SpaceX has launched four astronauts into orbit via Falcon 9/Dragon, as well as recovering the booster via drone ship.
Most people launched at one time since the Space Shuttle.
Apr 232021
Search Results : shuttle
Mar 172021
Ghana will no longer export cocoa to Switzerland
Ghana wants to stop exporting raw cocoa, and instead export finished chocolate. According to THIS, Ghana is responsible for 57% of Switzerlands cocoa, so this would pose a serious issue for the Swiss chocolate industry (and probably a lot of other countries chocolate industries as well, since Ghana produces 45% of the worlds cocoa…though Wiki says they’re responsible for only 18%). Ghana is of course taking a risk: if their home grown chocolate sucks, then they will have spent a lot building infrastructure, will have lost raw cocoa sales, and won’t sell much processed chocolate. Even if it doesn’t suck, it won’t be Swiss chocolate, and that matters to a lot of people for whom this sort of thing matters.
One is left to wonder what the Swiss will do. They import north of 44,000 tons of cocoa, and would have to start looking for alternative sources. Ecuador and Mexico and the like would probably want to step up, unless they, too, decide that processing it locally makes sense.
Growing the cocoa there in Switzerland seems unlikely due to the cocoa tree being a distinctly tropical plant. Still: it might make sense to try for local production. It might make sense for Switzerland to not only try growing cocoa trees in hothouses (possibly in warrens of tunnels carved through the hills and mountains), but also via hydroponics, though genetic manipulation (get coca beans growing on vines or something, or from mutant peanut or taters, I dunno) or even purely synthetically. If Switzerland can pull this off, they’ll be not only independent of reliance upon volatile third world imports and politics, they’ll have new agricultural technologies and techniques to sell. The developed world could, say, turn skyscrapers into high-tech farms for the production of spices and such that are currently produced only in equatorial regions. At last the modern world could divorce itself from dependency upon the third world, not only ending the need to send them our money, but also ending the heartache of the poverty stricken folks of the undeveloped countries knowing that evil westerners are appropriating their cultures. Imagine the joy that would spread through the cocoa farmers of Ghana as they saw their exports of cocoa dry up utterly, their farms returning to a state of nature, as they know that they are no longer participating in the evil Europeans appropriation of Aztec culture.
A notion: an early product of asteroid mining could be Island Three habitats given over entirely to the production of “luxury” raw agricultural materials. There would have to be a thriving trade in water and carbon and such going *to* the habs to counter the raw materials going down, but this would only serve to make space flight all that much cheaper. A secondary – and probably necessary – product of the asteroid mining would be the silica processed out of the asteroids. This could be dropped from low orbit in the form of “cannonballs” a meter or two in diameter as a gentle incentive for the refugee boats full of starving Ghanaian cocoa farmers to turn back.
The Swiss chocolate industry is already in trouble enough thanks to the Pinko Pox, with revenues down more than 10%. That works out to a loss of more than $400 million… and that’s based just on a decrease in tourism. Imagine what it’ll be when their supply of cocoa starts getting rather thin. Billions of dollars could fund some interesting new technologies, all of which would be useful not only for chocolatiers but for modern mankind as a whole. The daily Lindt-SpaceX shuttle to the ChocoHab in geosynchronous orbit could make for an inspiring sight.
Own your own space museum
AARRRGH, art, awesomeness, blather, Gah., history, Hmm..., models, news, rockets, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ
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Feb 162021
Difficulty: stuff’s in Finland.
I was directed to an online auction of space replicas. The first items were things like 1/72 scale Space Shuttles and 1/72 scale Saturn V’s and Atlases and Redstones… nice enough, but nothing out of the ordinary.
BUT THEN…
14. Apollo Lunar Module cockpit full-scale replica 1:1
And…
15. Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle full-scale replica 1:1
And…
16. Gemini spacecraft full-scale replica 1:1
And…
17. Space Shuttle Orbiter Vehicle full-scale replica 1:1 (front section)
And…
19. Mercury spacecraft full-scale replica 1:1
And…
27. Apollo Command Module Exterior replica 1:1
And not last and certainly not least:
21. Saturn V scale model 1:10
Gimme gimme gimme gimme…
Where would I put a 1/10 scale Saturn V if I had one? I have no friggen’ clue.
