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.

• Blue Origin rolls the first stage of the first New Glenn rocket to launchpad
  The upper stage still needs to be stacked. Also, a dress rehearsal countdown with static fire test needs to be done. Still no word on launch date, though it finally appears within sight.

• Chinese pseudo-company AZSpace plans first launch of its cargo capsule to Tiangong-3 in November
  It also has unveiled its own New Shepard copycat suborbital capsule. I will consider both real, when they fly.

• Thailand’s government approves signing Artemis Accords
  If this happens (it remains unconfirmed from NASA), Thailand would be the first nation to sign on to both Artemis and China’s lunar base project. I wonder if that will fly with the next president.

• Lockheed Martin completes acquisition of smallsat manufacturer Terran Orbital
  The final acquisition price was $450 million. Lockheed has been a major investor of Terran since 2017, so the deal made sense in many ways.

• According to Russian officials, Europe has returned its ExoMars lander, minus European components
  ESA kicked Russia off the mission to land the Franklin rover on Mars when it invaded the Ukraine. That decision however delayed the rover’s launch now until 2028.

• Short video panning across what the tweet claims is the sharpest image yet taken of the Andromeda galaxy
  I think this is a Hubble image, but the tweet provides no information.

• Watch Comet ATLAS (C/2024 S1) evaporate in its close approach to the Sun
  This is not Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, which has provided a nice show for viewers, but a different comet that astronomers hoped would be even brighter. Instead, the Sun destroyed it.

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 narrows its choice for manned lunar rover to two
  Both are proposed by different agencies, with one to be selected for the actual mission

• China awards two space station cargo supply contracts to different pseudo-companies
  If successful, it will give the Chinese multiple options for getting cargo up to its station.

• Pentagon increases its budget for commercial satellite internet services 13-fold, to $13 billion
  The military has found it pays to buy such services from the private sector, rather than trying to build it itself.

• Another study posits another underground ocean, this time within the Uranus moon Miranda
  Based on a computer model, so take the claim as serious as you want.

• ISRO revises its proposed Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV)
  It has reduced the number of rocket configuations from four to three.

• On this day in 1998, John Glenn returned to space on the space shuttle Discovery
  For those who studied politics at the time, it seemed obvious that Glenn got this flight because he did such a good job acting as Bill Clinton’s attack dog in the Senate.

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.

This is late today because I was attending an event at the local Tucson rocket startup Phantom Space. More on that tomorrow.

• China touts the operation of its Quequiao-2 relay satellite orbiting the Moon
  The tweet says it has a planned lifespan of eight years.

• Chinese pseudo-company Ispace says it has completed its investigation into the launch failure of its Hyperbola-1 rocket
  No details were disclosed. The rocket has failed 4 times out of 7 launches.

• NASA official says that it has found the root cause to the Orion heat shield damage on Artemis-1
  According to the tweet, the official also declined to disclose that root cause.

• On this day in 2009 NASA completed a test suborbital launch of its Ares-1-X rocket
  Only one in a long list of non-achievements during the never-ending Ares/Constellation-SLS/Artemis program

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 Deep Blue Aerospace will attempt a high altitude vertical hop test with a Nebula-1 first stage next month
  It hopes to do a much larger test of its Nebular-2 in ’26, but several observers note the rocket does not yet have landing legs.

• This is a laugh: China’s state security accuses western companies of stealing its technology.
  “It did not name any specific countries but claimed some had ‘carried out infiltration and stealing activities in China’s aerospace field’.” Since there is amply evidence of China stealing such technology, this claim is a bit absurd. Why should the West steal back the technology it already as and that China had stole from it.

• NASA delays decision of cutting budgets for both Chandra and Hubble
  No surprise, The announced cuts were originally announced to apply pressure on Congress to fund both telescopes. With the election upcoming the agency wants to get Congress on their side. Cutting these popular telescopes just before the election will not servie its insterets.

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.

• Pentagon’s Space Development Agency certifies 19 space companies to bid on development contracts
  The list covers almost every low orbit satellite and rocket company.

