Spaceflight History and Commentary
It has been well over a year since I last posted here, but I haven’t been idle during that time and now I can finally discuss what I’ve been doing. I’ve spent the last eighteen months or so researching and writing my first book. Beyond Blue Skies: The Rocket Plane Programs That Led to the Space […]
Recently I wrote about the various plans to send Gemini on Circumlunar or Lunar Orbital missions. These studies spanned a period from the very genesis of Gemini as Mercury Mark II in 1961 through into the operational phase of NASA’s earth orbital Gemini missions in 1966. During the research for that article, I gathered a great […]
Project Gemini is rightly regarded as the programme that allowed NASA to catch and surpass the Soviet space spectaculars of the early sixties. The highly manoeuvrable 2 person spacecraft allowed astronauts to perform rendezvous, docking and long duration missions as well as providing a platform to test solutions to what became the difficult task of […]
2018 started on a sad note for space enthusiasts with the passing of John Young. Less than a week into the new year, news started to filter through that the veteran astronaut had left us for good – aviation records, 2 Gemini flights, 2 Apollo flights to the Moon, the ninth man to walk on […]
It’s been a funny old year in High Frontier HQ and you may have noticed a change in emphasis from writing articles to promoting space themed t-shirts. I thought it was time for an explanation. I’ve been writing this blog for about 3 years now and in that time I’ve tried to use it as an […]
On August 22nd 1963 high above Smith Ranch Dry Lake in Nevada, NASA pilot Joe Walker dropped away from the NB-52 carrier aircraft in X-15 number 3. In the seconds that followed he successfully ignited the research plane’s powerful XLR-99 rocket engine and pulled back on the side-stick, aiming for the darker skies above. Three […]
With the exception of the Space Shuttle, the high altitude flights of the X-15 and SpaceshipOne, all other human spaceflights have used capsules for reentry followed by descent under parachute. The capsule approach was originally adopted as the quickest way to get humans into space, but even during the 1950s other approaches were being considered […]
SpaceX’s next Falcon 9 launch, possibly as early as March 29th, will mark a major milestone for the company. Carrying the Luxembourg owned SES-10 communications satellite, it will be the first to reuse – and hopefully recover for a second time – a previously flown Falcon 9 core. Since the first successful Falcon 9 landing […]
In a break from my usual posts I offer some thoughts on the launch event for Sentinel-2B held at the European Space Agency’s operations centre (ESOC) on the 6-7th March. All opinions expressed here are my own and I fully appreciate they may not shared by all readers (disclaimer over!) As I write this, i’m […]
Few sights could be more synonymous with the space age optimism of the 1960s than the mighty Saturn V. Built to take Americans to the Moon at the culmination of a politically fuelled space race, it also represented the ultimate expression of von Braun’s long held desire to use rocketry to reach other worlds. But […]