In addition to the DC-10 air tanker that’s been getting a lot of press, we also have a new NASA drone aircraft called Ikhana helping out with California wildfires by using advanced thermal-infrared imagery to give firefighters a more accurate picture of fire activity on the ground. Today’s Mercury News reports: Ikhana, NASA’s pilotless aircraft, flew over the 47,000-acre... (Read More)
Recently in Aerospace Category
A short news story on the radio this morning was covering the USS Hornet and its role in recovering the Apollo 11 and 12 space missions. The Hornet is permanently docked here in the SF Bay Area in Alameda, but I haven't yet seen it. Starting this weekend the museum is hosting Splashdown! with various celebrations all week long. The... (Read More)
The Collings Foundation is a non-profit group that has restored and maintains in flying condition several World War II aircraft. Recently their B-17 and B-24 bombers made a visit to Moffett Field here in Silicon Valley and I took a few pictures on the ground.... (Read More)
Today's San Jose Mercury had a story describing the Bay Area's contributions to aviation in conjunction with the 100 year anniversary of the Wright Brother's first flight. I was surprised to see connections to my alma matter (Santa Clara University: John J. Montgomery, a Santa Clara University professor, gets credit for the first controlled piloted flight, in a glider he... (Read More)
Today the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) released the final report on the cause of the Shuttle accident on 2003-02-01. The press release says in part: The CAIB report concludes that while NASA's present Space Shuttle is not inherently unsafe, a number of mechanical fixes are required to make the Shuttle safer in the short term. The report also concludes... (Read More)
Powers of Ten is a really cool Java app (basically a timed slide show) that shows successive images from the Milky Way down to the subatomic level. Lots of cool images on this site, including microscopic pictures of beer. Another related website I need to check out: Powers of Ten. [Via Ken Coar]... (Read More)
Today's Mercury News reports that the wind tunnels at NASA/Ames Research Center in Mountain View are closing. (Read More)
Updated 2003-12-11 with new URL for Balloon 1.0 project report. Balloon v1.0 -- "This is the story of how I designed, built, launched, and recovered a high-altitude weather balloon." This "weather" balloon project is really fascinating. I was especially interested in its ability to take pictures, reminding me of an old bookmark I've got for Kite Aerial Photography (Google search).... (Read More)
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Deep space probe says farewell -- "After more than 30 years in space heading away from Earth, Pioneer 10 has sent its last signal home." The full article is a great summary -- launched in March 1972, it's official mission ended 25 years later in March 1997, but NASA and JPL have continued to receive... (Read More)
FLORIDA TODAY: STS-107 Columbia landing journal gives regular updates during the shuttle landing, including this unsettling entry: 9:20 a.m. EST, Feb. 1, 2003: NASA has lost communication with the orbiter and has no tracking data. NASA Space Shuttle Launches gives the complete list of all shuttle missions. If I'm reading it correctly, STS-107 was the 113th shuttle mission. Columbia (OV-102)... (Read More)
