Tag: quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Satellite builder Terran Orbital removes Rivada from its list of future revenue

This appears to be a bookeeping maneuver, but suggests that Rivada may be having problems, which is a big deal because its contract with Terran Orbital is for $2.4 billion to build 300 satellites.

 

• Proposed Nova Scotia spaceport Maritime Launch Services signs deal with unnamed rocket company

This is one of those press releases about nothing. Maritime’s spaceport is years behind schedule. The release includes really no information, and appears to have been issued merely to counter another proposed Canadian spaceport, Nordspace, that recently released its own press release about nothing.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company CAS Space touts 320 second static fire test of an engine for its Kinetic-2 Falcon 9 copycat rocket

The goal is to do the first test launch in 2025.

 

• On this day in 2007 the Hubble Space Telescope capture a rare edge on view of Uranus and its rings

“Astronomers on Earth can only see the rings’ edge every 42 years due to the planet’s 84 year orbit.”

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Tim Dodd of Everyday Astronaut to air first tour of Blue Origin’s New Glenn factory with Jeff Bezos

It will be released on August 15, 2025. More and more it appears Bezos is trying to get his so-far failed company off the ground.

 

• NASA buys payload space to put camera on Blue Origin’s first lunar lander mission

A similar camera flew on the Intuitive Machines mission, and is scheduled to fly on Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander.

 

• Soyuz-2 rocket carrying next Progress to ISS is now vertical on launchpad

The launch is scheduled for August 15, 2024.

 

• China’s policy for disposal of rocket upper stage’s in orbit (to reduce space junk) is merely recommended, not mandatory

Doesn’t matter much even if it was mandatory if the upper stages break up into hundreds of pieces, right after launch, as China’s Long March 6A has now done on two of seven launches.

 

• On this day in 1977 the Enterprise space shuttle test vehicle made its first free flight and runway landing, crewed by Fred Haise and Gordon Fullerton

That was the flight in which Haise commented afterward, “It flies like a brick.” He meant that as a complement, because even so the shuttle made a perfect glided landing.

 

• On this day in 1877, Mars’ moon Deimos was discovered by Asaph Hall

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

I am finally home. I had hoped to post this during the day, but life got in the way. Posting will resume tomorrow (with a little posting tonight), and I will likely write something up later this week explaining where I have been.

• K2 Space demo service bus for smallsats plans first launch in October on a SpaceX Falcon 9 transporter mission

The idea is to provide a basic service module that any satellite payload could fly on.

 

• Northrop Grumman’s live stream of the Cygnus docking to ISS

As we now know, it succeeded in docking on time despite the abort failures of the initial planned engine burns.

 

• On this day in 1973 Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma deployed a twin-poled sunshade on Skylab to replace the lost sun shielding that had torn off during launch

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• NASA to resume issuing lunar lander contracts after a year-plus pause

The article adds nothing specific or concrete, only a lot of mights and maybes and soons.

 

• Sierra’s Tenacity mini-shuttle begins final preparations for launch

The press release indicates the launch will be on a ULA Vulcan rocket, but no date is revealed.

 

• Japanese rocket startup Interstellar releases the payload user’s guide for buying space on its Zero rocket

The guide says the company has launched a number of times, but those must have been suborbital tests. Its Zero orbital rocket is aiming for a 2025 first launch.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company CAS Space touts an image of its proposed Kinetica-2H rocket

This pseudo-company has posted a variety of graphics in the past year, but there has been very little clear information about actual construction.

 

• Northrup Grumman and NASA are targeting August 3rd for the Falcon 9 launch of the next Cygnus cargo capsule to ISS

Weather remains the biggest concern, presently holding at a 50%.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Dawn Aerospace unveils a docking and fuel port for satellites

The company hopes that many satellite manufacturers will buy it to add to their payloads for later refueling and even de-orbit operations.

 

• New Horizons researchers publish paper outlining the results of their ground-based survey of potential asteroids in the probe’s future path

There are two key take-aways: 1. No asteroid appears reachable for a close fly-by. 2. The data suggests however that there is an unexpected high population of asteroids much farther out than expected.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Cool video of Starship being rolled down the street in Boca Chica

Hat tip Robert Pratt.

