David Bowie – The Man Who Sold The World
An evening pause: Performed live 2000.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
Tag: commercial
George Winston – Thanksgiving
An evening pause: For a winter’s evening.
Hat tip Alton Blevins.
January 3, 2023 Quick space links
Courtesy of BtB’s stringer, who trolls the web to make sure I don’t miss any important stories.
- Astronaut Walt Cunningham has passed away
Cunningham only flew in space once, on Apollo 7, the first shakedown flight of the Apollo capsule in October 1968. The flight lasted ten days, had no technical problems at all, though all three astronauts caught colds. Its success paved the way for the Apollo 8 mission around the Moon two months later.
- LeoLabs files petition with FCC requesting it rethink the limitations it placed on SpaceX’s Starlink constellation [pdf]
It appears the FCC took an arbitrary number LeoLabs had used in a presentation merely for “ease of exposition and calculation in describing the methodology” and made it the basis for limiting the number of satellites SpaceX could launch. LeoLabs wants the FCC to fix this.
- The trailer for the Russian sci-fi movie, The Challenge, that was partly filmed on ISS last year, has now been released
It is very clear that they got a lot of good footage when they were on ISS. It is a shame however that this trailer doesn’t have English subtitles, because I think it probably could make some money from American filmgoers.
SpaceX raises another $750 million in private investment capital
SpaceX has just completed another round of fund-raising, gaining another $750 million in private investment capital.
This additional money now means that SpaceX has raised about $10 billion in private money, most of which is being used for the development of Starship and Superheavy. When we add the $4 billion SpaceX will get from NASA for Starship, the company now has $14 billion to build this new rocket.
SpaceX starts 2023 with first launch of year
SpaceX today opened the 2023 launch race with first launch of year, using its Falcon 9 rocket to place 114 satellites into orbit, most of which are smallsats.
The first stage completed its 15th flight, landing safely at Cape Canaveral. As of this writing deployment of the many smallsats is ongoing.
John Williams – The Cowboys Overture
An evening pause: It is more than a decade since I last posted this magnificent piece of music from the 1972 John Wayne film, The Cowboys. Time to post it again, because I think it makes a great start to a new year. Rather than John Williams conducting, this time we have a 2018 performance by the Stanisław Moniuszko School of Music Orchestra in Bielsko Biała, Poland, Andrzej Kucybała, conductor.
Rocketry went BOOM! in 2022, but in a good way
In my 2021 annual report on the global launch industry, I noted that while 2021 was a banner year for the global launch industry:
Not all is sweetness and light of course. Competition and freedom always includes risk. Some of these new companies will certainly fail. The demand for launch services might not be enough to sustain them all. And factors outside the control of anyone, such as war and further panics like the Wuhan panic, could shut them all down.
In 2022 the launch industry not only topped 2021, setting a new record for successful launches in a single year, the industry was reshaped and changed by the very factors I warned about one year ago. The Russian invasion of the Ukraine resulted in Russia losing its one remaining satellite customer from the west, OneWeb, while the challenges of rocketry caused one already successful launch company, Astra, to suspend its launch services in order to develop a more competitive rocket.
Nonetheless, 2022 remained the most successful year ever in rocketry, smashing the record for successful launches in a single year, set the previous year, by more than 33%. The graph below illustrates well the unprecedented success of 2022.
» Read more
Hakuto-R successfully completes second mid-course correction
Hakuto-R’s planned landing site is in Atlas Crater.
According to Ispace, the private lunar lander company based in Japan, its Hakuto-R lander has now successfully completed second mid-course correction, and is functioning as expected on its way to the Moon.
The maneuver was carried out shortly after midnight on Jan. 2, 2023 (Japan Standard Time) and operations were managed from ispace’s mission control center located in Nihonbashi, Tokyo. This orbital control maneuver is the second maneuver to occur while the lander has been traveling to the moon. The first orbital control maneuver was completed on December 15, 2022. The second maneuver was carried out at a greater distance from Earth and lasted for a longer period than the first maneuver, verifying the company’s capability to carry out orbital maneuvers under various conditions.
As of Jan. 2, 2023, the lander has traveled approximately 1.24 million kilometers from the Earth and is scheduled to be at its farthest point of approximately 1.4 million km from the Earth by Jan. 20, 2023. Once the lander reaches its farthest point from Earth, a third orbital control maneuver may be performed, depending on its navigational status.
While Hakuto-R carries a number of commercial payloads — including Rashid, the first lunar rover built by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — its primary goal is engineering. Ispace is using this mission to demonstrate its ability as a company to do this, in anticipation of later commercial planetary missions.
Manualist John Twomey on The Tonight Show, New Year’s eve, 1986
A evening pause: This silliness is perfect as we head into the New Year’s eve weekend.
Note: He was anticipating a Michigan victory in the Rose Bowl, which wouldn’t happen until the next day. Unfortunately, Michigan lost.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
SpaceX successfully launches Israeli imaging satellite
SpaceX today successfully launched an Israeli Earth-observation satellite, using its Falcon 9 rocket.
The first stage successfully completed its eleventh flight, touching down softly at SpaceX’s facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
This launch completes SpaceX’s 2022 launch year, with a record 61 launches, one more than predicted by the company earlier in the year, and the most ever by a privately owned company.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
62 China
61 SpaceX
21 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA
The U.S. now leads China 85 to 62, while trailing the rest of the entire world combined 94 to 85. The 85 launches for the U.S. is a new record for a single year, smashing the record of 70 launches set in 1966.
On Monday I will publish my annual full roundup of the state of global launch industry, based on the 2022 numbers.
Beth Hart – Jazz Man
An evening pause: The studio this was recorded in was once a church, and that apparently gave Hart some extra inspiration.
Hat tip John Jossy.
Lex Fridman – Playing Guitar in a Self-Driving Car
An evening pause: The guitar playing is great, but if this is supposed to be a demonstration of the abilities of self-driving cars, to me it is a utter failure. The drive was on a test track, with no other cars. The car itself was probably never going faster than 25 miles per hour.
In fact, if anything this proves the impracticality of self-driving cars. Such technology might work in a completely controlled environment, but as soon as you add any random human element, it can’t work. Thus our options: we continue to drive ourselves, or we give up our freedom to drive so that all vehicles can be autonomous.
But as I say, the guitar playing is great.
Hat tip Wayne Devette.