September 12, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Firefly wins $18 million NASA contract to provide “radio frequency calibration services” from lunar orbit
This is Firefly’s third contract in connection with NASA’s lunar projects, totaling almost $230 million.
- Short interview with head of The Exploration Company, a French company which has signed a contract with Axiom to provide a cargo freighter for its space station
You need to turn on closed captions with translation set to English. Not much information, being a standard shallow TV interview, though she does make clear the irony that a European space company has to go to an American space company to get business.
- Axiom announces AX-3 crew, to fly in January ’24 with all-European crew
The mission will go to ISS, ferried there by SpaceX.
- Air Force secretary has no problems with SpaceX and its present commercial dominance
This kind of blather really means little, as they can say anything when asked. It is what the Air Force actually does down the road that matters. However, the article at the link seems written so as to gin up friction between SpaceX and the Air Force.
- Stoke Space completes static fire testing on the first prototype of its reusable upper stage, ready to finalize its orbital design
The company’s goal is to build a completely reusable upper stage using its radical rocket design of small nozzles set in a ring around the outside of the spacecraft.
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
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Firefly wins $18 million NASA contract to provide “radio frequency calibration services” from lunar orbit
This is Firefly’s third contract in connection with NASA’s lunar projects, totaling almost $230 million.
- Short interview with head of The Exploration Company, a French company which has signed a contract with Axiom to provide a cargo freighter for its space station
You need to turn on closed captions with translation set to English. Not much information, being a standard shallow TV interview, though she does make clear the irony that a European space company has to go to an American space company to get business.
- Axiom announces AX-3 crew, to fly in January ’24 with all-European crew
The mission will go to ISS, ferried there by SpaceX.
- Air Force secretary has no problems with SpaceX and its present commercial dominance
This kind of blather really means little, as they can say anything when asked. It is what the Air Force actually does down the road that matters. However, the article at the link seems written so as to gin up friction between SpaceX and the Air Force.
- Stoke Space completes static fire testing on the first prototype of its reusable upper stage, ready to finalize its orbital design
The company’s goal is to build a completely reusable upper stage using its radical rocket design of small nozzles set in a ring around the outside of the spacecraft.
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
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