Governmental Aerospace Programs
The Federal Aviation Administration, air mail, space programs and military aviation
Live from the Space Station
As reality TV, let's just say it lacks drama. So far I haven't seen a single shouting match. But beginning today, you can watch live as NASA astronauts go about their daily business inside the International Space Station.The "Live From the ISS" link on NASA's space station web page shows you the vi...
February 01, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Russian Raptor
Russia's first "fifth-generation" fighter made its debut today on a snowy airfield in the country's far east.Sukhoi test pilot Sergey Bogdan took the company's PAK FA prototype aircraft on a 47-minute flight before returning to the factory runway at Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Bogdan reported that the new ...
January 29, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
No More A-Roving
NASA’s Spirit rover goes into survival mode on Mars.
January 28, 2010 |
By Michael Klesius
Sound Barrier Buster
On August 16, 1960, U.S. Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger stepped out of the gondola of a balloon at 102,800 feet above New Mexico wearing a pressure suit. In the thin air, he accelerated to 614 miles an hour in free fall before denser atmosphere slowed his plunge to a speed that allowed him to open...
January 26, 2010 |
By Mike Klesius
Have We Forgotten What Exploration Means?
Yet again, the U.S. space program is in the slough of despond, whereby previous assumptions are questioned, the current path is discarded, the program is re-directed, and luminous enthusiasm heralds the new direction…And then it all tapers off to nothing.As long as we are navel-gazing during this p...
January 25, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Beyond LEO - Flexible Path Revisited
In an interesting post at Vision Restoration, “Ray” tackles the desultory Flexible Path (FP) architecture of the Augustine committee, which calls for human missions to low gravity destinations and delays missions to the lunar and martian surface. The problems he finds with FP are similar to points...
January 23, 2010 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Space Scientists in Training
Planetary scientist Dan Durda was the co-leader of a two-day training course held this week at the National AeroSpace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center for scientists who want to learn the ropes of suborbital spaceflight.Durda sent back these dispatches from the NASTAR center in Pennsylvania.
D...
January 13, 2010 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The Luftwaffe’s Flying Wing
The Horten Ho 229 is on the short list for restoration at the Air and Space Museum.
January 11, 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Soviet Star Wars
The launch that saved the world from orbiting laser battle stations.
January 2010 |
By Dwayne A. Day and Robert G. Kennedy III
The Do-Everything Bomber
With its bid to replace the Convair B-36 bomber, did Douglas promise too much?
January 2010 |
By John Aldaz and Sir George Cox
Thanks For the Memories
Air crews recall their service as roadies for Bob Hope's USO show.
January 2010 |
By Rebecca Maksel
Legends of Vietnam: Super Tweet
Yeah. The A-37 was small. So was Napoleon.
January 2010 |
By Stephen Joiner
Restoration: Kentucky Panther
Grumman's first jet honors a son of the Bluegrass State.
January 2010 |
By Barrett Tillman
Space Shuttle Jr.
After 2010, the only spaceplane in the U.S. inventory will be the Air Force's mysterious X-37.
January 2010 |
By Michael Klesius
2009: A Space Oddity
The other day we posted some of Arthur C. Clarke's philosophical words on the fate of human evolution, with the caveat that his predictions were still far into the future.But here's a neat video of astronaut Timothy Kopra on the International Space Station on August 15, 2009, conducting an experime...
December 31, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
The Search for a Real "Pandora"
In the three years since film director James Cameron wrote the script for his new blockbuster Avatar, a lot has changed in the field of exoplanet research (the study of planets around other stars). Nobody knows this better than one of its leading practitioners, Lisa Kaltenegger of the Harvard-Smith...
December 30, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Arguing about Human Space Exploration
Hot rumor has it that, like Christmas, the Obama Administration’s response to the Augustine Committee Report, Seeking a Human Space Program Worthy of a Great Nation, is imminent. Much excitement is discernible in the space blogosphere that a major change is at hand.The Augustine Committee report c...
December 16, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Batstrike!
A loud thud. A shower of purple-white sparks. This can't be good.
December 14, 2009 |
By Randy Gordon
