Looking Up

Goodbye for now

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 23:44:00 +0000

Hello...or do I mean goodbye?

This is my last post for a while. I haven't been posting regularly for a while now anyway.

It's not due to a lack of content. I have a lot of great topics related to the theme of this blog. The problem is time.

This past summery my wife and I adopted twin girls from China. It has been a real joy to have them a part of our family. I want to spend as much with them as I can.

I still have a passion for space exploration. I have ideas for a new type of blog with that theme. Therefore I'm going to take some time off from blogging to focus on my family and the "next generation" of this blog.

In the meantime I will keep the old posts up. I think we're in a very interesting time for US human spaceflight. I wasn't around during the Apollo-Shuttle transition in the 70s, but at least the shuttle was coming. I believe something will launched to replace the shuttle. Oh there I go again... See I can't stop thinking about this stuff.

Thanks for visiting.

Keep the countdown clock going...

Dave

For and Against SpaceX

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 07 May 2011 20:34:00 +0000

Only time will tell, but there is a lot of discussion on SpaceX and their future.

From Florida Today:

Elon Musk Counters Naysayers On Launch Costs: "

SpaceX Founder Elon Musk released a treatise today that took to task all the naysayers that are skeptical of the company's bargain-basement prices for launching payloads into space.

'Whenever someone proposes to do something that has never been done before, there will always be skeptics,' Musk said in a weblog posted at the company's Internet site.

And ever since the company launched its Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft last December, Musk said there has been a stream of misinformation about the prices SpaceX is quoting to potential customers and whether or not they are realistic.

'I recognize that our prices shatter the historical cost models of government-led developments, but these prices are not arbitrary, premised on capturing a dominant share of the market, or 'teaser' rates meant to lure in an eager market only to be increased later,' Musk wrote. 'These prices are based on known costs and a demonstrated track record, and they exemplify the potential of America's commercial space industry.'

...and check out this article from Parabolic Arc about naysayers.

Exclusive: LEAP launch system

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 01:29:00 +0000

Last year I made contact with David Luther who is working on a project that is different than any other spacecraft project in existence. The spacecraft takes off horizontally, separates with spacecraft (front/back, not piggyback like older designs), and both components will land as typical winged aircraft.

I asked David to answer a few questions and he graciously sent me the following replies with pictures. Enjoy.

Elevator pitch??? GOING UP!

I think the elevators will pitch up about 45 degrees on rotation and reentry...

Today marks a new era of space commerce. Many excellent ventures are emerging to provide more affordable space access. In the 1930s aviation evolved technologies that enabled effective commercial air services. Some have identified the DC3 as a great step in that direction. L.E.A.P. is our next generation launch system to fill that role today.

Winged vehicles for suborbital flight are gaining increased attention. Orbital Science Corp has demonstrated winged vehicles for orbital launches as well. Space tourism favors the comfort and confidence of runway operations. Orbital costs may drop with real reusability features. Many proposals have been abandoned for good reasons, but interest remains. Could this be the next generation of commercial space?

Optimizing these designs may require new uses for unique aircraft types. Blended wing bodies are now considered for structural and aerodynamic advantages. Horizontal launched spacecraft must be able to lift high payloads with minimal wings. A high aspect ratio booster can aid the launch of a smaller orbiter

Orbital applications would require a second stage. Most proposals are penalized by drag from piggy back staging concepts. Vertical launchers place stages in a linear stack, and this can also be done on an orbital space plane. This gives a smaller lighter system. By using a manned upper stage and an unmanned fly-back booster, escape is an option during launch operations.

A fly-back booster can be an autonomous UAV to save mass at lift off. It would be under the command of the crew vehicle flight controls until separation. Its air breathing engines can be boosted by hybrid rockets for greater altitude for staging.

Today?

At this time a few individuals are now doing preliminary studies and prototype development. I have partnered with Aerospace Solutions LLC of Phoenix to target possible markets like NASA and DARPA. We will seek grant aid from the new Game changing technologies outreach at NASA. This staging concept may have more value for earth transportation or for unmanned weapons systems. If conventional funding lags, we have small steps to fiscal endurance available.

