Gene Watson – Farewell Party
An evening pause: Hat tip Jim Mallamace.
Atlas 5/Cygnus launch delayed until mid-April
ULA has delayed its next Atlas 5 launch to send a Cygnus cargo capsule to ISS until mid-April.
Gatens said NASA was now expecting the Cygnus to launch to the station no earlier than the middle of April. “The Orbital launch, the next launch, has slipped due to an investigation of a hydraulic leak in the booster engine compartment that’s in work,” she said. “There are some components being replaced. The investigation is going on and we’re currently targeting no earlier than, probably, a mid-April launch.”
ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said March 28 that a new launch date has not been set yet for the mission. “Additional information will be provided once testing to resolve the booster hydraulic issue is complete,” she said.
The launch was initially planned for mid-March. This delay has forced NASA to delay a spacewalk because it involves installing equipment that the Cygnus capsule is bringing to ISS.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Washington Bubble fights back against Capitalism in Space
The response to my policy paper, Capitalism in Space, has been not surprisingly mixed. Eric Berger at Ars Technica wrote a reasonable analysis that focused on the absurdly high overhead costs of SLS/Orion. There have also been a number of critical reviews, one in Forbes and a second today in the print edition of Space News.
Both have tried to discredit the facts I have put forth about the ungodly cost of SLS/Orion, when compared to commercial space, without actually citing any incorrect facts in my paper. The truth is that everything I have written is true. This graph from my paper remains fundamental:
SLS/Orion is costing four times as much, is taking more than twice as long to build, and is producing one tenth the operational flights. It is essentially a pork-laden jobs program that has no ability to get the United States anywhere in space. It might be an engineering marvel, but the cost is so high and its operational abilities so slow (one flight per year, at best) that it will never be a reliable and effective tool for exploring the solar system.
Meanwhile, private enterprise is getting innovative new rockets off the ground, for far less money, and repeatedly. If we want to settle the solar system, they are providing us the only viable way to do it.
People must recognize that these attacks are essentially the bubble of Washington working to protect its financial and intellectual interests. A lot of people in DC depend on keeping the faucet of government spending flowing to SLS/Orion, even if those projects accomplish nothing. In the case of the attacks from academics, they don’t like the fact that I am an outsider and not beholden to them. Moreover, they are instinctively appalled by the idea of allowing capitalism and freedom to operate freely, without their guiding hands controlling things. Such thoughts must be attacked and squelched (if possible), in order to protect their interests.
That they don’t seem to care that much about the interests of the American people and the country is quite revealing however. As some have said repeatedly, this is how you got Trump.
Genocidal professor wants protesters to silence speaker’s free speech rights
Fascist: The Drexel University professor who joked encouragingly for “white genocide” is now calling for protests to silence a lecturer at Villanova University.
George Ciccariello-Maher had claimed that he had only been joking when he had tweeted “all I want for Christmas is white genocide”. No one laughed then. Now he is demanding that protesters act to prevent Charles Murray from giving a speech at Villanova University. I don’t think anyone is laughing now either. You see, fascists aren’t really funny. They are vicious hateful people who want to destroy anyone who disagrees with them. The idea of freedom and free speech is alien to their thoughts.
They do like genocide, however. How interesting.
Note too that Drexel University did not consider Ciccariello-Maher’s genocide comment to be cause for censure. Is that a university you wish to send your kids to?
Update: Ciccariello-Maher also had this to say recently when he saw someone give up their first class seat to a soldier: “I’m trying not to vomit or yell about Mosul.”
I ask again: Who wants to send their kids to a university that considers this man qualified to teach?
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Vector signs deal with Georgia spaceport
Vector Space Systems has signed a deal with a Georgia spaceport to conduct one suborbital test flight there of its Vector-R rocket.
The agreement covers only one flight, but considering that Vector is also planning to launch from Kennedy, I think they are doing this to test their rocket’s ability to easily launch from multiple launch sites. It is a small mobile rocket, and they are probably designing its launch systems to be very mobile as well.
A look at Blue Origin’s upcoming plans
Two stories today give us a peek at Blue Origin’s future plans.