 

• Astroforge updates status of second cubesat demo mission, intended to get close-up views of asteroid

After discovering that the cubesat intended for the mission had serious technical issues, they junked it and have been rushing to prepare the cubesat intended for the third mission. It is not clear yet whether it will be ready on time.

 

• Amateur astronomer snaps magnificent picture of ISS, with Starliner docked in the lower port

The image’s resolution is so good you can also see one of the station’s robot arms inspecting Starliner.

 

• Boeing’s total $1.5 billion cost overrun for Starliner, broken down by year

Sources for these numbers from here, here, and here.

 

• New video of Tianlong-3 test first stage crashing after it launched by mistake during a static fire engine test

This Space News article claims the Chinese pseudo-company, Space Pioneer, is pushing forward anyway, but a close read suggests nothing about its future is certain.

 

• Anthony Zak graphs what I have documented now for several years, that the pace of Russian launches since its invasion of the Ukraine has plummeted

The main cause of the drop is the loss of Russia’s entire international commercial market due to its breakup with Arianespace.

 

• A new Canadian rocket startup, Nordspace, announces its intention to build its own spaceport in Canada

I wish them good luck but note that there is a lot of blarney here, revealed by the fact that it took me a lot of digging to discover they don’t yet have a location for this spaceport, a detail they very carefully fail to mention on their webpage or press materials.

 

• On this day in 1971 Apollo 15 astronauts used a rover for the first time to drive around the surface of the Moon

• On this day in 2008 NASA announced that the Phoenix lander had confirmed the presence of water ice on the high latitude surface of Mars

The discovery was actually not a big surprise to the scientists. The press however thought it a very big deal, since it really knew nothing about the research that had already shown evidence of lots of near surface ice in the high latitudes.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

Jay notes, as I do, that today has been a slow news day in the world of outer space.

• Video of fire at a Russian aerospace facility in Yekaterinburg

It is unclear the cause. The facility builds flight control systems for spacecraft and rocketry, including the Soyuz-2 rocket.

 

• Rocket Factory Augsburg touts the successful completion of the test campaign for its orbital rocket’s second stage

That stage is now on its way to Saxavord for stacking with the first stage and a hoped-for launch before the end of the year — assuming the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority will issue a launch permit.

 

• On this day in 1971 the Apollo 15 lunar module Falcon landed on the Moon

Astronauts David Scott and Jim Irwin landed at the base of the Apennine Mountains next to Hadley Rille, and produced some of the most spectacular imagery so far from the lunar surface.

 

• On this day in 1964 Ranger 7 crashed intentionally on the Moon, taking 4,309 photographs during its descent

Though the first six Ranger missions failed, the next two also succeeded, producing another 13,000 pictures before crashing on the surface as planned.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Video of Falcon 9 first stage landing at Vandenberg

Though the tweet congratulates SpaceX for the 300th reuse of a Falcon 9 first stage this past weekend, the video (which is quite excellent) is of a landing earlier this year.

 

• On this day in 1958 President Eisenhower signed legislation that created NASA

The agency was created out of an older government agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Eisenhower had not been enthused by this idea (seeing it as another example of the military-industrial complex teaming up with the federal bureaucracy for their own crony deals), but the politics of the Cold War forced it upon him.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Chinese pseudo-company Landspace to do a vertical 10k test of its prototype first stage hopper today

This is not their actual first stage, but an engineering test stage for learning how to land vertically.

 

• Photo of unpainted “forward module” for Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket being transported through Kennedy Space Center

The author notes that with the September 29th launch date closing in, the lack of paint is intriguing. If this component is for that launch, it seems very late to only now be delivering it for assembly.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Ispace announces completion of a European mini-rover set to fly on its Hakuto-R Resilience lunar lander

The mission is targeting a launch late this year on a Falcon 9. The landing location remains unclear.

 

• Thales-Alenia completes design review of a proposed lunar mobile habitation module

The artist’s rendering suggests this would be like a mini-RV for use on the Moon.

 

• China proposes its own proposed lunar module habitation module

The Chinese graphic looks less well thought out compared to Thales-Alenia’s design.

 

• China university proposes building a intelligent spherical robot for use on its space station

This is essentially a copycat of similar robots already flying on ISS.

