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...
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...
January 2021
Medical professionals and long-duration spaceflight
... until 17 April 2020. Indeed, up to 2001, about 30 American astronaut physicians had taken part in spaceflights under the Space Shuttle programme alone. Important skills and tasks Arguably, the 437-day flight proved the possibility of maintaining...
May 2024
Spaceflight revolution on a shoestring
...airline flights per fatal accident. By contrast, the Space Shuttle had two fatal accidents in just 135 flights over ...use components. Launch safety has improved considerably since the Space Shuttle but still falls far short of aviation standards. Since...
