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history lessons

ROSKOSMOS Head on Recent Failures -

President Vladimir Putin (right) with General Vladimir Popovkin at the Voronezh Radar Station in a 2007 file photo (ITAR-TASS)

When all else fails – and your butt is on the line with a major PR catastrophe looming, it is best to man-up, square your shoulders and do your duty as organizational lead by assuming responsibility before The Big Guy…unless you are the head of Russia’s ROSKOSMOS space agency.  Then you can hint darkly about [...] [...]

Naval Aviation Centenary

Flightdeck Friday Special Edition: The Space Shuttle – Thirty Years of Dreams, Sweat and Tears

The dream was given form and fire on April 12, 1981 with the launch of STS-1, the world’s first reusable spaceplane — the Shuttle Columbia. At the controls were a crew of only two, Astronauts John W. Young, commander for the mission, and Robert Crippen (both Naval Aviators) for this first “test flight” which would [...] [...]

Flightdeck Friday

Flightdeck Friday: STS-133 & Last Flight for Shuttle Discovery

The oldest and perhaps most storied of the shuttle fleet, Discovery launched on her final mission today to deliver a final module to the U.S. segment of the International Space Station, the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module, as well as the first humanoid robot to fly in space, Robonaut2. Named for the ships used by Henry [...] [...]

space

US Space Program: Lost in Place?

What is the mission of NASA? No — Seriously, what is NASA’s mission? Is it to be the lead Agency for exploration in the fields of aeronautics and space?  Discovering new technologies, opening new vistas of engineering and scientific knowledge for further exploration and utilization by US industry and the free nations of the world? [...] [...]

space

And Then There Were Two…

Atlantis Lifts Off Space shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the STS-132 mission to the International Space Station at 2:20 p.m. EDT on May 14. The third of five shuttle missions planned for 2010, this was the last planned launch for Atlantis. The Russian-built Mini [...] [...]

history lessons

Back to the Future: LRO Images Apollo 11′s Landing Site

Apropos that on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the landing on the Moon, the latest US visitor and (hopefully) precursor to our return via the Constellation program, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the location in Mare Tranquilis that was the site of Apollo 11′s landing (click on image to enlarge): Note the object [...] [...]

Flightdeck Friday

Flightdeck Friday: Apollo 11 Forty Years Later

20 July 1969 102:42:08 Duke: Roger. Copy. (Pause) Eagle, Houston. You’re Go for landing. Over. 102:42:13 Armstrong (on-board): Okay. 3000 at 70. 102:42:17 Aldrin: Roger. Understand. Go for landing. 3000 feet. 102:42:19 Duke: Copy. 102:42:19 Aldrin: Program Alarm. (Pause) 1201 102:42:24 Armstrong: 1201. (Pause) (On-board) Okay, 2000 at 50. 102:42:25 Duke: Roger. 1201 alarm. (Pause) [...] [...]

Reflections

Lunar Reflections

And so here we are, on the cusp of the 40th anniversary of the first landing on the Moon – where have we come in those forty years?  As a star-crossed (literally) youth in 1969, my imagination was fired by the likes of the space program.  From Sheppard’s sub-orbital flight that I recall watching from [...] [...]

Missile Defense

The Missiles of Winter (I): International Conventions

If news reports coming from South Korea and echoed through the West are to be believed, North Korea is moving towards another attempt at launching a Taepo Dong – 2 IR/ICBM, ostensibly as a space launch vehicle (SLV).  This would be the third such attempt, with previous attempts in July 2006 and Sept 1998 ending [...] [...]