And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Friday, March 1, 2024
Varda Capsule Reentry - Five Minutes from LEO to Earth
Varda Space Industries' small W-1 spacecraft successfully landed at the Utah Test and Training Range on February 21, 2024. A camera installed inside the cozy 90 cm- (3 ft)-wide capsule captured the entire stunning reentry sequence, from separation from the satellite bus in low Earth orbit (LEO) to the fiery re-entry through Earth's atmosphere, to parachute deploy, to the bouncy landing. At the end of this 5-minute video, you'll see a pair legs with mud-caked shoes approach to gather the parachute and retrieve the capsule. Not only is there video, but sound as well. And the sounds of reentry and landing are interesting as well.
The mission was to manufacture pharmaceutical drugs in orbit, because weightlessness helps the process. They've experimented with this sort of thing on the space station over the years, and this mission is the first attempt to do it robotically. Autonomous factories in space is a pretty cool concept.
The Feds delayed the capsule for a long time (months, IIRC) for some reason. Whether they're just afraid of what happens if the capsule breaks and spreads the drug, or if they're just trying to destroy the company, I don't know.
Now, that is pretty cool. I wonder what the mission was. - Aggie
ReplyDeleteThe mission was to manufacture pharmaceutical drugs in orbit, because weightlessness helps the process. They've experimented with this sort of thing on the space station over the years, and this mission is the first attempt to do it robotically. Autonomous factories in space is a pretty cool concept.
ReplyDeleteThe Feds delayed the capsule for a long time (months, IIRC) for some reason. Whether they're just afraid of what happens if the capsule breaks and spreads the drug, or if they're just trying to destroy the company, I don't know.
the big guy wanted his 10%
DeleteWow! That's a cool video. Surprising the small amount of time the main chute was deployed before landing.
ReplyDelete