The auction appears to be a bankruptcy auction:
Online bankruptcy auction under the authority of trustee Mr. M.W. Schüller of Lexington Advocaten in Hoofddorp concerning the inventory originating from the bankruptcy of John Nurnimen Events B.V. at Schiphol. The goods are located in Finland.
“John Nurnimen Events” still has a functioning website, but was declared bankrupt in the Netherlands, so I’m a bit confounded as to what’s going on here. On one hand I’m saddened that such a collection of awesomeness was apparently not a profitable enterprise; on the other hand… it’s Finland. I’m unclear that that would be the best place for such a thing. The specific website for the “NASA – A Human Adventure” traveling exhibition is offline, though it’s archived.
Opening bids on all these things are 100 Euro each. I have no idea what they’ll go for, though I imagine shipping costs could be a bit spendy.
Dec 312020
Just released, the December 2020 rewards for APR Patrons and Subscribers. Included this month:
Diagram: a large format diagram of a Lockheed cruise missile. The designation of the missile is not given, but this looks like a SCAD design.
Document 1: Consolidated Class VB Carrier Based Bomber, from 1946
Document2: “Economic Aspects of a Reusable Single Stage To Orbit Vehicle,” a paper by Phil Bono on the ROOST launch vehicle from 1963
Document 3: “Shuttle Derived Vehicles,” a NASA-MSFC briefing to General Abrahamson from 1984
CAD Diagram: XSM-64A Navaho, the configuration that would have been built as an operational vehicle had the program gone forward
If this sort of thing is of interest, sign up either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
Dec 252020
In 1985, Rockwell International considered the possibility that there might be profit in clustering the External Tank from the Space Shuttle in Earth orbit. There the tanks could be filled with propellant to serve as orbital “gas stations,” or rebuilt into space habitats or other structures, or simple reprocessed for the raw structural materials. In order to do this the Shuttle would have to shed a noticeable fraction of total payload. Something not given a whole lot of thought was what to do about the insulating foam applied to the tanks; ultraviolet sunlight, thermal cycling and a harsh vacuum would cause the foam to break down ans turn each orbiting tank into a little comet, the nucleus of a cloud of foam bits.
Still, it would have been nice if the tanks had been used rather than simply dumped into the Indian Ocean.
Dec 162020
In some ways the 1980’s were FREAKIN’ AWESOME. Coming out of the truly dire 1970’s, what with Viet Nam and the end of Apollo and inflation and malaise and Iran and OPEC and the environment going straight to hell and Jimmy Carter and disco, the sudden arrival of optimism and Ronald Reagan made the world seem a better place. Even though expanded spending on disastrous social welfare programs torpedoed the deficit and the Soviets were still lurking around the corner with ten thousand nukes to turn the planet into a blasted hellscape… hey, no more Carter. People were proud of the US again; Viet Nam veterans were starting to be (rather belatedly) celebrated, as was the military; the US returned to space with the Shuttle; computer technology finally broke into the home market; Hollywood started cranking out some outstanding flicks that are still beloved even unto today. The world looked like it just might have a shiny future.
But then… sigh.
Growing up as a kidling in the 70’s, I was constantly bombarded by a culture saturated in the hedonism of the 60’s and the 70’s. The hippies and yuppies and their sex, drugs and rock & roll made it look like adult life was filled with nonstop partying, that once my cohort got over the hump of adolescence, we, too, would be having nothing but fun. Those my age were not quite sure what it was all about yet, but we were sure that once we got about to high school we’d have it figured out and we’d all be having a blast.
But then… wouldn’t you know it, the boomers had to go and destroy that, too. Right abut the time that girls started to seem interesting… AIDS. AIDS freakin’ 24/7. After school specials. In-school propaganda. News reports of DOOOOOOOOOM. Want a little taste of what we had to go through? Here:
Feh.
