rocket

Showing 9 posts tagged rocket

A character in a moment, one created each day for 30 consecutive days, animated as an exercise of skill and imagination by UK-based animator Geoff King. He writes: 

It was difficult to even think of what to animate most days. I spent a few hours on average for each day, sometimes it felt like all day. I originally intended to do them quicker but they usually didn’t get going till the late evening. This also meant all the days where only ‘first passes’ or ‘straight aheads’. After the first 5 days I realised I should try to maintain a reasonable quality. It wasn’t easy, a lot of time was spent hitting a wall but I had fun trying something different everyday.

30 Days is also a nice example of how a sketch can connect with its audience with motion and emotion in only a few seconds. No dialog required. Music: Le bal de Rémy by Circus Marcus.

Related watching: One second (or so) per day for a 2-months in Asia.

via The Curious Brain.

We’ve seen this experiment a few times before, but never with Hello Kitty “catonaut” in a Japanese rocket made by a 12-year-old. And perhaps not with such a glorious pop:

NASA doesn’t have a lock on space exploration anymore. Just ask Lauren Rojas, a seventh grader in Antioch, Calif., who recently launched a balloon to 93,625 feet using a do-it-yourself balloon kit from High Altitude Science…

The project is a terrific illustration of just how accessible the near-space environment has become. High Altitude Science was founded two years ago by Joseph Maydell, a flight controller for the International Space Station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, who wanted everyone to experience the beautiful views of the planet that he got to see in the course of his work.

Not only does Maydell sell a kit and a flight computer on his site, but he also includes tutorials to get started with.

From the archives, more views of Earth’s curvature. 

via Scientific American.

From @elonmusk, “What it feels like to ride a rocket.”

SpaceX’s Grasshopper takes a 12-story leap towards full and rapid rocket reusability in a test flight conducted December 17, 2012 at SpaceX’s rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas. Grasshopper, a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle (VTVL), rose 131 feet (40 meters), hovered and landed safely on the pad using closed loop thrust vector and throttle control. The total test duration was 29 seconds. Grasshopper stands 10 stories tall and consists of a Falcon 9 rocket first stage, Merlin 1D engine, four steel landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure.

Early this morning at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, SpaceX launched the first ever private spacecraft — the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket — to the International Space Station on an unmanned mission to deliver food, clothes, other supplies, and science experiments to the astronauts who are currently stationed there. And this is only the first of 11 more planned flights to the space station. Incredible and historic!!!

And stay til the end of the video, where at around the 10m mark, Falcon 9 and Dragon go into orbit and we get to see Mission Control, and (eventually) some (relieved) high fives and hugs. 

from NASA Television. (Updated with embed-capable video.)