As I don’t speak Spanish or Portuguese or Klingon or whatever this is, I can’t follow along with the mission control. But there are a few subtle hints that there are a few hiccups.
Jul 012023
Jun 012023
A recent Mexican TV news piece showed a cartel member wandering about with a shoulder-fired AT-4 anti-tank rocket slung over his shoulder. A number of commenters immediately leaped to one or both of two wrong conclusions:
1: It’s a Javelin missile
2: It’s a missile we gave to Ukraine, which they then turned around and sold on the black market.
Number 1 is easy enough to debunk; it’s simply not a Javelin. Number 2 is more troubling: but then there’s a little detail on the launch tube that makes it clear that wherever the cartel got this thing… it’s not something to fret about too much.
May 252023
Given the vast amount of money spend on Virgin Orbit to develop a rocket that promised to be cheap, the fact that the company failed is no surprise whatsoever (see HERE). But their failure is other companies gains.
No one should be surprised Virgin Orbit failed—it had a terrible business plan
Stratolaunch bought VO’s modified 747 with the intention of using it to launch things. This probably makes a lot more sense than their gigantic ROC carrier aircraft… too much airplane for many missions, and not exactly capable of landing on every runway in the world. Big as the 747 is, there are a *lot* of airports with decades of experience accommodating it.
Stratolaunch Expands Fleet with Virgin Orbit’s Modified Boeing 747
And the New Zealand/American company Rocket Lab has purchased a fair chunk of VO’s infrastructure:
Rocket Lab Bolsters Neutron Rocket Program with Purchase of Virgin Orbit Long Beach California Assets
Good for them. Instant growth, and, hopefully, continued employment for some VO staff. And if nothing else at least the ChiComs didn’t get it.
May 212023
My next book, released for pre-order and to be shipped in a few weeks:
US Supersonic Bomber Projects 2
“The threat posed by the Soviet Union throughout the postwar period coincided with an explosion of innovation and can-do attitude among America’s aircraft manufacturers. Challenging requirements and experimentation resulted in a huge variety of designs for aircraft powered by nuclear reaction, aircraft capable of flying faster than Mach 5, advanced bombers able to land and take-off from the surface of the ocean, VTOL fighters and bombers, and many others. Aerospace engineer Scott Lowther collects some of the most radical and beyond-the-state-of-the-art ‘secret projects’ in this – the second volume of his US projects series.”
May 132023
Stratolaunch Successfully Completes Separation Test of Talon-A Vehicle
Stratolaunch LLC announces it has successfully completed a separation release test of the Talon-A separation test vehicle, TA-0. The flight was the eleventh for the company’s launch platform Roc and the second time the team has conducted flight operations in Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Western Range off California’s central coast.
May 062023
In 1983 “Science Digest” ran an article that 13-year-old me lost his tiny little mind over. Illustrated by Rick Sternbach, designer of, among other Star Trek vehicles and artifacts, the USS Voyager, it described a series of possible means of interstellar travel. While the physics and engineering of some of them have proven dodgy in the years since (the Bussard ramjet has serious problems with the proposed magnetic fiend, the Enzmann starship has turned out to not be as well thought out as many had assumed, etc.), it remains a tantalizing glimpse of what might be. The article has been scanned in full color and made available to APR Patrons/subscribers at the above-$10 level.
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.
May 012023
The rewards for April, 2023, have been released. They include:
Document: *Partial* Martin report on the M329 Mach 2 jet seaplane bomber
Document: “Flexible Wing Manned Test Vehicle, Final Program Report,” Ryan, December 1961. report on the development of the “Rogallo Wing” test vehicle.
Document: “10 Jahre TKF/J-90 Vorentwicklung,” conference paper from 1983 from Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm Gmbh describing (in German) the development of advanced fighter jets
Large Format: “NASA’s Space Launch System,” poster with detailed diagrams of the Block 1 and Block 1B SLS
CAD Diagram: B-1B weapons loads. This diagram was created and intended for my “US Supersonic Bomber Projects Volume 1” but had to be cut for space reasons. This includes gravity bombers, cruise missile sand the Vought T-22 “Assault Breaker.”
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.
Apr 202023
Well, it got off the pad. That’s good. But at least six of the engines didn’t seem to be burning, and the whole stack started tumbling just before stage sep… and then the stages didn’t sep.
But it got not just off the pad, but away from the pad, and made it a good way toward first stage burnout before things went sideways. So… a qualified woohoo.
EDIT: Just saw a different launch angle: It clawed its way off the pad at something of an angle. The thrust vector seems to have been off from the beginning; SpaceX is probably lucky they didn’t lose the pad.
Seems relevant:
Nailed it.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/FC5wo1eppH
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) April 20, 2023
Six of the 33 engines weren’t running:
Apr 192023
Launch window opens tomorrow (suspiciously, 4/20) at 8:28 AM central time, lasts for about an hour.
Apr 152023
Something failed on the launch tower and fell the full length of it, sending out a shower of sparks. Seems like the man-carrying elevator suffered a problem and the counterweight plummeted. This is doubtless not great news for the planned Monday launch.
So, yeah. Another “infrastructure oopsie.” Hmmm.
Here is another angle showing what appears to be some kind of electrical short resulting in an object falling into the base of the tower.
🎥@LabPadre pic.twitter.com/VWqri1yS0N
— Zack Golden (@CSI_Starbase) April 15, 2023
🚀Sparks Fell From the Orbital Launch Tower🚀
At 1:47AM 2023-04-15 sparks rained down from the orbital launch tower (OLT) at the #SpaceX #Starbase rocket launch complex.
The sparks may have been some kind of late night welding or grinding, maybe some kind of mishap.
🎥LabPadre pic.twitter.com/WMC9NCNnn2
— Starbase Watcher 🚀 (@watchstarbase) April 15, 2023