CoolPix - NASA: Stunning View Of Shuttle Discovery (STS-120)

(click pic for hi-res)

 With the launch attempts for the final flight of Space Shuttle Discovery pushed back for a few more weeks, I figured this would be a good time to start fetching up some great NASA photos from the past in the Shuttle program. This awesome picture is really unique in that all of the background is either bright blue ocean or stark white clouds.... not your normal darkness-of-space type of background. It's also a little more unusual to have such a nose view of the orbiter. 

 The pic is from STS-120 back in 2007. It was taken as the orbiter was approaching the International Space Station for docking. I found this to be a stunning view, and I'm guessing you do too. Be sure to click the pic to view it nice and big.

 Currently, NASA has stated that the launch of STS-133, the final flight for Discovery, will take place no earlier than December 17. Unless the launch is significantly delayed, the 12 day mission will have the crew in space for Christmas, which would have to be extremely cool. What powerful thoughts must run thru the mind when looking at earth from space over Christmas time!

 Get loads more interesting Shuttle info at nasa.gov/shuttle, and if you're on twitter, be sure to follow Mission Specialist Nicole Stott (@astro_nicole) for updates during the mission. Godspeed Discovery!

Video: STS-131 Shuttle Workflow 'Time-Lapse' + Launch - Maxawesity!

 Awesome time-lapse video of the workflow leading up to the next-to-last Shuttle launch, STS-131. There's a nice write up about the video over at AirSpaceMag.com. It all definitely achieves full blown maxawesity!

CoolPix - NASA: A Green SST Concept... In More Ways Than One

(click pic for hi-res)                                                       photo: NASA/Lockheed Martin

 This CoolPix in the NASA category is really a recently released rendering of a new concept for a 'green' Super Sonic Transport by Lockheed Martin in conjunction with NASA. Note the Skunk Works logo above the outboard engine. The design was presented in April 2010 to the NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate for its NASA Research Announcement - funded studies into advanced aircraft that could enter service in the 2030-2035 timeframe. One of the primary objectives of the design is to achieve supersonic cruise speeds while dramatically reducing the sonic boom when flying over terrain. Boeing's Sonic Cruiser was a concept meant to cruise just under the speed of sound, but this needly green machine appears to have cruise speeds well in excess of Mach 1 in mind. Certainly a design that could acceptably cruise supersonic over land would be quite an accomplishment. 

 I wasn't able to find much detailed info about the concept, but it seems they're also interested in minimizing the environmental impact as well. I think it's always a good idea to strive for maximum efficiency with minimal impact on the environment, but I lean that way because that's usually where the best overall experience is found for everyone. I admit that I'm not overly concerned for the impact on the planet at large, mostly because I believe it has shown itself to be more than robust enough to deal with anything we can throw at it. I realize you might disagree.

 Regardless, there's another 'green' issue here. Money. It would take some pretty big buckets of money to engineer this into a fully successful transport. As much as I enjoy dreaming of wild flying machines for the future, I honestly have to wonder if the money it would take would really be worth it.  Again, my point of view here is probably a little different than most folks. I think we desperately need transport aircraft that bring classic comfort and fabulous I-can't-wait-to-fly-again experiences to everyone. That doesn't necessarily have anything to do with going fast. We should be able to engineer the poor passenger experience out of the airplane, but for whatever reason, we haven't. Sure, we've got some incredible luxury experiences available in the sky these days, but ultimately, there shouldn't be a single bad seat on any airliner. I'm hopeful that the 787 will actually be at the leading edge of this kind of thinking... and we should have a good idea of where it stands on 'passenger experience' before long.

 So, please be sure to click the pic and check out this needle-nose SST up close. But if you're an aeronautical engineer and schooling up on great aircraft designs for the future, could you please consider finding ways to make airliners profitable while also offering lots of leg and elbow room for everyone? Me and about 2 billion other cheap seat passengers per year would like to thank you in advance for your help : )

Video: Soyuz TMA-17 Terra Firma Dustdown!