 

• New rocket startup New Frontier Aerospace touts first tests of a small-scale prototype of the engine for its proposed point-to-point orbital spaceplane

Though I wish them well, to say we should remain skeptical of this company at this point is an understatement.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Rocket Lab touts a picture of a stack of “carbon composite structures” to be used in its new Neutron rocket

The company says it is making progress on “fairing panels, propellant tanks, interstage panels, and more.” The company is targeting mid-2025 for the first launch.

 

• The core stage of SLS for the next Artemis launch, the first manned, has now been delivered to Florida

You can watch the entire unloading process here. The launch is presently scheduled for September 2025, but don’t be surprised if it slips considerably.

 

• On this day in 1969 the Apollo 11 crew went through customs in Hawaii, declaring “moon rock and moon dust samples” as part of their “baggage”

The picture of the customs form at the link is very amusing. As the tweet notes, “Best day in this Hawaiian customs agent’s life.”

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Rocket startup ABL experiences pad fire following static test firing

Apparently the rocket suffered ” irrecoverable damage”. This company did its first launch (a failure) in January 2023, completed the investigation and design changes required to fix the issues by October 2023. Since then little has happened.

 

• NASA expands its ground-based antenna network for communications beyond Earth orbit

Three antenna dishes to be added in New Mexico, South Africa, and Australia.

 

• Long article describing various nuclear powered rocket engines under development

Jay’s comment says it all: “I will believe it when I see it. Every time they put money into a NERVA program, all it does is produce a report with the same data as the first project or the money gets moved into another project. I have seen it twice before.”

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• China touts new system for holding down stages during static test fires

It is (surprise!) a copy of the collar and hold-down guide wires that SpaceX used previously.

 

• China’s X-37B copy spaceplane lowered its orbit sometime around July 18-19

It might be preparing to return to Earth, or not.

 

• Today in 1994 the broken pieces of Comet Shoemaker-Levy collided with Jupiter

Fortunately Hubble’s fuzzy vision had been repaired a year earlier, and its produced some spectacular pictures and amazing data.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Vaya and Scorpius sign deal to work together to build cryogenic oxidizer tank

Lots of blather in the press release, with little concrete information.

 

• Blue Origin releases video of test deployment of New Glenn’s first stage landing legs

Unlike the Falcon 9’s four legs, New Glenn will have six, and they are stored inside the stage until deployment.

 

• Rocket Lab touts the production line of HASTE, the suborbital version of its Electron rocket

The picture shows at least seven stages, but only two have the “HASTE” logo, so it isn’t clear how many are for suborbital or orbital flights.

 

• China touts test success of “key cabin segment” of Lijiuan-2 (Kinetica-2) liquid-fueled rocket

I have no idea from this tweet what exactly they did or tested.

 

• Today in 1966 John Young and Michael Collins launched on Gemini 10

This mission completed the first entirely successful docking, followed by a rendezvous with a second target spacecraft. Gemini 8 had docked but had to abort shortly thereafter due to out-of-control thruster, and Gemini 9 couldn’t dock because the shroud did not release properly from the target spacecraft.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• SpaceX touts an artist’s illustration of its proposed ISS de-orbit spacecrat

The tweet notes the vehicle will have ” 6x more propellant and 4x the power of today’s Dragon spacecraft.”

 


• Rocket Factory Augsburg releases video of full duration static fire test of its rocket’s third stage engine

The test duplicated the two firings that would occur on the flight, with a 40 minute coasting phase in between. It is now ready for launch.

One thing I found fascinating was that the engineers doing the test did it in English, even though this is a German company working in Germany.

 


• On this day in 1975 an Apollo capsule docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule during the first American-Soviet joint mission

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who has now returned from a business trip to the People’s Republic of California. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Firefly CEO accused of “inappropriate relationship” with female employee

The allegations are less significant than the indications that there has been an exodus of “multiple executives in the last six months due to problems with the company’s leadership.”

 

• New artist renderings of Stoke Space’s proposed Nova rocket

More info here. The tweet above suggests the rocket has changed significantly from earlier versions.

 

• New Chinese pseudo-company, Cosmoleap, proposes catching its rockets with tower chopsticks

I wonder where they stole that idea.

 

• On this day in 1969 Apollo 11 was launched

Armstrong and Aldrin would land on the Moon five days later.

