September 11, 2024 Quick space links
As BtB’s stringer Jay is on a work trip this week, reader Gary volunteered to send me some links. 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.
- Chinese pseudo-company Landspace completes 10-kilometer vertical take-off and landing of a first stage prototype
The test rocket is a single engine smaller version of its Zhuque-3 orbital rocket’s first stage, and like SpaceX’s Grasshopper test vehicle, provides the engineers the test data needed to build the full scale reusable rocket. This video indicates the pseudo-company is getting close to success.
- Stennis makes deal with Sidus Space to continue operations of its test payload in orbit
Sidus has a smallsat in orbit, and Stennis’s payload is part of it.
- Video of on-going tests of SpaceX’s tower chopsticks intended to catch Superheavy at landing
The tweet notes that this test was “the fastest the chopsticks have closed in the catch position on the tower so far.”
- Blue Origin official says it will do a static fire test of New Glenn’s upper stage this week
The official also said the first static fire test of New Glenn’s first stage, with all seven BE-4 engines, will happen “in the near future.”
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
As BtB’s stringer Jay is on a work trip this week, reader Gary volunteered to send me some links. 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.
- Chinese pseudo-company Landspace completes 10-kilometer vertical take-off and landing of a first stage prototype
The test rocket is a single engine smaller version of its Zhuque-3 orbital rocket’s first stage, and like SpaceX’s Grasshopper test vehicle, provides the engineers the test data needed to build the full scale reusable rocket. This video indicates the pseudo-company is getting close to success.
- Stennis makes deal with Sidus Space to continue operations of its test payload in orbit
Sidus has a smallsat in orbit, and Stennis’s payload is part of it.
- Video of on-going tests of SpaceX’s tower chopsticks intended to catch Superheavy at landing
The tweet notes that this test was “the fastest the chopsticks have closed in the catch position on the tower so far.”
- Blue Origin official says it will do a static fire test of New Glenn’s upper stage this week
The official also said the first static fire test of New Glenn’s first stage, with all seven BE-4 engines, will happen “in the near future.”
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Joe Rogan Experience #2201
Dr. Robert Epstein (9-11-24)
https://youtu.be/Azu8XnZdxeA
(2:38:55)
a new task for SpaceX’s chopsticks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeLuUyAl6kY
SpaceX now controls two-thirds of all active satellites in orbit
And Elon’s highlighting of this just happened to precede this development today: “In calling for more competition in the space economy, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel takes issue with SpaceX controlling about two-thirds of the satellites in Earth’s orbit.”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/fcc-chair-encourages-satellite-internet-competition-hints-starlink-is-a
Rosenworcel is, of course, a Biden appointee.
All of us here favor competition, of course; that is the whole point of having a free market. But one does wonder if this newly found zeal for a competitive market in low latency satellite internet would have been found so quickly if the man with the nascent monopoly had not suddenly become a large and vocal donor to the Trump campaign.
“SpaceX now controls two-thirds of all active satellites in orbit”
But, are other constellation operators about to accomplish similar results with fewer satellites? It is the finding of efficiencies that brings profits, and those profits are the reward for finding efficiencies.
______________
“… the fastest the chopsticks have closed in the catch position on the tower so far.”
It looked like 4 seconds to close and an additional four seconds to stop the major vibration. I would recommend a slower closure rate at the end of the stroke, a little like modern door closers. It may take five or six seconds to close the chopsticks, but the reduced transient vibration may be worth the additional time.
How wide open do the chopsticks need to be, because if the rocket is too far away from the targeted region, the chopsticks are going to hit hard and bat the rocket around like a baseball off a bat.
Polaris Dawn astronauts out and about…
Edward:
how about—
“SpaceX Has Built & Launched 2/3’s of all Satellites Currently in Orbit”
-We should give Musk a Medal,
Jeff–
watching the replay right now.
Question: What sort of temperatures are they being subjected to? Inside and outside.