Short Takes – 1-8-24

Vulcan to launch Peregrine lunar lander on inaugural flight. NASASpaceFlight.com article. Lots of space geek info. Pull quote: “Vulcan is 61.6 meters tall and 5.4 meters in diameter. It will weigh 663,367 kilograms when fully loaded on the launch pad, and will produce 8.9 meganewtons of thrust at liftoff. This flight of Vulcan will be heading to a Trans-lunar Injection(TLI) to get a payload to the Moon and then change to a heliocentric orbit. This means with the two SRB Vulcan will be able to deliver up to 6,300 kilograms to the Moon.”

First Flight of the Vulcan Rocket Sends an American Lander Toward the Moon. NYTimes.com article. Pull quote: “Another factor affecting Vulcan’s future is that SpaceX lands and reuses its Falcon 9 boosters, which is likely to give it a sizable price advantage over U.L.A. By contrast, the whole Vulcan rocket is used just once. Blue Origin is also planning to reuse the New Glenn boosters.”

Dutch man sabotaged Iranian nuclear program without Dutch government's knowledge. NLTimes.nl article. Interesting if true. Pull quote: “After his death, an article in the United Arab Emirates newspaper The National praised Van Sabben as an engineer who made an important contribution to the Gulf State. The article noted that he traveled a lot for his work, mentioning Iran along with Sudan, Yemen, and East Africa. According to the Volkskrant, Van Sabben released Stuxnet into the Natanz nuclear complex during one of those trips to Iran. The virus was likely in a water pump [emphasis added] that Van Sabben had installed there.”

Speaker Johnson announces top-line spending deal to avoid government shutdown. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: ““While these final spending levels will not satisfy everyone, and they do not cut as much spending as many of us would like, this deal does provide us a path to: 1) move the process forward; 2) reprioritize funding within the topline towards conservative objectives, instead of last year’s Schumer-Pelosi omnibus; and 3) fight for the important policy riders included in our House FY24 bills,” Johnson said.”

Speaker Johnson in pressure cooker as partial shutdown deadline nears. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Johnson said in a “Dear Colleague” letter on Sunday that the deal provides a path to “fight for the important policy riders included in our House FY24 bills.” But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) in a separate statement warned that “Democrats will not support including poison pill policy changes in any of the twelve appropriations bills put before the Congress.””

Why fears over a ‘tripledemic’ are surging. TheHill.com article. Pull quote “But now, confidence is waning. Accessing the vaccine for RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, has been a struggle for many, and enthusiasm for the new COVID-19 vaccines turned out to be abysmal. COVID-19 hospital admissions have been rising since November and wastewater detection indicates most sites — 69 percent — are seeing large increases in virus levels.”

Avian flu surges in Northern California, threatening national poultry, egg supplies. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “A previous surge in the disease rattled the nation’s poultry industry last year, leading to national egg shortages and record-high price tags. The country could be headed in that direction again: While egg prices are still half of what they were about a year ago, they have risen 12 percent over last month, according to The Wall Street Journal.”