Rocket Lab successfully completes first launch from the U.S.
Using its Electron rocket, Rocket Lab yesterday placed three smallsats into orbit, launching for the first time from Wallops Island in Virginia.
The company now has three launchpads, one in Wallops and two in New Zealand. Expect its launch pace in 2023 to ramp up to, at a minimum, once per month.
The 2023 launch race:
5 China
5 SpaceX
1 Rocket Lab
In the national rankings, the U.S. leads China, 6 to 5. No one else has yet launched, though Japan plans a launch today.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Using its Electron rocket, Rocket Lab yesterday placed three smallsats into orbit, launching for the first time from Wallops Island in Virginia.
The company now has three launchpads, one in Wallops and two in New Zealand. Expect its launch pace in 2023 to ramp up to, at a minimum, once per month.
The 2023 launch race:
5 China
5 SpaceX
1 Rocket Lab
In the national rankings, the U.S. leads China, 6 to 5. No one else has yet launched, though Japan plans a launch today.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. The ebook can also be purchased direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from me (hardback $24.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $5.00). Just email me at zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Is this the first private company to successfully launch from two different continents, let alone two different countries?
Technically, I don’t think New Zealand is a continent.
New Zealand thinks it is https://www.snexplores.org/article/zealandia-continent
Zealandia is a continent like I’m a genius billionaire. You just can’t see all my hidden wealth and brains, and neither can I.
Two different landmasses? Two different countries?
Maybe not even then. Roscosmos, after all, operated Soyuz ST from not just Russia/Kazakhstan, but also from Arianespace’s launch facilities in Korou, French Guiana. Of course, all their Korou operations are not suspended, and very unlikely to ever resume again…
You know I had never looked. I had always assumed it was close enough to be considered part of the Continent of Australia. But apparently not.
Okay, so first private space company to launch from two countries. And from two hemispheres, then?
Is Roscosmos really a private company? I mean the name is short for State Space Corporation.. like Arianespace, which is simply a commercial extension of ESA.
New Zealand is part of what is called Oceana, which is often treated as a continent by those who believe in Oceana. New Zealand has been considered a microcontinent. I think that the point is that Rocket Lab has successfully navigated different governments in opposite sides of the planet to launch their rocket, and since they had such a long delay and Virgin Orbit had a long delay in England, it seems that governments have a difficult time coping with private companies. It is a good thing that governments are set up to serve themselves and not their citizens, otherwise they would be doing a poor job of governance.
Soyuz has also launched from different continents, but that is a government rocket, launched by both a somewhat-private-but-mostly-government company on South America and by a couple of governments on Eurasia. It launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan — possibly the Asian part of the country — from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in European Russia, and from the Guiana Space Centre in South America. For the most part, the associated governments have gotten along, but relationships are strained at the moment.
New Zealand is part of Oceania: Australia, NZ and the Southern Pacific island groups. Not technically a continent but you’ll find oceanic island groups are included in the statistics of the continents that they’re geographically closest to. For example many Indian ocean islands are considered part of either Africa or Asia.
I’m becoming incontinent over this discussion.
Perhaps we should put this question on the continental shelf.
In the meantime, I am not the only one asking about different hemispheres.
https://twitter.com/Peter_J_Beck/status/1618520659478577153