China has unveiled the world’s longest sea bridge
China today unveiled the world’s longest sea bridge, stretching 26.4 miles and three miles longer than the previous record holder.
Tag: engineering
Snapped connectors led to Indian rocket failure
Snapped connectors led to the failure last week of India’s GSLV rocket.
NASA Wraps Up X-ray Scans of external tank
Updated and bumped: The inspections reveal four additional cracks on Discovery’s external tank.
NASA engineers have finished a series of x-ray scans of Discovery’s external tank.
‘Zombie’ Satellite Comes Back to Life
“Zombie” satellite comes back to life.
Russian space officials fired over satellite crash
Russian space officials are fired over rocket failure.
Hilarious Error Messages (31 pics)
Why I use Linux: Hilarious Windows error messages. This is typical:
Windows has detected that you have moved your mouse. Please restart your computer.
Astronauts4hire taking applications
Want to become an astronaut? The private company Astronauts4Hire is taking applications.
India’s geosynchronous rocket fails at launch
Bad news for India’s space program: It’s geosynchronous rocket, GSLV, failed today less than two minutes after launch. Key quote:
[The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)] has had a troubled past with GSLV, with only two of the seven launches so far claiming total success. Though ISRO claims that four launches had been successful, independent observers call at least two of them either failure or partial success. When it comes to launching its workhorse PSLV, ISRO has had 15 consecutive successes.
Flying on empty to a comet
Flying on empty to a comet.
China Matches U.S. Space Launches for First Time
The new colonial movement: For the first time China has matched the U.S. in space launches. Note that though the above article implies it, the U.S. has quite often not been the yearly leader in launches, as Russia has often topped the list. Nonetheless, with China now becoming more competitive the future of space travel can only get bettter.
A Martian eclipse
The hubbub about this week’s lunar solstice eclipse was, from my perspective, mostly manufactured press blather. For those who had never seen a lunar eclipse, it was a spectacular experience, but there really was nothing scientifically or technically unique about the fact that it happened to occur on the solstice.
However, below is an eclipse that is definitely unique both technically and scientifically. Scientists using the Mars rover Opportunity have filmed an eclipse on Mars, showing the Martian moon Phobos crossing in front of the Sun. Consider the engineering accomplishment: not only did they need to be able to calculate exactly when this would happen at a very particular spot on the Martian surface, they had to have a camera there able to take the movie. And they had to operate it from Earth!
SS2 Glide Tests Exceed Expected Progress
The glide tests of SpaceShipTwo have exceeded expectations, and are ahead of schedule.