Tag: quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Blue Origin touts its “nozzle room in our Huntsville engines factory”

What I see is a room with not a lot going on.

 

• A solar eclipse as seen by two Chinese weather satellites

As Jay notes, not much else on Twitter as everyone is talking about the SpaceX Superheavy/Starship test launch.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Video of the explosion during a recent Centaur stage test

According to the tweet by ULA CEO Tory Bruno, “Hydrogen leak. H2 accumulated inside the rig. Found an ignition source. Burned fast. Over pressure caved in our forward dome and damaged the rig.” They still need to locate the source of the leak.

 

• China’s spaceport deal with Middle East nation Djibouti has been cancelled

The deal had been announced in January. I suspect Djibouti was pressured by the U.S. to cancel, since we have so many military bases there.

 

• Firefly touts its project to build a medium-lift launch vehicle, larger than its Alpha rocket

The link however only shows pictures of the construction of the buildings where the rockets will eventually be built.

 

• Graphic showing the landing sequence for Hakuto-R1’s planned April 25th lunar landing

 

• Road closure notice for Boca Chica on April 17th, with back up dates on April 18th and 19th

I do not think this is for the launch itself, but for the wet dress rehearsal countdown and static fire test SpaceX said it would do before launch.

 

• Russian movie, The Challenge, shot on ISS, to be released in 20 countries

The list kind of indicates the allies (or potential allies if the U.S. continues to screw up) for the new Chinese/Russia axis: “China, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and North Macedonia, Palestine, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the UAE, Iran and Sudan.”

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, sent these out on time but was stymied when his email bounced back hours later.

I say, better late than never.

• A stock analyst reviews the possible buyers of ULA should the sales rumor be true

He concludes that Lockheed Martin is the mostly likely buyer. His analysis makes great sense.

 

• NASA official expresses confidence that New Glenn will launch its ESCAPADE Mars orbiters on time in 2024

ESCAPADE was originally going to launch as a secondary payload with Psyche, and lost that launch when Psyche was delayed. Whether New Glenn will be ready for its 2024 launch window however remains very unknown, especially because this same official has admitted the launch date is still “approximate and provisional,” and there already are reports that New Glenn won’t make its first launch until 2025.

 

• Russian documentary about its Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan

I haven’t yet watched it. It is 38 minutes long and in Russian, though if you set the subtitles to English you’ll get a rough auto-translation.

 

• Russia now says it will launch its Venera-D mission to Venus in June 2031

As Anatoly Zak correctly notes, this mission was originally supposed to launch in 2013. That would make it only eighteen years behind schedule, assuming Roscosmos can meet that 2031 date, an assumption that is wildly unrealistic.

 

• Firefly successfully completes full duration static fire test of Alpha rocket first stage set for launch this month

The Space Force payload is aimed at proving the ability to launch rapidly.

 

• China touts its concept of a lunar brick-making robot it plans to launch on its Chang’e-8 mission

Nothing here but some pretty pictures.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Flight path over China of Long March 4B launch scheduled for April 16, 2023

As Jay says, “Watch your heads!”

 

• Results of Relativity’s investigation into Terran-1 launch failure

Posting this as a series of images in tweets is very clumsy, but if you read all the images in the first three tweets in the thread, you will get the full report.

 

• Venus balloon project team disbands due to NASA cancellation

The team had completed two flight tests of a small scale balloon prototype, but budget issues have killed the mission.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Blue Origin releases another PR video touting its wonderfulness

This video is absolutely worth watching (if you can tolerate the smug self-righteous blather), because it reveals quite starkly the utter vapidness of the company. There is no content here, just empty feel-good propaganda. At no point does the video tell us specifically what Blue Origin is doing to achieve its goals, strongly suggesting it is failing to do anything.

And this almost a decade after the company announced it was building its orbital New Glenn rocket, which is still at least two years from launch. Think about what SpaceX has achieved in that same time.

 

• Virgin Orbit seeking expedited bankruptcy sale

If successful the company could be auctioned off by May.