• Space News op-ed calls for new effort to defend against attacks on GPS
  It claims little has been done, but Jay disputes this: “We, the USA, have been researching and testing this for over fifteen years.” He notes that his own company has participated in installing systems for detecting and blocking attacks.

• Blue Origin proudly shows off first stage of first New Glenn rocket, its seven BE-4 engines finally installed
  Still no word on when the launch will occur.

• An animation showing the spread of debris in geosynchronous orbit from the breakup of Intelsat 33E satellite
  It appears the debris could threaten almost every satellite in geosynchronous orbit, though the odds of impact probably remain slim.

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 is accepting reservations for suborbital flights on its New Shepard copycat spacecraft
  They are targeting commercial tourist flights by 2027, with test flights beginning next year.

• Astra gets Defense Department contract worth $44 million to develop its Rocket-4 launch system
  It appears the Pentagon wants Astra to survive, and has given it this contract for that purpose.

• NASA unveils prototype of its proposed LISA orbiting gravitational-wave telescope
  LISA has been under development for almost two decades, has been delayed numerous times and now is not expected to launch until the 2030s. Great work if you can get it.

• NASA negotiating with China about research access to Chang’e-5 lunar samples
  The law requires NASA to bring in the FBI in such negotiations to make sure the talks will not release American technology to the Chinese. According to NASA’s administrator Bill Nelson, NASA has not yet done this, but intends to before any samples are delivered to the U.S. In other words, he is violating not only the letter but the spirit of the law, designed to keep China away from American space assets.

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.

• Next American unmanned lunar mission is Firefly before end of year, landing in early ’25, with Intuitive Machines next attempt launching and landing at about the same time
  If both go off as promised the end of the year will be quite interesting.

• Intuitive Machines picks Cobalt-60 as fuel for new spacecraft electrical power source
  This appears to be the first time Cobalt-60 has ever been used. From Jay: “It is easy to make Co-60, just bombard iron with neutrons. It happens all the time at nuclear reactors when stray neutrons hit steel, but it has a short half life of five years. It puts outs beta decay, that is what they are using for heat, but the gamma rays it puts out worries me with the electronics. They probably licked that problem or else they would not do it.”

• Vast unveils a new website
  Nicely done. Simple and easy to navigate.

• Long March 2F and Shenzhou capsule now at launchpad for eighth manned mission to China’s Tiangong-3 space station
  The video provides a lot of visual shots of the rocket, the stacked spacecraft, and the launchpad. The grid fins on what I think is the rocket’s upper stage are most intriguing. That stage takes the capsule into orbit. Is China trying to bring it back to Earth for reuse?

• A picture of Laika, the first dog in space, launched November 3, 1957 on Sputnik 2
  The Soviets made no plans to bring her back to Earth, and so she died in space.

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.

• Amazon requests temporary authority from FCC to operate one of its two Kuiper test satellites in a lower orbit for six month [pdf]
  The original plan was to lower the orbits of both satellites just prior to de-orbiting. Amazon now wants to do additional orbital communications testing with one satellite at this lower orbit for six months.

• Stoke Space touts its new vertical engine static fire test stand
  The company is doing final tests of the stand before actual engine tests.

• Russia touts mock-ups of its Oryol manned capsule intended to replace Soyuz
  Note that these are “mock-ups”, not the real thing. Oryol was first proposed in 2009 and isn’t supposed to launch until 2028. In other words, Russia is taking about as long as it took NASA to create a new manned capsule. And both are demonstrating their incompetence as they do so.

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.

• Varda has gotten okay from Australia to land its capsules at the commercial Southern Launch range/spaceport
  The company did this I am sure because of the hassles the FAA and Army gave it in returning its capsules in the U.S.

• Another pseudo-Chinese rocket company appears, dubbed “CosmoLeap”
  The graphic is hilarious. They plan to use this new idea of using launch tower chopsticks to catch their first stage. What originality! And I’m sure they have this working in no time!