 This short video is pretty interesting to watch as the Soyuz TMA-17 mission returned to Earth on June 2nd 2010.  Onboard was Russian Cosmonaut and mission commander Oleg Kotov, along with NASA Astronaut and flight engineer Timothy Creamer and Japanese JAXA Astronaut and flight engineer Soichi Noguchi.  They were returning from over 5 months at the International Space Station.

 What I really like about the video is you can clearly see the retro blast that takes place just before the capsule impacts the ground.  A little research indicated that this blast decreases the rate of descent significantly before the actual earth impact brings the journey to a full and complete stop.  This breaks the overall impact into two separate jolts that are much easier on the body.

 I can't help but wonder how hard the impact is tho if the retro fails to fire... looks like I need to do a liitle more research : )

Video: Perfect Final Landing For Atlantis (2 STS Launches Left)

 This video is long at 11:31.  Excellent approach viewing begins at 6:10, and the 'you-can't-do-better-than-this' touchdown occurs at 8:55. 

 The first landing of the last 3 remaining scheduled Space Shuttles flights took place this morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.  The STS-132 crew completed their 12 day mission in space with an absolutely perfect landing, bringing the flight career of Shuttle Atlantis to an end.

 One flight each remain for Shuttles Discovery (September 2010) and Endeavour (November 2010)... Godspeed.

Video: Hypersonic X-51A Waverider - Make Go Fast!

 A pretty big deal of a test flight is scheduled to take place in just a couple days, on Tuesday May 25, 2010, as the Boeing X-51A Waverider unmanned hypersonic test aircraft will be dropped from a B-52 at 50,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean to hopefully show true viability for air breathing scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) power.  On the flight, the X-51A will initially be powered by a solid rocket booster up to about Mach 4.5 when the scramjet will be lit and accelerate the vehicle up to around Mach 6. The video above does a great job of explaining the program details.

 The short video below shows a nice animation of how the drop from the B-52 and the flight itself might look.  It's all pretty interesting stuff, and the results will likely give either the pro-scramjet or anti-scramjet folks some ammunition in their relatively long and hotly contested debate.  It should be a pretty exciting show either way!

CoolPix - NASA: Shuttle Endeavour Riding 747 SCA (2008)

(click pic for hi-res)

 With Shuttle Atlantis currently in space, and just two launches left in the program (scheduled for the fall), it seems like it's a good time to begin to look back... so you can expect lots of CoolPix and videos of NASA's Space Transportation System.  This pic comes from myitforum.com and shows a very awesome view of Shuttle Endeavour riding on top of a 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft as it made a pass over Johnson Space center in Houston back in December 2008.

 It's pretty amazing that the picture is aligned about as close as you could ever imagine getting to straight down the centerline of both aircraft!  It's also a very unique view from behind, definitely the kind of pic you could look at for a long time - enjoy!

Video: 500fps Footage Of Apollo 11 Launch - Burn Baby Burn!

An awesome, amazing, incredible and fantastic must see : )

 SpaceCraftFilms.com

CoolPix - Misc: Scaled Composites Proteus 2Fer

(click pic for hi-res)

 (click pic for hi-res)

 The Rutan designed and Scaled Composites built Proteus is hard to categorize in the world of CoolPix, so it’s the first airplane to be put into the ‘Misc’ slot.  And, this is a special posting with 2 hi-res pix, plus one extra detail pic… all for the same low price : )

 It would be easy to think those two top pix are almost identical, and they pretty much are from a perspective standpoint, but the airplane is showing some significant operational differences here.  First let me say, before today, I really didn’t know much more about Proteus than: it’s very unusual looking and I’ve always liked the way it looks.  I really didn’t know that it was designed to operate at such high altitudes, as in 60,000+.  That’s a lot more relevant to me now that I’ve watched the awesome James May video of his U-2 ride, and the podcast interview I did recently with U-2 pilot Col. Lars Hoffman.

