Category: Behind The Black

Boom Supersonic’s XB-1 test plane breaks the sound barrier

9:09 am

UPDATE: The XB-1, using the exact same air corridor used by Chuck Yeager when he became the first pilot to break the sound barrier in 1947, has successfully become the first privately funded and constructed airplane to fly faster than the speed of sound, doing it three times for about six minutes total.

Original post:
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The airplane startup Boom Supersonic is hoping to complete its first manned supersonic flight today, piloted by chief test tilot Tristan “Geppetto” Brandenburg.

The flight will be manned, using its prototype XB-1 test plane.

Since March 2024, Boom has carried out 11 test flights as it gradually pushed the envelope toward breaking the sound barrier. [Today’s] flight of the 68-ft-long (21-m) XB-1 prototype will be conducted in a special air corridor reserved for supersonic aircraft. During the 38-minute flight at an altitude of 34.000 ft (10,000 m), the aircraft is expected to reach Mach 1.1, which is half of the ultimate goal of Mach 2.2.

Once the company completes test flights of XB-1 it will begin building its Overture commercial supersonic plane for sale to airline companies, capable of carrying up to 80 passengers. It already has contracts and financial support from a number of major airlines, including United and Japan Airlines.

I have embedded the live stream below. It has already started.
» Read more

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Firefly planning five launches from Vandenberg in 2025

9:00 am

In announcing its plans to begin launches from both Wallops Island in Virginia and Esrange in Sweden in 2026, Firefly has also said it is planning five launches from Vandenberg in 2025.

Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea

The company is also building a launchpad at Cape Canaveral, so if these plans reach fruition it will eventually have four different launch sites. One issue for all these sites remains red tape. For example:

[Firefly VP Adam] Oakes said Firefly is continuing to work on regulatory issues for launches from Esrange. “The regulatory piece can really put you back if you want to let it,” he said. “We have a lot of paperwork in place. We’re not quite there on everything but things are moving in the right direction.”

One serious problem for Esrange is its interior location in Sweden. Any orbital launch will have to cross land, with most crossing significant territory of other countries. While the site has been used for decades for suborbital test launches, no orbital launches have ever taken off from there, and getting clearance will not be easy for orbital rockets to cross either Norway, Finland, or Russia. And unless the lower stages are reusable they will have to crash inside those territories, or inside Sweden itself.

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Barcelona Gipsy Klezmer Orchestra – Lulle Lulle

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Hat tip Judd Clark, who provides this translation:

O flower flower
O flower flower bouquet bouquet
I’m for you
I’m for you
I’m crazy for you
I’m crazy, I’m crazy
I’m crazy, this is true

Where did you go that I was always on your mind
I’m dying from missing you because I cannot see you
Where did you go that I was always on your mind
I’m dying from missing you because I cannot see you

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SpaceX launches another 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities

3:13 pm

SpaceX today successfully launched another 21 Starlink satellites, including 13 with direct-to-cell capabilities, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its 20th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. At this time the first iteration of the direct-to-cell Starlink sub-constellation is largely complete, and the company has begun beta testing using these satellites directly with smartphones on Earth.

The 2025 launch race:

12 SpaceX
6 China
1 Blue Origin

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January 27, 2025 Quick space links

3:04 pm

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.

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Barren Mars

10:45 am

Panorama by Perseverance on sol 1400, January 27, 2025
Click for full resolution panorama. For original images, go here, here, and here.

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

Cool image time! The panorama above was created by me using three pictures taken today (here, here, and here) by the right navigation camera on the Mars rover Perseverance. The top of the rover can be seen to the right, as well as its tracks.

The overview map to the right provides the context. The blue dot marks Perseverance’s present position. The white dotted line its past travel route, with the red dotted line indicating the planned route. The yellow lines indicate the approximate area covered by the panorama.

Though the planned route had the rover head west and then south, the rover team instead had the rover retreat eastward about 450 feet the past few days, where it sits now. At the previous western location the team had attempted to find a location to drill a sample core, but apparently the ground was not satisfactory. By retreating to this previous location it could be they think they will have better luck.

What strikes me about this hilly terrain just outside Jezero Crater is its barrenness. You would have great difficulty anywhere on Earth finding terrain so empty of life. On Mars however there is nothing but dirt and rocks, for as far as the eye can see.

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Strap-on booster of Long March 3B launched yesterday crashed next to home

9:53 am

Long March 3B
Long March 3B

One of the four strap-on boosters used by a Long March 3B rocket that was launched yesterday from the Xichang spaceport in southwest China ended up crashing right next to a home.