 

• The new director at Goddard took her oath of office on a copy of Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot

Sagan was an avowed leftist. No surprise that a government official would swear and oath by him.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who also prodded me into doing that earlier post today about the coming regulatory sledgehammer against commercial human spaceflight.

• Axiom shows off two images of its space station module being built by Thales Alenia

The sooner this is finished and in orbit, the better.

 

• A photo of the Centaur-5 explosion during testing

The picture really doesn’t tell us much. Though ULA’s CEO Tori Bruno said this “anomaly” during testing will not impact the first launch of Vulcan-Centaur in May, we shall have to wait and see.

 

• Images of JUICE, ESA’s mission to study the Moon’s of Jupiter, just before being enclosed in Ariane-5 fairings

JUICE is presently scheduled for launch on April 13, 2023.

 

• China touts completion of new rocket engine test stand, the largest in Asia

It will be used to test new more powerful kerosene-fueled engines.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, now back from a well-deserved vacation.

• During “extreme structural load testing” of the Centaur upper stage of ULA’s Vulcan rocket, CEO Tory Bruno reported “an anomaly”

No one was hurt, and according to Bruno this incident is “very unlikely” to impact the Vulcan-Centaur being prepared for launch in May. Though more details are not available, I suspect this was a test-to-failure, and the failure occurred slightly earlier than expected, but not so early as to be a concern.

 

• The SpaceX ocean fleet ships pass near Florida

One drone was coming home with a Falcon 9 first stage, while another drone plus the ship that picks up the fairings were heading to sea for an upcoming launch.

 

• Several images from Rocket Lab of the most recently recovered Electron 1st stage

From the tweet: “Once again the stage took reentry in its stride and the Rutherford engines are in great shape. Next step is to analyze and requalify components to inform our future recovery efforts.”

Rocket Lab officials has indicated that they are beginning to think they can simply reuse stages after splashdown in the ocean, rather than capture them by helicopter in the air. The data from this stage will help them make this decision.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• OneWeb’s next launch of 36 satellites now scheduled by ISRO no sooner than March 26th

The launch will complete OneWeb’s constellation in orbit.

 

• Rocket Lab delays Electron launch from Wallops to March 16th due to high winds

 

• Op-ed touts need to transfer space regulation to Office of Space Commerce

The false argument put forth is that this new department will simplify regulation. The reality is that it is simply going to add another bureaucratic layer to the regulatory process whose leaders will be pushing to build their own empires.

 

• More hints that engineers in Russia suspect a manufacturing defect in their Soyuz/Progress coolant systems

The tweet wonders if the problem could pop up on the Soyuz now in orbit, and wonders how long it can remain in orbit safely.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Next Rocket Lab launch presently scheduled for Wednesday, March 15th, with a 6-8 pm (Eastern) launch window

The launch is from Wallops Island in Virgina, using the company’s Electron rocket.

 

• Axiom to build the spacesuits to be used by the next American astronauts on the Moon

This isn’t news, as the contract was issued to Axion in September 2022. The company and NASA are simply unveiling the suit to the public, with typical PR fanfare.

 

• Chinese scientist provides update on Zhurong, which remains silent because of dust

Apparently they have found from orbital images that its solar panels are dust-covered, the result of the heavy winter dust storm season. They remain hopeful that with time and the arrival of Martian summer the dust will be blown off and they can reactivate the rover.

 

• Another Twitter report of Kazakhstan’s seizure of Roscosmos’ property at Baikonur

This was first reported on in the March 8th quick links, but today’s tweet adds that the seizure is due to a Russian debt to Kazakhstan of two billion rubles. The consequences of the seizure for future Russian launches remains unclear however.

 

• Amazon unveils user terminals for its Kuiper satellite constellation

The terminals look “futuristic”, but maybe that’s because they will be like all of Jeff Bezos’ futuristic projects, only in the future.

 

• PLD touts picture of its suborbital Miuri-1 rocket on the launchpad in Spain

No launch date is mentioned, though it does appear the company is getting close.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Short video of Buran being airlifted to Baikonur for its launch in 1988

It is amazing how authoritarian societies so rarely come up with original ideas. Buran and the Energia rocket that launched it definitely included some improvements over the space shuttle, but they were still copies, nonetheless.

