Aerospace Technology
Inventions and engineering achievements, including rockets, jet engines and navigation systems
The Perfect Airplane
Fast, green, and quiet. Come on, brainiacs, you can do it.
September 2009 |
By Ed Regis
Light fuse. Step away.
...But not necessarily in that order, when you're dealing with the world's largest solid rocket motor. In fact, engineers who tried last Thursday to light the ATK five-segment motor planned for NASA's Ares I rocket, were in an underground bunker half a mile away when ignition was to occur at a quar...
August 31, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
Russian Mail-Order Ride
Is the Saturn V's F-1, first-stage engine more power than you need? Then consider the NK-33, the smaller first-stage engine from the only other moon rocket ever built by the human race.The Soviet N1 lunar rocket, which experienced four failed launches from 1969 to 1972, was a firebreathing behemoth...
August 19, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
Wild New Yonder
The avatar who's giving me a guided tour of MyBase—the first virtual Air Force base—is wearing wings. And I don't mean the kind you pin on your shirt. Real ones, protruding from her back. Because she can fly. Of course, so can I. Or rather, my avatar can. Which makes me wonder why I should bother t...
August 17, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The Electric Airplane
Quiet, smooth, dependable—shouldn’t we be flying these by now?
August 2009 |
By Peter Garrison
How Things Work: Self-Healing Airplanes
Several technologies that could put mechanics out of work.
July 2009 |
By Tom LeCompte
SpaceX joins the big leagues
It's probably premature to declare SpaceX an established launch company on the basis of yesterday's successful orbiting of Malaysia's Razaksat satellite (see video below). I doubt they'll want to gloat too long, given the technical and financial risks inherent in the rocket business, and the diffic...
July 14, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Watch the launch from Wallops tonight
I'm already kicking myself. A Minotaur rocket is launching from Wallops Island, Virginia tonight, with the Air Force Tacsat-3 spacecraft onboard, and I won't be there. I drove four and a half hours for the first launch attempt on May 5, but got rained out, and alas, can't make it back down for this...
May 19, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Is It Safe?
The first company with a plan—and a rocket—to send humans to orbit answers the existential question.
May 2009 |
By Michael Milstein
California's Space Clout
Yesterday, the California Space Authority kicked off California Space Week Washington, D.C., when representatives from the Golden State's space industry head east for an annual business trip to the nation's capital for face time with all the right people. As their web site says, "It's that time aga...
April 21, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
Another big moment for Elon Musk
At 37 years old, Elon Musk is poised to become either the Henry Ford or the Howard Hughes of his generation. If his Falcon rockets and Tesla electric cars succeed, he'll revolutionize 21st century transportation. If they don't, he'll likely be remembered as a colorful, clever, but ultimately irrele...
April 20, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
What's in a Name?
In this case, a belly laugh. A recent issue of Rockets Magazine featured several stories on amateur rocketry conventions, one of which, "Balls-17," held last September in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, included the launch of a 322-pound homebuilt rocket named "Hold My Beer, Watch This."Just before lau...
March 04, 2009 |
By Pat Trenner
The Rocketbelt Caper
A true tale of invention, obsession, and murder.
March 03, 2009 |
By Paul Brown
Oldies and Oddities: The Bonneville Jet Wars
A California hot-rodder took on the feuding Arfons brothers in the 1960s.
March 2009 |
By Preston Lerner
