Tag: freedom

A major very public protest against Hamas by Gazans

12:04 pm

Protest against Hamas, in Gaza
Protest against Hamas, in Gaza

In what might signal a major turning point in Israel’s war against Hamas, many hundreds of Gazans earlier this week marched through the ruins protesting against Hamas quite publicly and apparently with no fear.

Hundreds of Gazans marched through the northern town of Beit Lahiya carrying white flags and chanting anti-Hamas slogans, according to videos posted from the scene, which showed participants calling for peace, press coverage, and the release of hostages.

In a rare public uprising against Hamas rule in Gaza, demonstrators took to the streets outside the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza. Footage shared on social media on Tuesday captured a crowd of protesters demanding an end to what they called “tyrant rule,” with chants of “Out, out, out! Hamas out!” and “We want to live!” echoing through the streets.

The images to the right are a screen capture from this video. The tweet claims thousands participated in this protest, with chants of “Down with Hamas, we’ve had enough, Hamas!”

Hamas has controlled Gaza for almost two decades. In that time any hint of protest against it has been routinely met quickly with brutal and violent retaliation. It now appears however that its power within Gaza has been severely damaged by Israel’s aggressive war, killing one leader after another with amazing efficiency.

Recently for example I have noticed in watching videos posted by Hamas supposedly showing Gazans cheering its effort, that if you look closely at the people in the crowd, many do not appear to be enthusiastic or supportive. Instead, these so-called Hamas supporters often have appeared sullen, joining the chants reluctantly almost out of fear.

These new protests against Hamas I think give us a better sense of the situation. Even though there is ample evidence that until recently Gazans of all stripes supported Hamas and were willing to eagerly aid it in its terrorist acts of murder, rape, and torture, it appears that Hamas’s failures in the war are finally taking their toll on its popularity.

These protests are a great opportunity for Israel, if it moves fast. If it can find and identify these protesters, especially their leaders, and protect them, it will further isolate Hamas and make its destruction more likely. It will also sow the seeds of a new leadership in Gaza that might actually be willing to live in peace with Israel.

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Isar launch several times scrubbed due to high winds, rescheduled for tomorrow

9:16 am

Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Proposed spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea

The German rocket startup Isar Aerospace, forced to scrub the first launch of its Spectrum rocket from Norway’s Andoya spaceport several times this week due to high winds, is now targeting a launch tomorrow, March 27, 2025, at 7:30 am (Eastern).

Munich-based Isar Aerospace postponed the debut launch of its Spectrum rocket, citing unfavorable winds at Norway’s Andøya Spaceport. On Tuesday, Isar said it will now target Thursday at 7:30 a.m. EDT for the highly anticipated test flight, which could pave the way for a more robust European presence in the commercial space industry.

The mission will not have a payload—rather, it will serve as the first integrated test of all rocket systems. And no matter what happens, Isar said it will view the test as a success.

…Standing about 92 feet tall with a diameter of about 6 feet, Spectrum is designed to carry payloads of up to 2,200 pounds to low Earth orbit. The two-stage vehicle burns 40 tons of liquid oxygen and propane across its nine first-stage Aquila engines and single second-stage engine. Unlike Falcon 9, though, the vehicle is not reusable, which is what allowed SpaceX to lower launch costs and take command of the market.

Isar’s goal is to eventually produce up to 40 Spectrum vehicles annually at its facility near Munich. Per Metzler, it builds nearly all components in house and is already producing two more rockets. The company is operating with about $435 million in funding from private investors as well as the NATO Innovation Fund and German government.

If successful, Isar will win the race to become the first new private rocket company from Europe to get to orbit. The launch will also inaugurate orbital operations from Andoya, giving Norway the first commercial spaceport in Europe, beating out both of the UK’s proposed spaceports that had begun work much earlier.

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Rocket Lab launches eight satellites for constellation to monitor wildfires

8:43 am

Rocket Lab today successfully launched eight satellites for German company OroraTech and its commercial constellation for monitoring wildfires, its Electron rocket lifting off from one of its two launchpads in New Zealand.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

34 SpaceX
14 China
5 Rocket Lab
4 Russia

SpaceX still leads the rest of the world in successfully launches, 34 to 26.

This is not the last launch expected today. Both China and SpaceX plan launches, with the Chinese launch scheduled to have occurred already. More information to follow as it becomes available.

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Firefly awards Blue Origin subsidiary contract to build rover for third Blue Ghost mission

9:12 am

Blue Ghost 3 landing site
Blue Ghost 3 landing site

Firefly yesterday announced that it has awarded the Blue Origin subsidiary Honeybee Robotics a contract to build a rover for its third Blue Ghost mission to the Moon.

Firefly Aerospace and Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, today announced Honeybee was contracted by Firefly to provide the lunar rover for the company’s recently awarded NASA task order to explore the Gruithuisen Domes on the Moon’s near side in 2028. Once deployed on the Moon by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, Honeybee’s rover will carry NASA instruments to investigate the unique composition of the Gruithuisen Domes.