 

• Short video showing the retrieval of one of SpaceX’s fast boats, used during Dragon crew splashdown

Simple, efficient, and quick.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Japanese planetary probe company Ispace to go public

The company plans to list its shares on the Toyko stock exchange, prior to the landing of Hakuto-R1 on the Moon in April.

 

• Asteroid discovered with potential to hit Earth in 2046

At present the risk, even if it hit the Earth, is small. The asteroid’s size is estimated roughly to be about 150 feet across, with a less than 1 in 600 chance of a collision even in 2046.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Blue Origin faces two discrimination lawsuits

Both suits accuse the company of weeding out older employees, exclusively based on age. I wonder if many of those older workers simply had the knowledge and experience to realize working for Blue Origin was turning out to be a dead end.

 

• Rocket Lab schedules next Electron launch from Wallops for March 11th

 

• China’s government amends its space regulations to require controlled de-orbit of all rocket stages

This regulation means the core stage of future Long March 5B must be controllable, and will not crash randomly somewhere on Earth. We shall see.

 

• Kazakhstan takes possession of launchpad Russia hoped to use for its as yet unlaunched Soyuz-5 rocket

The Soyuz-5 was to replace the Ukraine’s Zenit rocket, but has been plagued by delays. This action by Kazakhstan, as yet unconfirmed, would likely kill the project, as the rocket now has no launchpad.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Rocket engine builder Ursa Major to provide engines to Vector Launch

It is unclear if this Vector is the same Vector rocket startup that failed the first time because its own engines were underpowered. If so, the new management has changed course, since previously it has said it would still build its own engines, but of a different design.

 

• Dream Chaser is no longer scheduled to fly on Vulcan flight #2

Rumors suggest the removal is due to delays at Sierra Space getting Dream Chaser ready for flight. Sadly this is becoming a pattern, as the mini-shuttle is well behind schedule.

 

• New Glenn’s first launch likely delayed until 2025

No surprise, as Blue Origin more and more seems to be an unserious company that cannot get anything done fast or on schedule.

 

• A new trailer for Russian movie that had scenes shot on ISS

All in Russian unfortunately. The release date is now April 20th.

 

• ESA’s chief reaffirms its support of the Ukraine, despite blaming its Vega-C rocket failure on Ukrainian nozzles

Josef Aschbacher essentially grovels in response to the Ukrainian government’s objection to that investigation’s conclusions.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Branson pumps another $5 million into Virgin Orbit

Branson has now invested $60 million in Virgin Orbit since November 2022 in order to keep the company above water because delays with licensing at the UK bureaucracy prevented it from doing further launches in 2022. No launches, no revenue. And we now know for sure this is his reason, because his investment deal allows him to pull that money out at any time. Expect him to do so once Virgin Orbit begins flying again and making money.

 

• The Ukraine disputes ESA’s finding that its nozzles caused Vega-C launch failure

The Ukrainian space agency says ESA’s finding was premature and require further investigation. This conclusion might even be correct, in that ESA desperately needs to get its Vega rockets flying again with Ariane 6 not yet ready and Ariane 5 about to be retired.

 

• Ispace touts new liquid-fueled engine and new rocket variations

Since this company has had three straight launch failures with its solid-fueled rocket, it seems there is a lot of fantasy in this PR.

 

• China officially approves Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return mission

After dropping off its sample return capsule to Earth the spacecraft will then head to visit a comet.

 

• Agreement not yet reached between NASA and Roscosmos on additional astronaut barter flights

The original agreement covered only two flights, two Americans on two Soyuz flights and two Russians on two Dragon flights, and has now been completed. It is expected however that this deal will be extended.

 

• NASA shifts away from flying astronauts on suborbital flights of Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic

This decision is for lots of reasons, many related to safety and training needs. For example, these suborbital companies do not require flight suits, something NASA astronauts must wear. Thus, doing flights without the suits is somewhat pointless.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Video of lunar impact seen from Hiratsuka Observatory in Japan

They estimate the new crater to be about 65 feet wide.

