Winter is coming…shifty interstellar winds

The Huffington Post posted this article today. According to the expert, “it could be a harbinger of more dramatic changes in our solar system.” Probably true, if only because things happening in space tend to be dramatic to begin with. But the statement seems a little OVER dramatic–maybe he needs attention, funding or both? Our […]

50 Kilometers above the moon

So tomorrow evening NASA is hoping to get this satellite launched out of Wallops Island, Virginia. Orbital Sciences is launching the satellite payload on top of a converted Peacekeeper ICBM (InterContinental Ballistic Missile), now called a Minotaur V. According to NASA’s mission statement, they would like to have the satellite orbiting the moon in a few […]

Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 10–short bus schooling

Labor Day took its toll, but I’m back to write more (hopefully) interesting articles for you. What a space operator should know about satellite systems and space operations fills several volumes of books, folders and checklists. But, in essence, a space operator and space operations crew worries about three things: the satellite ground system, the […]

Satellites and terrorists

Okay, now that I’ve recovered from my previous aside and post of old information, here’s something that shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone paying attention. According to this article from the Washington Post, satellites of all sorts were used to help find and monitor Osama Bin Laden. Some SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) here, a little IMINT […]

Why space matters: Imaging satellite operations, part 9–cutting the cheese

Hopefully the beer was tasty and nutritious. The question I posed in my previous post to you, dear (inebriated?) reader: Why is it that moving the plane of a satellite’s orbit against the direction of the Earth’s rotation (backwards) is helpful to those operators of imagery ilk? Let me clarify some terms here before we […]