This model airplane can be developed as a production design for our partner at Oakdale Aircraft to market. Seeing an electric fan jet launch an Estes rocket stage could go viral on U-Tube and at model events. It can be displayed at air shows and space events. Oakdale can handle any profits in return for the publicity that could land funding interest. I can keep working on my Social Security income, as it pays as well as contract design jobs that require frequent trans-continental relocations. The VA does better health care than contract houses offer anyway.

We have volunteers working on CFD studies, and an X-Plane flight simulation. X-Plane is a good design tool and you may be able to fly it yourself. Both of these will contribute some new data on flight potential for the full sized vehicle. If funding becomes available we hope to enlist aid from Frontier Astronautics, Bill Colburn, Micro Aerospace Solutions, and DAR Corporation.

Milestone?

A NASA OK on the grant application would trigger another study paper from Aerospace Solutions. I will fly the second stage model soon, and begin design of the booster model. If NASA accepts the second phase white paper, we will dive into a much more detailed thick study on scheduling and costs for the funding. Next Winter may see the booster model begin construction with flight in the spring likely. If that goes well we will have some high quality video coverage to publish. I may then return to design changes for production versions. I learn what a builder will hate when I have to build my own goofy ideas. If NASA is paying the bill, the model may be displaced for a while by any bigger toys they want to consider.

Conference? (Space Access '11)

Horizontal access proposals have been around for many decades, and they are usually rejected. The mass penalty of wings is real. Orbital Sciences used lift on ascent only until they could dump the wings overboard. With my limited credentials and early concept I didn’t expect a lot of honors, and I was pleased to speak for a few minute on the venture. I took revenge on NASA with my own bad acronyms and commented on a preference for a new paradigm. After engine failure, Captain Sully used wings to let his passengers pray, be baptized, and to be saved. Sky Pilot! We like the wing and a prayer options for safety on ascent and landing. That is a penalty that pays back. So we plan to lose the fuselage mass penalty instead. Wing bodies are even more efficient if staged in-line to reduce frontal area. Other small savings may add up to a viable horizontal system.

Our display was next to the Frontier Astronautics display and we discovered a few valuable assets available in Wyoming. They made our display look good with their big shiny rocket from DARMA too. NASA promised a new user friendly “Game Changing Technologies” program. So far I see we must conform to the technology roadmap, which does NOT include aerodynamic discoveries. They just issued a request for information (RFI) on horizontal launch systems, and now we can’t offer one that improves aerodynamics. You can think out of the box as long as you fit in their pigeon holes. We are waiting for an answer on that issue!

Final Thoughts

Well, if you can’t join them, lick them. I was left unemployed for two years, so decided to compete with the firms that wouldn’t hire me. Sure they have better credentials, but so did the captain of the Titanic. Being the first one loony enough to try this concept, I am now happily overworked and underpaid.

David Luther
Exodus Aerospace, unincorporated pending funding
We are leaving the planet...

From @Florida_Today: Share shuttle memories

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:33:00 +0000

From Florida Today, a fantastic idea (I wish I thought of it):

Share shuttle memories on new Facebook page: "

People send us photos and stories all the time about their work on the space shuttle program.

“I was there when . . .” is a common — and fascinating — conversation for me, as people who’ve worked on the shuttle team spin tales of their great adventures at the Kennedy Space Center.

We love capturing those moments and stories and it would be really to be able to share them with other people, who have similar memories, or cool photographs, or neat video snippets. Rather than being the middle man, we’re going to take advantage of existing technology to make it happen.

So, we’ve added a new page on the social-media sharing site Facebook — and a related one on Twitter @shuttle legacy — where everyone can share their space shuttle memories with us and with one another.

If you had a great memory of watching a launch, share it. A super-neat snapshot of yourself working at the launch pad or in an Orbiter Processing Facility, post it on the site. Others can see what you share, comment on it, and share their own material.

We’ll be posting our own memories, historic photographs and other material capturing historic moments too.

We hope the result is a living history of sorts, with the new twist that today’s technology makes it easy for us to have a sort of virtual reunion of people with a soft spot in their hearts for the space shuttle program.

