Category: Behind The Black

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.

• A video rehash of the Orion heatshield problems during its return to Earth at the end Artemis-1
  Nothing new.

• Gaia mission to end today because its fuel has run out
  The archived data from the mission however has barely been absorbed by the astronomical community, Eventually it will provide very precise distances to billions of stars.

• Vast ships its Haven-1 primary structure qualification article to its testing facility in California
  If this is only a test module, I can’t see how Vast will have the flight model ready for launch later this year.

• On this day in 2006 the Stardust sample capsule returned, bringing with it dust samples from Comet P/Wild-2
  The samples also included the first interstellar particles ever captured.

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.

• Leftist media makes hay because Quantas had to reschedule flights to South Africa due to potential Starship landings in Indian Ocean
  The link goes to The Guardian, but Reuters picked this up as well. There is no story here, but these leftists are trying to gin it up to damage SpaceX and Musk. So what Quantas might have to reschedule a flight or two once every several months? This isn’t an unreasonable burden. In fact, I wonder why the airline didn’t simple re-route the flights to avoid the splashdown zone.

• Axiom touts its progress in 2024 and expected achievements in 2025 in building its space station
  Nothing new, merely pr to convince us all is well. It could be. We shall see.

• Today in 2004 the European probe Huygens landed softly on Saturn’s moon Titan
  The probe obtained some great data, but the real achievement was the landing itself. For Europe’s engineers it was a stellar accomplishment.

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.

• Intuitive Machines’ first lunar lander apparently entered lunar orbit last year with a low point only 1.3 kilometers above the surface, far lower than expected
  The engineers immediately scheduled an orbital burn to raise this low point to a reasonable number, as there was an actual risk the spacecraft might hit a mountain peak if not corrected.

• ESA’s director touts a joint ESA/China solar probe to study solar wind and magnetosphere
  This tweet has very old information, apparently from before 2021. The probe is now scheduled for launch in 2025 on a Vega-C rocket

• Chinese grasshopper test stage spotted during transport
  It appears the plan is to next test fly it up and down from a sea platform off the coast of Haiyang

• On this day in 1968 the Surveyor-7 spacecraft touched down softly on the Moon
  It landed near the crater Tycho.