Yesterday, Feburary 15th 2017 (In India, still the 14th here in the States), The Indian Space Research Agency (ISRO) successfully launched 104 satellites using one booster as part of their PSLV-C37 mission. The mission was launched into a polar orbit, with the primary payload being the CartoSat-2D Earth observation satellite. 103 micro-satellites, 3 of which […]
Nuclear Rockets. They still sound futuristic even today. Interestingly enough, they were under active research in the late 50’s and early 60’s as part of the then-planned natural progression of both manned and unmanned space flight. Nuclear rocketry doesn’t operate the way the common man would normally think; it doesn’t ignite its fuel, but instead […]
On the tail end of January each year, NASA does its “Day of Remembrance” where they honor the astronauts who have died not just in active missions but also in training accidents, tests, or other situations. Of course, the heavy focus is spent on 3 particular missions: Apollo 1, STS-51L, and STS-107. Apollo 1, as […]
This video, which was shared in my post last year about Challenger, details the events of the disaster. It explains the root causes of the disaster and takes an extremely detailed look at the 73 second flight of Challenger, the development of the fire plume in the right SRB, and the eventual disintegration of the […]
News spread rather quickly following the fire of Apollo 1. This was back when news really focused on telling the story, rather than on what ratings it will bring in – certainly a different time in media. In any case, many news reports, or snippets from such, are available online. Here are a few more […]
Ad Astra Per Aspera “A rough road leads to the stars” 6:31 PM Eastern Time, January 27th, 1967 This post was shared at 5:31 PM on January 27th, 2017, exactly 50 years to the instant from when the fire happened. It was originally set to share via social media, but didn’t for some reason.
This is a day I’ve been thinking about for many years now, as I rekindled my love of space flight and its history – The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire, and event which nearly killed the Apollo program, but at the same time caused such improvements to the spacecraft that it may have […]
January 27th, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire, an event I’ve written about more than any other single event on this site. For the past 50 years, since the disaster, NASA has pretty much buried it. Unlike Challenger and Columbia, which occurred in 1986 and 2003 respectively, the 1967 deaths of […]
Another day, another launch it seems. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V booster (431 configuration) launched the Echostar 19 communications satellite today, marking the 68th Atlas V launch. Normally I would go on waxing poetically about the payload, the booster, and what have you, but this time, there isn’t anything to say that hasn’t been […]
NASA pushed out quite a few videos following the death of John Glenn. The other day I shared some video of the launch of STS-95, Glenn’s 1998 return to space. There was one video I found during the planning of that article, though, that I didn’t share due to its length, and thought more worthwhile […]
Normally, following an event like the death of John Glenn, a blogger like me would share video of his Mercury flight. It is, of course, what he was most famous for, being the first American to orbit the Earth back in 1962. My personal experience with John Glenn, however, is a bit more unique – […]
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, died today. Just a few minutes ago I received the call from my mom letting me know this. At the time, I had just fired up a game, wanting to relax a little before work. I noticed she called as I loaded the game up, and […]
Ah, project Mercury – the United States “Man In Space” program. Sure, it wasn’t the first to put a man in space, or in orbit (The Soviets would do that with Vostok 1 in 1961) but it was still a necessary step towards what we eventually would accomplish. Of course, anything going into space needs […]
With nearly 2000 launches to its name, the Soyuz rocket turns 50 years old today – it’s first launch was on November 28th, 1966, carrying a payload known as Kosmos 133, Kosmos being a universal codename for “unknown” Soviet Satellites. This craft was, in reality, the first test flight of the boosters namesake, the Soyuz […]
After some delays due to vehicle issues (which I believe were reported as a “false positive” in an error detection system) and a minor issue with the Eastern Missile Range (Remember, rocket launches are subject to USAF missile range safety protocol), The NOAA/NASA satellite was successfully released from the upper stage of it’s Atlas V […]