Broken American Space Policy exclamation point…

I wrote a longer than anticipated series about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA–and darn it, I just noticed it’s Oceanic and not Oceanographic) problems in getting just one satellite up into space. The NOAA’s problems are so bad, they had to have an Independent Review Team get into their business, note the problems, […]

Soviet AntiSatellite History

Popular Mechanics has a great post, The Hidden History of the Soviet Satellite-Killer, of the history of Soviet/Russian antisatellite (ASAT) systems. Did you know the first successful satellite interception test probably happened a little over 45 years ago? And the Soviets were the ones to do it? It’s a worthwhile read, if you’re interested. For the rest […]

Space cloud mystery answered

Remember that picture an International Space Station astronaut shot of a mysterious cloud in space I posted about on 11 Oct.? There was a bit of guessing on what exactly that was, but it turns out all guesses were correct, for the most part. A mobile Russian intercontinental ballistic missile, the Topol/SS-25, caused the cloud […]

Missile cloud in space

It must be interesting to be an International Space Station astronaut for all sorts of reasons, but one of the more intriguing ones, I’m sure, is being able to see all the activities going on below. So this article on Universe Today’s site points out a very rare photo-op one of the astronauts took advantage of yesterday. […]