• Someone takes a close look at the cost overruns by Bechtel in failing to build the SLS 2nd mobile launcher
  His conclusion: “With the right attitude and cost plus contract structures there are no limits to how expensive something can become.”

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 officials hint it might no longer maintain a continuous human presence in space after ISS
  They say this is because they are unsure the commercial stations will be ready for continuous occupation when ISS is retired. While that is likely a factor, a more important factor is NASA itself. When those commercial stations are flying private customers, NASA’s presence — which for decades has accomplished far less than it should have — will become increasingly irrelevant. A permanent human presence in orbit might not be continuous initially in the 2030s, but that gap won’t last long, as long as freedon and competition is allowed to flourish.

• The countries who have signed the Artemis Accords are compaigning for new countries to join
  These comments were made by representatives from Estonia, Canada, Italy, Australia, and NASA. While expanding the alliance has advantages, the comments all indicate no interest in the accords’ initial purpose, to get around the limitations to private ownership imposed by the Outer Space Treaty. Instead, they seem focused on “building on the treaty,” a very bad sign for the future of capitalism and private enterprise in space.

  And to prove my analysis, NASA’s official even said that China could sign the accords if it wished. So much for defending freedom, capitalism, and private ownership.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who also let me know about today’s Chinese launch. 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’s long term space science plan also calls for a “Venus atmospheric sample return mission”
  The link is in Chinese. Jay provided a translation which mentioned the Venus mission with few details.

• Chinese pseudo-company Landspace hopes to attempt landing and recovery of first stage of its Zhuque-3 rocket in 2025
  Landspace has been using a Grasshopper-type engineering test vehicle to do vertical landing tests.

• Blue Origin donates New Shepard capsule and booster to Air & Space Museum
  Yawn.

• NASA touts the advantages of the halo lunar orbit of Lunar Gateway
  Ah, but will it ever get launched, and at what cost?

• More video of Superheavy’s tower catch, plus a graph illustrating how much SpaceX has lowered the cost to orbit
  The video is incredibly fun to watch, but the graph is far more important. While everyone else has done only a little to lower the cost, SpaceX has smashed the floor.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who also sent me the Vast Haven-2 story earlier today. 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 Factory Augsburg calls for changes in how Europe’s space bureaucracy operates
  It’s only a slightly long tweet, but this is the key quote: “Europe has ambitious private space players, with innovative ideas, courage and a vision. Unfortunately, they are being held by the long arm and are in danger of withering away while old structures, processes and mindsets are maintained.” The company wants that bureaucracy to stop running things and instead simply become “customers” (their word) investing in the private sector.

• Rumors in China suggest its new Long March 12 rocket will attempt to vertically land its first stage on its maiden flight next year
  It is entirely likely that China will achieve this goal soon, as they have been investing a lot of research on the subject by their space government agencies as well as their pseudo-companies, which all share their data. And that doesn’t include any information obtained by China through computer hacking.

• French satellite startup gets $10 million in investment capital from a state-bank investment organization
  The money will be used to design the first two test satellites for a constellation of 1,500 satellites providing internet access.

• On this day in 1947 Chuck Yaeger became the first person to fly faster than sound
  His plane was the Bell X-1.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, except for the first, which came from several readers. 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.

• FAA ends its grounding of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, allowing launches to proceed
  No word yet on whether the FAA will issue a launch license for a Starship/Superheavy launch on October 13th. There will be a lot of Falcon 9 launches however beginning that day to catch up.

• Amazon’s Kuiper constellation appears to be negatively impacting the company’s recent profit margins
  If only the company had moved with some speed and gotten these things launched quickly rather than dither for years while SpaceX grabbed the market.

• The consortium building Starlab space station completes a full scale mockup to test its design and usability
  It is bringing in astronauts from the U.S. and Europe to give advice and suggestions.

• China successfully recovers a reusable Shijian capsule
  Similar in concept to Varda’s commercial capsule, Shijian was used to test a variety of manufacturing technologies in weightlessness that could then be used on Earth.

