1980: Mt. Saint Helens from Space

I was only 10 years old when Mt. Saint Helens erupted in 1980. I remember the newspapers with pictures of the volcano spewing ash and smoke. I remember seeing pictures of cars in Spokane covered in the ash from that angry mountain. I remember the little cylinders of ash enterprising business-people sold to people who […]

The Slowness of Being Government and Its Space Technology

From a Softpedia news post, a writer conjectures mainly about the United States Air Force’s (USAF) X-37B space drone and what it might mean to space warfare. It’s a decent, thought-provoking article, so you may wish to read it. But there’s an assumption made within the article: the government has the best, most sophisticated space toys. […]

Why Space Matters: GEO Satellite operations, Part 1–Going GEO

One of these things is just like the other… In an earlier post regarding the United States Air Force replacement of their Defense Support Program satellites with Space Based Infrared ones, there was a question posed to you: What do both the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) and Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites have in common, […]

NOAA’s low hanging problem–Part 8

Let’s talk about reality and inertia in a government organization, then. Those two words are why the Independent Review Team’s (IRT’s) satellite “gap-filler” recommendation in its 2013 assessment will turn out to be a lot more taxpayer money spent with miniscule return. The reality is the IRT’s recommendation is to and for the National Oceanographic […]

NOAA’s low hanging problem–Part 7

The last post, part 6, went into detail about the problems the Independent Review Team (IRT) brought forward to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) regarding its satellite programs. These were the problems the IRT found and documented in their 2012 assessment report: Oversight and decision process, governance, JPSS Gap, programs, and budget. The […]