 

• Russians Sergey Prokopiev and Dmitry Petelin will today move their seat harnesses into the new Soyuz capsule, while American Frank Rubio will do it on March 6th

I’m not sure why this wasn’t done immediately, by all three, immediately after the arrival of the Soyuz capsule on February 25, 2023. If there had been a major issue the three men would have either had to scramble to make the new Soyuz usable as a lifeboat, or would have been forced to use the improvised lifeboat arrangement in the Dragon Endurance capsule and the leaking Soyuz capsule, despite having a good vessel available.

 

• A graph showing the steady and slow decay of Hubble’s orbit

The decay was brought up because Hubble now orbits just below SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, and thus some are concerned its work will be hindered by them. I think this is a non-issue. More important is that decay. If Hubble is going to be remain in space, work on a rescue mission must begin soon.

 

• Chinese satellite inspecting American military satellites in geosynchronous orbit

China has launched a number of these classified inspection satellites, designed to surveil other satellites. As long as they do no harm to others, the satellites are doing nothing wrong, or different than what Russia and the U.S. do.

 

• Chinese pseudo-company Sepoch now plans first test launch of its stainless steel rocket in 2025

As Jay notes, “Wow stainless steel! Who would of thought of that?”

 

• Astra identifies the cause of its last launch failure

In reading their conclusions, I came away with the impression that this rocket had a lot of weak links, any one of which could cause a failure. No wonder the company abandoned it after this launch to focus on a new rocket.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Rocket Lab creates subsidiary focused entirely on garnering business in Australia

From the press release it sounds as if the company wants to take advantage of the Australian government’s recent increase in space.

 

• Relativity once again touts the live stream of the first launch of its Terran-1 rocket March 8th

The live stream is here. I will embed it on Behind the Black the day of launch.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Video of deployment of the 21 upgraded Starlink satellites launched February 27, 2023

A very different method of deployment than used previously.

 

• Virgin Galactic’s fourth quarter financial report

For my readers information only. As Jay writes, “I do not trust any numbers that this company has.”

 

• Rocket Lab announces launch contract with Capella Space

The contract is for four launches, to begin in the second half of this year.

 

• ISRO completes flight acceptance test of rocket engine to be used in Chandrayaan-3 lunar launch

The engine will be used during launch by the upper stage of a version of India’s GSLV rocket. That launch is now scheduled for sometime this summer.

 

• China displays model of proposed Long March 10 rocket, next generation manned capsule, and manned lunar lander

Pure fantasy at this point.

 

• China unveils models of suborbital manned spacecraft

The entire two-stage spacecraft looks like a copy of New Shepard, with the capsule made to look somewhat like a Dragon capsule.

 

• Another version of China’s heavy lift Long March 9 unveiled

Having the ability to change is not in itself a bad thing, but indecisiveness can be a curse. At present it is not clear which it is for this particular Chinese rocket project. Jay’s comment: “Dr. Long [the designer] … can’t decide which plans to steal and build.”

Jay asks forgiveness for the lateness today of these quick links, as he was overwhelmed with work at his real job. I say, no apology required. Thank you Jay!

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• ULA’s CEO: BE-4 engines “have successfully completed pre-qual testing, which goes beyond formal qual, providing an understanding of margins and behavior under unusual conditions.”

He also says inexplicably that the engine’s “formal qual is underway now.” Shouldn’t this have been done before Blue Origin shipped the engines to ULA? Or is there something about rocket prep procedures I don’t understand.

 

• SpaceX: Starlink now available in Rwanda

Jay notes also that his Starlink bill has just gone up 20%, to $120.

 

• All three Rocket Lab launchpads preparing for launch

Two rockets are at Wallops and one in New Zealand.

 

• Japan now working for a new H3 rocket launch attempt before March 10th

Engineers have identified the launch failure on February 17th to “an issue with an engine electrical power supply” in the solid rocket boosters.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who I must also thank for sending me the Twitter links showing the Russian Progress freighter hole.

• Vast Space, which hopes to build a commercial space station, has purchased the orbital tug company Launcher

This acquisition occurred just days after Launcher revealed the complete failure of its first orbital tug in orbit shortly after deployment. Vast will continue Launcher’s tug and rocket engine operations, but abandon its plans to build its own rocket.

