January 28, 2019
by sjvn01
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Thirty-three years ago I was at mission control at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for the launch of the Challenger. I was working data communications. My job was making sure all the telemetry links between the space shuttle and NASA’s ground communications system (NASCOM) were … Continue reading
September 2, 2014
by sjvn01
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If you think fixing computer problems on your PC is a pain, trying fixing them from 125 million miles away. That’s exactly what NASA’s JPL Mars Exploration Rover (MER) team will be doing soon. The Opportunity rover, which has been … Continue reading
September 22, 2013
by sjvn01
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When I was a kid in the 60s, books such as Miss Pickerell on the Moon, On the Trail of the Space Pirates, and Robert A. Heinlein’s The Rolling Stones had me dreaming of flying rockets to asteroids with my … Continue reading
May 6, 2013
by sjvn01
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Unlike my recent spoof story about a Linux-powered Iron Man suit you could build at home, this story isn’t science fiction. NASA really has decided to drop Windows from the laptops on the International Space Station (ISS) in favor of … Continue reading
July 8, 2011
by sjvn01
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When I was a kid, growing up on a dirt-road in the middle of Appalachia, not too different from how Max Jones’ childhood home in Robert A. Heinlein’s Starman Jones, I dreamed of starships. When I was older I followed … Continue reading