Leon Redbone – Old Familiar Blues
An evening pause: That’s Cindy Cashdollar playing behind him.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Tag: commercial
SpaceX successfully launches 53 Starlink satellites
Using its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX early this morning successfully launched from Cape Canaveral another 53 Starlink satellites.
This was the 200th Falcon 9 launch. The first stage, making its fifth flight, landing successfully on a drone ship in the Atlantic. The two fairing halves completed their sixth and seventh flight respectively. At of this writing the satellites themselves have not yet been deployed.
The 2023 launch race:
8 SpaceX
5 China
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan
American private enterprise now leads China 9 to 5 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 9 to 6.
Petula Clark – Sign Of The Times
A evening pause: This performance, almost certainly lip-synced, is from the Ed Sullivan Show in 1966. It is absolutely worth watching, not only because the song is good, but the set, costumes, and dance choreography will give those too young to have lived in the 1960s a real sense of the crazy no-holds-barred culture of that time. People were willing and free to try anything.
Hat tip Diane Zimmerman.
Is Amazon’s Kuiper Constellation project in trouble, or is it fleeing Seattle?
According to a on-going listing of open space-related jobs in Seattle, Amazon has almost completely ceased hiring in that city, even as it is about to launch the first prototype test satellites in its proposed internet Kuiper satellite constellation.
To see the decline, take a gander at the graph here.
The analyst at the first link also noted in a later tweet this fact about Amazon hiring in Seattle:
…Went from 189 at end of October to 14 yesterday (in WA state, not total). It’s unusual, at least in the nearly 3 years I’ve been monitoring. Could be due largely due to Amazon hiring freeze.
Amazon is required by its FCC license to get over 1,600 Kuiper satellites launched in the next 40 months. The first two are only scheduled for launch on the first Vulcan launch now targeting a late March liftoff. As test prototypes, they will have to be tested for a period of time in orbit, followed by an assessment that might require changes in the design and construction of later satellites. These satellites would then have to be launched at an unprecedented rate, almost faster than anything SpaceX has done with its Starlink constellation.
At the moment it thus seems impossible for Amazon to meet the FCC deadline.
That the company appears to have stopped hiring space-related positions in Seattle at this very moment makes that goal even more impossible. This hiring freeze thus suggests that management has decided that the Kuiper project is untenable and is quietly cutting it off at the knees.
Or it could be that the hiring freeze is instead an indication that Amazon is slowly shifting operations out of leftist and insane Washington state. If so, work on the Kuiper project, including hiring, might be going on elsewhere.
Regardless, the state of the Kuiper project continues to be tenuous and uncertain, at best.
Hat tip to Jay, BtB’s stringer.
Two die at Northrop Grumman facility that makes solid rocket boosters
Two individuals died last night from an as-yet unknown cause at the Northrop Grumman Bacchus facility in Utah that makes solid rocket strap-on boosters for ULA’s rockets.
Further details about what exactly led to the deaths and who died were not made available.
The West Valley City Fire and Police Departments said they responded to the Bacchus facility after the two employees were found unconscious. Crews attempted life-saving measures and transported the two employees to the hospital, where they later died.
An investigation into the incident is ongoing by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Depending on circumstances, delivery of strap-on boosters for upcoming Atlas-5 and Vulcan launches could be impacted.
Hat tip to Jay, BtB’s stringer.
Developments at the Houston Spaceport industry park
Link here. The article gives a detailed review of the various space-related businesses (Axiom, Intuitive Machines, Collins Aerospace) that have set up operations at this industry park focused on attracting space companies to the Houston area.
The park in a sense in misnamed, as it isn’t a launch facility. However, it is now building a taxiway that will connect the park directly to Ellington Airport, which for these businesses will help facilitate the transport of large space station modules and lunar landers.
Linda Ronstadt – You’re No Good
An evening pause: Performed live on television, 1973.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
SpaceX successfully launches 49 Starlink satellites and a D-Orbit space tug
SpaceX today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch 49 Starlink satellites as well as a D-Orbit space tug carrying one of its own customer’s satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The first stage successfully completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The D-Orbit tug with its four payloads has also successfully deployed.
The 2023 launch race:
7 SpaceX
5 China
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan
American private enterprise leads China 8 to 5 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 8 to 6.
Gary Wright – Love Is Alive
An evening pause: Performed live on television 1976.
Hat tip Tom Wilson.
Norah Jones – Come Away With Me
An evening pause: Performed live in New Orleans 2002.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Lalo Schifrin – Mission Impossible
An evening pause: Performed live in Prague, 2010.
Hat tip Roland.
German rocket startup Isar Aerospace gets first American customer
The German rocket startup Isar Aerospace, which hopes to complete the first launch of its Spectrum rocket this year, has signed its first launch contract with an American company, the satellite broker and space tug company Spaceflight.
U.S.-based launch services provider Spaceflight said Jan. 25 it has booked a dedicated launch in 2026 from Isar Aerospace, the German rocket developer aiming to perform the first test flight of its Spectrum vehicle this year. The mission is slated to lift off from Isar’s launchpad in Andøya, Norway, to sun-synchronous orbit (SSO).
Their agreement also includes an option for an additional dedicated launch in 2025, which Isar chief commercial officer Stella Guillen told SpaceNews could also use a launchpad it is developing at the Guiana Space Center near Kourou, French Guiana.
Spaceflight has been scrambling to find rockets for its tugs, since SpaceX announced in March 2022 it would no longer carry them. It signed a deal with Arianespace to fly on its Vega rocket, but launch failures have delayed its launch.
Isar is one of three German rocket startups vying for business. The race to be the first to launch remains very tight.