The Air Force today has launched the X-37B into orbit on a classified mission. The reusable mini unmanned shuttle can stay in orbit for 270 days. This could be a new chapter in space or a handing off of low Earth obit to the military only time will tell.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/x-37b-robot-space-plane-blastoff-10...
In a report (available here, the USAF's 45th Space Wing states that if an Orion mission had to be aborted within the first minute of flight, there is a '100% FRATRICIDE by SECONDARY RADIATIVE WILTING of NYLON CHUTES The capsule will not survive an abort between MET's of ~30 and 60 seconds - as the capsule is engulfed until water-impact by solid propellant fragments radiating heat from 4,000F toward the nylon parachute material (with a melt-temperature of ~400F)."
Read more!Remember when the Challenger blew up ‘cuz of those damn SRBs? (I was there. I saw it w/ my own eyes) The SRBs were a budgetary compromise, this is the way the shuttle was originally supposed to look and be launched, using considerably more existing (in 1975) technology than the actual shuttle ever used. http://www.starshipmodeler.info/contest5/5_scr_21.htm
Read more!I only sort-of saw this, really…I say “Sort of” because…The Republikid and went to the local IMAX theater and it turned out they were showing a 45 minute cut of a 90 minute movie. That actually worked out to our advantage, though, as both of us thought the movie was pretty bad and 90 minutes would have been more than we could stand.
Read more!Here at Republibot our mandate is to ask questions that no one else is asking; ideally the painfully obvious ones that no one even *thinks* to ask. To that end, I have to think it’s well beyond time to question what the appropriate focus of our manned space program should be: Mars, or Venus? The common wisdom, of course, is “Mars! What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you even ask such a thing?” But of course the Common Wisdom is Common simply because no one ever questions it, not because it’s inherently right. We’ll discuss the Pros and Cons for each planet under the jump.
Read more!| neorandomizer New day 23 hours ago |
| neorandomizer wife seems to have took a step forward today but a half of a step back so her condition is about the same. It's damn hot here! 1 day ago |
| neorandomizer Already 95 deg in Vegas and it's not 10 yet. Off I go to see wife hope she has some improvement. 1 day ago |
| Republibot 3.0 I'm really sorry to hear that. She's in our prayers. 2 days ago |
| neorandomizer @Republibot 3.0 The wife is still in icu and seems to be just treading water. 2 days ago |
| Republibot 3.0 Yeah? What's up? 3 days ago |
| neorandomizer All things being equal I can go for a cosmic reboot. 3 days ago |
| Republibot 3.0 but he has no other genre credits." It seemed like a cool idea to me. 4 days ago |
| Republibot 3.0 If we were interviewing James "Scotty" Doohan, we'd say say "He played on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Space Academy, 4 days ago |
| Republibot 3.0 The concept was, "Hey, let's pretend Trek didn't exist, and just cover the rest of the genre." 4 days ago |
| jkirton2 Gonna take a few minutes to look around. 5 days ago |
| jkirton2 @Republibot 2.0 Will do 5 days ago |
| Republibot 3.0 » Jake Was Here "Jake Was Here" has been a member of our little blog family for exactly one year and three hours. THREE HOURS! 5 days ago |
| Republibot 2.0 @jkirton2 Welcome, John--- make yourself at home! 5 days ago |
| jkirton2 Reading Republibot for the FIRST time online! Yeah, go figure! 5 days ago |
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