Tag: policy

North Korea’s orbital Chollima-1 rocket explodes shortly after launch

2:48 pm

North Korea’s third launch of its orbital Chollima-1 rocket, supposedly carrying a spy satellite, failed today when the first stage exploded shortly after launch.

North Korea’s official state news agency said it launched a spy satellite aboard a new rocket from its main space centre tonight. But it added that the rocket blew up during a first-stage flight soon after liftoff due to a suspected engine problem.

Video of the explosion showed up on social media almost immediately. I have embedded that video below.

Based on when the explosion occurred — early in the flight — and the planned flight path east from North Korea’s west coast Sohai spaceport, the rocket debris very likely crashed inside North Korea, its toxic hypergolic fuels pouring down possibly in habitable areas.
» Read more

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Pressure from free-speech law firm forces Chase to eliminate language that allowed it debank conservatives

11:57 am

JP Morgan Chase: eager to blacklist you for your opinions
Maybe slightly less eager, but only slightly less

Bring a gun to a knife fight: For reasons that appear related to pressure from the conservative free-speech law firm the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), JPMorgan Chase has eliminated language in its payment services policy statement that allowed it to cancel conservative clients merely because it disliked those clients’ politics.

JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., rolled back its WePay service that required merchants to refrain from accepting payments or using the service for activities related to “social risk issues,” which the bank defined as anything “subject to allegation and impacts related to hate groups, systemic racism, sexual harassment and corporate culture.”

The language was removed from the company’s WePay terms of service, the Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF) discovered this month.

For the past three years ADF has issued what it calls its Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index, designed to “measure corporate respect for free speech and religious freedom across 43 performance indicators.” Each year it consults with the 85 corporations on its list in an attempt to get them to eliminate policies that encourage the debanking of conservative individuals or organizations. In the case of Chase, a sustained effort over two years eventually caused the company to remove that language.
» Read more

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Today’s Blacklisted American: To celebrate Memorial Day, a federal official bans the American flag

11:09 am

Brooke Merrell:
Brooke Merrell: Proud to ban the American flag

In another example of the fundamental hostility that federal officials feel for their country, officials at Alaska’s Denali National Park recently told contractors working in the park they were forbidden from flying Old Glory on their trucks and equipment, as construction workers have done for more than a century.

According to the contractor, Denali National Park Superintendent Brooke Merrell contacted the man overseeing the federal highways project, claiming there had been complaints about the U.S. flags, and notifying him that bridge workers must stop flying the stars and stripes from their vehicles because it detracts from the “park experience.”
Denali National Park Superintendent Brooke Merrell

“The trucks are flying these American flags, about a foot atop the trucks, about three-foot by four-foot flags, and they said they don’t want this,” the contractor explained. “They’re saying it isn’t conducive and it doesn’t fit the park experience.”

Up until this week, however, the flags were displayed without incident. It was only when the park began running tour buses that the order was given to take down the flags, he added.

» Read more

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South Korea establishes its own version of NASA

9:08 am

The South Korean government today announced the establishment of its own version of NASA, dubbed the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), with what appears to be a focus on establishing a long term space program and using this to foster an aerospace commercial sector.

KASA was established under a special law passed by the National Assembly in January to unify government organizations in charge of space policy and projects. Based in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province, KASA has an annual budget of 758.9 billion won ($556 million) this year. The agency currently has around 110 employees and will eventually have a total of 293.

In March, the government established the 2024 Space Development Promotion Action Plan and set five major missions — including space exploration, space transportation, space industry, space security and space science.

In line with the government’s policy, KASA will establish a roadmap for Korea’s space exploration and plans to promote reusable launch vehicles, development of the country’s own global positioning system (GPS) and a lunar lander program. In particular, it plans to develop a lunar lander with a goal of landing on the moon in 2032, and to design and develop engines to enter the commercial launch service market.

A second South Korea news report quotes the head of this new agency as follows:

“Until now, the country’s space development projects have been led by the government,” Yoon Young-bin, KASA’s inaugural chief, said earlier. “The most important role of the space agency will be supporting the private sector to lead space development.”

He pointed out that the world’s space industry is moving toward the so-called “new space” era, where private companies are actively leading innovation in space technologies with more economic feasibility. “The global paradigm is shifting,” Yoon said, noting that top space companies, such as SpaceX, have developed reusable space rockets and launched a group of small satellites with capabilities similar to medium- and large-sized satellites.

If KASA maintains this approach, then South Korea’s future as a space power is bright. If instead KASA moves to control all space development, including the design and ownership of its rockets and spacecraft, then that program will be stifled, as America’s was by NASA for forty years after the 1960s space race.

