Ad Astra Per Aspera “A rough road leads to the stars” 6:31 PM Eastern Time, January 27th, 1967 This post was shared at 5:31 PM on January 27th, 2017, exactly 50 years to the instant from when the fire happened. It was originally set to share via social media, but didn’t for some reason.
This is a day I’ve been thinking about for many years now, as I rekindled my love of space flight and its history – The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire, and event which nearly killed the Apollo program, but at the same time caused such improvements to the spacecraft that it may have […]
January 27th, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire, an event I’ve written about more than any other single event on this site. For the past 50 years, since the disaster, NASA has pretty much buried it. Unlike Challenger and Columbia, which occurred in 1986 and 2003 respectively, the 1967 deaths of […]
As I have said before, I try not to get political here on Xadara, but I do have to say what I think from time to time. I’ll try to keep this one brief. Thank you, President Obama. You didn’t always do what I feel was the best thing – there are many times your […]
It’s by a strange coincidence that I would write a small article late yesterday about the city of Pripyat, Ukraine – the city where the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was located. It’s explosion is one of many events that is called “the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union” and while writing that article […]
Since hearing about the movement and successful installation of the Shelter Object at the remains of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, I’ve been in a weak version what I call a “Chernobyl” mood, where I’ve been hunting for information, photos, and videos of the subject off and on this past month. Nothing too out of […]
NASA pushed out quite a few videos following the death of John Glenn. The other day I shared some video of the launch of STS-95, Glenn’s 1998 return to space. There was one video I found during the planning of that article, though, that I didn’t share due to its length, and thought more worthwhile […]
File this one under news that reached me 2 weeks after the fact, in late November of 2016, the Shelter Object, a massive arch intended to seal the remains of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor 4 was successfully moved over the structure with the intent of forever sealing the damaged reactor and its deadly nuclear […]
Normally, following an event like the death of John Glenn, a blogger like me would share video of his Mercury flight. It is, of course, what he was most famous for, being the first American to orbit the Earth back in 1962. My personal experience with John Glenn, however, is a bit more unique – […]
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, died today. Just a few minutes ago I received the call from my mom letting me know this. At the time, I had just fired up a game, wanting to relax a little before work. I noticed she called as I loaded the game up, and […]
Yesterday, December 7th, 2016, marked 75 years since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the event which marked the direct entry of the United States into World War 2. Rather than talk about what Pearl Harbor is like now, or just cover the normal anniversary events, I thought I would share my perspective on the […]
Ah, project Mercury – the United States “Man In Space” program. Sure, it wasn’t the first to put a man in space, or in orbit (The Soviets would do that with Vostok 1 in 1961) but it was still a necessary step towards what we eventually would accomplish. Of course, anything going into space needs […]
With nearly 2000 launches to its name, the Soyuz rocket turns 50 years old today – it’s first launch was on November 28th, 1966, carrying a payload known as Kosmos 133, Kosmos being a universal codename for “unknown” Soviet Satellites. This craft was, in reality, the first test flight of the boosters namesake, the Soyuz […]
As mentioned in the previous article, the Gemini Project, NASA’s 2nd manned space program, ended on November 15th, 1966. The 10 manned missions over 2 years proved that humans could do everything needed in space to make a successful flight to the Moon. All that would be left would be to prove out the Apollo […]
15 years ago, on November 15th, 2001, Microsoft released its entry into the home gaming console scene, the Xbox. Based on computer hardware of the era, and using the DirectX game libraries of Microsoft Windows (hence the project name, DirectX-box) this powerful console filled a hole that was left following Sega ending production of the […]