To The Moon, NASA: Space Agency Reveals New Rocket

NASA announced its new post-Space Shuttle vehicle today, called the Space Launch System (SLS).  They also released a cool animation of the new rocket blasting into space. This new mega-rocket will be made with parts familiar from the Space Shuttle, like the solid rocket boosters and the shuttle's powerful main engines, all super-sized for maximum thrust to get to the moon (maybe) and beyond.

The new SLS will be able to lift 70 tons of spacecraft and/or materials into orbit and, eventually, as much as 130 tons.  The question is when.  Estimates vary depending on the funding of NASA by Congress.  And, given the problems there, the first launch date of 2017 seems optimistic at best.  Hopefully, Congress can see this for the jobs program it could be, especially in Florida where the new craft would be based.

Spies In Space

In the 1960's, there was a top secret US program to put spies in space.  These "astro-spies" were to live in a space station whose main purpose would be to take highly detailed photographs of the Soviet Union.  The government figured the best way to keep this program a secret was to hide it in plain sight and, in 1964, President Johnson announced the ambitious plans for a Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) in which astronauts would run "scientific experiments".  There was no mention of the massive camera the size of a Volkswagen that was the real reason for this whole operation.

I learned about all this last night on a rerun of a NOVA special called "Astro-Spies" on PBS.  The program began shortly after Gary Powers was shot out of the sky in his U-2 spy plane in 1960.  The Air Force realized that if they put their spy camera in space, no one could shoot it down.  The plan was so top secret that it was not revealed until the 1990's, when by chance someone found an old astronaut spacesuit with a name on it that was not on the official NASA list of astronauts.  

While the US developed it's MOL program, Russia got wind of it and started their own spies in space plan, Almaz. While the MOL was cancelled in 1969 and never got off the ground, the Russian "lab" did make it into orbit with one crazy addition; it had a weapon attached to it to shoot other satellites or threats out of the sky.  The 23mm rapid fire cannon was fired once in a test but never at an actual target.

A Picture That's Worth A Thousand Miles

I found this amazing photo on Towleroad today.  It's a shot of last month's launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis, taken from the unique perspective of a pair of F15 fighter jets patrolling the Kennedy Space Center. This was Atlantis' last flight, with the entire Shuttle program set to end next year.  A truly stunning shot...