A Landmark Anniversary for Space?

Oct. 3, 1942–72 years ago–an A-4 test rocket was launched from Peenemuende Army Research Center. The fourth A-4 to be tested, it was the first to successfully fly. It was also the first rocket to reach the edges of outer space (it flew about 85-90 kilometers above the Earth). If you’ve never heard of the A-4, […]

Losing Proposition: Cutting USAF Space Operations

The United States Air Force (USAF) looks to be on the verge of admitting it can’t spend the money on its own people to operate its own satellites. They are considering some piecemeal options for moving contractors into what were military positions. This SpaceNews post describes four studies the USAF will be contracting out to figure out if […]

China Sends Up Another ‘Practice’ Satellite

On Sept 28, China, unsurprisingly, launched another satellite in their weird passive/aggressive way. At least it seems passive/aggressive with China advertising it’s a practice satellite but then keeps its mission secret. On the other hand, the US does the same thing with its military and intelligence satellites as well. The newest Chinese satellite is called the […]

SpaceX: They’re Not the First Ones to Try This

It seems I hear this refrain a lot in reference to SpaceX and its rocket reusability attempts, “They’re not the first ones to try this.” It gets a little tiresome because it sounds like an informed opinion, but really isn’t. It also seems that SpaceX itself is dealing with the same kind of sentimen–but I can only […]

The Indian Mechanical Martian

The above image is a great reminder of the playful part of conducting serious missions. The latest mission to Mars in this case just arrived Tuesday and was placed into Mars’ orbit. The country responsible for the mission? India. 11 months ago, in November 2013, the Indians launched the Mangalyaan, or Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) […]