Archives for the 'rockets' Category
Standard Missile-3
Published on 27 Feb 2008 at 6:33 pm.
3 Comments.
Filed under rockets.
Last Wednesday night, while a lot of us were watching the lunar eclipse, the guided missile cruiser USS Lake Erie (CG-70) fired a missile to shoot down the defunct USA-193 satellite. The missile’s kinetic warhead struck the satellite at an altitude of 133 nautical miles, shattering the satellite. A cloud of expanding gas from the […]
Hydrazine
Published on 16 Feb 2008 at 12:34 am.
27 Comments.
Filed under rockets.
Hydrazine, N2H4, is a commonly used rocket propellant. The hydrazine molecule is basically what you get when you couple two ammonia molecules, by removing a hydrogen from each one. It is a reactive substance, and quite toxic. Hydrazine is a colorless liquid at room temperature. Its melting point is about 1° C, […]
Shooting down USA-193
Published on 15 Feb 2008 at 2:05 pm.
19 Comments.
Filed under politics, rockets.
Yesterday, the Pentagon announced that the US Navy would attempt to shoot down a US reconnaissance satellite that is out of control and spiraling back to Earth to an uncontrolled reentry into the atmosphere. The missile used to do the job is to be a modified Standard Missile 3, developed for use with […]
Delta rocket explosion
Published on 16 Nov 2007 at 7:30 pm.
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Filed under rockets, video.
This is a video that I found on YouTube about a Delta rocket exploding on launch.
In the early days of rocketry, the rockets tended to explode a lot. It happens less often today than it did in the early days, but it does still occur. That is why they launch these things from […]
Pegasus Rockets
Published on 12 Apr 2007 at 12:57 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under rockets.
In a couple of weeks, NASA plans to launch a satellite to study the highest altitude clouds of Earth. This launch will be on a Pegasus rocket. The Pegasus, produced by Orbital Sciences Corporation, was the first privately produced commercial launch vehicle for putting payloads into low Earth orbit. With the first […]
So, why Florida?
Published on 11 Mar 2007 at 9:44 pm.
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Filed under NASA, rockets.
Yesterday, I posted about the Soyuz launch site being built in French Guiana. So, if launching from near the equator is so preferable, why does the United States launch mostly from Florida? All manned missions have launched from Cape Canaveral, and so have most unmanned missions.
There are several reasons that the first space […]
Russians in South America
Published on 10 Mar 2007 at 12:17 pm.
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Filed under rockets.
A while back, I read a news story about the Russian Federal Space Agency’s plans to build a launch site in French Guiana at the Centre Spatial Guyanais (Guiana Space Center). Construction has now started. I grew up during the Cold War, and back in those days even a hint of the […]