 

• Celestis announces that the DNA from the remains of four past presidents will fly on the first launch of ULA’s Vulcan rocket

On this same rocket Celestis is also flying ashes or DNA from many actors or creators from Star Trek.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• OneWeb and ISRO complete integration of 36 satellites for March launch on India’s GSLV rocket

 

• Firefly touts its growing presence in Texas

The tweet links to an article describing the general growth of Texas’s space industry, much of it coming from companies fleeing California’s Stalinist government regulations.

 

• At press conference about the next Chinese manned mission, a government official reminded reporters that everything “must be censored before release.”

It is kind of funny that this official felt he needed to do this, since every one of those “journalists” knows he or she is really employed by the government and knows everything they write must serve that government. Why underline China’s authoritarian rule?

 

• Russian officials confirm that the launch of an unmanned Soyuz to ISS will take place on February 23rd

There had been some conflicting reports about the exact launch date. This announcement ends that confusion.

 

• All the Starlink satellites presently in orbit

The tweet shows a short video quickly illustrating the present state of the constellation. It almost literally covers the Earth.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, except for the last two.

• Soyuz capsule placed inside its payload fairing for a likely February 21th launch

That date, reported by Roscosmos two days ago, is three days earlier than the date listed at the link. Unless something has changed and not been reported, I would favor the earlier reported date.

 

• Images of the new Angara rocket assembly stand at Vostochny

Looks very clean and sleek, but also has taken decades to build.

 

• Damaged Progress to undock from ISS shortly

Live stream is here, scheduled to go live around 6:15 pm Pacific. Following undocking the freighter will be maneuvered so that the leak in its coolant system on its service module can be photographed.

 

• U.S. military is loosening its rules for bidding on its launches

The language in the screen capture at the link is typical bureaucratic blather, but the bottom line is that the military is no longer limiting bidding on launch contracts to just SpaceX and ULA, a foolish program I have begging the military to abandon for years. At this point they will let others bid on missions that are less risk tolerant. Expect with time this policy to loosen even more, as more competition can only save the military money, while providing it more redundancy and capability.

 

• China’s Xuntian Space Telescope, a Hubble-class optical space telescope, is still targeting a ’24 launch

The telescope will orbit close to Tiangong-3, and according to images at the link, will dock with the station for maintenance.

 

• NASA’s corrupt safety panel worries about NASA’s “safety culture” in its Artemis program

Though in this case the panel is likely right, I don’t take anything it says seriously. It has been so wrong so many times in the past, clearly biased against private space while favoring NASA, its analysis is simply worthless. I only include the link to its report now for completeness.

 

• FAA proposes fining SpaceX $175K for not providing “launch collision analysis trajectory data” prior to a August 19, 2022 Starlink launch

SpaceX has 30 days to respond. Considering the increased hostility by the bureaucracy to SpaceX since Biden took office, I think it is understandable to think this is simply another bureaucratic attack for political reasons.

 

• One instrument on the Parker Solar Probe is temporarily down

It appears the problem simply requires a software upload of that instrument, which cannot be done for another few weeks because the spacecraft is in a blackout period due to orbital mechanics.

• Boeing and NASA still aiming for mid-April launch of first manned Starliner mission to ISS

That timeline remains in flux, and will be finalized in early March when they decide on when to begin fueling the service module. Once that happens, they need to launch with 60 days. Expect an actual launch date to announced around then.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Free access to ESA Bulletin, their space magazine

 

• China’s present deep space timeline
• 2024 lunar sample return: Chang’e-6
• 2025 asteroid sample return: Tianwen-2
• 2026 lunar south pole: Chang’e-7
• 2028 Mars sample return: Tianwen-3
• 2030 lunar station: Chang’e-8
• 2030 Jupiter/Uranus: Tianwen-4

 

• Ten-minute video outlining the recent history of China’s planned large internet constellations

An excellent summary. If you want to understand why I call all of China’s so-called private companies “pseudo,” watch this video. The earlier constellations planned by two pseudo companies vanished when the government decided something else should be launched instead. Neither company was private, and both were always entirely owned by the government.

