Category: Points of Information

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.

• Iran’s space agency head touts his plans for big rockets and a Starlink-type satellite constellation
  The stuff of fantasy.

• Germany’s space agency completes vibration tests of landing legs for Callisto reusable rocket stage demonstrator
  My heart be still. Callisto was first proposed in 2015 by the ESA, as a response to SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Since then it has yet to do a single test flight, while SpaceX has landed more than 500 first stages. And its first demo hop flight won’t happen any sooner than ’27.

• Blue Origin touts its proposed Blue Ring orbital and interplanetary tug
  As Jay says, “Talking the talk, but can they launch the launch?” So far, all evidence says no.

• Did NASA-Ames and San Jose State just test an exobrake drag device in de-orbiting a cubesat this week?
  The tweet says yes, based on the cubesat’s very fast loss of altitude. Nothing however is confirmed.

• On this day in 1930 Clyde Tombaugh discovered the planet Pluto
  He spotted the planet by comparing two photographic plates taken six days apart.

• On this day in 1986 the Soviet Union used a Proton rocket to launch the first module of its Mir space station
  It took more than a decade to complete (delayed significantly by the fall of the Soviet Union), and was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan. I discovered scads of amazing untold tales in writing Leaving Earth.

• On Feb. 18, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully landed in Jezero Crater on Mars
  The video at the link is garbage, typical NASA PR that mixes animation and live footage in ways that are unethical, topped off with a high-powered music score comparable to a comic book movie trailer. This isn’t science, it is childish propaganda.

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.

• Stoke Space touts completion of launchpad at Cape Canaveral
  The work also included installation of the oxygen, fuel & water farms and the horizontal integration facility for preparing the rocket and its payloads. Still no announced launch date, but the company is obviously getting close.

• Spanish rocket startup PLD gets another launch contract
  The deal is to launch for Sateliot two internet-of-things satellites in ’27. This is PLD’s second launch contract, the first from the European orbital tug company D-Orbit in 2025. The company hopes to do its first launch in ’26.

• On this date in 1965, the Ranger 8 spacecraft was launched on a mission to the Moon
  It took more than 7,000 high-resolution images before impacting the lunar surface.

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.

• Bankrupt Orbex suddenly shows off images of its Prime rocket
  Jay notes the engines appear to be missing. I note that the rocket was closer to launch than not. It simply couldn’t get past the UK’s red tape.

• The Boeing Starliner exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center is literally “out of order”
  The picture is hilarious, and as noted at the link, “The jokes really write themselves.”

• On this day in 2000, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft captured this rotation movie of the asteroid Eros
  It was the first mission specifically designed to study an asteroid.

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.

• Rocket Lab touts its proposed Mars Telecommunications Orbiter
  It along with Blue Origin and others are competing for the contract, and thus we get these kinds of PR tweets.

• Three hour time lapse from Feb 12th Vulcan launch of post payload deployment with Centaur upper stage dumping fuel and doing a possible disposal maneuver
  Footage taken from ground-based cameras.

• On this day in 1996 a Chinese Long March 3B rocket went out of control right after liftoff at the Xichang spaceport, crashing into town and causing substantial but unconfirmed of casualties
  As Jay notes, “30 years later and [China is] still dropping boosters on villages.” It seems its government cares very little for its people.

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.

• The splashed down Long March 10A test stage has been recovered
  More pictures here. Considering its journey it looks pretty good to me, though Jay thinks it’s “a little banged up.”

• SpaceX removes the crew access jetway at Kennedy launchpad LC 39A
  The pad is being rebuilt for Falcon Heavy and Starship/Superheavy, so no more Falcon 9 manned launches from here.

• Italy’s private high speed train company Italo signs agreement with Starlink
  It will charge passengers nothing for this Wi-Fi access.

• On this day in 2001 the NEAR-Shoemaker probe became the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid
  It had spent about a year flying in formation with Eros. The landing was improvised, as the spacecraft had not been designed to do that.

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.

• Isar Aerospace touts its new 40,000 square meter headquarters/rocket factory
  It plans to produce up to 40 rockets per year once fully operational. Of course, the company needs to successfully launch its rocket first.

• New ‘sungrazing’ comet could become visible to the naked eye, if the sun doesn’t destroy it
  The odds of it surviving its close approach, around a half million miles on April 4, are very slim.

• France commits €1 billion to support replenishment of Eutelsat’s OneWeb constellation
  The writer of the tweet thinks this deal by France is absurd and will simply be a waste of money. And based on OneWeb’s performance so far in competing with Starlink, this opinion could very well be right.

• On this day in 1970 Japan became the fourth country to launch its own satellite on its own rocket
  The satellite, Ohsumi, operated for less than a day, though it remained in orbit until 2003.

• On this day in 1984, Challenger became the first shuttle to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida
  Previously all shuttles landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

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.

• Video of Long March 10A first stage landing vertically in the ocean during test launch yesterday
  The footage shows the stage landed near the structure of cables that has been designed to catch it. Either it missed, or engineers decided to miss intentionally on this first attempt.

• FCC approves Amazon’s second-generation Leo system, expanding constellation to 7,000+ satellites
  This approval suggests the FCC is going to also approve Amazon’s request for a waiver on its original license requirement to get 1,616 satellites launched by July.

• On this day in 2001 ISS’s first laboratory module, Destiny, was installed by the crew of STS-98
  The tweet includes a great picture of the entire station taken by that crew as the shuttle was leaving.