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Measuring Progress
Every so often one needs to benchmark progress – and as halting as the US space program has been (and apparently will continue to be for sometime to come) progress is being made. Witness the almost non-chalant nature of the EVAs this week as part of STS-117’s mission to the ISS to deliver and install…
China’s ASAT – The Problem With Debris
Lots of press these past few days over China’s ASAT test/demonstration vs. a defunct FY-1C weather satellite. Some may ask why the big deal — space after all, is not the province of but a few privileged nations and the target satellite was theirs, so why the concern? In a word, debris. The rather violent…
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…
Shashou Jiang: CBERS-2B
The phrase “assassin’s mace” is the English translation of “shashou jiang,” a term of ancient Chinese strategy. “Shashou jiang” was a club with which the “assassin” incapacitated his enemy, suddenly and totally, instead of fighting him according to “the rules.” Dateline: 19 September 2007 – The CBERS (China/Brazil Earth Resources Spacecraft) -2B is placed in…
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…