A Brief History On June 6, 2002, high above the Mediterranean Sea, an asteroid estimated at about 10 meters in diameter exploded in the upper atmosphere with a similar effect to a 26 kiloton nuclear bomb, a larger blast than either the Hiroshima or Nagasaki bombs. What is really scary is that scientists failed to detect the approach of this chunk of space stuff and there would have been no warning had it hit the surface of the Earth! Digging Deeper Known as “The 2002 Eastern Mediterranean event,” another scary “what if” scenario involved the tense military stand-off happening between…
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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 June 1, 1495, a Dominican Friar of the Stirling house in Scotland named John Cor is the first person named in a written reference to Scotch Whisky, while the first known written reference to Scotch dates from 1494. Digging Deeper Although originally written in Latin, a translated version of the entry in the Exchequer Rolls is: “To Brother John Cor, by order of the King, to make aqua vitae VIII bolls of malt.” Note that the description of the whisky, aqua vitae, means “water of life,” an indication of the importance of the wonderful liquid refreshment…
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 29, 2023, Americans celebrate National Paperclip Day, possibly the single most useful implement ever devised. (Just ask MacGyver!) Digging Deeper Patented by Samuel B. Fay in 1867, his intention for the bent metal clip was to attach paper tags to clothing or other fabric, although his patent does mention attaching paper to paper. Many other inventors have patented variations on the bent wire paperclip theme. Almost incredibly useful for other applications, paper clips make dandy ammo fired by rubber bands, tools for unclogging small openings, emergency zipper pulls, latches for broken watch bands and necklaces,…