Author: Edgar Zapata

It’s getting awful crowded out there – Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

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This map updates a much older version from Kennedy Space Center (available here) for the recent news of the Space Force allocating three historic launch pads to four companies (Relativity, ABL Space Systems, Stoke Space, and Vaya Space.) How time flies. Once long ago NASA looked at Kennedy Space Center and the Cape as a … Continue reading It’s getting awful crowded out there – Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station

Revisiting the near future of human spaceflight

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(With acknowledgments to David Brin, blogging at Contrary Brin, and a thank you for his feedback as I wrote this.) Across my many years witnessing and participating in space marvels, too often my awe of the moment got rudely shoved aside by wondering what comes next. Some just can’t resist that temptation to look ahead, … Continue reading Revisiting the near future of human spaceflight

Reusing, refueling, partnering – and going nuclear

~ Edgar Zapata ~ 2 Comments

Advocacy for innovation is always challenging, with much written about difficulties like the valley of death. There is one barrier that does not get much attention, though. We forget the future is always outnumbered in the here and now. Artist concept of Demonstration for Rocket to Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) spacecraft, which will demonstrate a nuclear … Continue reading Reusing, refueling, partnering – and going nuclear

Flashback Friday-Inside a Space Shuttle Mobile Launcher Platform during launch

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If you’re a sci-fi fan, you know Hollywood always has the lights go out when a spaceship takes a blast of photon torpedoes. Somehow we’ve figured out how to travel between the stars, but the electrical systems are kind of iffy. So now step into a mobile launcher platform below the Space Shuttle during a … Continue reading Flashback Friday-Inside a Space Shuttle Mobile Launcher Platform during launch

A checklist for commercial space and NASA

~ Edgar Zapata ~ 3 Comments

A paper of mine was published last week in the New Space Journal, “Ingredients and Anticipated Results for Characterizing and Assessing NASA and U.S. Department of Defense Partnerships and Commercial Programs.” Yes, that’s a mouthful. I often write about what’s next for NASA, the commercial space sector, and how these must move ahead together. My … Continue reading A checklist for commercial space and NASA

Technology, transforming the space sector, and us

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After concluding a bat’leth tournament, a lone traveler in deep space passes through a jagged sliver of space-time. This piece of the galaxy is defective, a “quantum fissure” in techno-babble, as if whoever made it was asleep at the wheel. This is the universe of Star Trek, of course, full of all sorts of space-time … Continue reading Technology, transforming the space sector, and us

Flashback Friday – “Apollo 17” NASA pamphlet, 1972

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Here is another item you won’t find anywhere online, on the belief that just as we never know where we may end up, it’s best to upload to the cloud while we can. Download the pamphlet as an OCR'ed .pdf This hand-out pamphlet, “Apollo 17,” was likely given to employees, the press, and the public … Continue reading Flashback Friday – “Apollo 17” NASA pamphlet, 1972

Flashback Friday – “Skylab,” 1971 Martin Marietta fold-out poster “infographic”

~ Edgar Zapata ~ 2 Comments

(Published a day early, by mistake, enjoy!) Here is another item you won’t find anywhere online, on the belief that just as we never know where we may end up, it’s best to upload to the cloud while we can. This fold-out poster pamphlet “Skylab,” by Martin Marietta, is an infographic from before infographics were … Continue reading Flashback Friday – “Skylab,” 1971 Martin Marietta fold-out poster “infographic”