We’re pairing with our own coverage of the 30th year of the shuttle program and this year’s final flights. It should make for a neat marriage of our news coverage and your memories.

Stories already are flowing in.

Mindy Degnon, the first person to share on the new Space Shuttle Legacy page on Facebook, offered this: “I got to see 2 shuttle launches, (and it) would have been 3 but the last night launch was impossible to attend.. It is an awesome experience!! I usually go to watch at a smaller park area next to the Space View Park. I will probably watch it from my apartment complex's garage rooftop in Orlando as I move out as a last hurrah! Going to miss watching shuttle launches.”

The nature of the social-sharing sites is the ability to have your friends and others you know see your ideas, photos, videos and interesting stuff online, and to talk about it with them. That shared experience is what we want to create for you and we hope to visit with you there.

Countdown begins for Chinese space station program

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 23:12:00 +0000

From China Daily:

The 18.1-meter-long core module, with a maximum diameter of 4.2 meters and a launch weight of 20 to 22 tons, will be launched first.

The two experiment modules will then blast off to dock with the core module. Each laboratory module is 14.4 meters long, with the same maximum diameter and launch weight of the core module.

'The 60-ton space station is rather small compared to the International Space Station"

Read more of Countdown begins for space station program

UPDATE: More information here.
CCTV report...

OS: AMS device flying Endeavour could be big science or big dud

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:25:00 +0000

From the Orlando Sentinel newspaper:

Yet there have been doubts about the AMS, as it’s known, and delays. Six years ago, NASA nearly canceled the mission. It took an act of Congress to specifically fund this Endeavour launch.

And doubts remain.

The AMS is the scientific version of a lobster trap. A 15,000-pound supercooled magnet wrapped around an open cylinder, it’s designed to sit outside the space station, catching and analyzing whatever floats or zooms through its magnetic tunnel, giving scientists the chance — just like lobstermen — of netting something big. Or not.

From @DiscoveryNews SpaceX Aims to Put Man on Mars

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 23:48:00 +0000

From Discovery News:

Private US company SpaceX hopes to put an astronaut on Mars within 10 to 20 years, the head of the firm said.

"We'll probably put a first man in space in about three years," Elon Musk told the Wall Street Journal Saturday. "We're going all the way to Mars, I think... best case 10 years, worst case 15 to 20 years."

NewSpace Journal: CCDev-2 losers

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:26:00 +0000

From NewSpace Journal: Assessing the CCDev-2 losers

[...]
United Launch Alliance: Perhaps the biggest surprise of the CCDev-2 announcement was that ULA didn’t receive any funding. The company was one of five first-round CCDev awardees and its launch vehicles factor significantly into the plans of other commercial crew development companies. ULA is likely to be back for future activities here, although perhaps as part of multiple teams proposing for commercial crew funding rather than a standalone competitor.
Excalibur Almaz: This company, which has plans to use Russian Almaz spacecraft for commercial space flights, was a surprise finalist for CCDev-2. Few details about what EA was proposing for CCDev-2 have been released by the company, but it’s likely the company will continue its commercial activities, although at what externally appears to be a slow pace.
Orbital Sciences: Orbital made a big splash last year with its commercial crew development plans, using a lifting body concept called Prometheus launched on an EELV, building upon interest in commercial crew that dates back to the 1990s. Failure to secure a CCDev-2 award will put the company into a tough spot: should they continue to work on this, albeit at a lower level, to stay in contention for future commercial crew awards, or instead focus on their separate commercial cargo program, the Cygnus spacecraft and Taurus 2 launcher?
ATK: Another surprise entry into CCDev-2 was ATK, which announced in February the Liberty launch vehicle comprised of a five-segment SRB developed for the Ares 1 and a modified Ariane 5 core stage for the upper stage. Without CCDev-2 funding, will ATK continue work on this project? Moreover, would it be cost-competitive for other applications against alternatives like the Falcon Heavy, announced by SpaceX earlier this month?
United Space Alliance: The Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that operates the space shuttle had put forward a proposal to continue flying two of the orbiters, Atlantis and Endeavour, commercially. However, USA was not among the eight companies shortlisted for CCDev-2, and even company officials admitted last week that the proposal was “an extremely long shot”. That may be an understatement now.

