Shortly after the launch of the Apollo 12 mission, lightning struck the Apollo Saturn V rocket causing major electrical malfunctions and panic amongst the astronauts and engineers, jeopardizing the mission. Fortunately, a steely eyed missile man named John Aaron was able to call out the famous SCE to AUX command allowing the on board astronauts [...]
How does high tide & low tide work? Why are there so many shipwrecks in the Outer Banks? How does the sand not just wash away? Check out my visit to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and hear from some experts on why this area is so unique and also treacherous for ships in [...]
NASA is still on a big Moon 2024 push and they want to get astronauts on the surface of the Moon. On April 30, 2020 they announced three big lunar lander contracts for their upcoming Moon 2024 crewed missions. See details about the contracts here!
Since 2012, Elon Musk's company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. otherwise known as SpaceX, has been providing cargo delivery services for NASA as part of their Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contracts to the International Space Station after the end of the Space Shuttle era. However, the bar has been raised and SpaceX is now contracted to fly similar missions with critical pressurized & unpressurized cargo to NASA's planned lunar orbiting space station called Gateway under their new Gateway Logistics Services (GLS) contract.
The big headline for the past couple of weeks has been the SpaceX Starhopper, because it finally completed it's big hop! If you're just coming up to speed, the Starhopper is the first step in the development of SpaceX's much larger Starship and Super Heavy rockets. You may have previously heard this referred to as the BFR or the Big Falcon Rocket. Prior to the most recent flight, the FAA had granted SpaceX the ability to complete unlimited flights tests to an altitude up to 25m and they have utilized that flight permit to perform 3 flight tests so far. Two of them were pretty small, just a couple of centimeters off the ground and one was a little bit larger at 59 ft or 18m. For the past couple of weeks, we've been waiting for SpaceX to complete the much larger 200m test, although the waiting dragged on while SpaceX and the FAA tried to come to an agreement on what the safety parameters would be so that the FAA could issue SpaceX a safety approval.
