A Pilot’s Blog
A blog about aviation, aviation news, and space.

On November 3, 1957, nearly one month after the successful launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union surprised the world again by launching the first animal into space. That animal, a small dog named Laika, paved the way for the eventuality of human spaceflight by showing that a living thing could be launched into space and survive. Unfortunately, she only survived a short while once in orbit – only a few hours, compared to the several days that the Soviet government originally reported. So today we remember and honor Laika, and all of the animals that have followed her, for their sacrifices – albeit unwittingly.

Hot on the heels of last month’s 38th anniversary of the first manned moon landing, Arizona State University is working with NASA to digitize all of the original Apollo films.

TEMPE, Ariz. – Nearly 40 years after man first walked on the Moon, the complete lunar photographic record from the Apollo project will be accessible to both researchers and the general public on the Internet. A new digital archive – created through a collaboration between Arizona State University and NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston – is making available high-resolution scans of original Apollo flight films. They are available to browse or download at: http://apollo.sese.asu.edu.

Very, very awesome if you ask me.

On this date, 38 years ago, man first set foot upon the moon.

ARMSTRONG:
I’m at the foot of the ladder. The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about 1 or 2 inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained, as you get close to it. It’s almost like a powder. Down there, it’s very fine.

ARMSTRONG:
I’m going to step off the LM now.

ARMSTRONG:
That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.

(Transcript blurb courtesy of NASA.)

I was doing some WIkipedia surfing today after seeking out information on the current Space Shuttle mission (STS-117) and I came across what will apparently be the program that succeeds the Space Shuttles when they are retired within the next decade. I wasn’t yet aware that NASA had “finalized” on the next generation systems, but it appears they may have done so. That program is called Project Constellation and it is designed to both meet our current needs for orbital research and International Space Station participation, as well as allow us to return to the Moon in the coming years. I was extremely interested to read all of the current information and plans for the future of our space travel.

There are four primary areas of this project: the crew module, launch vehicles, Earth departure stage system, and the lunar lander.

The crew module is called Orion and will function much like the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules of old. It will transport between four and six astronauts and will return to Earth via parachute, touching-down on land as opposed to the water recoveries of its predecessors.

The launch vehicles are currently referred to as Ares I and Ares V and each will serve different roles. Ares I will be the primary launch system for the Orion modules (manned missions) and utilizes solid rocket booster technology derived from the Space Shuttle SRB system. Ares V will be primarily used for launching cargo (unmanned missions) into space. This specialization of task will allow each to be much more versatile in serving the needs of the US space program. However, NASA is still considering using a single vehicle for all Constellation missions, which if chosen, would be the Ares IV.

The Earth departure stage is a specialized piece of the system which will be used to send mankind back to the moon. Instead of carrying all of the force needed to propel the capsule to the Moon in a single rocket, as in the Saturn V days, the Constellation project would instead carry out Moon landing missions in two stages. First, the module would launch from Earth using either the Ares I or Ares IV launch vehicle. Then, the Earth departure stage would be launched soon afterwards. The two would dock in orbit, and the Earth departure stage would provide the primary propulsion to get the module to escape velocity and send it to the Moon.

And finally, the lunar lander – officially called the Lunar Surface Access Module is probably my most favorite. This vehicle, which is nearly identical to the Lunar Module of the Apollo missions, will serve as the landing vehicle for the planned Moon missions. It will allow the astronauts to land on the Lunar surface, perform “moonwalks”, and then boost them back into orbit to return to the crew module and return safely to Earth. Marvelous technology.

After reading about these new systems I found myself more interested than ever in the space program. It will be several years before any of them are ready for testing and eventual use, but I can hardly wait!

I just watched the live simulcast feed of the second launch attempt for SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket. This rocket is the “world’s first privately-funded liquid fueled orbital launch vehicle”. The launch appeared to be going as normal until the first stage seemed to scrape against the second-stage bell during separation. Shortly thereafter the rocket began to experience progressively worse oscillations until the feed (and in all likely hood the entire rocket) was lost. Still, the company is calling it “a very good day”.

I think this is just completely amazing. If private companies like SpaceX begin to venture into the space payload launches, like Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic are moving into the manned space launch/tourism market, we will see some very amazing advances in technology in the not so distant future. Great job SpaceX!

You can watch a video of the launch here and view a “live-blogged” recap of today’s events here.

Tonight was the first lunar eclipse to occur in over three years. It was best viewed over Europe and Africa, however, we here in North America were still treated to a beautiful show. As soon as the moon rose at just about 6:30pm local time, I was ready and waiting with my camera. I’m not too good at taking night shots, especially of the moon, but I took several at different settings and below is the best one I got. It could have been a bit sharper, but I think it came out pretty well.

This isn’t as much related to aviation as it is to space exploration, but I thought it was just too awesome to let pass by.

NASA announced Monday it will establish an international base camp on one of the moon’s poles, permanently staffing it by 2024, four years after astronauts return to the moon.

It is a sweeping departure from the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s and represents a new phase of space exploration after space shuttles are retired in 2010.

After consulting more than 1,000 experts from 14 different countries, NASA decided on what deputy NASA chief Shana Dale called a "fundamental lunar approach" that is sharply different from its previous moon missions in nearly everything but the shape of the ship going there.

I’m extremely excited about the possibility of seeing a moon landing (and even a base!) in my lifetime. I’ve seen all the old reels of the original moon landing in 1969, but I’m sure there is something to be said for seeing it live. Go NASA!

While it’s not really aviation-related, I’ve been playing around with this software a bit today and it’s just too cool not to mention. It’s called Stellarium and is a free and open source planetarium for your computer. The graphics are absolutely amazing. You can set your location anywhere in the world and have a real-time view of the sky at that point. As time moves along, so do the stars, planets. nebulas, etc. You can even move time forwards and backwards at accelerated rates and see how the stars line up and move around. Great fun if you have some time to kill, or a passion for astronomy.