29 posts tagged with space and rockets.
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Concerns Over SpaceX as a Credible Launch Provider
The successful launch and recovery of the Heavy Booster (with a subsequent planned water landing of Starship) has provided SpaceX with very positive press and enthusiasm from the public. What remains, however, are significant issues that undermine the credibility of not just the Heavy Booster development program but SpaceX as a credible launch provider more widely.
Last month, the FAA, the controlling authority on commercial spaceflight, recently hit SpaceX with a potential fine, focusing on improper control room procedures, and perhaps more concerning, insufficient handling of explosives (note that the Super Heavy is the largest spacecraft launched to date with twice the thrust of a Saturn V. [more inside]
Rocketeers are Geoengineers
In 2018, the 225 tons of black carbon emissions from rocket launches equaled that of the entire aviation industry. Injected into the stratosphere, these particles accumulate and could cause regional temperature shifts. With space launches growing at 8% a year, the launch industry may be conducting a planetary-scale geoengineering experiment far outstripping the impact of their CO2 emissions.
A busy week in space
All kinds of missions are under way. Humans and our machines are working hard.
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo touched the edge of space for a second time and with an extra passenger. After circling and dropping landers on an asteroid, JAXA's Hayabusa2 landed upon its surface and shot a probe into it. NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe examined its own asteroid for "multiple, bright, point sources."
Far away from the inner solar system, NASA's New Horizons probe caught and shared even better images of Ultima Thule. [more inside]
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo touched the edge of space for a second time and with an extra passenger. After circling and dropping landers on an asteroid, JAXA's Hayabusa2 landed upon its surface and shot a probe into it. NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe examined its own asteroid for "multiple, bright, point sources."
Far away from the inner solar system, NASA's New Horizons probe caught and shared even better images of Ultima Thule. [more inside]
Even cooler than Super Blood Wolf Moon
The ALE-1 commercial microsatellite (previously)—designed to create on-demand artificial meteor showers (story begins at about 30:30 in the video), essentially setting off fireworks from above the atmosphere—arced towards its destiny in the heavens with the late January launch of the Epsilon-4 solid-fuel rocket by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) from the historic Uchinoura Space Center at the southern tip of the archipelago. The company's CEO and founder, Lena Okajima (
岡島 礼奈
) says she expects, if initial testing is successful next spring, to officially debut the fully operational satellite's capabilities at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Four colors of meteor are available.
The Sky Road
Heavy
Filling the amateur space archaeology niche
Paul Maley maintains three highly comprehensive pages dedicated to space debris which has fallen back to earth. These are organized into chronological sections: 1960-1980, 1981-2003, and 2004-present.
Your chance to begin again (insurance included)
Itching to get off-world for some reason? United Launch Alliance has, well, launched Rocketbuilder, a one-stop interactive desktop/mobile tool to select, configure and cost your next ride to orbit - or beyond. [more inside]
The Northwest Indian College Space Center
The joke was funny because this was just a tiny, two-year college, with no engineering program. Getting into space was the last thing on the minds of these students; they were just trying to escape poverty. Next thing they knew, NASA was calling them up.
ISS Eviction notice
Russia wants to nix plans to use the ISS after 2020, prohibit the United States from visiting the space station after that date along with preventing the US from using Russia made rocket engines for military launches. NASA says it hasn't received any official word, as US Congress critters begin asking questions
belters expanse trajectory: working up the Epstein Drive
How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 "moon rocket" engine back to life - "The story of young engineers who resurrected an engine nearly twice their age." [more inside]
Dreams of Space
Dreams of Space. A blog featuring art from non-fiction children's space flight books 1945-1975. Lots of great graphics, from the realistic to the now fanciful. I must also point out the wonderful Czech pop-up book and A Trip to Outer Space With Santa.
We’re going to Mars! WITH A SPACEGIRL, TWO CATS AND A MISSIONARY
In 1964, Zambia joined the Space Race with help from Edward Makuka Nkoloso, an enthusiastic, if overly optimistic, primary school teacher (partial transcript, video very much of its time). Though the rocket never left Lusaka, and there was never any real support from either the Zambian government or UNESCO, Nkoloso's project caught the imagination of Spanish artist Cristina de Middel in her short film, The Afronauts. Middel explains, "The images are beautiful and the story is pleasant at a first level, but it is built on the fact that nobody believes that Africa will ever reach the moon. It hides a very subtle critique to our position towards the whole continent and our prejudices. It's just like saying strong words with a beautiful smile." via.
An Empire of Stars
A cold autumn day was dawning as the German soldiers of the Altenwalde Versuchskommando prepared their V2 rocket for launch. They'd done this a hundred times before, but when the V2 finally roared up into the sky over the North Sea, the men of the AVKO couldn't help but smile and cheer. Soon the rest of the soldiers and officers around the launchpad were cheering as well. British officers and soldiers. Because this was Operation Backfire, the beginning of something that most people don't even know existed - the British Space Programme. [more inside]
What the fuck has NASA done to make your life awesome?
Kazakhstan and Beyond!
To the ocean, Alice!
"NASA is one of the few institutions I know that can inspire five-year-olds. It sure inspired me, and with this endeavor, maybe we can inspire a few more youth to invent and explore." An undersea expendition funded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has discovered the spent rocket engines used to power Apollo 11.
That German that sent Americans to the Moon
SpaceShipTwo
Space Stasis
Space Stasis - What the strange persistence of rockets can teach us about innovation. By Neal Stephenson.
Rocket pistol
The gyrojet pistol (video) - a handgun firing 13mm rocket ammunition, was an attempt to revolutionise gun design in the 1960s. Around a thousand were produced, and some may have seen use in Vietnam. Rifle and carbine versions were also produced. Design problems meant that it never seriously competed conventional firearms, but there is a modern attempt to revive the concept.
Laika Star
The history of the Russian space program in three short videos. The past, the present, and the future.
Pass the Future, please.
Tales of Future Past* — It's been a looong Monday. Do you want to get off the planet and out of the city to a place where you can really live? Well, here's some food for thought on the way home down life's highways. First, take a break from all this depressing war talk. Then empower yourself by giving yourself some space and maybe taking off for a few days. Drive just a bit slower, turn up the volume and imagine that your mechanic will say the tranny's OK after all. Once you're in the front door, take time to get slightly wired and forget all about politics. Get recharged for tomorrow: have a nice long bath, put your mind at ease, watch Ur Fave shOw, and listen to some soothing music. Now, don't things look a lot better?
[*Note the 'Start the Tour' links at the bottom of each page.]
Prepare for the home-made invasion!
retro-future
Designing a Space Colony? Start Here. Some light Reading. Be sure to check out the artwork (more space art by Don Davis).
Challenger Nuclear Prometheus rockets
Maybe they should have let Lance Bass on this one.
Maybe they should have let Lance Bass on this one. A Soyuz rocket explodes 29 seconds after takeoff, killing one and injuring eight from the blast. Although it was not carrying any material destined for the International Space Station, launch delays caused by the investigation into the explosion might hurt the IIS project in the long run.
What is Dick Rutan up to now?
What is Dick Rutan up to now? The reigning master of innovation in aerospace is up to something, as shown in the linked photo. But what is it? Rutan is also helping to bring us rocket powered airplanes and, of course, flew Voyager around the world not so long ago.
Mission To Mars
Mission To Mars What if we could get there in about two weeks?
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