Vintage Space RSS
-
Recent Posts
Archives
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
Categories
Tags
American Apollo Apollo 8 Armstrong Astronaut Selection Astronomy Carnival of Space Carpenter Conrad Cooper Gagarin Gemini Glenn Grissom History of Rocketry Kennedy Korolev Landing Systems Launch Vehicles Leonov Lovell Manned Spaceflight Mars Mercury Mercury Program Moon NAA NACA NASA Robots Rogallo Saturn V Schirra Shepard Soviet Soviet Space Program Spaceflight Space Planes Space Shuttle Splashdown USAF US Navy Venus von Braun X-15Suggested Links
Monthly Archives: October 2012
Felix Baumgartner: Unwitting Role Model
Two weeks ago, Austrian daredevil and skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped 120,000 feet from a balloon. It was neat, but that’s about it. It was a stunt funded by RedBull. My opinion on the jump as a whole can be found … Continue reading
Posted in Manned Spaceflight, Planetary Science
Tagged Baumgartner, Felix Baumgartner, Kittinger, Mars, MSL, NASA, Neil Armstrong, RedBull Stratos
4 Comments
Laika (Muttnik) on SciLogs
On Saturday, October 5, 1957, word that the Soviets had put a 184-pound satellite, Sputnik, into orbit the night before spread throughout the United States. Fear and paranoia spread throughout the country while the Soviet Union celebrated, specifically the scientists … Continue reading
Posted in History of Space Science, Soviet
Tagged Khrushchev, Korolev, Laika, Soviet, Sputnik, Sputnik 2
1 Comment
Another Use for Rogallo: Saturn Recovery
Regular readers are doubtless aware that I love the Rogallo paraglider wing. NASA had had no shortage of uses for this triangular, two-lobed sail design in the 1960s. It was the system that should have landed the Gemini spacecraft on … Continue reading
Posted in Apollo, Gemini, History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Mercury
Tagged 1961, Apollo, Booster Recovery, Gemini, Mercury, NASA, Paraglider, Rogallo, Rogallo Paraglider, S-IC Stage, Saturn Booster
2 Comments
RedBull’s Stratos Stunt
According to YouTube, eight million people watched Felix Baumgartner’s high altitude jump on Sunday morning. It was exciting and death-defying, but at the end of the day it was a just an elaborate publicity stunt that will likely see RedBull … Continue reading
Posted in History of Space Science
Tagged Felix Baumgartner, Free Fall, Joe Kittinger, Jump, Mel Apt, NASA, Project Excelsior, RedBull, RedBull Stratos, Skydive, Stratosphere, Stunt, US Air Force
59 Comments
Engine Failures Don’t Mean Mission Failures
Last Sunday (October 7), SpaceX launched another Falcon 9 rocket. This one carried a cargo-laden Dragon capsule to the International Space Station on the first formal mission under the Commercial Resupply Service contract with NASA. It was the fourth launch … Continue reading
Posted in Apollo, History of Space Science, Manned Spaceflight, Moon, Rockets, Unmanned Spaceflight
Tagged Apollo 11, Apollo 13, Apollo 6, Engine, Engine Failure, Falcon 9, Launch, NASA, S-II, Saturn V, SpaceX
Leave a comment
The Psychological Impact of Sputnik
Today marks 55 years since the Soviet Union launched history first artificial satellite, Sputnik. It was, by all accounts, an innocuous satellite; it weighed about 184-pounds and it beeped. It wasn’t broadcasting secret messages or pinpointing the locations of major … Continue reading
Posted in History of Space Science, Rockets, Soviet, Unmanned Spaceflight
Tagged Eisenhower, IGY, Khrushchev, R7, Soviet, Space Race, Sputnik, Sputnik 2
Leave a comment