Ryan & Amanda Keefer's Personal Site: Cycling, Family, Tech, Music, Software & Game Reviews, etc.
// March 19th, 2012 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA, Video
Even with the shuttle being retired for over a half a year, we’re still getting cool media.
Check the video after the jump for an audio and video journey of one of the solid rocket boosters launches, gets separated from the shuttle orbiter, and then descends and parachutes into the ocean.
It’s a compilation of footage from STS-117 (Atlantis) and STS-127 (Endeavour). Very cool.
// 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.
// 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 22nd, 2012 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA
Delays are commonplace in space flight, so it shouldn’t be surprising or unexpected that the maiden SpaceX cargo flight to the international space station has been pushed back from its February launch till at least March.
This will give SpaceX-employed engineers time to complete additional hardware and software testing, as well as software analysis at the Florida Space Coast.
It makes sense to take it slow at the beginning of these vehicles, wrinkling out as many bugs pre-flight as possible.
The company has not set an official target launch date for its Dragon cargo carrier, but the long-awaited mission is not expected to fly before March 20 and it could slip to early-to-mid April depending on what it takes to shoehorn the flight into an already busy space station schedule and to book a slot with the Air Force Eastern Range, which orchestrates all East Coast launches.
// January 20th, 2012 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA
Yesterday evening from Central Florida’s Cape Canaveral, a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket lifted off, shortly after, deploying a U.S. military communications satellite to support battlefield troops and unmanned aerial drones in the Middle East.
Wish I had been there to see it launch. Oh well, I’ve always got my Delta II Heavy launch back in September.
// 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.
// December 31st, 2011 // No Comments » // Space Stuff & NASA
So the Delta II rocket launch I got to see in Florida way back in September of this year finally has its double craft payload reaching its target: the Earth’s moon.
NASA’s two Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft are closing in on their quarry, the moon. The mission plans New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day main engine burns to place the twin spacecraft in lunar orbit.
GRAIL A goes into orbit of the moon today, with the B craft going into lunar orbit tomorrow (New Year’s Day)
Copyright © 2012 Keefer Madness. All rights reserved.
