War and Space
Civilization has known war and conflict all throughout its history. The Second World War gave birth to the space age, but long before that battle humans gazed at the sky and dreamed of what existed beyond the reaches of Earth while on the ground the use of rockets was...
The Air Force X-37B (Orbital Test Vehicle)
In December the Air Force will launch its first OTV also known as the X-37B Orbital test Vehicle. This small unmanned Space Shuttle-type vehicle will launch from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station grounds on an inaugural mission to test out its systems and capabilities. After the mission is...
Happy 10th Birthday International Space Station!
The ISS turned ten today and isn’t it truly amazing how time has flown by. In those ten years the station has covered just enough miles in space to have gone to Saturn and back. The station has grown from that first module to the largest man-made object ever...
The Art of Imitating Life
This past weekend I ventured down to the Kennedy Space Center to catch the annual airshow on the grounds of the space center complex. While there I took the time to catch the 3D IMAX film “Magnificent Desolation”. When I had first seen this movie several years ago needless...
A Dangerous “Trek” to Tranquility Base
Astrobotics has announced an exciting and ambitious effort to land a robotic rover on the lunar surface at the site of the Apollo 11 landing as part of the Google LunarX Prize competition. Dubbed the “Tranquility Trek” they plan to land and explore the historic site where humans first...
A Triumph for the American Space Program
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives defied the wishes of President Bush and by a wide margin of 409-15 approved an extra $2b dollars for NASA. The rare, almost unanimous support sends a strong message that the space program is vital to America and still the most visible sign...
Decision 2008 and the Future of the Space Program
Perhaps no election is more important to the future of the American Space Program than this one. Americans will have a difficult decision to make with pressing issues on many fronts, but buried in those issues is the very fate of the space program. During the late sixties, no...
Time, What Now?
On August 13, 2007 Time.com published an article called “Endeavour, What Now”. Throughout the mission of STS-118 there has been an endless stream of reports by journalists that reflect how uninformed the press is about the Space Shuttle and the space program. Jeffrey Klueger’s Time.com article ends by saying...
Tragedy in the Desert
Three pioneers of the new space age gave their lives as the sun was rising on the era of private space travel. We have learned that at least for now there is no such thing as a routine test and those individuals will not be remembered as the first...