Minutes of March 11 Oklahoma Space Alliance Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met March 11, 2023, at the McMurray house in Norman, Oklahoma. Attending were Clifford and Claire McMurray. Adam Hemphill, Steve Marino, John Northcutt, Tim Scott, Dave Sheely, and Syd Henderson. OSA President Clifford (Kip) McMurray presided over the meeting. He did an Update discussing links to material covered in the meeting and this is online at https://osa.nss.org/Update2303.pdfso I’ll cover the details that aren’t covered there.
This was a celebration for those who could not make it to the Christmas Party, so we called it Christmas Party II. However, we had a short program also.
The National Space Society has a new President, Isaac Arthur: https://space.nss.org/isaac-arthur-named-president-of-the-national-space-society/.
We watched a video on the Chinese Lunar Lander.
The was a coolant leak on the most recent Progress Cargo Ship. This makes the theory that the coolant leak on the Soyuz attached to the ISS was caused by a micrometeorite less plausible.
India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle failed last year because the separation shock was larger than expected and sent the satellite into salvage mode.
Intuitive Machines is now traded on NASDAQ with the symbol LUNR.
We are now up to 5300 known exoplanents. [Expect this to increase a lot in the next few years with more dedicated exoplanet detection missions, not to mention the James Webb Space Telescope.]
We saw a picture of a SpaceX Starlink launch silhouetted against the Moon.
We tuned into a Relativity Space launch attempt live. If successful, this 3D-printed rocket, Terran R, would have been the first methane-powered Rocket to make orbit, but it was called off. [They tried again on March 22. The first stage worked fine but the second stage failed to ignite. However, it was considered a good test flight.]
We have $897.81 in our account and $267 cash on hand for a total of $1164.81.
At this point we paused for dinner. Afterward we watch “The Last Man on the Moon,” a documentary about Eugene Cernan’
Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
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