Behind The Black – Robert Zimmerman

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer touts video of rocket engine static fire test

• Chinese pseudo-company Deep Blue touts video of rocket engine static fire test

• Chinese pseudo-company Landspace touts video of rocket engine static fire test

As Jay notes, “Look at all the test firings happening at the same time. This must have been commanded from above [by] Xi, the CCP, or the PLA, to show off Chinese technology.” All three have launches proposed this year and next, with Landspace the most developed of the three.

• ULA’s Vulcan rocket rolls from assembly building to its launchpad

The rocket’s first launch, carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, is still targeting January 8, 2023. ULA’s live stream of the launch can be found here.

• 75 years ago today Chuck Yaeger flew the Bell X-1 supersonic plane in its only ground take-off

All other X-1 flights were released in the air from the bottom of either a Boeing B-29 or a B-50 Superfortress.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• ULA video describes the mission profile of its first Vulcan launch scheduled for January 8th

According to the video, the Celestis payload of human ashes is not on the Astrobotic lunar lander, as I had thought, but are on the rocket upper stage, which will go into solar orbit after completing its mission. If so, the Navaho whining about putting human remains on the Moon was even more inappropriate and stupid.

• India’s Aditya-L1 solar telescope to make its final manuever this coming weekend

It will arrive at the L1 point one million miles closer to the Sun, where it will observe the Sun in partnership with several other solar telescopes.

• 20 years ago today the rover Spirit landed on Mars

It lasted six years, far more than its planned 90 day mission.

• 25 years ago today Mars Polar Lander was launched

All contact with the spacecraft ended shortly before its final engine burn to enter Mars atmosphere. It is thought that engine burn ended prematurely, causing the spacecraft to crash.

• The May 2024 launch China’s Chang’e-6 sample return mission to the Moon remains on target

It will try to bring back the first samples from the Moon’s far side.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. I am probably taking most of the rest of the day off, having just gotten back from cataract surgery on one eye. No problems, but I don’t have a lot of energy right now. If I perk up something might happen, but I can’t say if that will be the case.

• SpaceX official confirms its goal of achieving 144 launches in 2024

Kiko Dontchev is SpaceX’s VP of launch operations. He notes that they must be capable of doing thirteen launches per month to give them margin to meet this twelve-launch-per-month goal.

• Skyrora notes its has submitted a launch license to the UK’s CAA regulatory body

No dates provided, so we don’t know how long they have already been waiting for approval. The tweet notes optimistically that because their spaceport — Saxavord on the Shetland Islands — now has a spaceport license things will begin moving shortly. We shall see.

• California museum to mothball space shuttle Endeavour for several years while it upgrades the exhibit

It is building a new building to house the shuttle, where it will be put on display in the more dramatic vertical position.

• Satellite building Terran Orbital appears to have had payment issues from its biggest customer, Rivada

It appears the most recent payment to Terran arrived late. The compnay has a $2.4 billion contract to build Rivada’s 576 satellite constellation, 288 of which must be in orbit by mid-2026 to meet its FCC license requirements.

• ESA touts its use of solar-powered electrolysis to produce rocket hydrogen fuel at its French Guiana spaceport

This is nothing more than simple-minded virtue signalling that does more harm than good. ESA spent forty million euros building the system, even though it is far less efficient than the traditional way. As Jay wrote, “The most efficient way is to inject high pressure steam into methane. There are many ways to get hydrogen, but that is the best way to make large volumes of it.”

• NSIL, India’s new government agency designed to encourage private enterprise, has signed SpaceX for the first time to launch one of its communications satellites later this year

It appears that NSIL is essentially telling ISRO, India’s space agency, it no longer has a monopoly on Indian launches, that NSIL and the Modi government mean business in their effort to transition from a Soviet-style government-run space program to a commercial space industry where ISRO is merely one of many customers. I suspect SpaceX had two other advantages over ISRO, price and reliability. Its Falcon 9 is certainly cheaper to use, and ISRO has had some failures on its recent launches of India’s communications satellites.

• India plans two unmanned Gaganyaan test missions in 2024

This will be followed by a third unmanned test mission early in 2025, followed by the manned mission later that year.

• Another Chinese pseudo-company proposes building a fleet of SpaceX copycat rockets

Like many of these Chinese pseudo-companies, its plans are not much better than a powerpoint presentation at this point.

• The Ingenuity team finally posts the numbers for the helicopter’s December 22, 2023 70th flight

It appears it did as it usually does, flying slightly farther for a few seconds more, probably in order to make sure it had a good landing site.

• APL’s high stratospheric GUSTO balloon launched on New Year’s Eve from Antarctica to do astronomy

It is presently flying at 128,000 feet. You can follow its journey here.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• A look at Europe’s Proba-3 dual science satellites, designed to observed the atmosphere of the Sun

The two satellites will work in tandem, simulating an eclipse with one satellite blocking the Sun’s light so the second can observe that atmosphere, called the corona. The launch is set for September ’24.

• First Angara launch from Russia’s Vostochny spaceport in March will carry no payload

This will be Angara’s third test launch, all lacking a payload, suggesting Russia now has rocket capacity that exceeds its payload capacity. It certainly no longer has any western satellite customers.