A 1963 NASA-Marshall report on man-rating launch vehicles included this small chart showing modifications to the Titan II Space Launch Vehicle.
Jul 082017
Jul 082017
The security at Baikonur seems a little lax. The fate that has befallen these spacecraft is tragic. But at least the footage is pretty neato.
Jul 072017
The last 50 years have been filled with all manner of excuses to try to keep humans Earthbound. Here are some more, pretty much equally valid with all the others:
Jul 072017
Pence: ‘We will put American boots on the face of Mars’
This can, of course, be politically interpretted any of a number of ways. Some will immediately recall Orwells line about a picture of the future, and, if they are of a mind to, will interpret pence to be a monster with monstrous goals. Others will see it in terms of “America, frak yeah!” and will be enthused.
And then there’s those like me, who if we were the optimistic types would be enthused, but we’ve been burned a few dozen too many times. If only Pence not only means this, but can make it happen:
“The American space program has a champion in the President of the United States,” Pence said, adding that the White House plans to “usher in a new era” of American space leadership.
We’ll see. But at least the rhetoric is right.
Jul 042017
Around 1960, the USAF had high hopes for the development of ASP: “AeroSpace Plane.” ASP was a program to develop an airbreather one- or two-stage-to-orbit spaceplane. The first stage would use some form of Liquid Air Cycle Engine; the inlet would be actively cooled by the liquid hydrogen fuel so that the incoming air would be condensed to liquid, which would allow the liquified air to be stored and fed into high chamber pressure rocket engines. ASP was extremely ambitious, and obviously – since no airbreathing system has made it to orbit (not counting simple turbojet-powered aircraft carrying otherwise conventional rockets such as Pegasus) – it did not work. A fair chunk of change was spent on the concept, but it faded away after a few years. The basic idea of ASP would arise a quarter century later with NASP, to similar levels of success.
A good, well-illustrated article on ASP was published some time back in issue v2N5 of Aerospace Projects Review.
Most of the known ASP designs were produced by Convair. It seems that Convair jumped into the program with both feet, producing not only detailed diagrams of a whole range of vehicles but also artwork and display models. And the latter category included some beautiful see-through models made from Plexiglas. It shows some interior details such as the complex plumbing of the Liquid Air Cycle Engines, as well as the winged second stage tucked into the lower fuselage of the very large hypersonic first stage. In an era long before computer animation, models such a this would be very useful in illustrating complex concepts to customers and bosses.
I have uploaded the full-rez version of this photo to the 2017-07 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to all APR Patrons at the $4 level and above. If you are interested in accessing these and other aerospace historical goodies, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.
Jul 032017
Probably the spiffiest video of rockets landing you’ll see today:
Jul 032017
This has been discussed for a while:
US planning to create ‘Space Corps’ as sixth branch of armed forces
Basically, the current space-warfare functions of the USAF would be split off onto their own, in kind of the same way that the USAF was split off from the US Army shortly after WWII (though it seems the USSC would still be a part of the USAF). The reason for this would be to cement space warfare capabilities and funding; right now the Air Force could in principle take all the money needed for Space Project XYZ and divert it into a trillion-dollar effort to replace the F-35’s cup holders. If the USSC actually came about – and there’s every reason to doubt that it’ll actually happen, what with the whole idea being to kick over some current political fiefdoms – then it would have its own budget that couldn’t be raided for fighters or bombers or the like.
While I’d love to see the USSC come about and promptly start patrolling the spaceplanes with Enterprise-class 4,000 ton Orion battlecruisers, the reality is that the USSC would largely spend most of its time futzing around with satellites and whatnot. However, if the USSC comes along, has assured political independence and a good budget… perhaps the US military might finally start doing what it should have been doing since the 1960’s: setting up bases on the moon, sending military recon missions to Mars, weaponizing asteroids, that sort of thing. We shall see.
Jul 012017
A USAF film from the early 60’s showing some of the things the Air Force was doing to prepare for spaceflight. Parachute tests, ejection seats, various acceleration tests are shown. At about 3:30 several cats are shown in an aircraft doing zero-g maneuvers. The cats are obviously not happy about this. In general, taking cats along on a zero-g flight is something I’m not opposed to… humans living in space are undoubtedly going to take pets with them, and it’d be good to figure out what species can handle what. But the cats obviously are confused, having no idea whatsoever what’s going on… and the humans are having too much fun screwing with them.
Jul 012017
Where we learn the importance of proper signage.
Jun 302017
Hmmm…
Japan reveals plans to put a man on moon by 2030
The article is *incredibly* lean on details. Apparently they plan on joining in on the planned lunar orbiting space station that NASA will spend a lot of money studying but will eventually abandon just before actually bending metal.
Due to the lack of details on motive, one can only assume the Kaiju thing. Of course, they might also be going to the moon to look for tentacle pron.