My note(s): I thought the international flavor of ATK's Liberty rocket would make them a contender. I was thinking the administration may want more international cooperation making Liberty a candidate. I'm not surprised about USA.

SBB: Falcon Heavy Impact on NewSpace

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:13:00 +0000

My note(s):
I used write project plans and proposals at a previous job. I had a boss who would always scroll to the last page just to see the final numbers. I put a lot of work in the pages leading up to that final page.

If you're into business I recommend reading this entire post. If you're just interested in just the final numbers scroll to the bottom ;)

From the Space Business Blog:

Falcon Heavy Impact on NewSpace:

With the announcement from SpaceX yesterday about the Falcon Heavy, I went back over the recent missions I had been analyzing here at Space Business Blog to determine if any of them would benefit directly from the Falcon Heavy’s superior performance and reduced per pound launch cost.

The Answer: No. Well, mostly no.

Let me explain. Most of the innovative missions I had been considering were near term missions that could be performed on a single launch without the added capability of the Falcon Heavy.

CubeSat “Observers” of LEO/GEO assets – too small, mission may benefit from cheaper secondary payload prices

A NEO prospector mission – too small, mission may benefit from cheaper secondary payload prices

Nanosat Launchers – if anything, as launchers get larger, the need for a very small/responsive alternative grows, not decreases

LEO/GEO/L1 tug – a Falcon Heavy launch capability may actually harpoon this whole idea of a transfer tug (at least in the near term). Probably worth a new post on how the Falcon Heavy illuminates/reduces the value for such a capability

Refueling of Iridium’s constellation - too small, mission may benefit from cheaper secondary payload prices

[...skipping material, but you should read it...]

Next Big Future offers this great cost comparison between the EELV launch costs of ULA and SpaceX:

Even if you DON'T have $80M+, the Falcon Heavy announcement changes how the whole world plans their space missions - even New Space.

OS: Whatcha gonna watch? Endeavour, or Will and Kate?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:04:00 +0000

From Orlando Sentinel's "The Write Stuff" blog:

Whatcha gonna watch? Endeavour, or Will and Kate?: "
When NASA moved its launch target from April 19 to April 29 a few weeks ago, all sorts of science, engineering, weather, celestial and readiness factors were considered.

But not social ones. Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for space operations, conceded in a press conference Tuesday that they overlooked a potential public interest conflict: the April 29 royal wedding of British Prince William and Catherine “Kate” Middleton.

“I haven’t yet put on our manifest charts: wedding constraints,” Gerstenmaier quipped. “So we haven’t factored that in yet.”

NASA made that launch date official Tuesday, setting up for a 3:47 p.m. launch on April 29. That’s almost 10 hours after the royal wedding is to start.

Parabolic Arc: SNC’s Dream Chaser

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:00:00 +0000

My notes(s): I had no idea the Dream Chaser had many partners.

From Parabolic Arc: Anatomy of a CCDev Bid: SNC’s Dream Chaser:

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser, which received $80 million under NASA’s CCDev program, is an interesting collaboration of NewSpace, Big Rocket and academia. The team members and their roles:

