On December 21st SpaceX made history by bringing the first stage of a rocket launch safely back to Earth, as part of a mission that put 11 satellites in various orbits. What makes this important is the fact that being able to reuse the first rocket stage reduces the cost of going to space to 1% of its current price tag. Check out the article about reusability on the SpaceX web site for their take on the topic. The Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral and the first stage landed back there as well. There is an excellent article about the mission at MIT Technology Review if you would like a few more details. Besides covering the launch and landing the video also covers the satellite launches.
When the clock hits midnight we kick off Yuri’s Night, celebrating 50 years of manned space flight. April 12th, 1961 is when Yuri Gagarin became the first human to leave this planet, and there are parties all over the world to celebrate, as there are every year. You can check out what events are close to you at the Yuri’s Night Web Page, or through your phone. For the phone, the Apple App can be found here, or just search the apps store. With any other flavor got to the Yuri’s Mobi pages.
I can’t help it, sometimes I just wonder about things. One of my current questions is: Will Soar Thoat be doing some of the music for the new John Carter of Mars production? I know, the band’s name is a serious Martian pun, and the Civil War veteran did not arrive on Mars by way of Rocketship, but I still wonder. Continuing on the musical front, there were two versions of the almost-question (they each answered it themselves, so it doesn’t count as actual questions) If I Had A Rocket Launcher. One is a Hi-Q rock construction from musical genius and politically aware Bruce Cockburn, the other a fun little construct from Halo gamers creating their own Machinima. The question this time is, which music video do you prefer? Here are your samples to choose between…