The funding for this rover actually comes from NASA, awarded first to Firefly which has in turn given a subcontract to Honeybee.

Before this 2028 mission however Firefly will launch its second Blue Ghost mission to the Moon, targeting a 2026 launch date. That second mission will not only land on the far side of the Moon, it will also deploy two lunar orbiters, one for European and the second Firefly’s own orbital tug for these spacecraft that will also service as a communications satellite after deployment.

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ESA announces competitive program to encourage new European rocket startups

8:56 am

The European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday announced a new competitive award program, dubbed the European Launcher Challenge, designed to give contracts to new European rocket startups to help them develop their own rockets.

Proposals are due no later than May 5, 2025. The program will award up to $183 million to each company, depending on its application. The program has two components, one for rockets that will serve government contracts and will launch beginning in 2026, and the second for rockets that are upgraded by 2028. In both cases a company must complete a demonstration launch by 2027 to qualify for any award. More details here.

Essentially, ESA is structuring this program to provide free subsidies to those companies it decides it likes, with anywhere from two to three getting awards. In January six rocket startups — HyImpulse, Latitude, MaiaSpace, Orbex, Rocket Factory Augsburg and The Exploration Company — submitted a joint letter to ESA endorsing the program and outlining how they think the program should be structured.

Interestingly, the two rocket startups did not sign that letter, Isar Aerospace from Germany and PLD from Spain. Of all these companies, these two are actually closest to launch, with Isar about to attempt its first launch and PLD having already completed a suborbital test flight and building its launch sites in French Guiana and Duqm, Oman.

Officials at PLD are quoted here as apparently opposed to this ESA award program.

“We need to let the market select a winner,” Raúl Verdú, co-founder and chief business development officer of the company, said at the January conference. “Today, to be very honest, it is super-hard to select who will be the winner.”

It will be interesting to see this government program play out. Right now it appears designed to play favorites, a typical European approach. There is a good chance however that it will not do this, and will instead succeed in jumpstarting an independent, competitive European rocket industry. The program’s main structure remains sound, truly capitalistic, whereby the government owns nothing and simply acts as a customer, buying rockets from competing companies on the open market.

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SpaceX launches reconnaissance satellite for National Reconnaissance Office

11:21 am

SpaceX today successfully placed a classified reconnaissance payload into orbit for National Reconnaissance Office, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

The first stage completed its second flight, landing back at Cape Canaveral.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

34 SpaceX
14 China
4 Russia
4 Rocket Lab

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successfully launches, 34 to 25.

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South Korean rocket startup Innospace details successful tests of its portable launchpad

9:39 am

Engineering test prototype during tests
Click for original image.

The South Korean rocket startup Innospace has now provided some additional details about its testing of the portable launchpad and strongback that it will use on its first planned rocket launch in July 2025.

The Launch Pad-Vehicle Interface Integrated System Test comprehensively verifies the operational readiness of the launch vehicle and launch pad, covering processes from vehicle assembly and pad integration to vertical erection, propellant supply system checks, and final operational validation. During the test, INNOSPACE confirmed the mechanical and electrical interfaces between the launch pad and vehicle, the transporter erector launcher system, the detachment of the Umbilical, the fuel and oxidizer supply system, and the separation of the launch vehicle hold-down mechanism, ensuring technical reliability and operational stability.

The launch pad that successfully completed the test, is scheduled for maritime transportation to the Alcântara Space Center in Brazil on April 2. Upon arrival in May, it will undergo installation and final verification in the local environment to complete preparations for launch operations. In addition, the launch vehicle used in this test was the HANBIT-Nano Qualification Model (QM), which shares the same specifications—21.8 meters in height and 1.4 meters in diameter—as the Flight Model (FM) scheduled for launch in July.

The company will still need to do these same tests in Brazil at its Alcântara spaceport using the actual rocket, dubbed Hanbit-Nano, before the launch can occur. Thus. meeting that July target date is likely difficult if not impossible. At the same time it does appear the company has a chance of launching before the end of this year.

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NASA drops its DEI emphasis on race and sex in describing who will fly on first Artemis lunar landing

8:55 am

Not surprisingly, considering Trump’s executive orders demanding all government agencies discontinue their racial and sex quotas based on the bigoted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, NASA has now deleted any mention of launching the first “woman and person of color” on its first Artemis lunar landing mission.

The Artemis landing page of Nasa’s website previously included the words: “Nasa will land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.” The version of the page live on the website on Friday, however, appears with the phrase removed.

During the Biden administration every single press release about this first Artemis lunar landing touted these racial and sexual qualifications, as if it was the only thing that mattered in choosing the right astronauts for the job. It was not only illegal discrimination against men and whites, it was insulting to minorities and women.