 Proteus first flew in 1998, and had been originally designed to be a high altitude platform for carrying a large telecommunications antennae.  In addition to the high altitude capabilities, Proteus is able to remain operational for 14 to 18 hours at a time.  This would have made it very well suited to the airborne antennae idea, however, that venture was cancelled at some point after initial tests had been conducted.  This freed the airplane up to be used in all kinds of interesting ways.

 The top pic shows the airplane in 2002 with a pod mounted on the center pylon that was used in the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program.  The program used Proteus and other aircraft to study the clouds from high altitudes, and also explored the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for this work.  Proteus also has the ability to be flown in an unmanned configuration (I sure didn’t know that!), tho it’s unclear to me if it was used that way on this particular program.

 The second pic shows the airplane in 2003 with nothing mounted on the pylon, but attached to the nose is a special radar that was used to test the ability of UAVs to be operated in congested airspace by using an active, detect/see/avoid system.  The airplane was remotely flown (tho a crew was on board to handle takeoff and landing) and other aircraft, without identifying transponders, were flown toward the airplane to test the system’s ability to provide the data needed to avoid a collision.

 The pic below shows the radar installation up close which gives a good look at a humorous side of the project… part of the radar system looks like a tongue, so it’s painted red!  Even better, there’s a closed eye with lashes on the left side, and as this Proteus pic from LIFE.com shows, an open eye is painted on the right side.  I'm does like!

Did you know that sometimes Proteus sticks out its tongue?!

CoolPix - Modern Military: B-58 Altitude Record of 85,360 Feet... In 1962!

(click pic for hi-res)

 You might be thinking this is just some old black and white photo of a guy wearing an odd looking helmet and flashing a cheesy 'ok' sign.  If that's what you're thinking, you are way wrong!  This is a very cool CoolPix indeed, and another in the recent string of B-58 hi-res photos during this special 'B-58 Week' here at AirPigz.com.

 I highly recommend you click the pic to get to the big version of it, and then take some time to soak up lots of small details as you look at Fitzhugh 'Fitz' Fulton sitting in the somewhat unusual cockpit of a Convair B-58 Hustler.  I find it fascinating that there are so many fabulous hi-res photos readily available from the U.S. Military and NASA during the 50's, 60's and 70's.  These photos do a great job of pulling us in a lot closer to see the people and the machines that were exploring the extreme world of flight and space exploration.

 This is one very special image for several reasons.

 For one, it's Fitz Fulton sitting in the cockpit.  Fitz spent 23 years in the USAF as a test pilot, and then worked from 1966 until 1986 as a NASA research pilot, followed by work as a test pilot at Scaled Composites until 1999!  During all those years, Fitz flew airplanes like the B-29 used to drop the X-1, the B-52 that dropped the X-15, the XB-70 at speeds up to Mach 3, the YF-12A as a project pilot, the 747 that dropped the Space Shuttle in the early glide tests, and as he is shown here, he was a project pilot on the B-58.  On September 8, 1962, Fitz set an altitude record with a 5,000kg payload (11,023 pounds) by flying a B-58 up to 85,360 feet!  And it appears that this record still stands today!  Fitz is an amazing man with an unbelievable amount of aviation experience, and this pic shows him sitting in an astounding aircraft.

 Given the video and podcast I posted recently that look at the U-2 flying at 70,000 feet, it pretty much boggles the mind to think that a B-58 carried such a heavy payload to over 85,000 feet way back in 1962.  The Hustler was expensive and somewhat difficult to fly, but you can't argue with the extreme capabilities that it exhibited so far back in time.

 I hope you take a few minutes to look closely at this picture and begin to feel just how big of an accomplishment the airplane was, and what a stunning time it was in the aerospace industry in the late 50' and 60's.