Browsing: Vehicles

A Brief History On September 30, 1954, the American submarine, USS Nautilus, was commissioned for service as the first ever nuclear powered warship. Digging Deeper Serving the US Navy well until 1980, Nautilus immediately gave the US a tremendous advantage in submarine warfare, with the ability to stay submerged many times longer than conventional diesel-electric submarines that had ruled from World War I through the post-World War II era. Setting many records and serving as a test bed for the new technology, Nautilus became the first submarine to make a submerged transit under the North Pole, in 1958, a voyage…

A Brief History On September 28, 2008, the history of space exploration reached a new milestone when SpaceX, a private company, launched their Falcon 1 unmanned spacecraft, the first private spacecraft launched into orbit. Digging Deeper SpaceX and the business of private space launches is the project of Elon Musk, an entrepreneur worth a staggering $254 billion, making him the richest man in the world.  Musk’s SpaceX is so far the premier private space launch company, sending various communication satellites into orbit, giving NASA astronauts a ride into space, and even going to and docking with the International Space Station.…

A Brief History On September 25, 1992, NASA launched a probe known as the Mars Observer, alternately known as Mars Geoscience/Climatology Orbiter, an unmanned spacecraft sent to study the surface, atmosphere, climate, and magnetic field on Mars.  Unfortunately, in August of 1993 communication with Mars Observer was lost permanently, a costly failure.  Today, we list several egregious space exploration failures and invite you to tell us which one you think was the worst. Digging Deeper Soyuz 1, reentry parachute failure, 1967, 1 cosmonaut died Apollo 1 Fire on Ground, 1967, 3 astronauts died Apollo 13, multiple failures caused Moon landing…

A Brief History On September 25, 1961, the State of Wisconsin first required any new automobile made starting in 1962 to be equipped with front seat safety belts.  While Nash Motors first offered this commonsense device in 1949, the rest of the United States was not required to have seat belt equipped cars until 1962, with shoulder belts required as of 1968. Digging Deeper Despite all cars having seat belts, drivers and passengers rarely wore them, even when annoying buzzers were included to “remind” people to wear the hated belts.  New York paved the way with a law requiring seat…

A Brief History On September 20, 1911, the RMS Olympic, the first of three enormous British luxury liners of the Olympic-class, collided with the British cruiser HMS Hawke. Digging Deeper Olympic, commissioned in 1911 as the largest ship in the world at that point, was later followed by the slightly larger RMS Titanic.  Of course, the Titanic sank in 1912 on its maiden voyage in one of the most famous incidents of a ship sinking, and the third sister ship of the class, the HMHS Britannic, was sunk when she hit a mine in 1916 during World War I. The Olympic…