Monthly Archives: July 2009

According to the United States Federal government, the Gross Domestic Product of the United States for 2005, for instance, was a bit over twelve trillion dollars. The Federal government will spend nearly two and a half trillion, or about twenty … Continue reading →

Stephen Weinberg, a Nobel winning physicist, is reported to have stated that “the whole manned spaceflight program, which is so enormously expensive, has produced nothing of scientific value. Human beings don’t serve any useful function in space.” Although he is … Continue reading →

Forty years ago today I was in Ohio. In a bit more than a month, I was going to be going to junior high for the first time. And my dad would be leaving to go to Viet Nam for … Continue reading →

Space Shuttle Endeavour docked today with the International Space Station. For about the next two weeks, the station will be host to 13 people, a new record for the number of people on one spacecraft. MSNBC has a much speeded … Continue reading →

The images beamed live from the moon on July 20, 1969 that we saw on TV were rather poor quality because the video was incompatible with broadcast equipment of the time. So they aimed a TV camera at the monitor … Continue reading →

Here’s video of today’s Space Shuttle Endeavour launch: Send to Kindle

The Space Shuttle Endeavour took off today at 3:03 PM Pacific Time and is safely in orbit. The weather was finally good enough. There are 7 astronauts onboard the shuttle and 6 on the International Space Station. So that ties … Continue reading →

Here is the video of Falcon 1’s launch on Monday, July 13, 2009: Send to Kindle

For the second time in a row, SpaceX has successfully launched a Falcon 1 into orbit. This rocket carried a satellite from a paying customer: Malaysia. Meanwhile, the Space Shuttle Endeavour was delayed once again by weather. NASA has rescheduled … Continue reading →

SpaceX is now estimating a launch time of 7:30 PM Pacific Time for the launch of their Falcon 1 rocket. Falcon 1 is a two stage, liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene (RP-1) powered launch vehicle. It is entirely privately … Continue reading →