What's All This Brouhaha? » Space

Suboptimal space program – NASA reverts to “English” units

Eric — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:48:07 +0000

Is my calendar malfunctioning?Â It says May 29, but surely today must be April Fools Day.Â NASA just issued a draft of a Constellation Program Management Directive which will establish “English” (imperial) units as the controlling units for nearly everything, as opposed to SI (metric) units.Â Are they trying to set up to lose a manned vehicle the way they lost the Mars Climate Orbiter?

Classified shuttle missions

Eric — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:23:19 +0000

Ever wonder what was really going on with those classified shuttle missions?Â Now, thanks to This Day in Alternate History, we finally know!

Accident kills three Scaled Composites workers, injures three

Eric — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:53:42 +0000

The Los Angeles Times reports that an explosion at the Mojave airport killed three workers and injured three others, during a test of the propellant flow system for SpaceShipTwo.

In 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded manned spacecraft, and won the Ansari X Prize.Â SpaceShipTwo has not yet been unveiled, but is being developed as a joint venture between Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic, and is expected to be used for the first private passenger-carrying suborbital space flight.

R.I.P. Wally Schirra, astronaut, 12 March 1923—3 May 2007

Eric — Fri, 04 May 2007 19:15:39 +0000

Wally Schirra flew on the Mercury 8, Gemini 6A, and Apollo 7 missions.

Gravity Probe B confirms geodetic effect to within 1%

Eric — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 04:51:36 +0000

The preliminary results from Gravity Probe B confirm the geodetic effect predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity to within 1%. Data analysis will continue through December, and is expected to test another effect predicted by general relativity as well, frame dragging. [via BBC News]

Lisa Nowak is now an ex-astronaut

Eric — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 01:20:53 +0000

NASA asked the U.S. Navy to end Nowak’s detail to NASA as an astronaut “because the agency lacks the administrative means to deal appropriately with the criminal charges pending against Nowak. Because Nowak is a naval officer on assignment to NASA, rather than a NASA civil servant, she is not subject to administrative action by NASA.”

Wacko (ex-)astronaut Lisa Nowak

Eric — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 05:22:13 +0000

Maybe she just didn’t think being an astronaut got her enough fame.Â If so, she’s got her fifteen minutes now.

Taking NASA TV mainstream, and funding a Mars mission

Eric — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 22:46:51 +0000

People do crazy things for love, and apparently NASA astronauts are no exception. On a mailing list, a friend wrote “We’ll never get to Mars at this rate.”
Actually I think we can fund the Mars mission(s) via advertising by making it a “reality” TV show, as well as by government-run gambling.

Phase 1: Lottery to sellect hundreds of candidates. Proceeds to NASA.
Phase 2: Winnowing of candidates by TV show in “American Idol” format.
Phase 3: Selection of actual astronauts by TV show in “Survivor” format. Parimutuel betting with NASA getting the house take.
Phase 4: Actual Mars mission. In this phase, the astronauts will really need to make sure they pull their weight and don’t piss off their crewmates in order to avoid being voted off the spacecraft!

I normally despise “reality” TV shows (and most other TV shows, for that matter), but I think I’d watch this one.

Do as we say, not as we do

Eric — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 23:43:42 +0000

The Bush administration is opposing China’s development of “satellite killer” technology.Â However, the US is known to be developing and testing such technology, and has rejected international calls to end such testing.

Godspeed, Discovery!

Eric — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 01:12:51 +0000

Space Shuttle Discovery is scheduled for launch tomorrow at 3:49 PM EDT, though there is a 60% chance that the weather may force a delay.

Update: the Saturday launch was scrubbed and rescheduled for today, and today it has been rescheduled for Tuesday at 2:38 PM EDT. There is a 40% chance of the weather on Tuesday forcing another delay.