Anyone ID This Motorcycle?

Its being piloted by a member of Hezbollah within the Qalamoun mountains in Southern Syria as part of their fight on the side of the Syrian government (having crossed from Lebanon into Syria) and against the Islamic based "rebels" there.  Looks like some nice aftermarket HIDs on there too.

Also noticed here is the nice truck mounted Katyusha rocket launcher in the background.  Good to see WWII Soviet technology still working out so well!

SpaceX's Grasshopper--Retired...

Likely to show up in a SpaceX museum that I can imagine will be breaking ground soon the Grasshopper Vertical Take Off and Land rocket has been officially retired by SpaceX.

After successfully reaching a height of 2,440 feet on its sixth test flight and also performing an earlier "divert" maneuver where the rocket moved horizontally away from its launching pad and then return to its exact starting location, the Grasshopper will now become a Wikipedia footnote and static display somewhere.

In truth SpaceX has already begun moving on to the next steps in its process by reigniting the engines of its most recent full rocket launch just before its disintegration upon re-entry and is now moving to test its new methane powered "Raptor" rocket engine in Stennis, Mississippi and launch additional upgraded Falcon rockets to both the ISS and for satellite placement.

Continuing to move forward on all these projects brings Musk's desire for a rapidly repeatable, heavy lift capable and economic lift capacity closer to reality.

Grasshopper Is Retired...

Orbital Launch This Morning...

Only about an hour and a half till Orbital Sciences begins its attempt to be come the second private company to launch a docking capsule to the ISS.  SpaceX performed the feat about a year ago and is continuing to do so on behalf of NASA while Orbital has taken a different tack and is just now completing its final demo flight.

The Antares rocket to be launched this morning at 10:50 AM (hopefully) will carry with it about 1/2 its "normal" payload and contain only non-essential items.  If this launch and docking is successful, NASA will clear Orbital to begin full missions later this year.  This would give NASA (and the US) two separate options for getting equipment/supplies/experiments to the ISS and one (SpaceX's Dragon system) for returning items safely.

The differences between the two systems is striking.  Orbital uses a Russian derived rocket that is propelled by only two engines while SpaceX's design uses nine.  The SpaceX design allows for the shutdown of two of the engines and can still complete its mission--not so with the Orbital design.  In fact, the design of the Orbital engines dates back to Russia's ill fated attempts to compete with NASA's Saturn rockets.  Additionally, while the SpaceX system can actually dock and return items safely to Earth, Orbital's design is not reusable and is designed to burn up on reentry (though this does allow for garbage disposal missions from the ISS).

Two very different ideas but one goal--to get the US back on a regular scheduled with the ISS.  I have one favorite company in my heart and one favorite company for my bank account (I own some Orbital stock) but I'm rooting for both of them to succeed.  Photos here are of (above) Orbital's Antares rocket on the Wallops Island site preparing for today's launch and a rendering of Orbital's capsule approaching the ISS.  The launch can be watched on Space.com

Where Old ICBMs Go to Die...

This was the first launch for Orbital Sciences Corporation's Minotaur V rocket.  Launched from Wallops Island off the coast of Virginia it was visible over much of the east coast.  Like many of Orbital's rockets it is derived older military rockets of both US and Russian design.

The Minotaur V is a derivative of the Peacekeeper ICBM and uses many of the ICBM's parts in these current rockets--recycling at its finest.  The Minotaur V can put almost 1,000 pounds into Lunar orbit and looks to have done so successfully with the LADEE NASA probe.  It is on its way to the moon (arrival date scheduled for 10/6) to study the Lunar atmosphere (really??) and dust conditions on the surface (again....really??)  Ahhh...leave it to NASA to spend billions looking for answers to questions that don't need answering...Regardless...nicely done by all parties involved.

Brilliant: SpaceX Grasshopper Conducts Lateral Flight Test

Awesome to see the Grasshopper making consistent progress!  Here we have the first lateral flight test for the VTVL rocket where it moves some 1000+ feet away from its landing/launching pad before returning to ground zero.  Of particular note here is that it was on just such a test as this that the NASA Delta Clipper experimental vehicle had a catastrophic failure thus ending that program in the mid 1990's.

Mr. Musk's programs continue to impress (as well as his engineers who appear to be the best in the world currently at developing space/rocket technology---Oh what I would do to work there!!)

The Russians Should Have Called SpaceX...

So this was a Russian Proton-M rocket the other day.  The Proton-M has been in use since '01 and has had a number of failures--particularly in the past few years--a number of which have been spectacular disasters such as this one.

On board this rocket were three Russian GPS satellites as part of the program Russia is trying to develop to compete against the US constructed standard.  Later this year a Russian addition to the ISS is supposed to go up on one of these things...I wouldn't bet on it reaching there...

1.5 Million Pounds of Thrust...

That's what this video is of.  Well, actually its video of the Falcon F9-R (R for "reusable") and its first long duration test (some 2 minutes or so).  While on the ground (at sea level) it produces a million pounds of thrust in the vacuum of space this increases to 1.5MM.  While this is well short of NASA's Saturn rockets (+/-7.7MM pounds) and Russia's N1 (+/- 10MM pounds though never successfully launched) it is an impressive feat for a commercial company and will be used in tandem at a later date for SpaceX's missions.  The reusable distinction will also greatly bring down the costs of SpaceX programs and allow for an even further undercut of current space delivery costs.

SpaceX Grasshopper--A New High!

SpaceX has continued, beyond its efforts in getting cargo to the ISS with its Dragon launch vehicles, to develop its Grasshopper vertical take off and landing rocket.  They've been taking it nice and slow with each little hop getting higher and higher.  This past week's launch took the Grasshopper up to some 263 feet, performed a brief hover and then returned to its launching pad without a hiccup or wobble.

The article states that SpaceX is developing the Grasshopper in order to reduce launch costs BUT that reusable launch vehicles have often been MORE expensive than disposable ones due to the extra protection/weight that is required.  To me this is a false argument as all prior reusable vehicles have been developed on the premise of an extremely fast reentry necessitating all the additional heat shielding and either glider or capsule reentry design.  With a VTOL launch vehicle you reduce the reentry speed to zero and eliminate all the extra gear needed for the friction protection.  Its a new model of launch and reuse, time to rethink basic assumptions.

SpaceX Grasshopper launch...