Leaking Air

NASA researchers close in on why Mars lost its atmosphere.

“Not Recommended”

Former Space Shuttle program manager Wayne Hale discusses the problems involved in aborting short of orbit the flight of any crewed spacecraft. Suffice to say, the problem is a lot more complicated than a lot of armchair astronauts think. Most scenarios involve meat waffles or crispy critters. 
Hale frequently shares spaceflight war stories at his blog, [...]

Sunrise on Mars

 

Well, kinda, given that the Phoenix lander is near one of the poles:

SpaceX Makes It

NASA Watch has the on-board video. The first-stage separation still looked rough to me but they got away with it.

The Vision Thing

NASA Administration Mike Griffin teaches a little history:
The planned Apollo 20 mission was cancelled a few weeks after the Apollo 11 landing, and Apollo 18 and 19 were cancelled some months later. With those actions, the space program as we knew it in the 1960s was over, finished, and done. NASA is often blamed for [...]

Shuttle, Extended

Congressional sentiment in the wake of the Georgia/Russia incident is forcing NASA to reconsider the idea of shutting down the Space Shuttle program after 2010. But former Shuttle program boss Wayne Hale says logistics already make that a practical impossibility. NASA managers began shutting down the supply chain for parts four years ago and there’s [...]

In Space, No One Can Hear You Sweat

Mr. X at Chair Force Engineer thinks the fallout of Russia’s Georgian adventure will create more business opportunities for SpaceX. Maybe so, but I’d rather keep the Shuttle going too. On-orbit repair and capture-and-return are capabilities we’re going to miss when they’re gone.

Bump in the Night

SpaceX’s third attempt to launch its Falcon 1 booster was brought down by the same kind of separation failure as its second. A pretty basic hurdle not met. My prior point/concern about peer review stands. There’s a little too much groupthink going on there, I think. Nonetheless, here’s hoping they have a clean flight 4.

SpaceX Whiffs Again

Having watched the webcast of SpaceX’s latest attempt to launch its Falcon 1 booster, I can say the outcome was quite a bummer. But it also wasn’t really a surprise. As fellow watcher Dale Amon noted, there was something amiss from early on. The first-stage exhaust, as seen by the onboard camera, never really settled [...]