 

• On this day in 1945 the U.S. detonated its first nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico

Since the fall of the Soviet Unioni, people seem to forget that we are still living with the threat of nuclear war capable of destroying all life on Earth.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• The stock value of South Korean rocket startup Innospace tumbles on first day of public trading

The company has done one suborbital test launch in Brazil, and hopes to do an orbital test launch in the first half of 2025.

 

• Rocket Lab touts its ability to deliver smallsats to their planned orbit, within meters

• Radar images of two asteroids during close fly-by of Earth

One zipped past on June 27th at a distance of 4.1 million miles, and the second on June 29th at a distance of 184,000 miles.

 

• New drone video looking down at Tianlong-3’s unplanned launch during static fire test

The footage suggests an engine explosion might have broken the clamps holding the stage in place.

 

• On this day in 1989 Voyager-2 sent back an image of Neptune and its moon Triton

It was still 47 million miles from Neptune, with the closest approach of 3,000 miles to occur in two months, on August 25, 1989.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• FCC says it’s impractical for satellite constellations to block coverage to specific nations

Proves the incompetence of these bureaucrats. Satellite operators have done this for years, with only minor issues.

 

• English translation of Space Pioneer’s apology letter to nearby residents for its failed static fire test on June 30th

You can feel the Chicoms breathing down the pseudo-company’s neck.

 

• Roscosmos approves schedule for building new Russian space station

First module is supposed to launch in 2027. You wanna bet?

 

• India’s Aditya solar telescope just completed its halo orbit around Lagrange 1

The orbit took 178 days, and involved three engine burns to maintain its position.

 

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Firefly conducts rapid launch operation, transporting payload fairing to pad and mating it to Alpha rocket just 14 hours before launch

That liftoff is scheduled for 9:03 pm (Pacific) tonight. The live stream is here.

 

• Axiom to put a prototype data center unit on ISS this year for software testing

Four quick links in connection to Space Pioneer’s static fire test catastrophe yesterday:

• According to specs, stand stage “load limit” is 600 tons, while the thrust in test is 820 tons and rocket weight is <590t. If “load limit” is for thrust, it’s a basic mistake

• Space Pioneer’s own report: “Connection structure failure of the test stand with the first stage. Personnel evacuated before the test & no casualty”

• Picture of crash site of Tianlong-3 test first stage

• Company say it will continue rocket tests, but no large-scale ones in the near future

I think the company is going to have to explain itself to the Chinese government, which is likely to take a much closer interest in what these pseudo-companies are doing. This will not be to prevent dangerous accidents, but to use this most recent accident as a ploy to gain full control of these pseudo-companies.

 

• Next Cygnus cargo mission will be named after astronaut Dick Scobee, who died in the 1986 Challenger failure

The freighter will be launched by a Falcon 9 sometime in August.

 

• Mars Odyssey just completed its 100,000th orbit around Mars

It was launched in 2001, and has been in orbit for more than two decades. Nowadays it mostly serves as a communications satellite, relaying data from the rovers/landers back to Earth.

 

• ISRO head says design of first module for India’s space station is complete

ISRO hopes to launch that module by 2028.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Ham radio operator detects change in Chang’e-6 orbit around Moon

It isn’t clear whether this was the previous orbit adjustment, a new one, or the burn that would send the sample return capsule back to Earth.

 

• Webb detects aligned jets in protostars

This was a press release that I thought vastly overstated what was detected by Webb. I thought however if Jay wants to provide a link, why not?

 

• NASA again touts the wonders of its not-yet-launched and behind schedule Lunar Gateway space station

You can usually measure the budget needs of a NASA project by the number of press releases like this. The more there are, the more the project is overbudget, behind schedule, and desperate to convince everyone it must get fully funded, no matter what.

 

• Ariane-6 successfully completes full dress reheasal countdown

The launch is still scheduled for July 9, 2024, only four-plus years behind schedule.

 

• On this day 20 years ago SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded and built spaceship to reach space

And as they say, the rest is history.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Starlab space station partners with AI software company Palantir

They will use the AI software to operate the station once in orbit.

 

• Blue Origin touts a picture of its BE-7 rocket engine

The engine is to be used on the company’s proposed Blue Moon manned lunar landers

 

• Hawaii-based International Lunar Observator (ILO) signs deal with China to put telescope on Chang’e-7 lunar mission

ILO has been around for awhile, trying repeatedly to get a private optical telescope on the Moon.

