Tag: Armstrong/Dryden Flight Research Center

5 Things, Space Exploration

Apollo Guidance Computer (#StateOfNASA | #NASASocial

In February, Doug spent a day at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) attending a #NASASocial event dubbed #StateOfNASA. One of the day’s highlights occurred when Dr. Chrisitian Gelzer (Armstrong’s Historian) brought a tiny, shiny box with black keys on its front face into the room. Doug immediately recognized the device as an object from an earlier age: an Apollo Guidance Computer. Here’s what we learned … Continue reading Apollo Guidance Computer (#StateOfNASA | #NASASocial

Lofty AmbitionsLeave a comment
5 Things, Aviation, Space Exploration

Five Aviation and Space Anniversaries

Last week, Doug spent a day at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) attending a #NASASocial event dubbed #StateOfNASA. Read last week’s post HERE. #1. NACA’s 100th (last year) NASA’s predecessor organization was the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). NACA was founded on March 3rd, 1915, a little more than eleven years after the Wright brothers first took to the skies. #2. NASA Langley’s … Continue reading Five Aviation and Space Anniversaries

Lofty AmbitionsLeave a comment
5 Things, Aviation, Space Exploration

The State of NASA: Five Bold(en) Points

Yesterday, Doug spent the day at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC) attending a #NASASocial event dubbed #StateOfNASA. A multi-center event, the plan for the day was to listen to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden’s State of NASA presentation (you can view the speech on YouTube: ), planned concurrently with the release of the FY2017 Federal Budget, and then to see how NASA’s part of the … Continue reading The State of NASA: Five Bold(en) Points

Lofty AmbitionsLeave a comment
Space Exploration

#Orion at JPL/Armstrong (Part 3)

To start with Part 1, click HERE. The Orion/EFT-1 mission went off without a hitch last Friday. The four-and-a-half hour mission reached a height, or apogee, of 3,600 miles. That’s is as far as a human-rated spacecraft has travelled from the earth in forty-two years. As a part of the build-up to the Orion/EFT-1 mission, NASA held NASA Social events at multiple sites. Doug was … Continue reading #Orion at JPL/Armstrong (Part 3)

Lofty AmbitionsLeave a comment
Space Exploration

#Orion at JPL/Armstrong (Part 2)

(If you want to start with Part 1, click HERE.) Orion didn’t launch today. Perhaps by the time that you read this, Orion will have orbited the Earth twice, completing its mission, but as of about 9:00pm Pacific Time on Thursday, it hasn’t done so. At one point during the countdown, a ship entered an area of the ocean off the Cape Canaveral Air Force … Continue reading #Orion at JPL/Armstrong (Part 2)

Lofty Ambitions2 Comments
Space Exploration

#Orion at JPL/Armstrong (Part 1)

If everything goes well, the day after this blog is posted, NASA will launch its next generation human-rated spacecraft: Orion. The specific mission is known as Exploration Flight Test 1, or EFT-1 in NASA-speak. WATCH LIVE at NASA TV (NASASocial events today and launch tomorrow). The Orion EFT-1 mission is currently scheduled to launch at 7:05 am EST on Thursday, December 4th. The EFT-1 will send … Continue reading #Orion at JPL/Armstrong (Part 1)

Lofty AmbitionsLeave a comment
Science, Space Exploration

Space Tech Expo: Commercial Crew

The Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) Program is a federally funded, NASA-generated process to foster the efforts of private industry to develop low-Earth orbit. In other words, NASA stopped flying the space shuttle and wants to help private companies take over some of the work that the shuttle did, namely transporting cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA and private industry also want … Continue reading Space Tech Expo: Commercial Crew

Lofty AmbitionsLeave a comment
Aviation, Science

NASA Airborne Science Program (Part 4 / #NASASocial)

Before we get to our main topic for today, we want to remind readers that we contributed to The Next Big Thing blog hop last week. Some of the writers we tagged have now posted their contributions; check HERE for Karen An-hwei Lee and HERE for Stephanie Vanderslice. Less than two weeks ago, we spent an entire day as insiders at Dryden Flight Research Center … Continue reading NASA Airborne Science Program (Part 4 / #NASASocial)

Lofty Ambitions1 Comment
Aviation, Science, Space Exploration

NASA Airborne Science Program: Flight Suit (Part 3 / #NASASocial)

Check out more on our experience with the NASA Airborne Science Program in Part 1 and in our PHOTOS post. And don’t miss our most recent post, part of The Next Big Thing blog hop that’s going around. Today, we focus on the pilot flight suit worn by those who fly high-altitude aircraft like the venerable ER-2. The ER-2 is the civilian version of the … Continue reading NASA Airborne Science Program: Flight Suit (Part 3 / #NASASocial)

Lofty Ambitions2 Comments
Aviation, Science

NASA Airborne Science Program (PHOTOS / #NASASocial)

You may want to start with Part #1 of this series so that you have a sense of where we thought we were going with “NASA Airborne Science Program.” And for more on Twitter, #NASASocial. We spent all day yesterday at Dryden Flight Research Center for an insider’s look at NASA’s Airborne Science Program. We drove to Palmdale on Thursday and had dinner, yes, at … Continue reading NASA Airborne Science Program (PHOTOS / #NASASocial)

Lofty Ambitions1 Comment