• ISRO has booked all the remaining flights of its GSLV rocket
  To quote the tweet: “Within the next decade, both PSLV & GSLV are going to retire, after which India’s launch demands are to be met by SSLV, LVM3, NGLV & private launchers.” The best plan would be to replace all the government launchers with private ones, but that seems unlikely considering the political strength of India’s bureaucracy.

• Today in 1846, Neptune’s largest moon Triton was discovered.
  The tweet includes a photo of the moon taken by Voyager 2 in 1989.

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, who also deserves thanks for cluing me on the Vast, EPA, and Chinese launch stories posted earlier. 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.

• Hubble and New Horizons look at Uranus from opposite directions
  By doing simultaneous observations like this, astronomers get data covering the planet’s entire globe.

• Impulse’s new Deneb rocket engine ready for testing
  The company wants to use it on its Helios orbital tug as a fast way to get payloads to different locations in Earth orbit and beyond.

• Sierra Space is now targeting a May 2025 launch for its Tenacity mini-shuttle on a ULA Vulcan rocket
  Only a year later than originally announced, and years behind schedule overall.

• Space Force: X-37B in orbit will next use aerobraking to change its orbit as well as “safely dispose … service module components.”
  At present the mini-shuttle is in a highly elliptical orbit. By using the atmosphere during its close fly-bys of Earth to lower that orbit’s high points it save fuel for other purposes, which can extend its mission considerably.

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.

• New computer models suggest Ceres has an icy crust and was once covered with muddy ocean
  Everyone say after me: “The uncertainty of science!”

• Graphic showing all rockets developed by India’s space agency ISRO, past, present, and future
  This will be more exciting when the list shows rockets from private Indian companies.

• ISRO building third launchpad at its Sriharikota spaceport
  This is in addition to a second completely different spaceport being developed further south.

• ULA’s CEO touts video of release of fairings during last week’s Vulcan launch
  All I kept thinking is ULA is throwing those away, while SpaceX has been recovering and reusing its fairings now for years.

• Former NASA flight director during Apollo shares insights to Firefly engineers

• China completes main antenna installation of new 40 meter radio telescope in Shigatse, Tibet
  It appears this antenna is to increase China’s ability to detect things in orbit, though this is not certain.

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.

Having visited an eye doctor today and had my eyes dilated, posting this afternoon is difficult. Sorry thus for the lack of additional posts.

• Dawn Aerospace flies world’s only rapidly reusable rocket-powered aircraft twice in one day
  This remains a small scale engineering prototype focused on testing the engineering.

• Brightness of first Chinese broadband constellation satellites alarms astronomers
  My heart bleeds. All this paper really proves is that any effort to squelch the American satellite constellations will accomplish nothing but squelching the American satellite industry. It will do nothing to save ground-based astronomy. Astronomers should stop whining and focus on building telescopes in space.

• Debris from break-up of Long March 6A upper stage has spread to many altitudes
  There is no indication China cares one iota. It certainly does not appear they have taken any action to fix the problems with the Long March 6A upper stage, which has broken up at least twice.

• ViaSat-3 F1 satellite enters commercial service
  It is designed to provide internet access to airline customers over North America, including Hawaii. Whether its addition can stave off the competition from SpaceX’s Starlink remains questionable.

• Rocket Lab wins contract from NASA to study ways to bring the Perseverance’s core samples back to Earth
  Few details were released, but it appears the company with this study contrct has the inside post on getting the full contract to do this, replacing the complex NASA/ESA/Lockheed Martin proposal that is overbudget, behind schedule, and incoherent in design.

• How Did The Vulcan Rocket Survive This Booster Failure?
  Manley’s analysis is good, but he gets it very wrong when he says the FAA will likely ground Vulcan pending completion of its investigation. The FAA quickly announced no investigation was necessary, nor was Vulcan grounded.

• UAE announces a ‘Supreme Space Council’ that will oversee the country’s space activities
  It appears a lot of people with power in the UAE want a seat at the table, running the UAE space program. This council gives them this, and illustrates how this is definitely a top-down program with little independent outside competition by non-government entities.