The TJS-14 satellite launched on a Long March 3B rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Thursday at 10:32 a.m. EST (1532 GMT; 11:32 p.m. local time). The satellite is safely on its way to geostationary orbit, but one of the rocket’s four strap-on side boosters fell to Earth in a populated area of Zhenyuan County in Guizhou province.

Security camera footage posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo captured the scene of two family members reacting to an explosion near their home that lit up the night sky. Fortunately, the booster, which exploded on impact, fell in what appeared to be hills above the house.

The video can be viewed here. While the booster apparently missed the house, any remaining hypergolic fuel in the booster posed a very serious health threat, especially if it was released as a gas. That fuel is extremely toxic, and can dissolve skin if it makes contact. I would expect that until a major clean-up occurred at the crash site, the people that lived in that home will have to evacuate.

China has said that it intends to replace all of its hypergolic-fueled rockets with liquid-fueled, and is expanding operations at its Wenchang coastal spaceport as well. When however these rockets stop launching from its interior spaceports remains unknown. It is likely in fact that toxic stages will continue to fall on the heads of Chinese citizens for years to come.

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Anna Lapwood – How does a pipe organ actually work?

6:01 pm

An evening pause: My readers recommend so many organ performances I decided to start the weekend with short but entertaining primer on how pipe organs work. As always, there are surprises. Our narrator was the organist on Monday’s evening pause.

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January 24, 2025 Quick space links

3:17 pm

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.

I also want to thank all my readers for their best wishes and prayers. Both Diane and I appreciate it beyond words.

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Today’s blacklisted American: Queer protesters force cancellation of a speech against men playing women’s sports

2:45 pm

Olivia Krolczyk being silenced at Washington University
Olivia Krolczyk being silenced at Washington University

They’re coming for you next: Just because the majority of the country has chosen a different path opposing the queer agenda in schools and public facilities doesn’t mean the war is over. Far from it. A mob of protesters supporting the queer agenda in all things forced the cancellation of a speech at a Turning Point USA chapter event at the University of Washington earlier this week.

Olivia Krolczyk was unable to give her talk, “Protect Women from Men: The Threat of the Trans Agenda,” after protesters pulled the fire alarm and later smashed a window in the building. The university’s TPUSA chapter and the Leadership Institute hosted the event.

“The responsibility for interrupting last night’s event falls on those whose actions were disruptive and damaging, including breaking a window, graffiti in the building and wasting firefighters’ time with a false fire alarm,” university spokesperson Victor Balta told The College Fix in an email Wednesday. “Anyone who is identified to have been responsible for vandalism or property damage will be pursued through legal channels,” he said.

» Read more

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European rocket startups team up to send letter to ESA outlining their priorities

11:18 am

In a surprising joint action, six European rocket startups have sent a detailed letter to the European Space Agency (ESA) outlining several recommendations about policy required by these rocket startups in order for their industry to prosper.

The companies involved were HyImpulse, Latitude, MaiaSpace, Orbex, Rocket Factory Augsburg and The Exploration Company. The letter’s recommendations were wide-ranging and appeared focused on getting ESA to free up the industry from traditional European red tape.

  • Provide funding in the range of €150 million to a limited number of rocket companies, not all. The companies say that funding will make it possible for the winning companies to raise another €1 billion in private investment capital. Limiting the number of companies getting awards will also force competition and achievement. The awards should also be granted only after specific milestones are achieved, not based on promises of eventual achievement.
  • Ease access to launchpads both at French Guiana and in Norway and the United Kingdom. Right now French rule-making at French Guiana is hindering that access, and ESA rules about launches make it harder to use the new commercial spaceports in Norway and the UK.
  • Red tape must be reduced. For example, ESA should not set rules on the size of payloads, but give companies “the freedom to determine their payload capabilities, allowing market dynamics to drive innovation rather than imposing artificial requirements.”

That the German rocket startup Isar Aerospace did not sign this letter is interesting, especially since it is now only a few months from completing its first orbital test launch of its Spectrum rocket from the new spaceport in Andoya, Norway. It also has a twenty-year lease for that launchpad.

It is also interesting that the letter did not include the newly proposed orbital spaceport Esrange in Sweden. That launch site has been used for decades for suborbital tests. It is now attempting to make itself available for orbital tests as well. Its interior location however is likely the reason these rocket companies left it out. Too many issues for them to consider launching from there.

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