Category: Space

SECRET LUNAR WARS: update #1

SECRET LUNAR WARS: update #1

| June 13, 2019 | Reply

A few stories have come in, and I’m quite pleased with them. I think this is going to be a great, entertaining anthology. In the meantime, someone posted this item over on FB, and I suspect some of you could work it into your stories: The fastest object ever launched was a manhole cover — […]

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THE SECRET LUNAR WARS [closed]

THE SECRET LUNAR WARS [closed]

| May 3, 2019 | Reply

The myth of the US-USSR space race was that it was done for scientific prestige. Behind that is the deeper myth that it was done for nuclear superiority and counterbalance. The truth is that it was done to save humanity. Immortal Works (editor Bruce F. Webster) hereby calls for submission for an anthology of SPACE-THEMED […]

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Up Earth Creek without a paddle [repost]

Up Earth Creek without a paddle [repost]

| July 16, 2014 | Reply

[I originally wrote this post back in 2007. As we hit the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, it still says everything I think about our past and current space efforts.] I am a child of the Space Age (or, to use Robert Heinlein’s phrase from his ‘Future History‘ timeline, the False Dawn of […]

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Reliving Apollo 11

Reliving Apollo 11

| May 1, 2013 | Reply

As I wrote here years ago, I was a child of the space age and later ended up working (as a contractor) at NASA/Johnson Space Center on the Space Shuttle flight simulators, then next door at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. And so with interest, I found over at What’s Up With That this link to a […]

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Counting down

Counting down

| September 12, 2012 | Reply

  Good to see NASA doing what it does best: building robotic space probes. And the steampunk vibe from the stabilizer test at 20 seconds in is great.  

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Time for a new approach to space

Time for a new approach to space

| November 24, 2010 | Reply

As I’ve posted here before, I grew up with the Space Age and worked at NASA just on the Space Shuttle flight simulators just prior to the first Shuttle launch. I desperately want to see humans back into space — beyond LEO (low Earth orbit) — on a permanent basis. But I also agree with […]

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NRO’s X-37B UAV Shuttle Stumps Astronomers

NRO’s X-37B UAV Shuttle Stumps Astronomers

| August 25, 2010 | Reply

I have been watching with growing levels of delight as a community of amateur satellite hunters have been tracking one of our nation’s newest space platforms, known as the X-37B.  In this age of internet pundits seeking real time vainglory for themselves, there is rampant speculation what this thing is for, with frequent references to […]

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Inconstant moon

Inconstant moon

| October 9, 2009 | Reply

Got up a bit earlier than usual this morning with hopes of dragging out my telescope and seeing the LCROSS lunar impact first-hand. I was encouraged because when I went to bed last night, the sky had mostly cleared after raining and then snowing all day (final accumulation about 1/2″ of snow on the ground). […]

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Last night I had the strangest dream…

Last night I had the strangest dream…

| June 6, 2009 | Reply

Somewhere before dawn this morning, I started a long, low-key dream in which I was composing a blog post about one of my favorite books: The CRC Handbook of Astronautics. The book was about the same size as the old classic CRC math tables handbooks (as opposed to one of the massive CRC chemistry & […]

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Solar Cycle 24 – Introducing Low Contrast Sun Spots

Solar Cycle 24 – Introducing Low Contrast Sun Spots

| May 15, 2009 | Reply

A very interesting change has taken place on the Sun. As readers of this blog know, I have been watching the Sun for some time, especially with regards to the deep solar minimum we currently have between sunspot cycle 23 and cycle 24. If you look at the image above, you might not see any […]

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