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.

• ASTSpaceMobile’s 1st Bluebird cell-to-satellite satellite in orbit is about to go operational
  The satellites are the largest commercial arrays ever placed in orbit, 700 square feet in area.

• German startup Polaris Spaceplanes raises €7.1 million in private investment capital
  It will use the funds to develop its “Aurora multipurpose spaceplane and hypersonic transport system.”

• On this day in 1957, the Soviet Union opened the space age by launching the first artificial satellite, Sputnik
  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.

• Axiom’s co-founder touts the nearly completed hull of its first space station module
  It is being built by Thales-Alenia in Italy, and will be shipped soon to Houston. The company has been posting pictures like this for the past year-plus, but for some reason that module never gets finished.

• Major solar flare in progress
  As Jay notes, “Regular news outlets are picking this up with the usual apocalypse chatter.” The big issue is how this might effect emergency communications using ham radio.

• Hera mission to Didymos/Dimorphos asteroid binary came in under budget by $20 million; still targeting October 7th launch, despite SpaceX grounding
  ESA used that $20 million to cobble together a mission to Apophis, using Hera architecture.

• Starlink free for 30 days for those impacted by Hurricane Helene or doing rescue work
  As always, private citizens and companies are acting faster and smarter than the government, which has actually moved to block such efforts, even threatening volunteers with arrest for providing aid.

• India approves joint India-Japan lunar project now dubbed Chandrayaan-5
  It will include a lander built by India and a rover built by Japan.

• Today in 1985 the space shuttle Atlantis launched on its first mission

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.

• Astrobotic successfully completes ground communications tests between its Griffin lunar lander and NASA’s Deep Space Network

The launch is presently scheduled for 2025 on a Falcon Heavy rocket.

 

• New Horizons is now 60 times as far from the Sun as Earth, and has almost doubled Pluto’s distance from the Sun since flying past it in 2015

It is flying 300 million miles farther out each year.

 

• ESA touts new antenna in its own deep space network

Now all Europe has to do is launch some deep space probes.

 

• ISRO is hopeful its first unmanned test orbital Gangayaan mission will happen before the end of this year

This isn’t really news, as the agency has been saying this for quite some time. If anything, the story hints that the mission will likely be delayed until early next year.

 

• Russian prime minister claims the first 300 satellites in its own “Starlink” constellation will be launched by 2027

And if you believe him I have bridge in Brooklyn I could sell you cheap!

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.

• Orbital tug startup Momentus faces delisting from Nasdaq stock exchange

The share value has generally been below a dollar, thus failing to meet Nasdaq’s requirements. The company has had both cash shortage and technical issues, hindering its success.

 

• NASA reissues its request for proposals for using its Janus planetary probes

The probes, built and ready for launch, lost their target when the launch to carry them got delayed. NASA had issued this request but then retracted it “for corrections.” The reissued request includes less technical details, likely to give bidders more flexibility.

 

• On this day in 1958 the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (N.A.C.A. and pronounced by saying each letter) officially became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA, prounced like a word).

I have no idea why people changed how they spoke the acronyms.

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.

• Kennedy spaceport preparing new launchpad for “small-lift launch vehicles”

The launchpad is being designed to have common use infrastructure for multiple companies.

 

• Australian rocket startup Gilmour Space completes dress rehearsal countdown of its Eris rocket

The countdown stopped at T-10 seconds. They are getting ready for the first test orbital launch off the eastern coast of Australia.

 

• Honeybee Robotics completes thermal testing of its vertical solar panel system

The concept is to deploy on the lunar surface to provide a power grid for all operations.

 

• NASA inspector general to conduct an investigation into the agency’s commercial crew program

In a sane world you would assume this investigation is prompted by the problems with Starliner, but we don’t live in a sane world. It is just as likely that the knives are also out for SpaceX.