- Blue Origin working towards making the Cape its Orbital Launch Site
- Sneak Peek at New Shepard Crew Capsule
The first outlines how the company plans to launch its orbital rocket, New Glenn, from Florida. The second provides a photo tour of the company’s suborbital New Shepard capsule, as designed for tourist flights.
I must mention that I have been disappointed at the lack of test flights for New Shepard in recent months. Their last flight was in October, almost six months ago, when their test of the capsule’s launch abort system was supposedly a success. No tests since, even though they have said they planned the first manned test flights this year. I am beginning to wonder if they have decided to shift resources to the orbital system and thus slow the suborbital program down.
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
March 28, 2017 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold. Batchelor’s title: “SpaceX changes the launch game.”
» Read more
California to prosecute pro-life activists
Fascist state: California has charged two anti-abortion activists with 15 felonies for making undercover videos that proved Planned Parenthood sold baby parts for profit.
Prosecutors say Daleiden, of Davis, California, and Merritt, of San Jose, filmed 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado counties. One felony count was filed for each person. The 15th was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy.
Daleiden said in an email to The Associated Press that the “bogus” charges are coming from “Planned Parenthood’s political cronies. … The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners,” Daleiden said.The conversations included officials from Planned Parenthood and StemExpress, a California company that provides blood, tissue and other biological material for medical research and had received fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood. In one of the pair’s videos, Daleiden poses as “Robert Sarkis” of the phony Biomax Procurement Services and is shown discussing liver tissue with the chief executive of StemExpress at a Northern California restaurant.
The article tries to imply that the videos were edited deceptively, but anyone who has watched the full tapes can see that Planned Parenthood does exactly what filmmakers say, harvest baby parts for profit. For the Democratic officials that run California, revealing such facts is unacceptable, and must be punished.
A NASA Image and Video library, available to all
NASA has unveiled a new image and video library website that allows anyone to search through more than 140,000 NASA images, videos, and audio files.
I just tested it, putting “Apollo 8” as much search words. The site immediately made available a pretty nice collection of just under 300 images from that mission. The collection was far from complete (And I speak from experience, since when I wrote Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 I looked at every one of the images taken during the mission as well as most of the images taken by NASA’s press office as well as numerous others by every news source, including Life magazine.) but it was a start. It appears NASA intends to keep adding images with time.
ESA narrows landing site choice for ExoMars 2020 to two
The European Space Agency has narrowed its choice of landing sites for its ExoMars 2020 rover mission.
Two ancient sites on Mars that hosted an abundance of water in the planet’s early history have been recommended as the final candidates for the landing site of the 2020 ExoMars rover and surface science platform: Oxia Planum and Mawrth Vallis.
A primary technical constraint is that the landing site be at a suitably low level, so that there is sufficient atmosphere to help slow the landing module’s parachute descent. Then, the 120 x 19 km landing ellipse should not contain features that could endanger the landing, the deployment of the surface platform ramps for the rover to exit, and driving of the rover. This means scrutinising the region for steep slopes, loose material and large rocks.
Oxia Planum was selected in 2015 for further detailed evaluation. Although not yet complete, the investigation so far indicates that the region would meet the various constraints.
They will spend the next year evaluating both sites, though based on the press release it sounds as if Oxia Planum is the favorite.
David Gilmour – The Blue
<An evening pause: Hat tip t-dub.
French Guiana strikes continue
The strikes in French Guiana that canceled last week’s Ariane 5 launch have now escalated, practically paralyzing the country.
It also looks like this situation will not be settled quickly. Many of the local mayors have refused to meet with the representatives sent over by the French government.
Juno completes fifth flyby of Jupiter
Juno yesterday completed its fifth close flyby of Jupiter, dipping to within 2,700 miles of the gas giant’s clouds.
All instruments were working. There will be pictures, but the bulk of the science will be data collection, not pretty pictures.
Hot Wheels double loop dare
An evening pause: All things are possible, even silly things. And maybe silly things are the best.
Hat tip Gene Shipp.
Science discovers that cats prefer human companionship over food
News you can use: A new study has found that cats will choose human companionship over food if given a choice.