 

• NASA touts the planned mass of Lunar Gateway at 63 metric tons

The tweet notes that this mass is equivalent to “100 cows, 10 elephants, or 10 Webb telescopes!” Nice to know that the $10 billion-plus Webb equals 1 elephant in weight.

 

• Yesterday marked the 48th anniversary of Viking 1’s arrival in Mars orbit

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Space Force awards contracts to Blue Origin, CACI International Inc., General Atomics, and Viasat to develop space laser terminals [pdf]

These are small contracts to begin design work on using lasers for satellite communications.

 

• ULA CEO touts photos of new Vulcan launchpad under construction at Vandenberg

The first launch at this pad is scheduled sometime next year.

 

• Local officials in Cameron County praise SpaceX for bring billions in economic growth to region

Who cares? Elon Musk is evil and all his efforts must be shut down! That’s the rule when someone famous won’t vote for Democrats!

 

• On this day in 1983 Sally Ride became the first American woman in space

• Russia hopes to revive its Molniya satellite constellation, this time using Chinese parts

The original Molniya communications satellites — first launched in the 1960s — used a clever very eccentric orbit to get the best coverage of Russia, which sits at a high latitude. Traditional geosynchronous communications satellites don’t see those high latitudes that well.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Redwire wins DARPA contract for testing its proposed very low orbit satellite design

The key technology to be tested will be an “air-breathing” propulsion system that will take advantage of the thicker atmosphere at altitudes of 50 to 100 miles to provide the power to keep the satellite in orbit.

 

• Webb observes the most distant Type 1a supernova yet discovered

Type 1a supernovae were used to discover dark energy, based on the assumption that their brightness is always the same. Thus, the dimmer they are, the farther away they are. The data from this supernovae doesn’t break that assumption, according to the abstract, but it uncovered some pecularities that need explaining.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Chang’e-6’s orbit was raised to an altitude of 246km sometime between June 11th and 12th

It will likely send its sample return capsule back to Earth in about a week.

 

• China’s new Long March 10 rocket successfully completed a three-engine static fire test on June 14, 2024

The rocket is to be used for China’s planned manned lunar missions.

 

• On this day in 1967, Mariner 5 launched to do the second fly-by of Venus

NASA had built it as a backup for its Mariner 4 Mars fly-by mission, and repurposed it for Venus, adding a sunshield. It zipped past Venus on October 19, 1967, one day after the Soviet Venera lander made the first attempt to soft land there. Both confirmed that Venus was a hot hellhole with an atmospheric temperature of 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Another test LIFE inflatable test module passes preliminary tests

Built by Sierra Space, the flight version of LIFE will be used first on the Orbital Reef station, but will also be made available for purchase by others.

 

• Blue Origin gets FCC communications license for its first New Glenn launch

This is not a launch license. It provides the company a window for communications on that launch lasting until October 31, 2024.

 

• ULA accepts delivery on what appears to be the fifth BE-4 engine provided by Blue Origin

ULA’s CEO says in the tweet that they need just one more engine for their 2024 launch manifest, which optimistically hopes to launch three times (2 engines for each launch). It took two months for this new engine to arrive after delivery of the last two.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company Space Pioneer readies first stage of its Tiangong-3 Falcon 9 copy for 9-engine static fire test in July

If successful, it is now targeting a September maiden orbital launch, marking a two month delay from previous announcements.

 

• China’s X-37B copy does very close proximity maneuvers near object it released on May 24th

It is at present unclear whether the object was retrieved and then re-released.

 

• ESA’s partnership with China on its Moon missions appears about to end

The break-up is because of China’s partnership with Russia, and ESA has broken all ties with Russia due to its Ukraine invasion. The article at the link also notes that Turkey has applied to joint China’s moonbase alliance.

 

• Virgin Galactic announces 1 to 20 reverse stock split

This action means 20 shares will suddenly be worth only one, even as the stock price tumbles to under a dollar per share. This company is dying, and Wall Street know it.

