September 16, 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.
- French smallsat company signs deal to launch satellites on Impulse’s Helios orbital tug
The smallsats will form a communications satellite constellation called Kaon for the French startup Space Network Services.
- ULA official says 2nd launch of Vulcan will occur within the next month
ULA desperately needs this launch to go off without a hitch so that it can begin launching satellites for the military.
- Blue Origin plans to have a fleet of at least four New Glenn first stages flying by the end of 2025, each designed for 25 flights
The company is going to try to land its first stage and reuse it from the very first flight.
- Rocket Lab is now targeting September 19, 2024 for its eleventh launch in 2024
More details about this launch here.
- Astronomers detect a black hole that is “starving” its galaxy to death
The black hole has essentially driven all the gas from the galaxy, ending all star formation.
- A review of what little China has told us about its future planetary program
I did not see much in this article that was new, though the summary was worthwhile.
- On this day in 2017 Cassini ended its mission by plunging into Saturn
Details about its final orbits here.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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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.
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.
- French smallsat company signs deal to launch satellites on Impulse’s Helios orbital tug
The smallsats will form a communications satellite constellation called Kaon for the French startup Space Network Services.
- ULA official says 2nd launch of Vulcan will occur within the next month
ULA desperately needs this launch to go off without a hitch so that it can begin launching satellites for the military.
- Blue Origin plans to have a fleet of at least four New Glenn first stages flying by the end of 2025, each designed for 25 flights
The company is going to try to land its first stage and reuse it from the very first flight.
- Rocket Lab is now targeting September 19, 2024 for its eleventh launch in 2024
More details about this launch here.
- Astronomers detect a black hole that is “starving” its galaxy to death
The black hole has essentially driven all the gas from the galaxy, ending all star formation.
- A review of what little China has told us about its future planetary program
I did not see much in this article that was new, though the summary was worthwhile.
- On this day in 2017 Cassini ended its mission by plunging into Saturn
Details about its final orbits here.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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 or subscription:
4. 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.
The linked-to article talks about the indicated galaxy GS-10578 as being dead. For instance: “‘In the early universe, most galaxies are forming lots of stars, so it’s interesting to see such a massive dead galaxy at this period in time,’ said co-author Professor Roberto Maiolino…” I think this is unfortunate nomenclature.
As the foregoing piece observes, the galaxy in question includes some 200 billion stars—and thus is perhaps twice the size of the Milky Way—when the former was only 2 billion years old, as opposed to now (11.8 billion years later) for the Milky Way. Yet, even at that young an age, it’s perfectly possible for there to be vast numbers of vibrant, terrestrial-type planets, quite capable of supporting (e.g.) earthly life.
As one sees in the case of the star system Kepler-444 (a.k.a. BD+41°3306), which lies a mere 119 light years (36 parsecs) away from Sol, right here in the Milky Way, but dates (via the recent technique of asteroseismology) to 11.1 ± 1.0 billion years old [!]—that is, more than 80% of the age of the universe old—whereas Sol and its Earth are a mere 33% (1/3) of the age of the universe old. Yet, we know that the Kepler-444 system (though generally metal-poor) includes 5 rocky planets, all between the sizes of Mercury and Venus!
Since galaxies in the predicament of GS-10578 might well thus be teeming with life—even now, more than 11 billion years after being stripped of most interstellar gas—therefore, I suggest that galaxies which either have or are undergoing such a phenomenon of supermassive black hole-powered wholesale interstellar-gas ejection, be termed as that galaxy becoming “infertile” rather than “dead.”
Let’s talk about Ryan Wesley Routh for a minute….
When is he going to become deceased while in custody?
When will the body be cremated?
When will his parents be arrested?
What exactly is the make & model of the gun he used.
Where does this guy get all his money?
It sounds like Blue Origin plans on a surprisingly small 8 to 16 launches per year. Is that enough launches to achieve much economy of scale? I suppose that it is probably enough to compete with Falcon 9, but it’ll be interesting to see how long it takes them to achieve regular operations.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
“I hope we never find life on other planets because there’s no doubt that the U.S. Government will start sending them money!”
6:59 AM · Jun 4, 2014
https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/474188805541748736
Michael McNeil, they also use the word “quenched”, which I rather like. I clicked-thru hoping to a see my postulated donut galaxy.
I don’t understand how the black hole ‘pushed’ the gas out of the galaxy. They also scare-quote “pushed”, so it seems clear that there isn’t any actual pushing involved.
I’ll speculate that it has something to do with the incoming gas spinning faster and faster and some of it flying off as the spin rate exceeds the (at this point far away) black hole’s escape velocity. But that doesn’t explain an entire galaxy’s worth of dust. Maybe something really big was sucked in and there was a titanic explosion as it was spaghettified? But a galaxy-effecting explosion would be insanely large.
For anyone interested, Eric Berger, second best guy on the space beat after our host, is in the Space Show tonight.
https://x.com/spaceshow/status/1836062992179581241?s=46
Mark–
Not sure how ‘pushed’ is being used in this exact instance but look up “radiation pressure.”
All EM radiation transports momentum & energy and when it hits a surface, it produces pressure. Not a whole lot but continuously, and ‘gas’ is easily pushed around
(This is the whole idea of solar sails.)