Sierra Nevada Corporation -
In addition to coordinating and managing the team, SNC will manage all internal systems, propulsion, structure, and launch vehicle.
Adam Works -
Assist SNC in structural fabrication using our combined composite manufacturing capabilities.
Aerojet –
Development of the main RCS. Draper Lab, with unparalleled GN&C experience, will lead orbital GN&C development.
Boeing –
Provide expertise in lifting body spacecraft including analysis, avionics, GN&C, software, and flight control.
Draper Laboratory
– will lead orbital GN&C development.
NASA Langley Research Center -
adds expertise in HL-20 analysis and modeling.
MDA -
The U.S. component of MDA will provide launch vehicle structural interface, communication and separation systems, and systems engineering services.
SAS -
Assist CU with displays and controls layout and evaluations and refine the integrated system Human Rating Plan.
United Launch Alliance -
ULA has been on our team for more than 4 years; jointly collaborating on an integrated launch vehicle (LV) stack that rapidly brings a safe, reliable, and cost-effective commercial CTS to the LEO market. ULA will assist SNC with integrated aerodynamics and risk retirement.
United Space Alliance -
USA will use their extensive Shuttle experience to provide operations and software development support.
University of Colorado -
CU will conduct displays and controls layout and evaluations and refine the integrated system Human Rating Plan, with assistance from SAS.
Virgin Galactic -
SNC and Virgin Galactic are working together to plan for global marketing, sales, and commercial operation of the orbital Dream Chaser.
Source: NASA/Sierra Nevada Space Act Agreement

FL Today: NASA awards $270 million for commercial crew efforts

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

From Florida Today:

NASA awards $270 million for commercial crew efforts: NASA today awarded nearly $270 million to four companies developing the U.S. vehicles that could fly astronauts after the shuttle.
Winners of funding in the second round of the Commercial Crew Development program, or CCDev, were as follows:
-- Blue Origin, Kent, Wash.: $22 million
-- Sierra Nevada Corporation, Louisville, Colo.: $80 million
-- Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Hawthorne, Calif.: $75 million
-- The Boeing Company, Houston: $92.3 million
Boeing and SpaceX are developing capsules, while Sierra Nevada is building a space plane (pictured). Blue Origin, founded by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, was funded in the program's first round to advance a system that would push a spacecraft from a failing rocket.
'We're committed to safely transporting U.S. astronauts on American-made spacecraft and ending the outsourcing of this work to foreign governments,' NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. 'These agreements are significant milestones in NASA's plans to take advantage of American ingenuity to get to low-Earth orbit, so we can concentrate our resources on deep space exploration.'

My note(s):
Looking forward to more details on the proposal from Blue Origin.
Update: See this article from Parabolic Arc.

XCOR and Curacao (Parabolic Arc)

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 22:58:00 +0000

From Parabolic Arc:

XCOR’s First Operational Lynx to Fly From Curacao

X-COR and SXC sign exclusivity contract for ‘tail number 1’
SXC PR
April 12, 2011
Earlier this month, SXC [Space Experience Curacao] and XCOR signed the Memorandum of Understanding, in which the mutually exclusive agreements are officially documented. SXC will be the only party, besides XCOR, to make use of the first spacecraft.
(...)

My note: I've been to Curacao earlier this year. The roots of an industry are starting to grow.
Link to SXC.

Video: The Mountain (NASA Watch)

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 22:42:00 +0000

From NASA Watch:

Video: The Milky Way, Life, and Other Things:

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

'This was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011. I had the pleasure of visiting El Teide. Spain's highest mountain @(3715m) is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the world's best observatories.' More

PI: Go ’80s, get to New Zealand

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:55:00 +0000

From Seattle PI: Go ’80s, get to New Zealand:

Want to win a free trip to New Zealand? All you have to do is show the world you have the most embarrassing ’80s photos. “Whether sporting neon spandex, power bangs or some sweet shoulder pads, contestants are invited to share photos of themselves resplendent in 1980s attire,” the airline said.

Sadly, I don't have any embarassing pictures from the '80s.

Aviation Week: China Confounded By SpaceX Prices

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 00:47:00 +0000

From Aviation Week:

China Great Wall Confounded By SpaceX Prices

Declining to speak for attribution, the Chinese officials say they find the published prices on the SpaceX website very low for the services offered, and concede they could not match them with the Long March series of launch vehicles even if it were possible for them to launch satellites with U.S. components in them.

Interesting.

Parabolic Arc: Chinese Space Leader Calls for Cooperation as Congress Says No

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 15:00:00 +0000

From Parabolic Arc:

A leading figure in China’s space program was in Colorado this week urging joint cooperation with the United States, including human spaceflight, while Congressional leaders in Washington were prohibiting NASA from doing anything of the sort.
Space News reports on remarks by “Lei Fanpei, vice president of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), which oversees much of China’s launch vehicle and satellite manufacturing industry”:

Lei said he sees three areas in which U.S.-Chinese cooperation would be in both nations’ interests. The first, he said, is an open commercial access of each nation to the other’s capabilities in satellites and launch vehicles. The second, he said, is manned spaceflight and space science, particularly in deep space exploration. The third is in satellite applications including disaster monitoring and management.

