The Soviet moon probe activities

The Chinese moon rover has prompted a few people to write about the Soviet lunar probe program. If you’re interested, then check out my article here.

Eighteen years after its start, SBIRS still not quite replaces DSP (or, the Air Force gets less by spending more)

Sad but true. According to this post on Spaceflightnow.com’s site, prime contractor Lockheed Martin and its customer, the United States Air Force (USAF), are slowly and expensively achieving a goal. That is, they are replacing older USAF Defense Support Program (DSP–and more DSP info here) satellites with Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) GEO satellites. The SBIRS GEO-2 satellite is officially operating as […]

Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 18—“Look at the stars, look how they shine for you…”

“…Yeah, they were all yellow.” So, a small confession before continuing: One of the reasons you haven’t seen any lessons for the past few weeks regarding the imagery colors is because I’ve been stuck on this color thing for a little while. I think part of dilemma is just going through, color by color, has been […]

Amateur hour with Zulu time–Part 4

This post only means to show some of the “weirdness” some government agencies go through as they run their programs. It is not meant besmirch any reputation of any agency or person. Anyone who doesn’t take any of this with the grain of salt it deserves, maybe should think seriously about yoga. But just so you […]

World Time Z–Zulu Time, that is–Part 3

Zulu time is Z-time. It’s really that simple. It means zero hours, describing the offset of time from the Greenwich Mean Time longitude line. Why Zulu and not Zero or Z? It has to do with the alphabet and clear communications. It has to do with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) needs and that […]