NASA wanted Shuttle launches to be like airplane rides. But airplanes are orders of magnitude less complex than an orbiter, and we’ve been making airplanes for a much longer time. And we’ve made a hell of a lot more of them.

But this is the same league where striking a pylon that is entirely out of bouds is considered a touchdown, and simply “breaking the plane” of the goaline ends a play, and nothing subsequent to that matters. If just putting the nose of the ball over the goal line ends a play, then by the same token, this catch and two…

Thanks for the link. I’ll check it out. “Audacious” is a good word for what they would have had to do.

I’m not an engineer, and I’ve never sent people into space. But I think that such an endeavor will never be without risk and, unfortunately, sometimes tragedies are what bring about changes. It must be a terrible balancing act for NASA engineers between being as safe as possible while still maintaining a schedule of…

We’ll be back.

NASA never told the crew about the damage to the wing. They had no idea there was a danger of burning up on re-entry. They weren’t really equipped to fix the wing anyway. It might have been possible to extend their flight and reach them in Atlantis. There could have been a five-day overlap between Columbia’s supplies…

I hope Scott takes his new truck and does donuts on Gary Bettman’s front lawn.

You think one sonic boom is bad, try seven per day for six months.

Fly Navy!

Great choice. I thought you might have gone with Barbarella.

Trump has already expressed his affinity for Putin in sort of a “Marge Schott thought Hitler wasn’t so bad” kind of way. So really, there’s nothing surprising here, and perhaps it’s really just a bit Freudian.

Brutally functional, industrial beauty.

There’s a lot of hand wringing about the F-22, F-35, and whether or not to upgrade older F-15s and F-16s. Back in 2014, General Michael Hostage, commander of the USAF Air Combat Command, gave a fascinating interview about the budget difficulties he was facing, and it bears on this post today. He also discussed the…

“We’ve got what we’ve got”

Oh, my.

That's Carrie Keagan, btw. Have fun googling.

Me too. But with the sound turned down.

#COTD

What do you think each blade of the propeller is? They’re all airfoils that move through the air and generate lift.