When Francis Scott Key wrote our National Anthem during a battle between the U.S. and Great Britain in 1814, he was close enough to hear and see the rockets landing. Congreve rockets were fired against Ft. McHenry in 1814 and motivated the famous “rocket’s red glare” line in our National Anthem. The Congreve rocket used […]
For a glimpse of the International Space Station, look to the west
Have you noticed the International Space Station in the western sky just after sunset? The space station has been pretty bright especially the last 12 days with the orbiter Atlantis attached to it. If you go out just after sunset, it is the brightest object in the sky, and is the width of about two […]
Testing gets us the answers we seek
Testing – I’ve been thinking about that this week. There’s a lot of it going on here in Las Cruces. It was finals week at New Mexico State University. And as I write this, lots of my friends are grading exams, reading final project papers and making critical decisions – nope not about students, but […]
Our Future in Space
On Tuesday, May 4th, the second annual New Mexico Space Grant Student Launch will be held at Spaceport America. On Thursday, May 6th, the Orion Pad Abort Test will be conducted at White Sands Missile Range. The SL4 rocket built for the student launch is a sounding rocket, technology that has been around since the […]