The researchers took 50 cats from shelters and peoples homes and deprived them of food, human contact, scent and toys for a few hours. They then introduced them to stimuli within these four categories to see what they chose.
Most cats chose human socialisation over any of the other categories.
From my perspective, what is even more important is that cats don’t choose those humans nonchalantly. Every cat lover knows that, unlike dogs, cats pick carefully whom they will love. But if they love you they show it.
Today’s modern fascist university
Two articles today illustrate once again the fascist totalitarian culture that now dominates many of today’s American colleges.
- Christian student suspended after challenging Muslim prof’s claim that Jesus wasn’t crucified
- Regis stops students from ‘protesting’ Social Justice Week
In both cases the university acted to oppress individuals who happened to express opinions dissenting from leftist/Muslim orthodoxy. In both cases the universities declined to respond when asked to comment. In both cases these stories are justifiable reasons for never sending your children to these schools.
I have recently been focusing on these university incidents because they are a good predictor of the future. Unless we take some meaningful and forceful action, these fascists will be running the country soon. Be prepared.
Reused first stage static fire dress rehearsal today
Update: The countdown and static fire test has been completed, apparently successfully. The launch however is now set for Thursday.
SpaceX today plans to do the first static fire dress rehearsal countdown of a Falcon 9 rocket using an already used first stage.
The static fire process for SpaceX and its Falcon 9 rocket is one of the last critical components in the pre-launch flow ahead of liftoff. For SES-10, the Falcon 9 and mated second stage will be moved to the launch pad on top of the TEL (Transporter Erector Launcher) and will be taken to vertical at historic launch complex 39A. Once the Falcon 9 is vertical, technicians and engineers will complete all of the connections between the TEL/launch mount and LC-39A and proceed into countdown operations on Monday morning.
For this particular static fire, SpaceX has up to an eight-hour window.
If all goes well, they plan to do the actual launch on Wednesday.
The article by the way also provides a nice detailed history of the first stage.
“Limited in attention span, all about big talk and identity politics, but uninterested in substance.”
Link here. Read it all. The disgusting refusal of the Republican leadership to lead, to do what they have promised for seven years and repeal Obamacare, demonstrates their fundamental corruption. Another quote:
In this case, the hardliners were playing a productive role by pointing out the real policy consequences of the piecemeal approach being pursued by the House leadership. Though we’ll never know for sure how the numbers might have looked if a vote had taken place, it’s clear that many centrist members of the Republican caucus were also prepared to vote this bill down. House conservatives, if they could be blamed for anything, it’s for having the audacity to urge leadership to actually honor seven years of pledges to voters to repeal Obamacare. If anybody was moving the goal posts, it wasn’t Freedom Caucusers, it was those who were trying to sell a bill that kept much of Obamacare’s regulatory architecture in place as a free market repeal and replace plan.
And then there’s this. Make sure you read it all.
Update: And read this as well: “While Democrats lie in pursuit of their goals and aspirations, Republicans lie in pursuit of the other side’s ideals.”
I am reminded of the political situation in the late 1960s. The baby boom generation wanted a leftist Congress passing leftist laws. They had the momentum and the culture behind them. Congress was reluctant to go that way. It took more than a decade, until Jimmy Carter’s administration, before a really leftist Congress was in place and able to pass that agenda.
We are in the same boat now. The left is losing ground steadily. The conservatives are on the rise, and want their agenda passed. The problem is that Congress is behind the times and refusing to face this new cultural reality. Whether it ever will remains a question, however, since it is unclear to me whether the right has the same determination and no retreat approach held by the left in the 1960s and 1970s.
March 23, 2017 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold.
» Read more
X-37B sets new orbital record
The X-37B presently in orbit this weekend set a record for the longest in-orbit flight for the Air Force’s fleet of two ships.
As of today (March 25), the X-37B has spent 675 days on its latest Earth-circling mission, which is known as Orbital Test Vehicle-4 (OTV-4). The previous record was 674 days, set during OTV-3, which lasted from December 2012 to October 2014. It’s unclear what the new duration record will end up being; most X-37B activities and payloads are classified, and the Air Force has historically been tight-lipped about landing plans.