Before I get into the text of my article today, I have to comment on Ned Cantwell’s article in yesterday’s paper. Richard Branson is going approximately seventy miles in a licensed sub-orbital human spaceflight vehicle, not to orbit. SpaceX is testing a research vehicle not intended for human spaceflight. Mr. Cantwell, should you want to […]
The ISS
In 1984, President Regan directed NASA to build the International Space Station (ISS). The living space on this ISS is bigger than a five bedroom home. End to end, the ISS is as long as the Aggie football stadium, including the goal posts. Top to bottom, it has more depth than the stadium. The ISS […]
CASIS – The Innovation Factory
Have you tried to buy a telephone lately? Not a cell phone or a smart phone, a telephone that operates on a land line. If you live in a rural part of New Mexico and get terrible phone reception, or live behind A Mountain and get terrible cell phone reception, and don’t want to pay […]
Getting American to orbit on US made vehicles
This column has never been political, and it still isn’t. Republicans and Democrats alike agree, the commercialization of human Spaceflight makes sense. How did this bi-partisan support within the space program occur? In the case of the Shuttle replacement project sending Americans to orbit on American made spacecraft, it started under President George Bush, and […]
SpaceX and Drive
People who run marathons, scientists who live at the South Pole in winter, and even the firefighters in the Gila, have something in common. They have an innate drive to be autonomous, self-determined and connected to each other. Volunteering to be in a closed, hostile environment for months at a time is something International Space […]
Endeavour’s last rodeo
Did you ever notice the relationship between the difficulty of getting into something and your willingness to get out? To put it another way, the more time and energy, sweat, blood and toil invested in creating a relationship, a business, or a space program, the less willingness over time there is to get out. And […]
SpaceX and Hayabusa
I am in El Paso at the Texas Medical Branch hospital. I have a hand injury from gardening and was referred to a doctor in El Paso. I went to Google Maps, got the directions and called the doctor’s office to make sure of the route. I got lost. Both sets of directions had the […]
Congratulations to SpaceX and Elon Musk!
On Wednesday, December 8th, SpaceX accomplished what no other private company ever has: launching a space capsule into orbit and recovering the capsule on its return to Earth. “This achievement creates a paradigm shift in the U.S. launch industry while delivering on Elon Musk’s promise of increased access to space for mankind,” said Patricia Hynes, ISPCS […]
