This five minute fan film, entirely CG, is more entertaining than the entire sequel trilogy:
May 262022
May 212022
Much can be said derisively about the Boeing Starliner, but you can’t deny that it looks spiffy on-orbit.
Welcome #Starliner ! pic.twitter.com/F7KVIRO24c
— Samantha Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) May 21, 2022
See #Starliner successfully, autonomously rendezvous and dock with @Space_Station during #OFT2. Through the combined work of @NASA and Starliner teams, the spacecraft connected to the Boeing-built International Docking Adapter at 7:28 p.m. CT. pic.twitter.com/GHnz59zHXa
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) May 21, 2022
Starliner is not yet ready to fly passengers to ISS, certainly not paying private tourists, still, it’s a step in the direction of granting the US redundant flight capability.
May 192022
Boeing has managed to put it’s Starliner capsule into orbit. For a program that started in 2010, and was supposed to be operational in 2017… it’s just a little bit overdue. The first orbital test flight occurred in December 2019 and came home after only 11 hours (after *not* docking, as planned, with the ISS) because its onboard clock was off by 11 hours. Orbital Test Flight 2, which has just now attained orbit, was supposed to fly in October 2020. The schedule slipped, obviously.
May 162022
“Playmobil” toys aren’t my thing, not even waaaaaaay back when I was the target demographic. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the effort that went into the Playmobil Enterprise, not least because they went with the *real* Enterprise, not one of the nutrek Fakeprises. Makes sense: the JJprise has largely faded from the public conscience, and the STD/SNW Enterprise has, at least so far, virtually no traction, and has a *lot* of negativity to overcome. Go with the Enterprise that people actually *like.*
That said: at nearly $400, (note: it originally came out at about $500; Amazon lists it at about $380 on their site, but it seems to be $340 on the link below, a discrepancy I can’t explain) it’s a safe bet that this “toy” isn’t going to be given to too many five-year-olds, who likely aren’t going to be all that familiar with NCC-1701 anyway.
May 102022
One of the problems I harped on about Spinlaunch previously was the fact that their projectile tumbled, which is of course a very bad thing. They seem to be getting a handle on that issue.
May 052022
The Roddenberry Archive recreates Star Trek’s 1964 Pilot episode as a life-size holodeck simulation
A project is underway to digitally recreate the *entire* USS Enterprise, inside and out. What’s more, it’s not one static version, but shows how the sets evolved from the first pilot through the series, and includes the “refit” version from the Motion Picture and seemingly on up to Undiscovered Country (as well as the other Enterprises from NX-01 up to the J-model, the Shuttle, the aircraft carrier, the “ringship,” the Robert McCall version designed for the unmade “Planet of the titans” TV movie, the Phase II design… but *not* shown is the mutant horrible version from Woketrek, or the JJPrise). The results look pretty fricken’ awesome. Shows what can be accomplished if you actually care about the source materials (take note, hacks behind STD and STP).
How exactly regular schmoes like us will make use of the final products is not explained very well. It nevertheless looks damn impressive.I doubt that the computer models will be made accessible to the public, but if they were… you’d be able to 3D print every single version of the Enterprise bridge in whatever scale you like. You’d be able to print off each and every prop.
The actress they scanned to recreate Yeoman Colt from “The Cage” is not an exact duplicate, but she’s impressively close and immediately recognizable. Contrast with what Star Trek Discovery did to poor Colt:
Remember, the Talosians brought Colt to Pike and suggested that he mate with her because, in short, she was young and attractive. Ummmmm… Maybe that spike-faced Jem Hadar-lookin’ dame is a hottie among her kind, but that is *not* a face to attract a human male.
Sadly, actress Laurel Goodwin, who portrayed yeoman colt, died just a few months ago.
May 022022
Rocket Lab launched an Electron space launcher today… and caught the booster with a helicopter. The recovery did not go to plan however; reportedly the dynamics of the helicopter/rocket system was unusual and the pilot of the helicopter released the rocket. It seems he must have done so from a low altitude, as the booster survived splashdown and is being recovered and returned.
As elegant as a SpaceX landing? Nope. Better than anything else out there? Yup. The more the merrier when it comes to recoverable rockets. I’m sure Rocket Lab will figure out the problem and work to correct it. That’s how *good* engineering is done. The payload was apparently successfully delivered to orbit.
May 022022
Russia Will Quit International Space Station Over Sanctions
12-month notice, it seems. Kinda curious what Russia thinks they’re going to do in space on their own. Team up with China, maybe?
Apr 282022
HOTOL was a 1980’s/90’s British Aerospace idea for an airbreathing SSTO spaceplane. As with all such designs to date, it came equipped with a heavy load of optimism; physics, however, does not care about your sunny worldview, and like all other airbreathing SSTOs to date, the design simply could not be made to work with existing materials, propulsion systems, politics and economics.
Apr 282022
Video of Dragon’s Draco thrusters moving the spacecraft closer to the @Space_Station pic.twitter.com/0zBNYgAcDb
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) April 28, 2022