February 2019
Building a space museum from scratch
... were pieces of heatshield, materials from a Mercury spacecraft, and several types of thermal protection tiles used in the Space Shuttle programme. For a space-nut like me, it was heaven. The big crate had my heart pounding. It stood nearly as tall...
October 2019
Time to overcome the expendable rocket mindset
... since. In the 1970s, the early designs of the US Space Shuttle were indeed fully reusable, but this project was much larger (with... and the vehicle as built was largely expendable. The Space Shuttle was therefore as expensive and as risky to operate ...
February 2020
Debunking the myths on space patents
... lifeboat that will, at least, provide assurance that there will be funding in future. Artist’s concept depicting the Space Shuttle Endeavour with the 60 m (200 ft) antenna of its SAR sensor almost deployed in Earth orbit. Today, companies are...
April 2020
Reviving Russia’s space programme
... their Antares and Atlas V rockets, the latest batch arriving at the end of 2019. The retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, and American slowness in making replacement Starliner and Dragon spacecraft flightworthy, meant a ten-year stream...
July 2020
Key technologies for space exploration
... hundreds of atmospheres) characteristic of high-energy fuels and oxidisers such as hydrogen and oxygen (as used in the Space Shuttle main engine, for example). Another problem is that rocket engines, especially large ones, can be prone to unstable...
July 2020
Lego’s replica space programme
...-piece set is a decent facsimile of the ISS, measuring about 48 x 30 x 24 cm when complete. It is mounted on a Lego-built stand with a Space Shuttle, capsule and several ‘cargo spacecraft’ that can be docked to the station. Like the real thing, the...
