When you think of surveillance satellites you think of systems beaming back hi res images of almost anywhere on the earth to secret government intelligence agencies but now that same technology is available to all of us with things like google earth. However, when the very first surveillance satellites were …
Why Did We Test Nukes in Space?
Just as the world was reeling from the Cuban missile crisis when it had come closer than ever to a nuclear conflict between the US and Soviet union, both the US and the Soviets launched high altitude nuclear tests at the edge of space, one of 9 such tests within …
What Did We Leave on the Moon & What Will Happen to it in the Future?
With the surprise landing of the Chinese rover Yutu 2 or Jade rabbit 2 and the Chang’e-4 lander on the far side of the moon on 3rd Jan 2019, I thought it would be interesting to see just what sort of things we’ve actually put up there on the moon …
What Happened to NASA’s Gateway to Space – Launch Complex 39
They were seen on the most significant missions like Apollo, Skylab, the Space shuttle, they’ve been used for the SpaceX Falcon Heavy and they’ll be there on the upcoming SLS missions but they are hardly ever talked and without them, we simply wouldn’t be able to get the rockets off …
How do you make Invisible Ships, Planes & Tanks?
To the ancient Greeks it was called the Helm of Hades or the cap of hades, a special helmet that would make the wearer invisible. In Welsh and Germanic folklore as well as our modern day fictional equivalent of Harry Potter there is the “cloak of invisibility”, a magical …
What Were the Real Reasons Why We Stopped Going to the Moon
Next year, 2019, will be the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon, since then just 12 men have walked on the lunar surface in 6 missions covering a period lasting less than 3 years. The Apollo project at it’s peak employed over 400,000 people in some …
The Rise and Fall of the British Rocket Jet Fighter – The SR-177
During the 1950s NATO faced a new threat from Soviet Union, western intelligence believed they were building a fleet of supersonic nuclear bombers that could fly higher and faster than anything NATO had including it’s interceptors. The UK’s response was to create a groundbreaking fighter that not only would outperform …
Can We Save Hubble and Where is the James Webb Space Telescope?
Hubble has been one of the most valuable scientific projects of recent times, some even say that we have learned more with Hubble than we did with Apollo but like all good things it must come to an end and that end will be coming in the not too distant …
SLAM – America’s Big Stick & Doomsday Weapon
During the height of the cold war hysteria in the 1950’s, SAC or the Strategic Air Command, America’s nuclear strike force was looking at the next generation of nuclear delivery systems. Bombers were the backbone of SAC but were slow and vulnerable to the Soviet air defences, ICBM’s were still …
Human Crash Test Dummies – Faster than a Speeding Bullet
Seat belts, air bags even ejector seats in planes, we take these type of safety devices for granted and they have saved thousands of lives. Virtually anything that carries people these days from cars to planes to spacecraft have been tested using sophisticated test dummies but it hasn’t always the …