Behind The Black – Robert Zimmerman

Courtesy of Jay, BtB’s stringer.

• It appears China is beginning to stretch out its long term space goals

The tweet notes new delayed target dates for China’s Mars sample return mission, asteroid mission, and exoplanet telescope, to name just three. I see this as typical of a government-run program. In the end the focus of such government programs always shifts from their stated goals to simply providing government jobs on Earth. Thus, delays become a feature, not a bug.

• Super Guppy airplane arrives in Florida to ship NASA-built station module to Axiom’s facility in Houston

Four Multi-Purpose Logistics Modules (MPLM) were flown by the shuttle as temporary modules to ISS. Axiom has apparently purchased one to use as part of its private station that will initially be attached to ISS, then separated to fly independent.

• Former Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin injured while in restaurant in Ukrainian occupied territory

Apparently he was in a restaurant celebrating his birthday when he “received shrapnel wounds to the soft tissues of the head, the buttocks and left thigh.”

Though few details were released, the known facts suggest this was an attack by the Ukrainian underground, which has routinely targeted Russian officials in its attacks.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Fiscal year 2023 omnibus bill provides $25.4 billion for NASA

Increases the budget by 5.6% from last year. Overall, it appears Congress is funding everything as NASA wishes, while maintaining pork projects like SLS and Orion.

• Is Virgin Orbit a Phantom in the UK?

Interesting article, but in a word, the answer has always been “Yes!” Virgin Orbit wants to launch from Cornwall in the UK, but its factories and management is all U.S. based. Since its launch vehicle is an airplane, it is not likely to bring much else to the UK for a very long time. For anyone in Britain to think otherwise is to live in a fantasy world.

• Virgin pumps another $20M into Virgin Orbit. $25M was pumped in last month.

This money is once again needed to cover the loss of revenue because of its lack of launches in the second half of 2022, caused partly by red tape in the UK and partly from rocket technical problems.

• The secret payloads of Russia’s Glonass navigation satellites

Detailed historical article, much of it describing detectors designed to monitor nuclear tests to make sure the U.S. did not violate any test ban treaties. The U.S. equivalent was its Vela satellites.

• Video of fairing release test of new Tianlong-2 rocket from Chinese pseudo-company Space-Pioneer

According to Jay, “Tianlong-2 is almost a knockoff of the expendable Falcon-1 rocket, but it has twice the payload.”

 

Three quick links providing graphics of China’s next generation crew spacecraft, suggesting it will be larger. None should be taken very seriously, as yet.

• Animation of China’s crewed lunar landing mission with the next-generation crew spacecraft

• Graphic showing the new crew spacecraft compared to Shenzhou crew capsule

The new version is wider, 5 meters in diameter, and appears to not use fairings during launch.

• Animation showing new crew spacecraft docking a Tiangong-3 with an additional module

The new spacecraft is docking with the bottom port, so that much of it is not visible.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Longer video of Zhuque-2 launch failure

You need to scroll down to see the second part, which appears to end before the failure.

• Ham radio cubesat released from Tiangong-3

More details about the satellite here.

• PR film from rocket startup Stoke Space

The most interesting part is where the film describes the company’s 2nd stage, which uses many mini-thrusters in a ring to make it reusable. For more info, see this October 2021 post.

• Roscosmos head Borisov claims Soyuz leak hole is about 0.8mm in size

This was part of his press statement that TASS reported earlier, but without including this one detail. How Borisov knows the hole size however is not explained.