One of the first things someone simply browsing this site would notice is probably a focus on a few very different subjects. While most websites seem to have a single theme about them, Xadara doesn’t. If you haven’t already read the description of the site, Xadara is, after all “a geeky little blog about nothing […]
So, right now the Super Bowl is going on; a yearly event that it seems everyone everywhere obsesses over for reasons I simply cannot grasp in the least. Let’s seriously look at this for a moment: the Super Bowl consists of 2 groups of adults tossing around some inflated oblong ball, trying to get it […]
With the way January goes for me, I didn’t even realize until last night that it was February, and that I should do the now standard “What’s Coming” article where I state a list of plans that I know I won’t be able to keep up with! A wonderful tradition, to be sure. Right, I […]
On the morning of February 1st, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was set to return from it’s 28th mission, STS-107. At 7:59 AM Central time the orbiter disintegrated on re-entry due to damage it had sustained on its left wing during launch on January 16th. In this article, I tell the story from my perspective. […]
The Columbia Disaster February 1st, 2003 7:59 AM Central Standard Time OV-102, Columbia, Disintegrates over Central Texas Total loss of vehicle and crew 15 Years Ago Rick D. Husband William C. McCool David M. Brown Kalpana Chawla Michael P. Anderson Laurel B. Clark Ilan Ramon
In the late evening, just an hour before midnight on January 31st, 1958, the United States launched it’s first satellite – Explorer 1. Explorer 1 was our answer to Sputnik 1 and 2. At least, it was our successful answer – our previous attempt, Vanguard TV3, ended in a very famous disastrous failure barely leaving […]
Ah, simulation software. Flight simulators, driving simulators, space simulators… you think of it, someone has probably coded a simulator for it. Hell, there’s even a joke name for a genre of game today called “walking simulator” where most of what you do is simply, well, walk. Computer simulations hold an interest to gamers in that […]
The computers of the 80’s are somewhat well known for the unique sounds they produced. While CD quality audio and digital sound samples are the order of the day now, and have been for several decades, in the early days of computers sounds, and thus, music, were produced via internal hardware that directly generated tones […]
What’s that? It’s January 31st? Well, looks like I’ve survived another trip around the Solar System, as some would say. Awesome. I did have some crazy long post I wanted to make regarding this, but I couldn’t word it correctly. Something about it all just didn’t feel right as a way to celebrate. What I […]
In a bit of rocketry news that I’m long overdue for writing about, back on January 21st, 2018, the New Zealand company Rocket Lab had the first successful launch of their Electron rocket – a booster designed to launch very small payloads into Earth orbit. Not only does this mark New Zealand’s entry into orbital […]
I mentioned early last November that Spin Street, a well known local music and video store here in Memphis, was closing. That event finally happened on the 25th of January – right at the end of the financial year. On that day, Spin Street closed its doors after 2 months of some quite intense liquidation […]
I really can’t believe this is still having to be addressed, but here we go, again. A post is making the rounds on Facebook saying “Pluto has been reclassified as a planet!” This is, of course, an outright lie, and the article cited as a source for it is absolutely idiotic when actually read. Here […]
Today marks 32 years since the Challenger Disaster. On January 28th, 1986, The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds into it’s 10th mission due to one of its solid rocket boosters having a failed o-ring in a joint between 2 sections of booster casing. this caused a burn thorough situation with the booster which, […]
January 27th, 1968 marked one year since the fire at Launch Complex 34 that killed the crew of Apollo 1: Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. One year without a manned American space flight. One year of major change to our space program. One year of relative uncertainty. 1968 would, as fate would have […]
Microsoft just put out the February 2018 Xbox Live Games With Gold list and, as always, it’s got some good, and some bad to it. Let’s take a look. Opening up on Xbox One, we have Shadow Warrior and Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India. Shadow Warrior… Another first person shooter? Well, this one has swords and […]