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Since there doesn't seem to be a general thread for discussing RocketLab, I figured I would start it. Leading off is this freshly uploaded video of how they're proposing to reuse the first stage of Electron. No propulsive landing, but instead, a mid-air snag of the booster with a helicopter as...

Just saw this cross my news feed: http://spacenews.com/china-to-test-rocket-reusability-with-planned-long-march-8-launcher/ It's an interesting read, and, if true, is a sign that the Chinese space program is taking SpaceX and Blue Origin seriously.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-aerojet-rocketdyne-jobs-20170410-story.html The Rancho Cordova plant was where every LR-87 and -91, Delta, Apollo SPS, Shuttle OMS engine, and numerous other historical engines from Aerojet were built and/or developed. Even today, the facility churns out...

So, I've had a low-end but functional laptop for a number of years now, with much success. It does just about everything I ask of it, albeit sometimes not very well. However, it is getting a little slow and underpowered, and I'm looking at getting a desktop as my main system. However, my budget...

Well, the first four weeks of A&P training have flown past (pun intended), and my group has completed our first project: "overhauling" an old Continental A65 engine. Overhauling in this case means finding out what would need to be replaced and creating a parts list before reassembling the engine...

Ugh. Back to school again? Oh, wait. Today's the first day of the A&P program. :) It took a little longer than I would have liked (due to class sizes and a lottery system to get in in the fall), but today I start my training to become an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic. :woohoo:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/15/us-lockheed-fusion-idUSKCN0I41EM20141015 IF this is true, this will be a game changer. However, this IS fusion energy we're talking about here, and they've been promising that it's only a decade away for, what, 50 years? Going to be watching this with...

It is that time of year again, fellow Orbinauts! ALL HAIL THE ALMIGHTY PROBE!!!!!! :hailprobe: :hailprobe: :hailprobe: For those of you who are new to the forums since the last Probe Day, we celebrate the Almighty Probe on the anniversary of His Launch, on October 4. May the :probe: bless...

Earlier today, SpaceX's F9R testbed vehicle was performing a test flight at McGregor, Texas when... Video posted online by KWTX shows the F9R starting to go sideways shortly before the range safety engaged and destroyed the vehicle. http://www.kwtx.com/video?videoid=2913715 :facepalm:

Well, after a year's hiatus, I'm headed back to college tomorrow afternoon. It's a two week course intended to be an introduction to the field of Airframe and Powerplant maintenance. If I stick with the program, I'll spend two years learning how to fix planes and their engines, then come out of...

I have an HP laptop that I'm fairly happy with. (Could use some more memory, but that's fixable, and another story all together. :P) However, the internal graphics card does NOT support local light sources. Short of replacing the card (if it's even possible on a laptop), is there any way to...

EDIT: Project has now been renamed. See last post for more details... PROJECT PEACOCK: PAVONIS MONS BASE DEVELOPMENT A while back, I started to work on an upgrade to the stock Olympus base. I had made some decent progress on it before taking a break from it to work on other real life...

It's that time of year again... HAIL PROBE!!!!!! :hailprobe: :hailprobe: :hailprobe: Today marks the 56th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1, and the 54th anniversary of the launch of Luna 3, AKA :probe:.

I just got a new computer, and it's doing great... except that there's only 4GB of RAM. And, as anyone who's played KSP knows, that's barely enough for the stock version. :facepalm: So, I'm looking for different options for upgrading my computer. It's an HP, in the low-mid range in terms of...

It's time once again to "Fly Low, Go Fast, and Turn Left!" The 2013 Reno Air races are underway at Stead Airport, and this year promises plenty of excitement, even without the Thunderbirds or other military displays. As always, the main event, the Unlimited Class, is proving to be exciting from...

Part 6: Walk The Line No, not the Johnny Cash song. :P This post is about the “wingwalker” tasks during arrival and departure. And, no, that doesn’t mean I got to walk on the actual wing. (Although that would have been cool. ;) ) So, why do you need to have people at the wingtips during...

NASA has undertaken research into 3D printing the injector heads of rocket engines. The results look promising so far: equal performance at half the manufacturing costs. http://news.yahoo.com/3d-printed-rocket-parts-excel-nasa-tests-155412871.html

Before I begin, I want to say that this may be the last one for a while, as I have a couple of real-life situations that are going to come to a nexus here in the next month or so, and I'm going to be going through some pretty dramatic changes in my life. I'll continue to post continuations of...

Beneath The Wing, Part 4: Read Between The Lines Looking around the ramp at an airport, the first thing that sticks out is all the hustle and bustle of operations. However, if you look closely, you can see that certain paint lines can impact how aircraft, crews, and support equipment are moved...

Couple of weeks back, a member of the Orbiter-Forum.com Facebook group asked whether or not there was a suggested reading list for the community. That spurred me to start compiling a short list of my personal suggestions, and now I am requesting input from the rest of the community. Feel free to...