Browsing: Vehicles

A Brief History On June 8, 1959, the US Navy teamed up with the United States Post Office Department to attempt to resurrect the concept of sending mail via rocket or missile. Digging Deeper The submarine, USS Barbero, was employed to launch a Regulus cruise missile, normally armed with a nuclear warhead but this time carrying Post Office containers, from the Atlantic Ocean to Naval Station Mayport in Florida. The 22-minute flight of the missile accurately delivered the commemorative “mail” enclosed, each piece addressed to President Eisenhower and other government officials.  While the test was technically successful, no such program…

A Brief History On June 4, 2010, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster made its first flight, and since then has been used as the launch booster for well over 200 launches, only one of which was a failure and one other a partial failure. Digging Deeper A reusable heavy lift orbital launch booster, the Falcon 9 is famous as the only privately made rocket to have carried humans into orbital flight, and is the only current US sourced rocket certified for manned flight. In 2021, the amazing Falcon 9 set a space launch record by launching a mind boggling…

A Brief History On May 30, 2020, the Crew Dragon Demo-2 spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida courtesy of a Falcon 9 booster rocket from the private firm of SpaceX.  The capsule, named Crew Dragon Endeavor, contained two astronauts, the first manned space flight to launch from the United States since the last Space Shuttle flight in 2011. Digging Deeper This first ever commercial manned orbital space flight on behalf of the American government space program was on a mission to link up with the International Space Station and have the two American astronauts work with…

A Brief History On May 28, 2017, Japanese race car driver, Takuma Sato, won the Indianapolis 500 motor race, making history as the first Asian, and the first Japanese driver to take the big prize.  Proving his Indy prowess was not a fluke, Sato won the Indy 500 again in 2020, becoming the 20th driver to claim two victories at Indianapolis. Digging Deeper Sato, born in Tokyo in 1977, has also won titles in other racing formats, including the Macau Grand Prix, the Masters of Formula 3, and the British Formula Three.  In 2004, he placed 8th for the season…

A Brief History On May 24, 1962, an American Atlas LV-3B rocket blasted off, carrying astronaut Scott Carpenter in his Project Mercury space capsule he had named Aurora 7, the 6th manned space flight in history. Digging Deeper Manned space flight began in April of 1961 when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made his historic trip into orbit, and a month later the Americans launched astronaut Alan Shepard into space, although on a sub-orbital flight. Project Mercury was the NASA answer to the Soviet Vostok manned space capsule, and each Mercury capsule contained a single astronaut.  Designed by Belize born engineer…