 

• Flapless Starship prototype #26 rolled out to suborbital Pad A at Boca Chica for tests

Some have labeled this prototype the “bullet” because it also lacks tiles. SpaceX is clearly designing this for orbital tests without any intention of bringing it back to Earth safely. For all we know, the company might send it on an interplanetary flight for PR purposes.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• In fourth quarter of 2022 SpaceX placed almost as much mass into orbit as the entire rest of the world combined

For those who think upload mass the important metric, the graph at the link will answer many questions.

 

• Sierra Space touts its Vortex upper stage hydrogen-fueled engine, built in partnership with the Air Force

It is unclear on what rocket or spacecraft this engine will be used. Several years ago, early in development, the company said it would be for its Dream Chaser reusable mini-shuttle, but would use “green” fuels. I am not sure if hydrogen fits that bill.

 

• Engineers/scientists from China’s Academy of Sciences (CAS) go to ESA facility to help complete final tests on joint CAS-ESA solar mission

The mission, dubbed SMILE, will study the solar wind and its interaction with the Earth’s magnetosphere.

 

• Chinese atmospheric monitoring satellite shoots green lasers over Hawaii

The link includes a video of some of those lasers shots. The satellite, Daqi-1, was launched in April 2022. China claims it has no surveillance objectives.

 

• Europe joins the UK in investigating Viasat’s purchase of Inmarsat

The UK opened its own investigation in August 2022. In both cases, a decision against Viasat will likely hurt both companies, who are struggling to meet the new competition from the giant low orbit smallsat constellations like OneWeb and Starlink.

 

• Russia resumes prepping next Soyuz for launch

An inspection of the outside of the spacecraft’s cooling system found no damage or drilled holes. Expect the launch to occur before the end of February, relative close to its previous launch date of February 19th. As this is the lifeboat for three occupants of ISS, delaying its launch increases other risks.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who also clued me into to the updates on the Russian spacecraft leak situation on ISS.

• Blue Origin says it has made both solar cells and electricity transmission wires from simulated lunar soil

The article claims this is a major breakthrough, but I am sincerely underwhelmed. Though eventually such technology might be important for lunar colonists, right now it makes no sense to spend private capital on it. For at least the next two decades, power on the Moon is going to from solar panels shipped there. Other companies such as Astrobotics are developing cheap and easy-to-ship-and-install panels for those first missions, and they, not Blue Origin, are going to reap the profits.

 

• Quick overview of first H3 rocket launch tomorrow from Japan

 

• Pseudo Chinese rocket startup Space Pioneer gearing up for first launch of Tianlong-2 rocket by end of March

If successful, it would be the first liquid fueled rocket by a Chinese pseudo company to reach orbit. Others have tried and failed.

 

• Graphic of Chinese pseudo-company DeepBlue Aerospace’s fleet of rockets under development

Jay sums this up well: “Names of the rockets: Copy#1, Copy#2, Copy#3, Copy-Heavy#4, and of course Super Heavy Copy#5.” I will add that this is all fantasy at this moment.

 

• China’s FAST radio telescope discovers 740 pulsars

The claim is made by the telescope’s chief engineer, which suggests China has still not found a high quality astronomer to manage its science operations.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

• Blue Origin and the fast-food chain Shaq’s Big Chicken sign deal

When you read what this deal really entails, you will laugh. It is typical of the kind of engineering achievements we have come to expect from Blue Origin: Empty PR campaigns having nothing to do with actually building something that will fly in space.

 

• An update on the Epsilon F6 failure last October.

The release at the link is entirely in Japanese. According to Jay, “As of February 3 JAXA has now narrowed the cause of the RCS [reaction control system] failure to blockage of the diaphragm at the helium tank outlet.”

 

• Russian official claims his design bureau (part of Roscosmos) is beginning research on a single-stage-to-orbit rocket

The picture at the link is hilariously pure science fiction. This ain’t happening, ever.

No blacklist column today. Been too busy with personal matters.