Opportunity takes another spectacular image peering into Endeavour Crater.
Opportunity takes another spectacular image peering into Endeavour Crater.
The dark sand-covered floor of the crater is clearly visible.
Year: 2014
“The mob must be sated.”
He provides a nice overview of the disgusting, fascist, hateful and politically correct left wing mobs who now dominate our society, willing to destroy anyone who dares disagree with them. Lots of links to lots of vile stories of the left’s idea of civility and tolerance.
Elon Musk and another watchdog group suggested on Friday that there was a quid pro quo in the awarding ULA its bulk buy military launch contract.
Elon Musk and another watchdog group suggested on Friday that there was a quid pro quo in the awarding ULA its bulk buy military launch contract.
Musk, citing an article by the Washington-based National Legal and Policy Center, suggested Thursday night on Twitter that the Pentagon inspector general should investigate the actions of former Air Force civilian Roger “Scott” Correll. Earlier this year, Correll retired from his post as the Air Force’s program executive officer for space launch, where he wielded enormous influence in awarding a multibillion-dollar contract for 36 rocket launches over the next several years, shooting sensitive national security equipment into space.
The contract went to a company called United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of the nation’s two biggest weapons contractors — Chicago-based Boeing and Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp. Earlier this month, Correll took a job as vice president of government acquisition and policy with Aerojet Rocketdyne, the company that supplies the rocket engines used by United Launch Alliance.
Correll’s hiring certainly illustrates the “old boys” network in operation here. Whether there was direct corruption is not clear. Nonetheless, the bulk buy contract is not in the interests of the taxpayer or the Air Force, at least not at the prices announced.
Virgin Galactic finally admitted to its engine troubles on Friday.
Virgin Galactic finally admitted to its engine troubles on Friday.
They have dumped the original engine, switching to a different engine design that the rumors have said they have been testing for the past year.
The company press release is here, with commentary here.
Though it is a good thing that the company has finally come clean and made the switch, they probably waited far too long to do it, as the problems with the old engine likely caused several years delay in their schedule, allowing other companies to catch up with them and thus losing the significant technological advantage that they once held.
The predicted new meteor shower last night was less than hoped but intriguing nonetheless.
The predicted new meteor shower last night was less than hoped but intriguing nonetheless.
Based on a few reports via e-mail and my own vigil of two and a half hours centered on the predicted maximum of 2 a.m. CDT (7 UT) Saturday morning the Camelopardalid meteor shower did not bring down the house. BUT it did produce some unusually slow meteors and (from my site) one exceptional fireball with a train that lasted more than 20 minutes.
Short of money for astrophysics because of the overruns on the James Webb Space Telescope as well as federal budget woes, NASA has decided to shut down the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Short of money for astrophysics because of the overruns on the James Webb Space Telescope as well as federal budget woes, NASA has decided to shut down the Spitzer Space Telescope.
Other missions, such as Kepler, Chandra, Hubble, NuStar, and Swift got extensions, however.
A new report suggests that Virgin Galactic’s first flight has now been officially delayed until 2015.
A new report suggests that Virgin Galactic’s first flight has now been officially delayed until 2015.
A refurbished Russian rocket engine, to be used by the Antares rocket, failed during tests
A refurbished Russian rocket engine, to be used by the Antares rocket, failed during tests on Thursday.
This report says that the engine might even have exploded firing the test firing.
The largest new impact crater ever found on Mars.
The largest new impact crater ever found on Mars.
The impact was caused by an asteroid estimated to be less then 20 feet across, and occurred sometime between March 27 and March 28, 2012.
Will there be a meteor shower tonight?
Will there be a meteor shower tonight?
No one knows, though some scientists are hopeful the shower will be spectacular. Others are more cautious. If you have the chance to go out in dark skies tonight around midnight or later, you might be pleasantly surprised. Or not. More details here.
On Wednesday Rosetta successfully completed an almost eight hour engine burn to adjust its course to its comet rendezvous in August.
On Wednesday Rosetta successfully completed an almost eight hour engine burn to adjust its course to its comet rendezvous in August.
More here.
While SpaceShipTwo continues to sit on the ground, European space tourism competitor Swiss Space Systems (S3) has initiated zero g flights for its customers.
The competition heats up: While SpaceShipTwo continues to sit on the ground, European space tourism competitor Swiss Space Systems (S3) is going to initiate zero g flights for its customers.
These are not suborbital flights, but they will provide customers with the experience of weightlessness in a flight similar to that provided by the vomit comet that Zero-G flies. Eventually this company plans its own suborbital spaceship, but this way they get their customers in the air as soon as next year, rather waiting for more than a decade for development to get completed.