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China’s X-37B releases object in orbit

8:55 am

China’s copy of the U.S.’s military’s X-37B reusable mini-shuttle, dubbed Shenlong apparently released an object during its ongoing third orbital mission.

A new object (59884/2023-195G) has been cataloged associated with the Chinese CSSHQ spaceplane in a 602 x 608 km x 50.0 deg orbit. It seems to have been ejected about 1900 UTC May 24.

It is possibly this object is to test recapture maneuvers, as was done by during the mini-shuttle’s previous flight. It is also possible this release is preliminary to the end of the mission and the return of Shenlong to Earth. It is also possible it has a completely different purpose, since China has released practically no information about this spaceplane or any of its missions.

The present mission began a little more than seven months ago, releasing six small satellites a few days after launch. The previous two lasted two days and 276 days respectively. As with everything else, we have no idea how much longer it will remain in orbit.

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North Korea notifies Japan of planned orbital launch

8:40 am

North Korea

North Korea today notified Japan that it plans a new orbital launch sometime between today and June 3, 2024, indicating several potential drop zones for the rocket’s lower stages.

It designated three areas where debris will fall — two west of the Korean Peninsula and the other east of the Philippines’ island of Luzon, according to the news outlet.

Pyongyang has made public a plan to launch three more satellites this year following its first military reconnaissance satellite launch in November.

The launch will apparently take place from North Korea’s Sohai spaceport on its west coast, and will fly over the country heading east. The payload will also likely be a reconnaissance satellite of some kind, similar to what the country launched in November 2023.

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Harvard Corporation overides its pro-Hamas faculty; denies graduation to pro-Hamas rioters

1:43 pm

Harvard: where you get can get a shoddy education centered on hate and bigotry
Harvard: where you can spend a lot of money
being taught to hate Jews and support Hamas terrorism

In what might be signaling a major sea change at Harvard, the Harvard Corporation, which owns and runs the university, voted this week in support of an earlier decision by its administrative board to deny graduation to thirteen pro-Hamas demonstrators who are presently facing disciplinary action for their participation in the illegal take-over of university grounds for three weeks.

This decision was also a blunt rejection of a vote by the university’s faculty to override the administrative board’s decision and confer degrees to these protestors.

115 faculty members showed up to a meeting in which a decisive majority voted to confer degrees on the 13 seniors. The students were notified of disciplinary charges from the Harvard College Administrative Board just three days earlier.

I wonder if the financial problems Harvard is now facing influenced this decision by the corporation board. Applications to the school have dropped significantly, a number of big donors have cancelled their support for the university, and even worse, Harvard has a cash crunch. A bond offering intended to raise $2 billion this year raised far far less than expected.
» Read more

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Democratic Party voters fire Soros-backed DA in Portland

12:55 pm


Looters in downtown Portland in 2021

In a non-partisan primary on May 21, 2024, Portland voters rejected in large numbers the Soros-backed district attorney they had voted for only four years previously.

On Tuesday night, voters in Multnomah County, Oregon fired one-term George Soros-backed incumbent District Attorney Mike Schmidt.

Fox 12 called the race at approximately 9:30 pm local time with Schmidt’s opponent Nathan Vasquez leading 58 percent to 42 percent. In a non-partisan primary, if a candidate garners over 50 percent of the vote, they are declared the winner of the election but don’t take office until January 2025.

Though the primary election in Portland was “non-partisan” (in that no party affiliation for any candidate was listed) in this wholly Democratic Party-controlled stronghold there was no doubt that both candidates were from that party, and the vast majority of the voters were leftist Democrats as well.

Unlike Republican voters or Republican politicians, who like to whine but rarely do anything to get rid of bad apples, the Democrats in Oregon decided that Schmidt’s reign of disaster these last four years required a change. Schmidt had followed the leftist anti-police agenda of numerous other Soros-backed DAs nationwide.
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NASA/Boeing/ULA confirm new June 1st launch date for Starliner

9:36 am

In a press briefing this morning officials from NASA, Boeing, and ULA confirmed the new June 1, 12:25 pm (Eastern) launch date for the first manned flight of Boeing’s Starliner manned capsule.

The officials provided a more detailed explanation of the helium leak in a valve that effects the capsule’s service module attitude thruster system, noting that it is not a design flaw but some specific issue in this particular valve. Because of this, they are confident the system can function safely even with the leak, which is relatively small.

However, the officials also noted that during their reviews in the past two weeks they discovered a new software issue in the spacecraft’s de-orbit engines that — under very unusual and unlikely circumstances — could actually cause those engines to fail to operate. They have figured out a work-around, whereby they fire the engines at a lower thrust in two stages rather than once.

Should the launch on June 1st be scrubbed for weather, they have back up dates on the next few days, though by June 4th ULA might have to swap out batteries on its Atlas-5 rocket that will require a longer stand down of several additional days.

