Category Archives: Technology and Society

“The Road To The Stars Is Now Open”

That was Korolev’s quote from sixty-five years ago, when Sputnik launched.

[Afternoon update]

It’s also the eighteenth anniversary of the flight that won the X-Prize. I missed this at the time, but I’m greatly saddened to learn that my friend (and office mate at Rotary Rocket in the 90s), Brian Binnie, died a couple weeks ago.

I hadn’t realized that he finally published his book. I read and offered to publish a draft of it years ago, but at that time, he wasn’t able to publish it due to constraints from Northrop Grumman. I wonder what changed?

The Transition Continues

A reboost/upgrade of Hubble with a private mission.

We’ll be seeing a lot of innovation to replace the capabilities that were lost with the Shuttle, and probably more willingness to accept risk.

What I haven’t heard is how they propose to do the EVA from Dragon. They don’t have an airlock, so presumably they’d have to blow down the cabin, and then repressurize when they come back in. Did SpaceX cold plate the avionics so it doesn’t need cabin atmosphere for cooling?