Archives for the 'rockets' Category
Fajr-3 Rockets
Published on 17 Jul 2006 at 4:18 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under rockets.
A number of years ago, I gave a public lecture on the Leonid meteor shower, and I entitled the talk “The Sky is Falling!â€Â It had crossed my mind to title this post the same, but even my rather warped sense of humor finds little humorous in the current situation in the Middle East. I’ve […]
40 years ago: Saturn I-B
Published on 5 Jul 2006 at 4:48 pm.
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Filed under NASA, rockets, space exploration.
40 years ago, today, July 5, 1966, was the launch of the second Saturn 1-B rocket from Cape Canaveral. The Saturn 1-B was part of the Saturn family of rockets, the first US launch vehicles designed from the drawing board upwards as rocket boosters, not missiles. That is not to say that some missile technology […]
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Delta Rockets
Published on 15 Jun 2006 at 4:54 pm.
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The first rockets used to launch satellites into space were basically ballistic missiles converted for the job. These rockets were essentially the same as their military cousins. Even the first rockets used to lift men into space were converted ballistic missiles. However, even in the earliest days of spaceflight, there was a recognized need for […]
Atlas Rockets
Published on 21 Apr 2006 at 6:49 pm.
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The Atlas family or rockets has a long and proud heritage.  The Atlas V is a heavy lift booster, and it is often used to launch some of the bigger space probes. There are some interesting peculilarities in the Atlas rockets, so I thought that I might say a few things about them.
The Atlas was […]
The HyShot Scramjet
Published on 27 Mar 2006 at 2:25 pm.
11 Comments.
Filed under aeronautics, rockets.
The Australians are doing some good work with scramjets. They recently had a successful test of the HyShot scramjet, being developed by the University of Queensland. This is in marked contrast to NASA, whose X-43A scramjet was doomed by budget considerations.
Now, for those of you who are not familiar with the terminology, let me explain. […]
80 Years Ago
Published on 16 Mar 2006 at 7:09 pm.
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Filed under astronomers, rockets.
March 16, 1926, Robert Goddard launched the first liquid fueled rocket. It didn’t really go very far, just a few feet, but it proved that liquid fuels could be used to propel rockets. Up to that time, only solid fuel rockets had been constructed. His next rocket went a bit farther, ending up in the […]
Orion (the spacecraft, not the constellation)
Published on 28 Nov 2005 at 7:57 pm.
1 Comment.
Filed under books, rockets, space exploration.
I have been reading a very interesting Dyson’s Project Orion Book lately. That is, the book is a bit dry, but the material is really fascinating. The author, George Dyson, is the son of Freeman Dyson (whom I mentioned in a previous post), an astrophysicist who worked on the project.
Now, for those who don’t know […]
