Neato:
Using the Shuttle for basic servicing missions was always kinda silly when all that was really needed was a guy in a suit, a few tools, a place to stand and some replacement parts.
Say what you will about United Launch Alliance and the fact that it is far, FAR behind the times when compared with SpaceX, they’ve recently been issuing some damned impressive videos.
Found it! Ok, since you asked so nicely… here is a full duration @BlueOrigin #BE4 firing. #VulcanRocket #CountDownToVulcan. Enjoy… pic.twitter.com/HZB2z33ted
— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) September 28, 2022
OK. By popular demand, my ultra secret, most favorite spot. #NROL91 pic.twitter.com/OdqaUsPHuC
— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) September 27, 2022
Here’s a cool fisheye shot for all you flame trench fans. Don’t forget to turn up the sound. #NROL91 pic.twitter.com/yv2JWbCP1w
— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) September 27, 2022
Want to see some fire close up from my favorite secret SLC6 viewing spot? (turn up the volume…). #NROL91 pic.twitter.com/Ss3Hzfkcb1
— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) September 26, 2022
Gotta love a rocket that is so metal, it sets itself on fire before launching into space. Getting excited for #NROL91 #DeltaIVHeavy pic.twitter.com/9RIJV6LAK0
— Tory Bruno (@torybruno) September 19, 2022
And they’re retweeting some good vids of their Delta IV launch:
Video from the #NROL91 Delta IV Heavy launch yesterday. @ulalaunch @torybruno @SuperclusterHQ pic.twitter.com/taa3Usgo9Z
— Justin Hartney (@justinhartney) September 25, 2022
Wide angle shot of ULA Delta IV Heavy – NROL-91 successfully launched from Vandenberg SFB yesterday. @NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/habqHr7NVs
— Jay L. DeShetler (@jdeshetler) September 26, 2022
Some great launch videos. Now, to release some equally impressive landing videos, demonstrating that ULA is in the business of recovering and reusing rockets to not only lower launch cost (and compete with SpaceX) but also to ramp up launch rates in order to save western civilization off-world, because it’s going to hell on *this* one.
The images coming in of the DART impact are absolutely remarkable.
Same video as before of ATLAS observing the DART impact, but tracked sidereally (with the stars). Each frame is about 40 seconds, and the entire sequence is about two hours. pic.twitter.com/p7Sgvfu2CK
— ATLAS Project (@fallingstarIfA) September 27, 2022
The preliminary preview images from @LICIACube show the extent and shape of the plume from the #DARTmission Sept. 26 impact on asteroid Didymos' moonlet Dimorphos pic.twitter.com/VwUm096Yov
— Jason Major (@JPMajor) September 27, 2022
Here are some of the first images direct from the @LICIACube team at @ASI_spazio https://t.co/9LEIZA5SF7
— Jason Major (@JPMajor) September 27, 2022
A imagem que vocês estavam esperando chegou! Já acessamos os dados do @NASAWebb e montamos um timelapse do asteroide Dimorphos após a colisão com a missão de teste de defesa planetária #DART. #AstroMiniBR pic.twitter.com/DWQEnyW7x9
— Projeto Céu Profundo (@CeuProfundo) September 27, 2022
Dude. DUDE.
This is what men can do when they strive for greatness using the precepts of western science: we can bullseye a 500-meter-wide pile of rubble from across the friggen’ solar system.
The plume was visible from Earth-based telescopes.
ATLAS observations of the DART spacecraft impact at Didymos! pic.twitter.com/26IKwB9VSo
— ATLAS Project (@fallingstarIfA) September 27, 2022
Check out these two different angles of the #DARTMission explosion taken from Earth observatories!! #nasa #asteroid #dimorphos #atlasproject #ssaosouthafrica pic.twitter.com/JyRrk74Fjs
— The Bind (@TheBindRocks) September 27, 2022
The Webb and Hubble telescopes were aimed at the impact, but I haven’t seen anything from them yet. Probably takes time to process.
Ethereal.
Neptune in a new light! 🔵
Hubble’s view of this planet looks pretty different from @NASAWebb's new image, on the right.
That’s because these two telescopes looked at the planet in different wavelengths of light. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/omelj0ZkDX
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) September 21, 2022
A mid-1960’s North American Aviation concept for a sorta-lifting body spacecraft that would use deployable rotors for landing. Functioning as an autogyro, these rotors would be a more controllable alternative to a parachute, in principle allowing fairly pinpoint runway touchdowns. I had cause to go looking for information on this recently; i was fairly certain that I had a few reports on the subject, but could not find them. Grrr.
A few photos I found online a few years ago of a display model, presumably originating from an auction website such as ebay:
It’s about time:
It never had a real Blu Ray release, which always seemed odd to me.
And why not:
And why the hell not:
Update: it was once again brought to my attention that Amazon Text+Image links are nuked by ad blockers. So here are the text links to the 4K movies I linked to:
An unmanned test flight of the New Shepard suffered a catastrophic engine explosion. The capsule seemed to successfully separate and landed normally, but that would have been a *damned* rough ride, with a bunch of eyeballs-out G’s for a few seconds.
On other launch matters: Firefly is gonna try to launch again today, not sure what time:
WHOOPS: scrubbed.
And NASA wants to try to launch Artemis on the 23rd.
Its maiden flight is now tentatively scheduled to take place on:
They’re going to try tomorrow, September 11, starting at 3PM Pacific time.
I looked through a small fraction of my surprisingly vast pile of CAD diagrams for some I thought might look good in really large format. Some I’ve gone some distance towards formatting them that way already; some are still formatted for small sheets. There are more, of course. In no particular order.
Lockheed CL-400 “Suntan”
Lockheed M-21/D-21:
Lockheed A-12:
Lockheed SR-71A:
Lockheed YF-12A:
X-20 Dyna Soar/Titan III:
A number of 10-Meter Orion vehicles/sub-vehicles:
USAF 10-meter Orion:
General Dynamics “Kingfish:”
North American XF-108:
Lockheed A-12 concept w/canards:
Boeing B-47E:
Boeing B-52G:
Boeing B-52H:
Boeing B-52H + Skybolt:
Boeing DB-47E + Bold Orion:
Rockwell Star Raker:
Boeing “Big Onion” SSTO:
Boeing Space Freighter:
NASA Saturn C-8:
Lockheed STAR Clipper:
