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)…
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…
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…
Comes word over night of an apparently successful attempt by Iran to place a satellite in orbitusing the Safir-2 space launch vehicle (SLV). The Safir (“Ambassador”) was ingeniously developed as part of Iran’s growing rocket and missile program and has direct links to its attempts to develop extended range missiles in the IRBM and ultimately,…
Forty years ago, man had slipped the gravitational pull that had kept him shackled  in orbit around his home planet, and boldly struck out for the Moon.  Forty years ago, in a live broadcast on Christmas Eve  for the ages, he sent back stunning images of his world and our perspective was forever changed: William…
…Right? Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, flying on the International Space Station, is being criticized by some U.S. observers for using a digital camera equipped with an 800-mm. telephoto lens and a video camera to image what a Russian official said were “after-effects of border conflict operations in the Caucasus” on Aug. 9, soon after the…
“I’ll take ‘Space’ for $100B Alex” “Russia, South Ossetia, Georgia and the ISS.” “What is – How the US could find itself locked out of the ISS after 2010 Alex” Russia’s invasion and occupation of South Ossetia could have far reaching effects off world. In a scenario strikingly reminiscent of the movie, 2010, increased tensions…
Blasting, billowing, bursting forth With the power of ten    billion butterfly sneezes Man with his flaming pyre Has conquered the wayward breezes Climbing to tranquility Far above the cloud Conceiving the heavens Clear of misty shroud… – Moody Blues, Higher and Higher Growing up we were insatiable in our appetite for anything related to…
Truly a watershed event – story here.
If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run – and often in the short one – the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative. – Arthur C. Clarke, The Exploration of Space, 1951 Radar specialist, scientist, visonary and author. One of the great pillars…
