On July 28th, 1973, a Saturn 1B rocket launched from Launch Complex 39-B at Kennedy Space Center carrying astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott, and Jack Lousma into orbit for the Skylab 3 mission. This mission was, as you would expect, a direct follow up to the 28 day Skylab 2 mission. Skylab 3 would remain …
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Author:Chris
A Quick Shot Of Blogging Optimism
Well, the past few days have shown activity on this site that hasn’t been seen in quite a while – at least, not since the 45th anniversary of the launch and first crewed mission of Skylab, and before that it had been late last year when Xadara had been this active. After taking yet another …
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The Final Flight Of The Ariane 5 ES – Galileo Satellites 23-26 On VA244
This morning marked the final launch of the “Evolution Storable” or ES variant of the amazing Ariane 5 rocket. Without going into great detail on the history of the Ariane 5 launch vehicle and its variants, the “ES” variant combines an improved core stage of the still-flying ECA variant with the older storable propellant second …
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YouTube Is *Still* Showing Me Channels I’ve Unsubscribed From In My Subscription Feed
In an article I wrote back in April, titled “I’m Quite Certain YouTube Is Re-Subbing Me To Channels I’ve Unsubscribed To!” I discussed that YouTube was showing in my subscription feed channels which I was certain I’ve unsubscribed to. Well, it’s still happening. I’m not just sure it’s happening this time, I *know* it is …
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An Unexpected Entry Into The World Of The Macintosh – Part 1
As far as modern computer usage goes, I’ve always been a Windows guy. Granted, I’ve spent quite a bit of time messing with Linux, and have had dedicated Linux machines from time to time (as secondary machines, anyway) but not since high school have I actually really spent any time with Apple Macintosh machines. Through …
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An Echidna In Space!
Okay, so it’s not really an Echidna and it’s not really in space, but this was something that was worth covering. What’s actually going on is Horus 49 – the launch of a high altitude balloon by the Amateur Radio Experimenters Group Inc. (AREG) for some radio experimentation. Pretty straightforward stuff, but this flight carried …
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New Shepard Test Flight 9
On July 18th 2018 aerospace company Blue Origin conducted the 9th test flight of their New Shepard launch vehicle. New Shepard is a booster intended for commercial suborbital missions for both scientific research and space tourism, and holds the much-ignored distinction of being the first booster to reach space and safely land vertically, predating a …
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The Launch And Docking Of Progress MS-09
The Russian cargo vehicle Progress MS-09 launched on July 9th 2018 carrying approximately 2400 kilograms of supplies for the International Space Station. A pretty typical resupply mission save for two interesting facts: 1: This mission was launched at such a time that it could dock faster than any previous mission to the ISS, spending a …
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49 Years Ago: The Apollo 11 Lunar Landing
Today marks 49 years since the first crewed landing on the Moon – the mission of Apollo 11. For fans of space stuff, today is kind of the top day in the history of things, much like October 4th and April 12th. These are days we celebrate for their importance to humanity – the days …
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Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 38 / 39: An Angry Nerd Christmas Carol – Episode Review
It’s time for the 2007 Christmas Episodes – An Angry Nerd Christmas Carol! This was a pair of episodes released in December 2007 which follow the classic holiday story of “A Christmas Carol” but with the Nerd replacing Scrooge. Christmas is still key, of course, but the idea here is how it relates to the …
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The Computer Chronicles – Super Computers (1984)
Here we have a slightly different episode of The Computer Chronicles. While normally the show takes a look at the more personal end of the computer revolution – how individuals and small businesses use various machines, sometimes breaking into big business where it seems relevant, the show tends to not focus on the upper end …
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A Place To Vent: Hostile Space, Version 2
At the beginning of 2018, I set up a second blog here on Xadara, as a direct side effect to me feeling conflicted, shall we say, about discussing my more serious and critical opinions on certain current aspects of space and rocketry. That was, at least, the idea, and I quickly decided I didn’t need …
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Going Back To My Roots, Positive Blogging, And More – An Update
It happened again. Much like I discussed back in December and January, I had another situation where the urge to write about something current actually inhibited my ability to work on this site. However, this time, I was able to think through the situation more clearly and came up with the most obvious of things …
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Soyuz MS-09 Launch And Docking With The International Space Station
I’m only a month behind on covering this one, but I thought it might be nice with the recent sharing of the rollout of Progress MS-09 to share the launch and docking of Soyuz MS-09, since I missed covering it on time last month. Soyuz MS-09 launched on June 6th, 2018, carrying Sergey Prokopyev, Alexander …
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Beautiful Video Of The Progress MS-09 Soyuz Rollout
I absolutely love the look of R-7 derived rockets – Soyuz, Molinya, Vostok, Voskhod, all of them look amazing to me. To think this is one of the oldest designs still in use – over 60 years old – and the core design is, quite literally, a converted nuclear missile, is something else. It’s a …
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