“That’s One Small Step for A Man…” Neil Alden Armstrong (1930-2012)
|

“That’s One Small Step for A Man…” Neil Alden Armstrong (1930-2012)

Sad word today that Neil Armstrong – Naval Aviator, test pilot and first man on the Moon, has passed.  Neil Armstrong typified the “quiet professional” whose coolness in extremis events were exemplified in flying the X-15 and especially so on orbit as commander of Gemini VIII when things suddenly went very, very wrong (@ the…

ROSKOSMOS Head on Recent Failures – “…Sabotage”
|

ROSKOSMOS Head on Recent Failures – “…Sabotage”

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…

| |

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: 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…

|

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…