That was clearly some religious indoctrination of some kind, but even in the statist-est of state schools we got the same message, just without the Bible-bangin’ (and sometimes with). Coupled with the Satanic Panic and the sudden rise of Stranger Danger, freakouts over D&D and rock music, it’s no wonder that Generation X turned into the generation of “meh.” It was impossible to stay panicked all the time (even with air raid drills that we all knew wouldn’t do a damn thing once Soviet nukes started falling), but the constant drumbeat of “if you try to have fun, you’ll die” did a dandy job of draining the joy out of many regular aspects of existence.
Longer version of the creepifyin’ original:
Now just imagine what todays younguns are gonna be like when they grow up, after having been burdened with the Commie Cough and being told that their whiteness is evil and that objectivity is racist and that their history should be erased.
Poor little bastards.
Nov 152020
Currently scheduled for 7:27 PM eastern time, SpaceX is planning on launching a Dragon capsule to the ISS with *four* astronauts on board. This will be the first time since the Space Shuttle that more than three at a time have gone up.
UPDATE: thirteen minutes into the flight and first stage has successfully landed, capsule is in orbit and separated from the second stage. It’s dull and repetitive… Which is *exactly* what ya want to see. WoO!
Nov 112020
A black and white bit of concept art that was sold on ebay a while back showing the Lockheed STAR (Space Transport And Recovery) Clipper space shuttle concept from the late 1960’s. This was a promising concept that used a lifting body orbiter with a wide, flattened rear fuselage that was liberally covered with rocket engines (a large range of engines and layouts were considered, including liner aerospikes). The shuttle was filled with liquid oxygen tanks and some hydrogen tanks; the bulk of the hydrogen was stored in a large V-shaped drop tank. This component would have been larger but reasonably inexpensive, jettisoned after deletion to be destroyed during re-entry or splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The vehicle would have continued on to orbit using the propellant remaining in the internal tanks.
A vast amount of information on the STAR Clipper is available HERE.
The STAR Clipper lasted a lot longer than many contemporary designs and went through a multitude of design revisions. it always seemed like it should have worked reasonably well… and it had the benefit of being aesthetically beautiful.
Oct 312020
Rewards have just been posted for APR Patrons/Monthly Historical Documents Program subscribers. Included:
1: “Manned Aerodynamic Reusable Spaceship (MARS) Vehicle Design” a 1962 Douglas report covering a single stage “orbital airplane” of impressive size and design.
2: “Pretest Information 3.3 Percent 624A Aerodynamic Heating Investigation, NASA Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel.” A 1963 Martin report describing a test of the Titan IIIC/Dyna Soar configuration.
3: Official XB-70 General Arrangement Diagram
4: CAD diagram: a 1974 Lockheed concept for a subscale Space Shuttle Orbiter Mach 9 flight test model, to be dragged behind a YF-12C and booster by an “Avanti” rocket (modification of the D-21B’s booster) with an internal SRAM motor in the orbiter.
If this sort of thing is of interest to you, either because you’d like to obtain these documents or you’d like to help preserve aerospace history (or both) please consider signing on to either the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program.
Oct 252020
An artists impression of the “DC-3” Space Shuttle concept. This was a two-stage system using two manned flyback vehicles with straight wings and turbofan engines. It was intended to be a low-cost approach, disdaining high performance for simple design and – theoretically – easy maintenance. The orbiter here had two jet engines in the nose for landing and flyback range extension; aerodynamic fairing would cover the inlets until after re-entry, jettisoned once the vehicles had decelerated to below Mach 1. The straight wings would be easy to build and low in weight compared to large delta wings, but of course they wouldn’t provide the same amount of lift. Consequently, the orbiter would less “glide” during the initial re-entry than “belly flop.”
I’ve uploaded the full-rez version of that to the APR Dropbox, into the 2020-10 APR Extras folder. This is available to any APR Patron or Subscriber at the $4 level and above.