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SpaceX tentatively announces a June 5, 2024 Starship/Superheavy launch date

9:20 am

Starship/Superheavy flight profile
Click for original image at high resolution.

SpaceX today tentatively announced a June 5, 2024 launch date for the fourth Starship/Superheavy orbital test launch.

Before going into any details of the flight plan, as shown in the flight profile above, it is important to quote the first sentence in the announcement:

The fourth flight test of Starship could launch as soon as June 5, pending regulatory approval. [emphasis mine]

SpaceX has not yet gotten a launch permit from the FAA. It is likely it has inside information from the agency suggesting that permit will be issued by this date. It is also likely that SpaceX by making this announcement is applying pressure to the FAA to either get its paperwork done or waive the need so its red tape doesn’t delay the flight unnecessarily.

As for the flight itself, the flight profile is essentially the same as the previous test flight, with the Starship’s orbit designed for safety to bring it down in the Indian Ocean.

The fourth flight test turns our focus from achieving orbit to demonstrating the ability to return and reuse Starship and Super Heavy. The primary objectives will be executing a landing burn and soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico with the Super Heavy booster, and achieving a controlled entry of Starship.

To accomplish this, several software and hardware upgrades have been made to increase overall reliability and address lessons learned from Flight 3. The SpaceX team will also implement operational changes, including the jettison of the Super Heavy’s hot-stage following boostback to reduce booster mass for the final phase of flight.

All in all, this announcement is good news. SpaceX is ready to launch.

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North Carolina university system repeals DEI policies

12:52 pm

Actually taking concrete stpes to end DEI
Actually taking concrete stpes to end DEI

Under pressure by its state legislature, which last year banned all diversity statements from state agencies, the Board of Governors for the North Carolina University (UNC) system voted today to repeal its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies that have encouraged discrimination against non-minorities within the system.

The new policy now requires UNC schools to “ensure equality of all persons & viewpoints,” and promote “nondiscrimination in employment practices.” It also mandates that all UNC schools comply with a series of amendments passed by the North Carolina General Assembly in the past year that limit what can be discussed or taught about race, racism and sex in government institutions.

…Schools in the UNC System are required to comply with the new policy by September 1. The proposal does not indicate how many DEI jobs might be impacted.

Earlier this month, the Board of Trustees for the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill passed a separate proposal to divert $2.3 million from DEI programs to public safety.

The new policy, which you can read here [pdf], is very clear that DEI racial quotas and poltical favorism must end. » Read more

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SpaceX to FAA: Let us launch Starship/Superheavy before you complete the red-tape for the previous flight

9:55 am

Superheavy/Starship lifting off on March 14, 2024
Superheavy/Starship lifting off on March 14, 2024

According to the FAA, SpaceX has officially asked the FAA to allow it to launch the next Starship/Superheavy test orbital launch before the agency officially completes its mishap investigation into the previous flight in March.

In a statement sent to ValleyCentral, the FAA stated that on April 5, SpaceX requested the FAA make a “public safety determination” as part of the Starship flight test mishap. “If the FAA agrees no public safety issues were involved in the mishap, the operator may return to flight while the mishap investigation remains open, provided all other license requirements are met.”

With this modification in place, SpaceX would be able to launch the fourth Starship test flight while the mishap investigation of the third flight is still open.

When these requests are received, the FAA evaluates safety-critical systems, the nature of the consequences of the mishap, adequacy of existing flight analysis, safety organization performance and environmental factors, the statement added. The FAA stated it is reviewing the request and will be “guided by data and safety at every step of the process.”

What does this request tell us? First, as expected SpaceX has completed its own investigation into the March launch and installed the upgrades it considers necessary. Second, the FAA however has not, even though the FAA has absolutely no competence in this matter. It is merely retyping the SpaceX report.

Third, SpaceX now realizes that the FAA will not have finished that retyping when SpaceX is ready to launch sometime in the next three weeks. Rather than sit and wait, as it did on the previous two test launches, it wants the FAA to recognize reality and let it proceed. Why wait when the FAA is literally contributing nothing to the process?

Will the FAA do so? I suspect there are people in the FAA who would very much like to. I also know that there are others both in the FAA and higher up the command chain (mostly in the White House) that like the idea of slowing SpaceX down, mostly for petty political reasons. We should not be surprised if those higher ups use their clout and insist the FAA reject this request.

If so, the fourth test launch of Starship/Superheavy will likely be further delayed, though by how much is unclear. Shortly after the March test launch I predicted that the next flight would occur in the June/July timeframe, not early May as SpaceX was then predicting, and the delay will be mostly because of FAA red tape. It now appears that prediction will be correct.

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