To celebrate Christmas, NORAD tracks Santa. There are various apocryphal stories about how this came to be, but however it started, the United States military presents NORAD’s Santa Tracker as a fun, celebratory way to do some public outreach for Christian American families. And media organizations in the US go along credulously; at my hotel … Continue reading NORAD Tracking Santa is Cold-War Darkness →
The most important things that happened in 2024 was the progress in AI, robotics and space capability. We are on the verge of AGI (Artificial general intelligence), robotaxi and fully reusable rockets. The most shocking images of the imminent future was the mechazilla catch of the SpaceX booster. As of 23 December 2024 the Starlink ... Read more
Discover how probing the components of the half-asteroid, half-comet hybrids reveals that carbon dioxide was present during the solar system’s formation.
SpaceX continues to improve the design of the Starship heat shield and has added small tanks to help with the engine restart. The new designs were covered by Felix Schlang at What About It?
The lower box is one the earliest spacecraft ion thrusters (from EOS circa 1962), and on top is a new arrival, a modern marvel from the SpaceX Starlink satellites used for on orbit maneuvering. SpaceX has mastered Argon SpaceX has mastered Argon Hall Effect thrusters, something no one else has been able to do. This ... Read more
Learn how NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore got stuck on the International Space Station, and why their return to Earth has been delayed again.