This change in language does not mean that NASA will now purposely exclude “women or people of color” from that mission. Instead, it ends the emphasis on race and sex. The astronauts NASA chooses for the flight will now be picked based on more important considerations, such as experience and talent. Picking someone because of their race or gender is like picking someone because of the color of their eyes or hair. It is stupid and misguided. Trump has now ended that stupidity.

Or at least he is forcing NASA’s management make its bigotry less obvious. We should not be surprised if that management still intends to make race and sex a major criteria. They will simply no longer blast that decision with a bullhorn.

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The insane left keeps shooting itself in the foot!

1:41 pm

Tesla vandal identified and arrested
Click for video.

The recent string of vandalism of Tesla vehicles as well as swatting attacks on well known conservatives by leftist crazies might be scary, horrifying, and disgusting, but if you take a step back from these emotions for a second to look dispassionately at the situation, you will realize these attacks are only the dying screams of a bankrupt political movement that has no proposals, no ideas, and no goals except the obtaining of power — now through the use of violence because its political support has dropped to such record lows.

First, the attacks are beyond senseless. In the case of the vandalism of Teslas, the attacks are actually doing harm to those who in the past were most likely to have supported the Democratic Party’s leftist political agenda. Conservatives in general have not been buying electric vehicles, because they have no need to virtue signal leftist climate goals. So, by damaging Teslas owned by innocent bystanders, just because the car was built by a company founded by Elon Musk, the vandals are not only not winning converts to their cause, they are making enemies of people who were once on their side.
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China and SpaceX complete launches

9:03 am

Two more launches since yesterday. First, SpaceX successfully launched a National Reconnaissance Office classified surveillance satellite, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off shortly before midnight from Vandenberg in California.

The first stage not only completed its fourth flight, landing back at Vandenberg, it did so setting a new record for the shortest turnaround from its previous flight, only ten days previously. The fairings completed their fourth and seventh flights respectively.

China then followed, with its pseudo-company Galactic Energy placing six weather satellites into orbit, its solid-fueled Ceres-1 rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan spaceport in northwest China. China’s state run press provided no information on where the rocket’s lower stages crashed inside China. This was the second launch for Galactic Energy this week, and the nineteenth overall, making it the most successful Chinese pseudo-company. That its rocket is solid-fueled tells us that it is based on missile technology, which also tells us that the company is not really an independent company as we conceive it in the west, but closely controlled and supervised by China’s military.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

33 SpaceX
14 China
4 Russia
4 Rocket Lab

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successfully launches, 33 to 25.

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NASA’s still undecided as to Starliner’s next flight

9:27 am

Starliner docked to ISS
Starliner docked to ISS.

Though it now appears that the management at both NASA and Boeing are still committed to getting Boeing’s manned Starliner capsule certified for commercial flights, NASA remains undecided as to the scope and nature of the capsule’s next test flight.

[T]esting will be a big part of the next Starliner flight, whenever it lifts off. “We need to make sure we can eliminate the helium leaks; eliminate the service module thruster issues that we had on docking,” [said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program].

NASA has not yet decided whether the coming Starliner flight will carry astronauts or not, he added. But even if the mission is uncrewed, the agency wants it to be crew-capable — “to have all the systems in place that we could fly a crew with,” Stich said. “As I think about it, it might be there for a contingency situation, as we prepare for whatever events could happen,” he added. “One of the things that I’ve learned in my time at NASA is, always be prepared for the unexpected.”

NASA plans to certify Starliner for operational, long-duration astronaut missions shortly after this next flight, if all goes well.

Stich’s comments took place during a press conference following the return of the Starliner crew on SpaceX’s Freedom capsule.

There had been rumors last year that NASA would pay Boeing to use Starliner on a cargo mission to ISS, thus saving the company the cost of flying another demo mission on its own dime. I suspect those plans have now been squashed by the Trump administration, which is likely to insist that Boeing honor the deal in its fixed price contract. If so, the next flight will once again be a demo mission to prove the capsule’s systems, paid for by Boeing. Whether astronauts fly on it will be a political decision made by Trump, with advice from NASA management. And that decision cannot occur until NASA’s new administrator is confirmed and has had time to review the situation.

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Firefly releases movie of lunar sunset

9:59 am

Sunset on the Moon
Click for original image.

Using imagery taken by Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander, the company today released a short movie showing sunset on the Moon, from several different angles.

I have embedded that movie below. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, is one of the photos from that movie. It shows the Sun on the horizon, with the Earth above it and Venus the small bright dot in between.

One alien aspect of the Moon that that while the Sun (and Venus) slowly crossed the sky during Firefly’s two week mission, going from just after sunrise in the east to sunset in the west, the Earth remained stationary in this location above the horizon. This phenomenon occurs because the length of the Moon’s day and its orbit around the Earth are the same length, so that one hemisphere always faces the Earth. Blue Ghost landed in Mare Crisium on the eastern edge of that hemisphere. At that location the Earth always hangs at this spot in the sky.
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