 

• Soviet cosmonaut Vyacheslav Zudov dies at 82

He commanded Soyuz 23 in 1976, which because of a failed antenna was unable to dock with Salyut-5 and returned to Earth after only two days in space, crashing through the ice on Lake Tengiz and thus becoming the USSR’s first and only manned splashdown.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• ULA CEO marks the last Atlas-5 rocket moving through its factory

There are only 16 Atlas-5 launches left, with all the rockets now built and ready, leaving room for the assembly of Vulcan rockets.

 

• Scientist discovers another type of aurora

This phenomenon is similar to another new aurora type that scientists claim to have discovered in 2017 and stupidly dubbed “Steve,” a name so asinine I have found it impossible to take the whole thing seriously.

 

• SpaceX celebrates the 100th country that has approved Starlink for use by its citizens

The tweet does not say the country, but Jay says it is Sierra Leone.

 

• Chinese company OneLinQ launches civilian satellite internet terminal for high-speed connectivity via Asia-Pacific 6D satellite

Jay notes that their subscription price is $4,000 a month, gigantic compared to Starlink or any other similar service.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• Instrument for China’s Chang’e-7 lunar orbiter to be developed jointly by Egypt and Bahrain

While Egypt is a partner in China’s lunar base project, Bahrain is not, and has instead signed the Artemis Accords to partner with the U.S. Bahrain’s participation here suggests the U.S. alliance isn’t doing much for Bahrain.

 

• China picks its fourth class of astronauts

Ten candidates were chosen.

 

• Two French citizens tried to sneak into Baikonur, with one dying of dehydration

Jay notes, “They were too cheap to pay for an unofficial or official guide. You need to pay for a special tourist permit to visit that part of the country.” I wonder about what really happened, as it is dangerous to take any report from a state-run press outlet at face value.

 

• The first service module for India’s Gaganyaan manned capsule has been completed

The three-day orbital mission is still targeting a 2025 launch.

 

• Rocket Factory Augsburg touts video of first stage static fire engine test

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• ABL gets cubesat payload for its RS1 rocket

The cubesat will fly on the launch following the next launch attempt, set for June 2024. RS1 has had one failed launch attempt so far, in January 2023.

 

• Boeing releases audio of crew during Starliner launch

Only a minute long, showing just a few snippets.

 

• Video showing Blue Origin’s effort to make a reusable 2nd stage, based on its patents

What is most interesting is that it appears Stoke Space is doing similar stuff, but is farther long in actual development and testing.

 

• NASA awards seven companies $1.5 million each for 90-day studies to come up with new concepts for recovering Perseverance’s core samples on Mars

The companies are Aerojet Rocketdyne, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Quantum Space, SpaceX and Whittinghill Aerospace.

 

• ESA will pay Arianespace 340 million euros per year to operate Ariane-6

ESA will also give Arianespace 21 million euros to operate the Vega family of rockets. Why ESA is giving Arianespace anything is beyond sensible, since ArianeGroup supposedly builds and owns Ariane-6 and Avio supposedly now builds and owns the Vega rocket family. France meanwhile has retaken ownership of the French Guiana spaceport. Arianespace really has nothing left for it to do.

 

• ISRO planning third flight landing test of its X-37B copy for first half of June

This would be another drop test from a helicopter, with the prototype then gliding to a runway landing.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company postpones vertical hop test of its first stage prototype

The hop was supposed to go up to 10 kilometers.

 

• China’s next unmanned lunar probe, Chang’e-7, will go to the south pole, and release a hopper

Launch is targeting 2026.

 

• Rocket/satellite startup Phantom Space signs Arizona company to build communications payloads for its satellites

• On this day in 2003 the Mars rover Spirit was launched

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

• China completes construction on first commercial launchpad at its Wenchang coastal spaceport

They dub this “Pad 2,” even though it will be where the first commercial launch will take place at Wenchang, presently scheduled for August 28, 2024.

 

• NASA inspector general issues report on agency’s commercial unmanned lunar lander program

The report can be downloaded here [pdf]. It is generally critical of the entire program, suggesting that NASA’s management has been inconsistent even as it also micromanaged the building of some commercial landers, thus causing delays and budget overruns despite the contracts being fixed price (If NASA demands a change, the company has an equal right to bill NASA for it).

 

• On this day three years ago Juno flew within 645 miles of the Jupiter moon Ganymede, the closest since the Galileo mission fly-by in 2000

See this post for some pictures.