Upcoming events

June 13 - Shuttle Endeavor awaits its launch for mission STS-127 to the International Space Station. Launch is expected to occur at about 5:17 Mountain Daylight Time. The seven-member crew will help build the Japanese Kibo module complex. Five spacewalks are planned, and they should be as difficult or challenging as the Hubble mission walks were.  This is the last one of three Kibo assembly missions. Since there are already six crew on the station now, this will give us the unusual experience of watching 13 astronauts working together in space for the first time. Man, that station is going to seem crowded!

June 19 - Spaceport America will have its groundbreaking ceremony. Located 45 miles north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, the spaceport will be the home of tourist flights into sub-orbit by Virgin Galactic. Construction of the facilities will include expansive tourist viewing areas to watch the launch of the carrier aircraft cradling their space tourist rockets. First flights are expected to begin December 2010.

New Years Day 2009 Update

I've been a bad, bad, blogger. Got too busy and didn't keep up with the Space Rubble blog. 

Oh well, moving on.

First, what I missed from the rest of December 50 YA that was significant:

1) 10th- National Airlines starts first domestic airlines service from New York to Miami. (Big one, this!)

2) 13th- Brave little squirrel monkey named Gordo was lost after a ride in the nosecone of a Jupiter ballistic missile. The capsule was not recovered from the sea. Actually Gordo was probably terrified unless they drugged him.  Unfortunately it brings back a tragic memory of my 5th graders launching a model rocket with a cricket in the payload section, only the ejection charge blew the payload section apart (not enough glue, apparently) and the cricket was not recovered.  : (

3) 16th- Successful test shots of the Thor ballistic missile.

4) 17th- IMPORTANT DATE: NASA announces that Project Mercury will be the name of the man-in-space program. Wahoo!

5) 18th- A communication satellite prototype, PROJECT SCORE, was blasted into orbit by by a test Atlas missile. This would be a forerunner of future communication satellites, which will change the world of communications forever.

6) 19th- Using the PROJECT SCORE satellite, President Eisenhower's voice was beamed from the satellite delivering a Christmas message . First voice beamed in from space! Wahoo!

7) 20th- Cape Canaveral sees a Titan missile test explode on the pad. Ouch!

8) 1958 was the first year that Transatlantic passengers by AIR outnumbered passengers by SHIP. Very significant change in travel history.

There were other events as well, but I thought these were the more interesting ones.

Now for the resolutions:

In 2009 I intend to....

1) Increase the frequency of 50 YA postings

2) Cover significant events in current NASA endeavors

3) Report on my own pathetic efforts  as a space enthusiast

I especially intend to open a new front in reporting on the war.

Oh, Not THAT war. I mean the one that most people ignore on a daily basis. That's right, the constant, never-ending struggle for mankind to free itself from the unrelenting assault from outer space. The war to defend ourselves from the constant barrage of projectiles which threaten to wipe humans (and other species) from the face of the Earth. In this great crusade we must not fail, or we will end up like the dinosaurs and others who only remain as fossilized witnesses to the longest war in history.

Um, more on this later.