 

• China holds a conference to discuss lunar rover “off-road technologies”

Consider it a workshop for the people designing the manned rovers China will deploy on the lunar surface when it begins landing people there in the 2030s.

 

• Rocket Lab touts the completion of more hardware for its new Neutron rocket

• SpaceX test fires a Raptor enginer for nearly 15 minutes

• This week in 2022 Juno did the closest fly-by of the Jupiter moon Europa in two decades

See this 2022 post for details of the fly-by. See this 2023 post and this 2024 post for what the scientists learned, and this second 2024 post for a contrary conclusion.

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.

• Direct evidence from China that all its so-called “private” companies are government-controlled

Apparently they jointly created a single entity to share data on developing reusable rockets. Nothing is proprietary.

 

• American Astronomical Society demands transparency and government supervision for lunar and interplanetary spaceflight activities

The link upholds a pdf. While some of the suggestions make sense, the overall tone is a cry of desperation against the possibility that private entities might operate in space out of the control of the government and this scientific organization.

 

• NASA approves use of SuperDraco launch abort system should all parachutes fail during landing

Up until now NASA limited use of the SuperDracos to situations where a failure occurred during launch.

 

• On this day in 1997 Mars Pathfinder and its mini rover Sojourner sent its final data transmission

This lander laid the groundwork for the entire American Mars unmanned exploration program of the past quarter century.

 

• During this week in 1970 the Soviets’ Luna-16 unmanned lunar probe successfully returned a 1/4 pound of lunar soil to Earth

It was the first time an unmanned mission accomplished this task, though it came after two American manned landings brought back a much greater haul of lunar samples.

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.

• Stoke Space touts the water deluge system for its new engine test stand

If I were them, I wouldn’t broadcast this as it increases the chances that the thugs at the EPA will move in to shut it down.

 

• Rocket startup Maiaspace wins lease to take over old Soyuz launchpad in French Guiana

The startup is owned entirely by ArianeGroup, builder of the Ariane-6 rocket, and is attempting to build a smaller reusuable rocket.

 

• Total debris from breakup of Chinese upper stage Long March 6 rocket in August now totals 538 objects

Tracking detected an additional 149.

 

• On this date in 2022 the probe Dart impacted Dimorphos

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.

• Radian Aerospace begins tests of spaceplane prototype

To avoid State Department ITAR restrictions, these runway tests are using a prototype that uses jet engines and no space-specific technology, because the flights are taking place in an unnamed airport the United Arab Emirates.

 

• Reflect Orbital is developing space mirrors to direct sunlight to ground-based solar panels

The video bluntly questions the practicality of the project.

 

• China to expand its 500-meter-diameter FAST radio telescope by encircling it with 24 smaller radio dishes

The additional dishes will each be 40 meters in diameter.

 

• On this day in 2023 the sample capsule from OSIRIS-REx landed on Earth with its Bennu samples

The spacecraft is now on its way to a rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis in 2029.

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.

As this is an open thread, I must add that the lack of any political or cultural posts recently is entirely because I am presently sick of reporting about this stuff. When you have a big long term player in the Democratic Party, Leon Pannetta, make the utterly stupid comment that Israel’s very targeted attacks on Hezbollah is “a form of terrorism” — essentially endorsing this murderous Islamic terrorist organization — and yet approximately half of Americans apparently still consider the Democratic Party to be a viable option, it seems somewhat pointless to attempt to change these people’s minds. Too many leftists no longer have the ability to think. They are wedded to their party, and will support it no matter how infantile or childless or dangerous or violent it gets.

Enough. Back to Jay’s links about space:

• Stoke Space touts its growing inventory of built hardware

The image shows four engines, two partly assembled, and what looks like a tank dome. The company is clearly making some progress, but as Jay notes, it is not yet “hardware rich. That distinction is given when you have multiple assembled test articles.”

 

• Chinese President Xi Jinping calls for accelerating China’s space endeavors

He is essentially touting this major success under his leadership, in order to strengthen his hold on the government. It’s what power-hungry politicians always do, whether they run a communist or a democratically-elected government.

