite constellations will accomplish nothing but squelching the American satellite industry. It will do nothing to save ground-based astronomy. Astronomers should stop whining and focus on building telescopes in space.
- Debris from break-up of Long March 6A upper stage has spread to many altitudes
There is no indication China cares one iota. It certainly does not appear they have taken any action to fix the problems with the Long March 6A upper stage, which has broken up at least twice.
- ViaSat-3 F1 satellite enters commercial service
It is designed to provide internet access to airline customers over North America, including Hawaii. Whether its addition can stave off the competition from SpaceX’s Starlink remains questionable.
- Rocket Lab wins contract from NASA to study ways to bring the Perseverance’s core samples back to Earth
Few details were released, but it appears the company with this study contrct has the inside post on getting the full contract to do this, replacing the complex NASA/ESA/Lockheed Martin proposal that is overbudget, behind schedule, and incoherent in design.
- How Did The Vulcan Rocket Survive This Booster Failure?
Manley’s analysis is good, but he gets it very wrong when he says the FAA will likely ground Vulcan pending completion of its investigation. The FAA quickly announced no investigation was necessary, nor was Vulcan grounded.
- UAE announces a ‘Supreme Space Council’ that will oversee the country’s space activities
It appears a lot of people with power in the UAE want a seat at the table, running the UAE space program. This council gives them this, and illustrates how this is definitely a top-down program with little independent outside competition by non-government entities.
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
Kudos to Dawn for keeping winged rocket planes alive.
An interesting development underway tonight!
SpaceX tweeted a new press release at 7:37 EST: “Starship’s fifth flight test is preparing to launch as soon as October 13, pending regulatory approval.”
Press Release on the SpaceX website is here: https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=starship-flight-5
Interesting passage:
Eric Berger noted a few days back that he had been hearing that some unnamed federal agencies had been leaning on the FAA behind the scenes to accelerate approval of the ITF-5 license. Looks like, maybe that pressure is having an effect?
MEanwhile, the Starbase team performed another tanking test on the full B12/S30 full stack today: https://twitter.com/enneps/status/1843402632205144360
Richard M,
One would certainly like to think that this news is owed to some quiet arm-twisting of the FAA by some other government organ – perhaps NASA, perhaps one or more sub-units of the DoD. And, if Berger says arms have been twisted, I think one can pretty well take that to the bank. But, given that the FAA’s November Lucy-with-the-football license date was predicated on one of the government tree-hugger agencies needing as much as 60 days to do their “studying,” it might just be that the arms being twisted are those of the tree-hugger bureaucrats the FAA is hiding behind. One imagines the head of such agency calling his opposite number at the FAA and saying, in effect, “Hey, thanks for giving us 60 days to look into that thing you asked about, but it turns out we only need a couple of weeks.”
“Astronomers should stop whining and focus on building telescopes in space.”
Where in space?
On the Moon. Dark side. Polar regions.
LEO in orbit higher than 600 km.
Something like a starlink satellite, or something cheaper.
Why not add small telescopes to starlink satellites?
Worlds only rapidly reusable rocket aircraft…..Anybody know about XCOR from decades back??
Hi John,
Xcor quit development of the Lynx in 2016 to switch over to rockets and went bankrupt in 2017.
John: More important, its so-called spaceplane never flew.
While they are long gone, The Rocket Racing League had rocket powered planes that could be refueled and relaunched quickly. XCOR and Armadillo Aerospace were working on the engines. Those vehicles flew several times in a single day. Saying Dawn is the first rocket powered plane to fly repeatedly is incorrect.
Thank you Joe. The Ezrocket was flying multiples before that as I recall.
Starship SOFIA. Throw your telescope onto a Space X Starship and take a couple of orbits. Like NASA’S SOFIA with even less atmosphere.