I’m wondering, given Airbus history, if it will turn out to be a problem with the fly-by-wire flight-control system.
Category Archives: Technology and Society
Aerospace In California
There will be a discussion, sponsored by AIAA, live streamed from Sacramento this afternoon.
I don’t expect anything to come of it.
Mozilla
Why Eric Raymond won’t mourn its demise.
I agree, but unfortunately, as Elf notes in comments, it’s still the best browser for Linux.
Graphene
A team at Cal Tech has come up with a way to mass produce it.
SpaceX In New Mexico
I had speculated after the almost-successful drone ship landings that SpaceX had abandoned plans to do flight testing at Spaceport America, but apparently that’s not the case:
The original plan was to use the site for test flights of the second F9R Development Vehicle, known as F9R Dev2, a follow on vehicle from the impressive Grasshopper and F9R Dev1 vehicles that paved the way for the propulsive landing attempts.
Those vehicles were tested at SpaceX’s McGregor test site in Texas, but were restricted by an altitude ceiling, resulting in the decision to conduct tests at Spaceport America, at much greater altitudes.
2015-03-19 23_21_49-spacex falcon 9 reusable f9r fins – Google SearchNow, based on the advances made during recent missions, it appears SpaceX is hoping to promote the role of Spaceport America, specifically to put the first recovered stage through its paces.
Those tests will be used to find hardware limits, such as how many cycles can be put on a stage, while the second successfully recovered booster would provide the role of qualification testing.
Should the recovery efforts progress, the first launch of a reused booster is likely to occur in late 2016.
Interesting. What I don’t understand is why the helium tanks are a concern for the Turkmenistansat mission, but not for CRS.
Type II Diabetes
Take an over-the-counter cough suppressant, increase your insulin production.
A New Alzheimer’s Treatment
…that restores memory function.
Faster, please.
The Military Launch Mess
Falcon 9
So the inner core of the heavy will be a different configuration than the outer ones.
Scott Walker
This is disappointing:
If Walker is the guy I hope he is (I’ve been a booster), he won’t just have to take on his enemies, he’ll have to take on his friends, too (something Cruz, Paul and even Jeb can claim to have done). Isn’t that the point of the anti-establishment movement on the right? That reform starts with reforming how we run our own affairs? Well if there’s a more obvious hive of cronyism in the GOP than the Iowa ethanol racket, I’d like to hear about it.
I get that Walker needs to win Iowa and that staffers aren’t more important than the candidate. But principles are. If Walker didn’t want a critic of the Iowa caucuses on his payroll he shouldn’t have hired one. But he did. And throwing her under the bus for this, suggests not only that he’s got some problems getting ready for prime time, it also suggests he can get rolled by the Iowa GOP establishment. What happens when he gets to Washington?
Good question. I think it really is true that the only reason the disgusting ethanol subsidy persists is because of the irrational notion that the Iowa caucuses should have an outsized influence on the nomination.
[Update later morning]
More thoughts from Stephen Kruiser.