That right there is a rocket being tested. If you work at Marshall Space Flight Center or Stennis Space Center, you may not care too much. Rocket test fires are old hat. Until you realize what is being tested.
|
||||
|
Tonight we celebrate that most sacred of holidays. Tonight little kids will be begging for candy, adults will be getting drunk while deciding which costume in the bar is the best/sexiest/funniest, and nerds will be showcasing their nerdery.
Yesterday I mentioned Little Joe had 8 launches, and 6 of those were successful. You are good with the maths, you realize that means 2 were not. Well, in the early days of rocketry, all the way into the 1950s, launching rockets was almost a crap shoot. We were learning, and that means we were making lots of mistakes. That was the reason for Little Joe and for all the testing that went on — and goes on today — for each rocket program. The more you test the more weak links you find and eventually you should have a robust rocket system. This is why today’s rockets, many of which were designed decades ago, are regarded as reliable. This is why new rocket programs, like the Falcon 9 from SpaceX, are exciting. Engineers, despite what the movies say, invite failure. Failure is a learning experience. Figuring out why something failed and fixing it is one of the few ways to make something better. Failure is an option. Hit the jump for some spectacular early rocket failures.
In the 1960s, American Airlines was looking for a jet smaller than a 747 that could still fly long distances and carry 400 passengers. They approached Lockheed, who was reeling from the loss of some military contracts. Lockheed decided to give it a go, and wound up with a tri-jet configuration that would go by the name Lockheed L-1011 “Tristar”. Only 250 were produced, meaning Lockheed took a major loss on each one. Problems with engine supplier Rolls Royce hampered production. Meanwhile, the very similar Douglas DC-10 was stealing the show…and customers.
Photos of aurorae are cool. Photos of rockets are cool. Photos of lasers are cool. This photo has all three! All that you need are some zombies and bacon and this would be legendary.  Dr. Robert H. Goddard and a liquid oxygen-gasoline rocket in the frame from which it was fired on March 16, 1926, at Auburn, Massachusetts. The Russians may have been the first to launch a satellite into orbit, but it was an American who figured out how to get it there. Robert Goddard was born 129 years ago today. While we consider him the father of modern rocketry, his contemporaries thought he was a bit of a loon. The process by which he designed and built the first liquid-fueled rocket is well documented because he was a fastidious note taker. His book A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes is the basis of modern rocketry. While the systems and components have become more high tech over the last 100 years, the basics are still the same as they were when Mr. Goddard first shot a rocket into the sky.
This is what Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center looks like today. Those of you who are spaceheads will see something missing, and three big pointy things that didn’t used to be there. Last Saturday NASA launched a Delta II rocket carrying two identical satellites. These two satellites will orbit the moon in a tandem orbit and report back what they learn about lunar gravity as well as the structure of the moon from core to crust. The name of this program is Gravity Recovery and [...] 
Or so the line from The Right Stuff goes. And it was true. We had the best of the best. We had Werner von Braun. Between von Braun and the American brain trust, we went headlong into the space race. We had to beat those Commies, dammit! Continue reading Our Germans are better than their Germans |
 |
|||
|
Copyright © 2013 Atomic Toasters - All Rights Reserved
RSS |
||||
