Los Lobos – Don’t Worry Baby
An evening pause: Performed live 1989.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Category: Behind The Black
February 20, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.
- Firefly touts its growing presence in Texas
The tweet links to an article describing the general growth of Texas’s space industry, much of it coming from companies fleeing California’s Stalinist government regulations.
- At press conference about the next Chinese manned mission, a government official reminded reporters that everything “must be censored before release.”
It is kind of funny that this official felt he needed to do this, since every one of those “journalists” knows he or she is really employed by the government and knows everything they write must serve that government. Why underline China’s authoritarian rule?
- Russian officials confirm that the launch of an unmanned Soyuz to ISS will take place on February 23rd
There had been some conflicting reports about the exact launch date. This announcement ends that confusion.
- All the Starlink satellites presently in orbit
The tweet shows a short video quickly illustrating the present state of the constellation. It almost literally covers the Earth.
Today’s blacklisted American: Georgetown Law School tried to destroy a student simply because he asked questions about its COVID jab and mask policies
Dean Bill Treanor: He uses 1984 as
his instruction manual
They’re coming for you next: When student William Spruance gave a speech challenging the COVID jab and mask policies at Georgetown Law School, which required for example masks on students but not on teachers, university officials attempted to not only cancel him from the college, they tried to destroy him entirely.
They not only suspended him from the campus (thus preventing him from attending classes), they demanded he undergo a psychiatric evaluation while also waiving his right to medical confidentiality. On top of this, they threatened to report him to state bar associations if he did not cooperate fully.
The story at the link, written by Spruance, has a lot more horrifying nuance. Rather rehash it completely, I strongly advise my readers to go there and read it all. This quote though justifies fully Spruance’s reasonable skepticism of Georgetown’s irrational Wuhan flu policies:
» Read more
Splashed lava from a Martian impact
Click for original image.
Almost always it is impossible to understand a high resolution image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) unless you also take a wider view. Today’s cool image to the right, rotated, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, is a perfect example.
Taken on January 6, 2023, it shows what the science team labeled as a “rocky deposit on crater floor.” To my eye however none of this appeared tremendously rocky. Instead, what I saw was a curved and layered flow feature whose ancient age was suggested by the many later craters scattered across its surface.
Still, its origin was unclear. It isn’t ice, not only because of its apparent resistance from disturbance from those later crater impacts but because it is located at about 20 degrees north latitude, in the dry equatorial regions of Mars. If lava, what is its source? As I noted, a wider look was necessary to answer that question.
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For the 4th time Curiosity’s drill fails to penetrate marker layer
Click for original image.
For the fourth time this past weekend Curiosity’s drill was unable to penetrate the hard rock of what scientists have labeled “the marker layer”, a distinct feature seen at approximately the same elevation at many places on the flanks of Mount Sharp on Mars.
The image to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, shows that the drill was once again only able to drill a eighth to a quarter inch, not enough to gather samples for testing.
This was our fourth attempt to drill this marker band, and we gave it our best shot from both a geology and engineering perspective. Unfortunately these rocks do not want to cooperate – they’re hard and they weather into resistant and recessive beds which make them very challenging to drill. So the team made the difficult decision to get back on the road, without a drill sample from this location
India’s Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander/rover passes radiation testing
Click for interactive map.
According to India’s space agency ISRO, its next lunar lander/rover, Chandrayaan-3, has successfully passed testing to make sure it can function without issues in the harsh electromagnetic environment of space.
Magnetic Interference/ Electro – Magnetic Compatibility) test is conducted for satellite missions to ensure the functionality of the satellite subsystems in the space environment and their compatibility with the expected electromagnetic levels.
The spacecraft, which will carry a rover to the Moon’s south pole regions (the red dot on the map to the right), is tentatively scheduled for launch anywhere from June to the end of ’23, depending on the news story you read.
First orbital tug from the startup Launcher fails shortly after deployment
The first orbital tug, dubbed Orbiter SN1, of the startup company Launcher failed shortly after deployment from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on January 3, 2023.
The vehicle communicated with a ground station on its first scheduled pass after deployment while on battery power. “We also communicated with the vehicle for the duration of expected battery life,” the company said.
However, the Hawthorne, California-based company said the spacecraft could not get into the proper attitude so that its solar cells could generate power, which it blamed on “an orientation control issue caused by a fault in our GPS antenna system.” That, in turn, kept Orbiter from deploying its satellite payloads.
The tug was carrying payloads from eight customers, four of which were satellites to be deployed while the others would remain on the tug, using it as the base of operations.
The company presently has plans to launch upgraded tugs on two different Falcon 9 launches, in June and October respectively.
Inspection of leaking Progress after undocking detects no obvious damage
After undocking the Progress freighter from ISS yesterday, Russian astronauts on the station rolled it so that all sides of its service module could be photographed and inspected in the hope of spotting the leak in its coolant system that sprung on February 11th.