Read the rest of Chinese Space Leader Calls for Cooperation as Congress Says No

Seattle PI: Boeing making progress on S.C. 787 plant

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:00:00 +0000

From Seattle PI:

Boeing making progress on S.C. 787 plant:

"Boeing Commercial Airplanes marketing chief Randy Tinseth recently visited South Carolina, where Boeing is building its second 787 Dreamliner assembly line, and shared these photos. “The new final assembly building there is huge and gorgeous, and everyone there is really doing it right,” Tinseth wrote."

Click for photos.

FL Today 04/15 Cartoon: Open For Human Spaceflight

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 00:07:00 +0000

From Florida Today:

04/15 Cartoon- Open For Human Spaceflight

OS: 2,000 FL workers will lose jobs on last shuttle launch

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 00:00:00 +0000

From the Orlando Sentinel regarding space coast workers:

WASHINGTON — NASA’s prime contractor for the space shuttle on Friday released estimates on how many of its workers will lose their jobs once NASA flies its final shuttle mission this summer and the cuts — while not unexpected — certainly are not pretty for employees in Florida, Texas and Alabama.
Of the 5,600 remaining employees at United Space Alliance, roughly half — or as many as 2,800 — will get a pink slip following the planned June 28 launch of Atlantis. The cuts add to the nearly 2,900 USA workers who have lost their jobs to date as NASA winds down the 30-year shuttle program.

SpaceDaily.com: No Fleet Future For X-37B

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 22:00:00 +0000

From SpaceDaily.com:

The second flight of the US Air Force's X-37B spaceplane has been underway for weeks. During this time, the USAF has been fairly quiet about its operations, but this hasn't stopped amateur satellite watchers from finding it. So far, there seem to be no big surprises. The vehicle is apparently intact and not doing anything too strange in its orbit.

We know the first mission was successful,"

Dark Matter Propulsion

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 23:33:00 +0000

The other night I was discussing a fascinating topic with someone. If dark matter exists in the universe then could we use it for propulsion? It's an interesting idea. Jet airplanes burn petroleum based fuel, but require the air that gets sucked in for the combustion process. Could dark matter be the "air" in a new interstellar propulsion device?

I couldn't find many resources on this yet. Probably it's because we're still trying to figure out dark matter. This was the best site I could find that seemed recent. Enjoy.

It's 2008 again?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 23:29:00 +0000

From Bob Zimmerman's post Catching up with the future of the U.S. space program:

The result, I think, will be exactly what Obama said he wanted during in the 2008 campaign, the end of funding for manned space exploration by the government.
Whether the private space industry can pick up the slack is the big question. I have faith that it can, as I also believe that freedom and competition always works better than centralized government-controlled operations. Unfortunately, even if I am completely right we are still faced with at least three to five years where the United States as a nation will be unable to launch anyone into space.

Does Bob have a point? In 2008 I also blogged about candidate Obama's position on NASA.

Do you think the latest discussions on cutting the budget will lead to NASA handing over manned spaceflight to commercial companies?

Wired: Unsung Soviet Shuttle Program Doesn’t Get Star Treatment

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:49:00 +0000

From Wired:

As NASA starts retiring its space shuttle fleet to museums, photos of the Soviet shuttle counterpart show a strange and improbable endgame to a once grand space race.

Unfinished pieces of the mostly obscure Soviet shuttle program could recently be found in the courtyard of a random hospital, and the entire fuselage of another model was spotted behind a warehouse under a tarp, as shown in the photos above.

[read more of Unsung Soviet Shuttle Program Doesn’t Get Star Treatment]

Airbus A380 Jumbo Jet Clips Plane at JFK

noreply@blogger.com (Dave) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:15:00 +0000

Ouch..