 

• Haiyang spaceport plans to build a new semi-submerged ship to provide a more compatible sea-launch platform

It hopes to have it launched by the end of ’25.

 

• Viasat wins U.S. Air Force contract to make aircraft antennas for communicating with satellites

Contract is for $33 million.

 

• On this day in 1930 astronaut John Young was born

He “flew in space six times (twice each during the Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle programs), and served as an astronaut longer than anyone to date: 42 years.”

 

• Today marks the 10th anniversary of the day India’s Mangalyaan Mars Orbiter entered orbit around Mars

Its planned mission was for six months. It operated for eight years.

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 building lunar low-gravity simulation test platform

China developed something similar to test its Zhurong Mars lander. This appears to be an upgraded version.

 

• Russia’s geosynchronous surveillance satellite moves close to Intelsat satellite

The Russians appear to use this geosynchronous Luch satellite to do reconnaissance of the electronic signals coming from these satellites.

 

• On this day in 1967 the DODGE engineering test satellite captured the first global color image of Earth

• On this day in 1956 the Jupiter-C rocket was test fired for the first time

This was the rocket used to launch the U.S.’s first orbital satellite, Explorer-1, in 1958.

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.

• Blacksky wins contract from Australian company to use its satellite constellation to gather images of orbiting objects

The company is HEO, and it wants the data for “defense, intelligence, and commcial use.”

 

• Blue Origin’s New Glenn landing barge, Jacklyn, departed Port Canaveral this morning for sea trials

The company says it will attempt a first stage landing on the first launch of New Glenn, but if so there isn’t much time for these trials before the launch, now targeting sometime before the end of the year.

 

• China touts the success of Yutu-2, which it says is still working on the Moon’s far side nearly 5 years and 9 months after launch

The tweet says it has now traveled a total distance of 1,613 meters, which is just over one mile.

 

• On this day in 1962 the weather satellite TIROS 6 was launched

It was the sixth in a series of increasingly sophisticated satellites, following the first in April 1960.

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.

• Google backs a private satellite constellation to track wildfires

The first demo smalsat is targeting a launch next year, with the first launches of the fifty satellite constellation beginning in 2026.

 

• Rivada and Peraton partner to launch communications satellite constellation for military

The 600 satellite constellation will begin launching in 2025 with full deployment planned by 2028.

 

• Science paper claims new Starlink satellites emit “bright unintended electromagnetic radiation”

The paper claims this unrelated emission will impact radio astronomy, and calls for new regulations to restrict SpaceX.

 

• Firefly touts its new Miranda rocket engine

• NASA touts the Europa Clipper mission to Jupiter

The launch is scheduled for October 10, 2024, with arrival in Jupiter orbit in 2030.

 

• Earth will have a temporary mini-moon for two months

The orbit is unstable, with the asteroid leaving by November.

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 Perspective completes first test flight of its Neptune balloon capsule

This test flight proved out the capsule’s engineering, and will eventually be followed by tourist balloon flights to about 20 miles altitude.

 

• Using Hubble, astronomers identify more supermassive black holes in the early universe that previously reported

The result comes from repeated observations of the very distant galaxies in the Hubble Ultra-Deep field, and spotting the changes.

 

• Former NASA administrator Mike Griffin leaves Rocket Lab’s board of directors after completing a four year term

• First paper published outlining preliminary data obtained from Chang’e-6 lunar samples from the far side of the Moon

You can read the paper here [pdf].

 

• On this day in 1976 the cast of the original Star Trek welcomed the roll-out of the shuttle engineering test vehicle Enterprise, named by popular demand after the spacehip in the TV series.

Enterprise never flew in space, but was used to test the shuttle’s design for gliding unpowered to a runway landing.

 

• On this day in 1996 the shuttle Atlantis lifted off for the fourth shuttle mission to dock with Russia’s Mir space station

The shuttle brought Shannon Lucid back from space, completing her then 188-day mission that was then a record for an American and a woman.