No visual damage has been detected at the Progress MS-21 spacecraft after it undocked from the International Space Station. “After the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station’s Poisk mini-research module, footage was made of its exterior surface and no visual damage was detected,” the statement [from Roscosmos] reads.
Initially the Russians postponed its de-orbit as they considered the idea of redocking the freighter to another port on the Russian half of ISS in order to inspect it more closely, but eventually they decided to fore-go that plan and de-orbit it on February 19th, one day later.
In watching the live stream of the undocking and the roll maneuver, I thought I saw a partial reddish-orange stain, similar to the stain around the hole that occurred in the Soyuz capsule in December, but it was mostly hidden behind other equipment and the Russians seemed to not consider this significant.
SpaceX launches an Inmarsat communications satellite
SpaceX tonight used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch an Inmarsat communications satellite from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
This was SpaceX’s second launch today. The first stage successfully landed on a drone ship in the Atlantic, completing its third flight. Both fairings were also previously flown.
The 2023 launch race:
12 SpaceX
5 China
2 Russia
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan
1 India
American private enterprise now leads China 13 to 5 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 13 to 9. By itself SpaceX leads the world combined 12 to 9.
February 17, 2023 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.
» Read more
Bruce Hornsby & The Range – The Way It Is
An evening pause: Performed live 1990. He really tickles those ivories with joy.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
February 17, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, except for the last two.
- Soyuz capsule placed inside its payload fairing for a likely February 21th launch
That date, reported by Roscosmos two days ago, is three days earlier than the date listed at the link. Unless something has changed and not been reported, I would favor the earlier reported date.
- Images of the new Angara rocket assembly stand at Vostochny
Looks very clean and sleek, but also has taken decades to build.
- Damaged Progress to undock from ISS shortly
Live stream is here, scheduled to go live around 6:15 pm Pacific. Following undocking the freighter will be maneuvered so that the leak in its coolant system on its service module can be photographed.
- U.S. military is loosening its rules for bidding on its launches
The language in the screen capture at the link is typical bureaucratic blather, but the bottom line is that the military is no longer limiting bidding on launch contracts to just SpaceX and ULA, a foolish program I have begging the military to abandon for years. At this point they will let others bid on missions that are less risk tolerant. Expect with time this policy to loosen even more, as more competition can only save the military money, while providing it more redundancy and capability.
- China’s Xuntian Space Telescope, a Hubble-class optical space telescope, is still targeting a ’24 launch
The telescope will orbit close to Tiangong-3, and according to images at the link, will dock with the station for maintenance.
- NASA’s corrupt safety panel worries about NASA’s “safety culture” in its Artemis program
Though in this case the panel is likely right, I don’t take anything it says seriously. It has been so wrong so many times in the past, clearly biased against private space while favoring NASA, its analysis is simply worthless. I only include the link to its report now for completeness.
- FAA proposes fining SpaceX $175K for not providing “launch collision analysis trajectory data” prior to a August 19, 2022 Starlink launch
SpaceX has 30 days to respond. Considering the increased hostility by the bureaucracy to SpaceX since Biden took office, I think it is understandable to think this is simply another bureaucratic attack for political reasons.
- One instrument on the Parker Solar Probe is temporarily down
It appears the problem simply requires a software upload of that instrument, which cannot be done for another few weeks because the spacecraft is in a blackout period due to orbital mechanics.
- Boeing and NASA still aiming for mid-April launch of first manned Starliner mission to ISS
That timeline remains in flux, and will be finalized in early March when they decide on when to begin fueling the service module. Once that happens, they need to launch with 60 days. Expect an actual launch date to announced around then.
SpaceX launches 51 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg
At 11:12 (Pacific) SpaceX today successfully launched another 51 Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, using its Falcon 9 rocket with a first stage making its ninth flight.
The first stage successfully landed on its drone ship in the Pacific. The fairing halves completed their fifth and sixth flights.
The 2023 launch race:
11 SpaceX
5 China
2 Russia
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan
1 India
American private enterprise now leads China 12 to 5 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 12 to 9. By itself SpaceX leads the world combined 11 to 9, and that lead will grow later today should the next Falcon 9 launch at 10:59 pm (Eastern) tonight from Cape Canaveral succeed.
Today’s blacklisted American: Professor sues University of Texas for threatening his job because he criticized it publicly
University of Texas at Austin to Professor Richard Lowery:
“Nice job you got here. Shame if something happened to it.”
They’re coming for you next: Professor Richard Lowery is now suing the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) for its attempts to silence him, including threatening his job, cutting his pay, and monitoring his speech, actions instigated against Lowery because he was publicly critical of the university’s racist “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies as well as the university’s efforts, led by its president Jay Hartzell, to insert political propaganda into its courses.
Lowery is being represented by the Institute for Free Speech, which filed his lawsuit [pdf] on February 8, 2023.
