Jareed Isaacman has been nominated to be NASA Administrator. He is the person who commanded, and paid for, two private space flights including a space walk. There will be big changes in what NASA has been doing in manned flight.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, December 05, 2024 - 06:15 am: Edit

NASA is unbeaten on robots but has a disappointing track record on manned space.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Thursday, December 05, 2024 - 07:54 am: Edit

Space Force. What exactly do they do?

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Thursday, December 05, 2024 - 08:37 am: Edit

Mike: Essentially, they manage the U.S. military's spaceborne assets (i.e. satellites), and deal with potential spaceborne threats (such as the various anti-satellite technologies out there).

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Thursday, December 05, 2024 - 11:37 am: Edit

Also, SF is part of the Air Force, but I guess is considered a separate branch of the military. Somewhat like the Marine-Navy relationship?

--Mike

By Joseph Jackson (Bonneville) on Thursday, December 05, 2024 - 01:28 pm: Edit

If the asteroid Apophis comes in for a very close shave, is that now Space Force's problem?

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Thursday, December 05, 2024 - 02:53 pm: Edit

If the asteroid Apophis comes in for a very close shave, is that now Space Force's problem?

I would think by their Charter, the issue would be the United Nations problem....
Who they turn to, who knows....

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Thursday, December 05, 2024 - 02:57 pm: Edit

Space Force's MISSION, a problem for all of us.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Thursday, December 05, 2024 - 05:06 pm: Edit

Only if it hits…

(Then again, even a near miss could be catastrophic.)

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Thursday, December 05, 2024 - 06:18 pm: Edit

According to the experts, Apophis will miss us in the next go-around. What they worry about is the possibility of it going through a "Keyhole" where the three-body gravitic interaction with Earth will put it on a course where eight years later (to the day, from what I read) it might hit Earth.

Of course, as the sort of screwball idiot I am, I have to ask, "What if we put some sort of impactor in an orbit where it'll be right at the keyhole spot at the same time Apophis MIGHT go through it? Wouldn't that impact change the course of that rock so it misses us?"

(If I'm totally off on that, please let me know where I screwed up. Thanks. )

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Friday, December 06, 2024 - 10:32 am: Edit

I've asked this before, but why does Space Force seem to be all generals? 28 to be exact, with only 9400 total manning?

Do other services maintain most or all the same capabilities as them? (Navy especially)

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Friday, December 06, 2024 - 06:36 pm: Edit

Not sure all forces have moved over to Space Force yet from the other services. But that soes seem excessive.

Looks like a good place to do some cuts, as well as other Flag billets.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Saturday, January 18, 2025 - 02:33 pm: Edit

Headline posted on an on-line (supposed) "News" site claiming that a Ring Doorbell camera supposedly caught a meteorite impact as it happened.

I doubt the source (for reasons that, if I were to post, would get me fed to alligators) and was wondering if anyone heard about this from a reliable source?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, January 18, 2025 - 03:54 pm: Edit

https://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2025/jan/17/rare-footage-captures-meteorite-descending-to-earth-on-doorbell-camera-video

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, January 18, 2025 - 03:56 pm: Edit

Jeff: The Apophis Keyhole is a few miles wide so you'd be hard-pressed to put something where it would get run into. I supposed you could in theory put some kind of captor mine there that would launch a nuclear-tipped missile to intercept head on.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Saturday, January 18, 2025 - 04:25 pm: Edit

As a note: even when first proposed, the chances of a keyhole event with Apophis was low. In 2013, it was 1 in 500,000. Refined observations in the dozen years since have determined a keyhole event to be considerably less likely.

By Jack Bohn (Jackbohn) on Saturday, January 18, 2025 - 07:01 pm: Edit

Re-mention of the Apophis keyhole after a Ring doorbell meteor question, I expected some kind of joke. (I'm trying to come up with some variation of asking my brother how often he still has to get out of bed to see what the dogs are barking at.)

About a meteroid passing through cislunar space, and Kessler Syndrome: my guess is it'll be more a benefit than a hazard. Check me and tell me where I'm wrong. Apophis will be passing through at greater than orbital velocity, it should be taking most hits on the forward hemisphere. The asteroid is bigger than most satellites (even than a lot of SFB ships) and solid, so the impact of debris shouldn't tear through it, but form a crater. I don't know how much of the ejecta is atomized, and how much is still the dangerous size of a grain of sand or speck of dust, but they will mostly be moving at escape velocity. The asteroid should sweep a section of debris, although, like a unit leading another through an asteroid hex, the path will fill in shortly after.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, March 14, 2025 - 03:00 am: Edit

Red Moon Eclipse going on right now. Spectacular.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, April 19, 2025 - 09:28 am: Edit

Katy parry’s Space adventure.

Subtitle “Bimbos in Space”

Oh, what to do for an encore…

Will SVC allow the Swedish Female Beach Volley Ball team out of ADB’s exclusive contract for a historic all female weightless volley ball tournament in the international space station?

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 19, 2025 - 10:14 am: Edit

We have already agreed to that request.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Saturday, April 19, 2025 - 10:21 am: Edit

Let me guess, "Scared Ketchup" will do the advertising.

I don't have anything against Katy Perry. What did she do to rile up the mob?

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, April 19, 2025 - 12:20 pm: Edit

Created a meme, her and a number of other females stepped out of a “Blue Origins “ capsule.

It appears tohave gone viral, but I havent seen any numbers published yet.

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Saturday, April 19, 2025 - 01:05 pm: Edit

The six of them had the most expensive 11 minute roller coaster ride...
Then got out and called themselves Astronauts.....

Once on the ground they screwed up the PR video by opening the hatch... Which the director had them close it, so Bezos could open it.....

Personally, waiting for the cameras to arrive at the landing site, I would have been out and stretching....

By Roger Rardain (Sky_Captain) on Saturday, April 19, 2025 - 04:29 pm: Edit

I think the cool part of it is that space exploration has progressed to the point that you don't have to be a John Glenn or Alan Shepard to go to space.

Kind of like that you don't have to be Charles Lindberg to fly across the Atlantic.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, April 19, 2025 - 05:27 pm: Edit

No one would claim that a 747 ride from New York to London makes them an aerial pioneer.