Space Forum / Space History / June 2007

I just watched Man Moment Machine featuring Apollo 13.  In most of the
animations, the LM/CSM was traveling to the side.  Is this right?
I always assumed it traveled straight ahead with that big CSM engine
nozzle to the rear.

    Any one know where the laser toting 747 is now?  If the plan is to
shoot the North Korean missile down, would we do it with a laser?  If we
miss the missile with the ABM interceptors it would be an embarrassment, but
if we miss it with the Boeing (Deathstar) 747 know one ...

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/briefing/sts98/images/slide12lg.jpg
What you guys think?

I was watching some video that included a shot of Eileen Collins as she was
docking to ISS during STS-114. Again, I see a black line with white dots
running in the middle of the screen. Later video had this line about 1/10
from the top of the screen.

I'm doing a big book chapter for a DoD 'space power' book,
my chapter is on the russian program.
Here are my conclusions, and I'd like to open them up to
discussion, critique, and suggestions. The material remains

Over in NASASPACEFLIFGT.COM, a poster is claiming that the Saturn1B
for the ATSP launch had the following abort mode: Late in the S4B
burn, NASA planned to use the +Y RCS thrusters on the Apollo SM to
orbit an almost empty S4B, a SLA/DM/CSM stack in case of an early S4B

What the f.ck is wrong with these people?
Polls don't speak for the American public, a.sholes, and neither does
George W. Bush, and I hate to break it to you, but neither does the NSS.
NSS - National Space Society - Protecting the Planet Earth, as only the

Just catching up with OMWorld, and I see this:
In a second play attributed to Cho, titled "Mr. Brownstone", three
17-year-olds named John, Jane, and Joe discuss their deep hatred of their
45-year-old mathematics teacher, Mr. Brownstone, who they claim mistreated

Check it out :
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/forum-view.asp?fid=5
They can't handle reality, so they just edit it out.

I found it interesting, though maybe not totally surprising, to read
in a recent AvLeak that the Capsule was something like 3,000 lbs over
weight targets, and that the booster was near it's maximum thrust as
well, which was leading to all sorta of tricks and changes to cut the

SSP Rises from the dead!
Incredible! Just incredible!
And the calvary rides in to save the day
...just in the nick of time.

In 'Mercury 13' there was some discussion of one male argument in the 1960s
against women astronauts
that they would -- "as in other professions" -- tend to stay at the career
less long than male astronauts

Space historian J.L. Pickering and myself have been preserving our
photograph collection on disc and these are now available for sale.
The hi-res scans have been color corrected and repaired where
necessary. Photo IDs and brief descriptions are also included in most

I have been trying to understand how the A4's gyroscopically
stabilized platform worked.  Specifically the guidance version that
had a platform mounted inside of a three-axis gimbal.  The platform
had 3 gyroscopes on it, one for each axis, to keep the platform fixed

... for their public space simulation engine.
NASA obviously prefers fantasy, over reality, science and physics.