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Space Base in New Zealand Picked to Start Private Trips to Orbit

I find it interesting that this idea – small launch vehicles for small payloads to LEO – has kept coming up over the past fifteen years but hasn’t yet worked out. This was the idea behind DARPA’s FALCON(US) and SpaceX’s Falcon 1 back […]

Surprisingly, He Wasn’t Using ProE/Creo

I don’t agree with using a firearm in this manner. I’m not saying I don’t fully understand it, mind you, but that there are safer ways to take out your frustrations on electronic equipment. “Fed Up” Colorado Man, 38, Busted For Killing His Computer In Cold Blood.

Almost

But not quite. Falcon landing

Worlds better than the first try, though. It’s like watching the landing from the last DC-X flight – everything’s going great until a leg goes bad and the thing tips over.

It’s a pity (for entertainment value) that the video cuts off just as the stage explodes.

Apollo 16 Rover Footage Revisited

Heh, I tried this with some of the dashcam timelapse video from my Iceland trip (using the Deshake plugin for VirtualDub), with similar it’s-gonna-make-me-chunder-but-it-so-cool-I-can’t-look-away results:

Remastered, Stabilised Apollo 16 Footage Of The Lunar Rover Looks Just Beautiful.

Would have been easier on the stomach if they’d cropped to a full frame instead of using floating […]

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

A good review, like any piece of journalism, derives its value from its objectivity. A good review should not be the ravings of a fan; it should take a sober, impartial approach to the material being reviewed, and strive to strike a balance between even-handedness and aggressive critique.

In that spirit, then, I cannot in […]

J-2X Engine Test at Stennis Space Center

Grab your marshmallows and check out the impressive flames coming out of this J-2X engine.

On Tuesday, NASA released new high-definition video of a June 26 nighttime J-2X engine test at Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi. During the five and a half minute firing, the J-2X gimbaled, pivoting in multiple directions like it […]

“The Stolen Election”

Let me state up-front that I am NOT claiming that any of this is true, so don’t anyone accuse me of being a crackpot conspiracy theorist here. This is simply a thought experiment/thriller plot that I found entertaining to think through.

On the way home from the victory party funeral last night, it struck […]

Killer Weeds, Pt. 2

I finished The Day of the Triffids on the flight to Krakow on Sunday, and I have to say that Wyndham managed to keep up the quality right until the end. The twist involving Josella should have been pretty obvious, in hindsight, but surprised me anyway given Bill’s fixation with finding the group from the […]

The Black Hole

Scrape off the cheese, and this was actually a pretty cool movie in terms of premise, plot, and the design of the Cygnus. I had forgotten there was talk of remaking it — I generally despise remakes as creative laziness, but like Battlestar Galactica here is a story just aching to be retold with modern […]

James P. Hogan

Not only did I not know until just now that he passed away a year and a half ago, I also didn’t know he went a little wacky in his later years.

What a pity. I was pretty fond of his earlier stuff – the Giants series was one of my favorites as a kid […]

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