The campaign [against Lowery and his allies at the university] started by pressuring Carlos Carvalho, another professor of business at the UT McCombs School who is also the Executive Director of the Salem Center for Public Policy, an academic institute that is part of the McCombs School. Lowery is an Associate Director and a Senior Scholar at the Salem Center and reports to Carvalho.
» Read more
A galaxy’s structure of gas and dust, as seen in the infrared by Webb
NGC 1433 as seen in the infrared. Click for original image.
Scientists have now released 21 papers on the gas and dust structures in nearby galaxies, based on infrared images from the Webb Space Telescope, used in collaboration with other telescopes looking in other wavelengths.
The largest survey of nearby galaxies in Webb’s first year of science operations is being carried out by the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) collaboration, involving more than 100 researchers from around the globe. The Webb observations are led by Janice Lee, Gemini Observatory chief scientist at the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab and affiliate astronomer at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
The team is studying a diverse sample of 19 spiral galaxies, and in Webb’s first few months of science operations, observations of five of those targets – M74, NGC 7496, IC 5332, NGC 1365, and NGC 1433 – have taken place.
The image to the right is Webb’s infrared image of NGC 1433, estimated to be 46 million light years away. The bright areas extending outward in the spiral arms are believed to be star-forming regions. From the caption:
At the center of the galaxy, a tight, bright core featuring a unique double ring structure shines in exquisite detail with Webb’s extreme resolution. In this case, that ‘double ring’ is actually tightly wrapped spiral arms that wind into an oval shape along the galaxy’s bar.
NGC 1433 is a Seyfert galaxy, which are typically relatively close to Earth and has a supermassive black hole at the center eating material at a high rate. The brightness and lack of dust in the MIRI image of NGC 1433 could hint at a recent collision with another galaxy.
When comparing Webb’s infrared view with Hubble’s optical view, taken in 2014 and found here, the differences are definitely striking. Webb sees the gas and dust that is dark in Hubble’s images, while Hubble sees things at much higher resolution and thus sees more fine detail.
China releases data sets from Chang’e-4 lander
China today released another set of data from the instruments on the Chang’e-4 lander, which landed on the far side of the Moon on January 3, 2019, bringing with it China’s Yutu-2 rover.
The datasets include 3,991.1 MB of 803 data files obtained by the four scientific payloads on the Chang’e-4 lander and rover between December 26, 2021 and January 10, 2022.
The data was posted on the official website of the Lunar and Planetary Data Release System, though none of the press reports from multiple China’s state-run press sources include it. All are simply the same three paragraph story, word for word. That site however is here, though it is entirely in Chinese and the English pages fail to load.
For only 7th time, searchers find meteorite immediately after fall
For only 7th time, searchers on February 15th found a fragment of a meteorite that had only fallen to Earth three days before, and was furthermore only discovered mere hours before it entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
From the tweet of the discoverers:
FRIPON/Vigie-Ciel finds a fragment of asteroid 2023CX1 in Seine Maritime!!! The discovery was made by Loïs Leblanc, an 18-year-old student, part of the field research team.
Vigie-Ciel (“Sky Watchers”) and FRIPON are a volunteer project that searches for meteorites. The asteroid itself was discovered by Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky while doing routine survey scan for near Earth asteroids.
The find was the second time Sárneczky has spotted an asteroid just hours before it broke apart in Earth’s atmosphere as a fireball, following an incredible find in March 2022.
By finding meteorites this quickly after arrival scientists get a more pristine sample, since the asteroid has not been exposed to the Earth’s environment for any extended length of time.
The February 2023 Behind the Black fund-raising campaign-THANK YOU
My annual February fund-raising campaign is now over. I decided to shorten it by two weeks because I was tired of begging my readers for money. As expected, this will likely make this a much smaller campaign then previous years. So be it.
Nonetheless, I sincerely and with deep gratitude thank all those who donated. Without your support I could not keep doing this, not so much because of the need for income to pay the bills, but because it tells me that there are people out there who want me to do this work.
For those who did not contribute during the campaign, the tip jar is still somewhere on this webpage. Please consider adding your vote of support to Behind the Black.
First launch of Japan’s H3 rocket aborts at T-0
In its first attempt to launch its new H3 rocket today the rocket’s main liquid-fueled engines ignited, but then the two strap-on solid rockets failed to ignite at T-0, causing that main engine to shut down to protect the rocket and payload.
I have embedded the live stream below, cued to about T-39. At the end of the broadcast the rocket appeared in good condition, though it was still unclear what the caused the problem.
At the moment there is no word when JAXA, Japan’s space agency, will attempt another launch. The H3 is years behind schedule, and was developed in the hope it would be more efficient and cost less to launch than the H2A rocket Japan presently uses.
» Read more
Tanya Tucker – Two Sparrows In A Hurricane
An evening pause: Performed live 2005.
Hat tip Judd Clark.