In Orbit
A Primer, Part II
This is a continuation of my primer on achieving orbit and orbital maneuvering. The first part is here.
So, we've achieved a stable orbit around the Earth. We've burnt our propellants and guided our spacecraft to an altitude above the Earth's atmosphere and to a velocity of around 7.5 km/s or more. We're falling, but . . .
Video of CRS-5 First Stage Landing Attempt
SpaceX posted what is possibly the greatest Vine in history this morning, depicting their attempt to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket on a barge in the Atlantic ocean. Click through, and watch with the sound on.
Elon Musk explained earlier in the week that the crash was due to insufficient hydraulic fluid for controlling . . .
SpaceX CRS-5 Mission
Landing A Rocket On A Boat
Early tomorrow morning, with a planned launch time of 4:47 AM EST, SpaceX will make its second attempt to launch the CRS-5 International Space Station resupply mission, the first attempt having been aborted due to a faulty actuator in the second stage of the launch vehicle. SpaceX has launched four previous such missions successfully. . . .
Getting Into Orbit
A Primer, Part I
The Kármán line is a commonly used standard that purports to mark the boundary of space. It's easy to remember, because it's 100 kilometers (62 miles) high. It's by no means the edge of the Earth's atmosphere, which extends quite a bit further above it. In fact, there is no hard edge to the Earth's atmosphere; its top . . .
2015 In Spaceflight
Missions and development to keep an eye on in the coming year
2014 was a year of history making and foundation laying in spaceflight. The set piece, without question, was the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft Rosetta, which rendezvoused with comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in August, and months later tasked its plucky lander Philae with becoming the first human-built craft to achieve a soft landing . . .
Cover image credit: http://jleslie48.com/0206pr/saturn5allclean2.jpg
