Category Archives: Space Exploration

Halo Orbit

John F. Lindner February 7, 2022 5:43 PM

The Webb telescope has fully deployed and arrived at its halo orbit about the second Earth-Sun Lagrange point. But how can it orbit an empty point in space? In the accompanying animated sequence of inertial space diagrams, a star (red) … Continue reading →

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Merlin & Raptor

John F. Lindner January 1, 2022 10:21 PM

The turbopump is the heart of most liquid-fueled rocket engines. Gas generator engines tap off and burn a little propellant to drive a turbine, which turns a centrifugal pump, which rapidly pushes the fuel and oxidizer to the combustion chamber, after the cryogenic … Continue reading →

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Astronomy Christmas Gift

John F. Lindner December 25, 2021 5:11 PM

I awoke early this Christmas morning to watch the successful launch of the James Webb Space Telescope. I remember the genesis of the telescope a quarter of a century ago when it was called the Next Generation Space Telescope. (The … Continue reading →

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Part Science, Part Art, Part Luck

John F. Lindner November 14, 2021 5:50 PM

Launched just last month, Lucy will be the first spacecraft to visit Jupiter’s trojan asteroids, rocky swarms that orbit about 60 degrees ahead and behind Jupiter in its orbit. Hal Levison, Lucy’s Principal Investigator, has described Lucy’s complicated trajectory, which includes an Earth … Continue reading →

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Punch it, SpaceX

John F. Lindner September 17, 2021 9:32 PM

She’s not looking up at the sky; she’s looking down at it. I am excitedly following the Inspiration4 spaceflight and its diverse all-private crew of Jared Isaacman, Sian Proctor, Christopher Sembroski, and Hayley Arceneaux. Orbiting higher than any humans this millennium and carrying … Continue reading →

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21st Century Skyscraper

John F. Lindner August 16, 2021 8:58 PM

Recently at its Boca Chica launch site, SpaceX stacked a Starship on a Superheavy booster to briefly form history’s largest rocket, dwarfing the Apollo Saturn V. Both a fit-check and a statement, SpaceX released the photograph below in black & … Continue reading →

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Mars Sky Crane

John F. Lindner February 19, 2021 10:29 PM

At the NASA press conference today, chief engineer Adam Steltzner presented three iconic images of the space age: Armstrong’s photo of Aldrin on the lunar surface, Voyager 1’s photo of Saturn and its rings from above the ecliptic, the Hubble … Continue reading →

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Nightfall

John F. Lindner January 28, 2021 1:17 PM

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a sextuply-eclipsing sextuple star system. I think of “Nightfall”. The six stars of TCY 7037-89-I orbit each other in three binary pairs, as in the schematic. The primaries are slightly larger and … Continue reading →

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Dragon Eye

John F. Lindner November 19, 2020 3:06 PM

“Resilience rises! Not even gravity contains humanity when we explore as one for all.” My eyes were glued to NASA-TV last weekend as I followed the flight of the SpaceX Dragon “Resilience” to the International Space Station. Ferrying a diverse … Continue reading →

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Flying Silo

John F. Lindner August 5, 2020 8:44 PM

Yesterday, SpaceX successfully flew a full-sized Starship tank-section prototype at its launch facility in Boca Chica, Texas. Standing thirty meters tall without its nosecone, weighing one to two hundred tons with methalox propellant, and made from stainless steel, Starship was … Continue reading →

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