Video: 1977 Shuttle Enterprise First Glide Test & Landing. Wow.

 It was August 12, 1977 when the Space Shuttle Enterprise made the first free flight after being carried to about 27.000 feet on the back of a modified 747. The television coverage footage here is an awesome way to watch it how it happened, live for all to see. It's an amazing way to experience both the dawn of a whole new era in spaceflight, and to see old school broadcasting.

 If you don't have the time to soak it all in realtime, jump up to about 4:30 for the actual separation. Looking back, it's great to see what success story this first flight was. It was a great time to be alive... I remember that for sure!

 This video ends while on the descent. To see the rest of the approach and the touchdown, watch the video below. Touchdown is at 2:39.

I must say, my emotions have been thoroughly stirred.

Video: Explore Shuttle Launches Via Truly Epic Visions (With Commentary)

 (must see video)

 Similar to the video of the Apollo 11 Saturn V launch I posted a while back, this video of Space Shuttle launches goes much deeper. With views from a wide range of cameras, most in extreme slow motion and many just feet away from the fires, you are given a detailed look at what happens when millions of pounds of thrust are used to overcome gravity and lift the 4.5 million pound Space Transportation System off the ground.

 The video is 45 minutes long with a simply delivered commentary that is nothing short of excellent. It's a very stirring experience to watch this, and particularly fitting given that we are very close to the end of the Shuttle Program. The clips are taken from three different Shuttle launches: STS-114 (Discovery 2006), STS-117 (Atlantis 2007), and STS-124 (Discovery 2008).

 What a tremendous tribute to the men and women who have worked over the years to bring the Space Shuttle to life.

The video was created at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Video: The Kinda Mysterious X-37B Space UAV Returns To Earth

(video and info via 30th Space Wing Vandengerg youtube channel)

12/3/2010 - VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The U.S. Air Force's first unmanned re-entry spacecraft landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:16 a.m. today.

The X-37B, named Orbital Test Vehicle 1 (OTV-1), conducted on-orbit experiments for more than 220 days during its maiden voyage. It fired its orbital maneuver engine in low-earth orbit to perform an autonomous reentry before landing.

The X-37B is the newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft. Managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (AFRCO), the X-37B program performs risk reduction, experimentation and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies.

"Today's landing culminates a successful mission based on close teamwork between the 30th Space Wing, Boeing and the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office," said Lt Col Troy Giese, X-37B program manager from the AFRCO. "We are very pleased that the program completed all the on-orbit objectives for the first mission."

OTV-1's de-orbit and landing mark the transition from the on-orbit demonstration phase to a refurbishment phase for the program. 

The Air Force is preparing to launch the next X-37B, OTV-2, in Spring 2011 aboard an Atlas V booster.

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: VSS Enterprise First Flight - Phenomenally Nice Flying Machine!

 This video shows part of the amazing first ever free flight of SpaceShipTwo (VSS Enterprise) at the Mojave Air and Space Port on Sunday 10.10.10. In addition to seeing the spectacular moment of release from the mothership VSS Eve, you can sum up the status of this commercial space tourism venture thus far by watching the stunningly stable 'greaser' landing! As Burt Rutan stated afterward: "Pete was able to just kiss the ground with it... when you do that, and you've never flown the airplane before, you've never landed it, what that tells you is you've got a phenomenally nice flying machine."

 To Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, what more can you say than... BRAVO!

Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise Makes 1st Free Flight... YeeHaw!

(click pic for hi-res)  First manned free flight of the VSS Enterprise! (photo: Virgin Galactic)

(3 CoolPix)

 10.10.10 is a really big day in Mojave California as Virgin Galactic has taken one giant step closer to becoming the world's first commercial spaceline. The SpaceShipTwo named VSS Enterprise released from the WhiteKnightTwo mother ship VMS Eve at 45,000 feet as seen in the photo above. Pilot Pete Siebold and co-pilot Mike Alsbury had a variety of objectives for this flight, including verification that all systems were functioning properly prior to release; then, perform a clean release; evaluate initial flight handling qualities; stall characteristics; verification of lift-to-drag ratio performance; a practice approach at high altitude; and finally a completed descent and landing. The landing took place at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Click to read more ...

Copenhagen Suborbitals: Low Budget Rocketeers - Go Denmark!

All images from CopenhagenSuborbitals.com

The 'HEAT' booster and the one-man spacecraft from Copenhagen Suborbitals

(4 pix) 

 Did I really just say 'Go Denmark'? That's never happened before. Not that I'm anti Denmark or anything, I've just never felt the need to cheer them on... especially since I've gotten a good idea of how many calories they hide inside those in the oh-so-delicious pastry thingys they've been tempting us with. But, after getting a load of what Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen have been working on for the last 5 years or so with their non-profit, donation funded and volunteer supported space quest called Copenhagen Suborbitals, I'm cheering the little Scandinavian country on.

 The rocket illustrated above is their current generation booster called HEAT, for Hybrid Exo Atmospheric Transporter, with their MSC (micro space craft) called Tycho Brahe taking up about the top third of the rocket system. The one-man MSC has a glass globe top that will allow the occupant a pretty fabulous view of the ride, which might help to keep extreme claustrophobia from setting in since the whole package is just over 24 inches in diameter. From what I can tell, the basic goal with this project is the simplest and least expensive way of being able to say you went to space. It looks like it might make the Virgin Galactic operation seem like a mission to Mars by comparison, but it will still be a pretty amazing accomplishment if they can pull it all off. Actually, both space systems are designed to achieve a height that's a little over 100 km in altitude, which is often considered the edge of space, and translates to over 328,000 feet. But the Copenhagen Suborbitals ride will more like a hyper (galactic?) rollercoaster ride than a more traditional space journey.

The approximately 30' long rocket with crash test dummy in the MSC (micro space craft)

 They have a launch of the HEAT-1X booster scheduled for a couple days from now on August 30th, tho the launch window is actually set for August 30 thru September 13, 2010. I don't know if there will be any live coverage of this unmanned test flight, but you might wanna keep in touch with CopenhagenSuborbitals.com just in case... currently, there's a countdown clock on the main page. It's also important to note that this test flight is intended to go no higher than 30 km or about 100,000 feet, and that's not into space.

Click to read more ...

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!