Space Forum / Space History / January 2008

I'm kind of surprised that no one mentioned it yesterday.  It's been
twenty-two years.
I have some thoughts here:
http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/2008/01/twentytwo_years.html

I struggled for quite awhile as to why Richard Branson got involved in this
Paul Allen venture to such an extent and then it dawned on me.
If SpaceShip Two flights become seen as "routine" (i.e. can go a significant
amount of time w/o a mishap, flying more or less ordinary people) ...

Twin fuselages, four turbofans:
http://content.zdnet.com/2346-10532_22-184522-1.html
Pat

Since the Florida primary is today, has anyone down there heard any
of
the candidates (of EITHER party) state their policy on the future of
Project Constellation, MSI, or whatever? Please keep the Bush- or

I'm mapping out the internal structure of the 11F74 Almaz (misnomer
"Merkur") capsule manned portion . There are four primary beam-column
style "stringers" that run the full length of the Almaz capsule with
an additional three "stringers" in the pressurized section. There is a

This is going to be interesting:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080126/ap_on_go_ot/dead_satellite
"WASHINGTON - A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and could hit
the Earth in late February or March, government officials said

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/How_Green_Is_My_Space_999.html
I guess this is what passes for modern American journalism.
My how far we have fallen.

I was just thinking it might be wise to put a fifth small turbofan,
something like a Williams International, above the pylon, just in case.
I'm assuming this thing can just about glide anywhere, but I'm wondering
how well this thing flies with multiple engine outs. Since they will ...

I have added a copy of the hand-written document that is historically
interesting - and, frankly, kinda sad -  a copy of the presentation
put together by the Morton Thiokol engineers the night before the
Challenger launch where they show that chances were good that the

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=26756
Clearly this guy needs to go, and soon.

Whole pile of different titles just arrived:
http://www.squadron.com/NewItems.asp
Pat

...With everyone responding to the trolling scum, I'm not surprised
that nobody's commented on this before now:
http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Americans_In_Orbit_50_Years_Announces_Plans_
To_Re_Create_1962_John_Glenn_Space_Flight_999.html
                OM

All the 1,213 images the spacecraft took of Mercury have now been
successfully transmitted to Earth.
In total the spacecraft transmitted 500 megabytes of data:
http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/status_report_01_18_08.html

...Someone tell me what's wrong with this sentence:
"Explorer 1 lifted off Jan. 31, 1958 -- slightly more than a year
after the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik."
...From this "article":

APR issue V1N4 is now available, and will begin mailing to subscribers
within a day or two. This issue has a large (50+ page) article on
Project Orion, covering the early development of the program as well
as testing, environmental and safety issues. Included are a *lot* of