Tag: space

Interesting: India’s done a successful reusable spaceship test.

Always nice to see a country actually have an actual space program*.

In the early hours of Monday morning, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched its first “Re-usable Launch Vehicle,” which at full-size will be able to lift satellites into orbit.

Scientists launched the unmanned model to a peak altitude of 65 km (40 miles) before turning it around for a controlled descent into the Bay of Bengal. The total flight lasted about 13 minutes.

Continue reading Interesting: India’s done a successful reusable spaceship test.

Ted Cruz and the space progra… Geez, people, he’s a Senator from TEXAS.

OF COURSE HE’S GOING TO BE FOR THE GORAM SPACE PROGRAM.  JUST LIKE THE SENATORS FROM ALABAMA, CALIFORNIA, AND FLORIDA ARE*.

Sorry.  It amazes me that some people can’t seem to get an elementary fact like that through their heads. Although I suppose it’d be more accurate to say that they won’t let an elementary fact like that get through their heads.  Anyway, here’s Sen. Cruz on NASA:

Q. For the last three years NASA has been building the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft. Do you support the continuation of these programs?

A. SLS and Orion are critical to our medium- and long-term ability to explore space, whether it is the moon, Mars or beyond. Absolutely I support them. At the same time, I am deeply concerned about our inability to reach low Earth orbit right now. We are entirely dependent upon the Russian Soyuz system. It is unacceptable from the perspective of space interest and also from national security interests. I have repeatedly inquired of this administration about its contingency plans if the Russians shut off the Soyuz. The answers have been altogether insufficient. America should have the capacity to get to the International Space Station without the assistance of the Russians. Americans should have the capacity to launch a rescue mission to the station – should that prove necessary – without being dependent. America should have the capacity to launch our critical satellites without needing to acquire Russian RD-180s (rocket engines).

Continue reading Ted Cruz and the space progra… Geez, people, he’s a Senator from TEXAS.

Hey, just had a future shock moment!

Right out of nowhere.

Scientists are expanding the range of worlds that could orbit in habitable regions of their stars—worlds that are rocky, such as the Earth, and could have just the right temperature to host life.

Of the eight planets discovered in the latest finding discussed today, 6 January, the scientists consider two to be pretty close in range to Earth. They are called Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b, after the space observatory that discovered them.

…Oh. Right. We can see extrasolar planets with our telescopes, now.  We’re no longer wondering if other star systems have them: we’ve known that they could, for decades. And we’re routinely finding non gas giant planets all the time now. Yup.

The future creeps up on you, you know?

Via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

CPAC 2010: Rep Rob Bishop (R, UT-01).

This CPAC interview with Rep. Rob Bishop (R, UT-01) seemed relevant, given the post that I did earlier on the White House gutting 23K space-reliant jobs in a politically-unreliable Democrat’s Congressional District:

Rep. Bishop is active in space issues, and in fact went into greater detail recently about why said gutting is ill-advised. The op-ed is well worth reading, if probably not making an argument that’s unfamiliar to my likely readers…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.