Another This Week In Rocket History I wrote for CosmoquestX. This week in rocket history is the launch of the first long-duration expedition to Mir, Soyuz TM-2, in 1987. Soyuz TM-2 was the first crewed flight of the new Soyuz TM spacecraft, which incorporated a new rendezvous system, the Kurs…

I’ve started branching out, writing less strictly rocket news things for Cosmoquest’s Daily Space news show. ==== One of the more unusual press releases this week came from SpaceX, providing an update on the Starlink 4–7 launch which we covered last week. It turns out that a geomagnetic storm that produced…

This Week in Rocket History: the second of two joint American-German missions to explore the “main solar processes and solar-terrestrial relationships” launched in 1976. The two Helios spacecraft were built by the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), which made them the first spacecraft not built in the United States…

First 2022 story in the This Week In Rocket History segments I write for Cosmoquest. This week in rocket history is the SRE-1 capsule launch by ISRO. In the first decade of this century, India’s space agency, ISRO, began its own human spaceflight program. This would not be the first…

This Week In Rocket History: History of NORAD Tracks Santa 2021 Backlog is complete! seasonally appropriate. Pamela L. Gay, Ph.D.and Beth Johnson helped me write and present this story over on Cosmoquest. Instead of a mission or spacecraft event like normal to wrap up the year, we felt it was…

This Week In Rocket History: Apollo 17 Still crunching through my backlog, 2022 stories soon! More I wrote for Cosmoquest. This week in Rocket History is the final Apollo lunar landing: Apollo 17. Despite being the last crewed mission to the Moon, it set a few firsts. It was the…

Another story from my 2021 Backlog of Rocket History stories I originally wrote and presented for Cosmoquest Before NASA launched their first human into space, they needed to prove that the Mercury capsule’s launch escape system would function properly at different altitudes and speeds. They were in a rush, and…

Another story from the 2021 backlog of Rocket History This week wasn’t just a busy one for modern launches; it historically also had a lot going on and picking a topic for This Week in Rocket History wasn’t going to be easy. …

I’m really bad at posting these, here’s the first in a massive backlog of Rocket History stories I originally wrote for Cosmoquest’s Daily Space Monday, November 15 2021, marked the 33rd anniversary of the first and only launch of the Soviet Buran Space Shuttle. The Buran program, officially known as…