Some men just want to watch the Buran burn

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., history, news, rockets, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 272021
 

Oy.

Graffiti Artists Defaced Soviet-Era Buran Space Shuttle At Russian Space Center

 

There are always people who want to trash things just because they can. Seriously: if the Air and Space Museum was left unguarded for ten minutes, do you think that the Wright Flyer would somehow escape being splashed with BLM, Antifa or gang crap? Or just simply burned to ashes?

The gene pool needs a good cleaning.

Buran was an ill-conceived notion. A bad copy of the US Space Shuttle, somehow made *worse:* it was a pointless reusable payload shroud, it didn’t even bring the main engines back. Still… leaving such things to be turned to garbage by collapsing buildings and garbage humans is just insane.

 Posted by at 1:47 pm

Someone built the BIS Moon Suit

 art, awesomeness, history, Hmm..., science, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
May 242021
 

The British Interplanetary Society famously proposed manned missions to the moon both before and after World War II. These designs would *not* have worked, but that’s not the point. The “Collier’s” series space program vehicles would not have worked either, but they all served the purpose of showing that the physics supported the notion of manned space flight, that it *could* and *should* be done. And anythign that actually happens had to start somewhere.

 Posted by at 3:52 pm

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird – Origins & Evolution: Preview

 aircraft, Book X, drawings, history, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, new products, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
May 242021
 

Mortons has posted a preview “sampler” of my “Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird” bookazine. You can take a look and see if it’s for you.

It is available directly through the publisher for £8.99 (Approx $12.41 or €10.34). It is also available through Amazon for pre-order for $12.99. Direct from the publisher should be available sooner; from Amazon, lower mailing cost if you’re in the US.

 Posted by at 11:04 am

General update

 aircraft, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, blather, Book X, drawings, history, Hmm..., nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
May 092021
 

Might have noticed that blogging has been reduced mostly to posting YouTube vids and very brief grumbles of late. It’ll probably be much the same or even less for the next month or two… I’m hard at work on “B-47/B-52” and that takes precedence. Just passed 200 pages of diagrams; a few more left to do, but text is the current priority and I’m a slower writer than draftsman (and I don’t draft that fast).

 

Side note: Amazon has decided that I might be interested in these. Amazing! How do it know?

 Posted by at 10:46 pm

Starship Landing Was Nominal

 awesomeness, history, news, rockets, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
May 052021
 

It looks like SpaceX has finally succeeded with a true soft landing of a Starship. More than 10 minutes after landing, it’s still pointed straight up. There was a fire at the base for several minutes, but after some judicious venting the fire seems to have gone out. Oddly, SpaceX doesn’t seem to have covered the flight. There were numerous interruptions of the video feed from the vehicle itself; with luck it was recorded by the cameras and will be recovered.

UPDATE:

SpaceX has posted a video.

 Posted by at 5:42 pm

A little Preview of “B-47/B-52”

 aircraft, awesomeness, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, Book X, books, history, new products, projects, rockets, spacecraft, weapons  No Responses »
Apr 302021
 

Here is an incomplete look at the diagrams created for my first book, “Boeing B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress; Origins & Evolution.” It can be pre-ordered either directly from the publisher (with publication expected in late September) or through Amazon (looks like they’ll have it two months later). It is also expected to be on certain store shelves… more on that when it’s confirmed.

A few of these diagrams will be compressed to several-per-page; a few of them here are already shown in multiple optional layouts. But there are also a dozen-ish diagrams *not* shown because they are incomplete as yet. This gives an indication of the size and scope of the project…

 Posted by at 2:49 pm

2021 Quarter 1 upmass

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 282021
 

And this round goes to SpaceX!

While it’s good that SpaceX continues to kick substantial ass in the field of launching stuff to orbit, expect the Chinese to do whatever they can to surpass. Note that Boeing/Lockheed/ULA doesn’t appear on here. SpaceX is essentially America’s *sole* launch provider. Great for them, but it makes them a single-point failure mode, vulnerable to screwups, physical sabotage, cyber attacks and regulations.

 

 

 Posted by at 7:11 pm

RIP Michael Collins

 AARRRGH, Gah., history, news, science, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Apr 282021
 

The third and sometimes forgotten astronaut on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon has passed away. He died of cancer, which will doubtless be used by anti-spaceflight panicmongers to rail against the dangers of deep space… but he was *90.*

Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins has died at age 90

How many Apollo astronauts will get to witness the United States return to the moon?

 Posted by at 1:36 pm
 Older Entries  Newer Entries