November 9, 2018: Weekly Spatial Resolutions

SpaceX nears big US govt. missions as ULA handwaves about risks of competition

It’s good to know a bit about the history that set up Lockheed and Boeing to create ULA. The sneaky and underhanded shenanigans of Boeing particularly helps readers savor the irony of statements made by the COO. This also goes against some of the other talk I’ve heard from the company where it isn’t necessarily worried about its place in the launch business.

RetroBlasting: Buck Rogers In The 25th Century

I remember watching this as a kid. If I remember right, there was actually a movie, in real theaters, with the same cast. That doesn’t mean “Buck Rogers In The 25th Century” was better there, but at least there was popcorn. For a kid under 10, the special effects were amazing, with the plot getting in the way.

Ground segment getting more attention in military space programs, U.S. leaders say

Any space operator could have told the folks in charge of procurement that the ground systems in the USAF needed more attention decades ago. In fact, a few space operators did tell folks in charge just that. But ground systems, the bit of a space system that sends and receives messages from satellites, sometimes networked, aren’t the “sexy” part.

They are, however, the most expensive part. Reading how expensive is just a GAO report away. This kind of “attention” has come and gone before. Just how long until the attention is drawn away to something else is probably a matter of months.

Childhood Encounter Leads to Multimillion-Dollar Space Waste Removal Venture

It’s a nice story about a boy growing up with NASA to inspire him. Now his inspiration is leading him to ideas for cleaning up orbital debris around the Earth. We will see just how well Astroscales’ ideas will work.

Work picks up in South Texas for SpaceX launch projects

Just a bit more about SpaceX’s current and potential activities near Brownsville, Texas. It seems to be the most excitement in that town since the WalMart opened its doors there years ago.

Air Force Space Command prepares to take over procurement of satellite communications

In the spirit of Jeremy Clarkson’s questions, “What’s the worst that could happen?” and “How hard could it be?”

People just can’t help moving the deck chairs around one last time.
<h4>Blue Sky Science: How do rockets get past our atmosphere?

Seems like a decent enough description for how rockets get through the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s short enough to read in chunks.

Teams in Space: It Isn’t Just Rocket Science

Imagine being in a place where you can’t get away from people. A place that you can’t talk with the people you love with just an accidental butt-dial. Exploring the universe in a spacecraft might be more challenging for people than we think.

At the same time, we have already worked with these challenges for a long time and not that far in our past. Ships at one time took months to cross our oceans. Small teams slowly making their way across the lonely plains of the mid West slightly over a hundred years ago. Maybe some of these problems will have a sort of self-selection process, where a certain personality tends to take on these exploration missions.