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Moon Trees
As command module pilot for the 1971 Apollo 14 mission, Stuart Roosa was one of 24 people to travel around the Moon* in the heroic first age of lunar exploration. He was also a former U.S. Forest Service smokejumper, and he carried into lunar orbit about 500 seeds to test the effects of spaceflight on…
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Fram2 Over the Poles
Historically, astronauts have launched roughly east to exploit Earth’s spin, as the terrestrial equator moves at nearly 1000 mph with respect to its center. But last week the Fram2 SpaceX Dragon crew launched south from the Kennedy Space Center to become the first humans to orbit Earth over its poles. The all-private, all-international, rookie crew…
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Blue Ghost Eclipse
Last night’s lunar eclipse, as seen from Earth, looked like a solar eclipse, as seen from Luna. Firefly Aerospace‘s NASA-funded Blue Ghost lunar lander recently became the first commercial spacecraft to successfully land on Earth’s moon Luna. Blue Ghost’s mission is designed to last a single lunar day, about two terrestrial weeks. Last night it…
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Mach Cutoff
Two weeks ago, I watched live via Starlink as the Boom Supersonic XB-1 test aircraft broke the sound barrier in level flight, the first all-civilian aircraft to do so. This success promises the return of commercial supersonic flight, at least over ocean. This week, during the final test flight, I learned that no sonic boom…
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Outer Planet Cloud Colors
From my teens to my twenties, from junior high school to graduate school to young professor, I excitingly followed the first reconnaissance of the outer solar system by the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft. But the exploration isn’t over. For the last decade, the Hubble Space Telescope has been systematically observing the colors and dynamics of…
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There and Back Again
I awoke yesterday at dawn in a log cabin in Vermont. Fortunately, the wifi was good. Each successive test of the SpaceX Superheavy Starship has been a significant improvement over the previous one, and test five was no exception, with both the booster and the ship demonstrating soft pinpoint landings — except this time, the…
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Rey’s Theme
Yesterday, as part of the Polaris Dawn mission, SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis became the youngest person to walk in space. Today, on a space-qualified violin, she performed Rey’s Theme, composed by John Williams as the musical leitmotif for Rey, the central character in the Star Wars movie The Force Awakens. The performance audio and video…
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Skywalker
Up before dawn this morning for the Polaris Dawn space walk, the first commercial space walk and the furthest from Earth since the Apollo program over half a century ago. After stalling for so long, human space flight is again advancing. Polaris Dawn’s Commander Jared Isaacman, Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet, Mission Specialist Sarah Gillis, and…
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Where Are the Stars?
When viewing space photography, such as Apollo or International Space Station photos, people often ask, “Where are the stars?” Typically such photos properly expose the bright lunar or space station surfaces and consequently underexpose the dim background stars, rendering space as featureless black. Current ISS astronaut Matthew Dominick has been experimenting with photography, and his…
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Aero thermo dynamics
Up early this morning to watch the spectacular fourth integrated flight test of SpaceX’s Superheavy Starship, the largest rocket ever built. Each IFT has greatly improved on the previous one, and the fourth was no exception. For the first time, both the booster and the ship softly splashed down in the ocean! Especially impressive was…
Category: Space Exploration
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Nice post, John! Thanks for writing these. I always enjoy them.
David Smith’s ein stein is an awesome shape!
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Thanks, Mark! I enjoy reading your posts as well.