Ryan & Amanda Keefer's Personal Site: Cycling, Family, Tech, Music, Software & Game Reviews, etc.
// May 14th, 2012 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA
Seems the monstrous building I got to briefly wander around in back in September of 2009 while at the Kennedy Space Center is getting a refurb — any of which for this sizeable building is going to be well, a sizeable undertaking.
Refurbishment on Grand Scale for Iconic Vehicle Assembly Building
// April 18th, 2012 // No Comments » // Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Space Stuff & NASA
The now retired space shuttle orbiters are heading to their exhibits. Yesterday, Washington DC received its orbiter — the Discovery. CNN did a nice piece with viewers adding media to the story.
Amanda also said one of our friends living up in D.C. got an aerial view of the oribter hitching its ride to our nation’s capital on top of the NASA modified 747. I’ll post that to Keefer Madness once I get to see it.
// March 10th, 2012 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA, Video
Nice little video showing the permanent powering down of two of the three remaining shuttles (Atlantis and Discovery) from back in December.
Later this year, they’ll be in their new display homes.
// March 9th, 2012 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA, Video
In a time when the U.S. doesn’t have a way to get humans in space and the budget to reinstate that is dwindling, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s remarks in front of the Senate are appreciated and sobering.
// March 7th, 2012 // No Comments » // Internet / Web, Space Stuff & NASA
I’m proud to have been part of that initial group of NASA’s Twitter Tweetups. I was even prouder to see the PR today that they’re expanding and broadening their social programs under a new name:
// February 20th, 2012 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA
We just passed the 50th Anniversary (wow!) of the Mercury orbital flight by astronaut John Glenn, hence why you’ve been seeing John Glenn around much these past few days. The photos in the video below give a lot of perspective on the event a half a century ago.
Astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson made a good point earlier today on Twitter. America was able to send a man into space 50 years ago, but can’t currently do that feat today.
// February 16th, 2012 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA
I get a lot of stuff space and NASA related from Spaceflight Now. Highly recommend the site for anyone interested in space.
So Monday, they announced 2013 budget requests and it looks like the Mars exploration program is getting severely scaled back, though this sounds like it’s mostly being diverted to other areas, rather than totally getting killed from NASA’s budget.
This part sounds promising:
NASA’s fiscal 2013 budget includes $1.88 billion for ongoing work to develop a new heavy-lift booster and ground systems, along with another $1 billion for continued development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle that will be used for eventual missions to deep space targets ranging from nearby asteroids in the mid 2020s to the environs of Mars in the mid 2030s.
// January 25th, 2012 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA
Even with the shuttle program retired, there’s still a lot of activity related to the remaining orbiters, now all in the process of being decommissioned for display at the Smithsonian, California Science Center and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center.
When I was lucky enough to get a little behind-the-scenes view of Kennedy Space Center and its facilities back in September, we got to get pretty close to the Endeavor orbiter parked in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Well they’re shuffling the Atlantis, Endeavor and Discovery.
Endeavor is moving from its recent temporary home in the VAB, where I guess it’s been since I saw in September 2011. It is now in the Orbiter Processing Facility bay 2 hangar, with Atlantis going to the VAB. Truth be told, all of the orbiters could fit in the massive VAB if they really had to. Atlantis is going just down the road to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center, so it’s probably going to be spending a lot of quality time in the VAB, and will probably be the last to be prepped fully for its final display space.
Is it me, or is it a little sad seeing the orbiters with bits and pieces removed? I know they’re in preparation for museum duty, and will get all polished up with display appropriate stuff, but still.
I still get a kick out of all the shuttle-related news — part of it nostalgia, and part of it waiting for the next chapter in space flight.
// January 8th, 2012 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA
Interesting, and the code they’re talking about is totally out of my knowledge base, but still a cool idea I’d like to get behind, even if it’s only via promoting in on Keefer Madness.
The article also alludes to the fact that NASA hasn’t turned to open source, albeit in a very unorganized and difficult to contribute to. Here’s to hoping it’s bett with this project.
// January 2nd, 2012 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA
It’s still weird to look at NASA’s official launch schedule page, and see no shuttle launches and a very reduced schedule from Cape Canaveral — in fact the only launches happening from Florida in the 2012-2013 timeframe are all on the Air Force base side, as the launch complex 39 facilities are still being renovated for future launches.
A couple notable launches are going to occur though from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, including Feb. 7+’s SpaceX Mission, described as, “The Falcon 9 rocket will launch the Dragon capsule to the International Space Station. Pending completion of final safety reviews, testing and verification, NASA has agreed to allow SpaceX to send its Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the Station in a single flight.”
Pretty cool. Other than that, the current launch schedule is a lot of space station crew and supply missions with the Soyuz all originating from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.
Here’s to hoping we’ll see more launches in 2014 and beyond from American soil.
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