The Republic of Tiny Flashes
From the ISS, Fourth of July fireworks become tiny flashes on Earth’s night side - visible, beautiful, and humblingly unresolved.
ISS
28posts
Space Gorillas, Space Baboons, and the Thin Veneer of Astronaut Dignity
A playful look at what space pranks reveal about astronauts, isolation, and the fragile dignity of life in orbit.
ISS Medical Return: Crew-11 Back
A medical return from the ISS shows how quickly orbital routine becomes a test of planning, trust, and contingency.
A Medical Situation Aboard the ISS: Putting Crew Health First in Space
An ISS medical situation reminds us that human spaceflight remains, above all, a discipline of crew survival.
Sending Your Name to Space: A Cosmic Journey of Connection
NASA’s name-to-space campaigns turn public participation into a small but surprisingly powerful emotional link with exploration.
Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry: Implications and Global Context
America’s commercial space policy is becoming a global competition strategy, not just an industry support program.
The Great Space Switcheroo: A Cosmic Comedy of Perspectives
Changing perspectives can make space familiar, ridiculous, or profound, depending on where the mental camera is placed.
The Power of Ten: A Decade of Wisdom in Safety-Critical Coding
NASA’s Power of Ten rules show how disciplined software habits become survival tools in safety-critical systems.
Mission 2024 YR4: Saving Earth (or Just Having a Cosmic Road Trip) with JPL’s Mission Design Tool
A hypothetical asteroid mission turns into a guided tour of how engineers plan planetary defense before panic begins.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy in Science: When Gigantic Budgets Meet Reluctant Goodbyes
Big science projects can become hard to stop, even when evidence says it is time to rethink the mission.
The Abandoned Dance of Orbital Evolution: ISS vs Freeside
Abandoned space stations offer a way to think about decay, adaptation, and the afterlife of orbital infrastructure.
NASA's 5 x 5 Risk Matrix Scorecard: A Powerful Tool for Space Safety
NASA’s risk matrix looks simple, but it reveals how space programs turn uncertainty into decisions.
The Galactic Chronicles: A Tour Through the Universe of Space Mission Names
Mission names are more than labels; they carry mythology, politics, branding, and the emotional charge of exploration.
The Tale of Two Satellites: Kalamsat and TerreStar-1
Two very different satellites show how space innovation can come from student ambition as well as commercial scale.
The Risks and Challenges of a Mission to Mars - Part 2
A Mars mission’s second layer of risk involves human limits, logistics, and the harsh details slogans leave out.
The Risks and Challenges of a Mission to Mars - Part 1
Getting to Mars is not one problem but a chain of hazards, each waiting to test the mission design.
The Power of Plutonium: A Comprehensive Look at the Batteries Behind Space Missions
Plutonium power keeps distant spacecraft alive where sunlight fails, making nuclear batteries quiet heroes of exploration.
The Upside of Upside-Down: Could Weightlessness Be a Boon for Your Heart?
Weightlessness harms many systems, but its effects on the heart raise a more nuanced and surprising medical question.
Calculating the Rendezvous of a SpaceX Cargo Ship with the ISS
Rendezvous with the ISS is a precise orbital dance where timing, speed, and geometry all have to agree.
Leak Detection in Space Stations and Space Capsules
In space, a leak is never small for long, so detection becomes a race between physics and procedure.
Temperature Management in Space Exploration: A Comprehensive Guide
Temperature control in space is an invisible engineering battle against sunlight, shadow, radiation, and vacuum.
The Gemini 5 Controversy: Public Perception and the Funding of Space Exploration
Gemini 5 shows how public patience, political funding, and technical milestones can collide in human spaceflight.
Redundancy in Space: From Real Missions to Rama's Triple Principle
Redundancy is expensive until something fails, which is why space missions treat backups as survival strategy.
Women in Space: The Future of Long-Term Space Missions and Interplanetary Colonization
Long-term space settlement raises questions about women’s health, reproduction, crew design, and who exploration is built for.
The Subtle Dance with Relativity in Space Travel
Relativity is not just a science-fiction flourish; even practical space travel brushes against its subtle effects.
The Metric System and Other Units: The Pitfalls in Space and Engineering
Measurement systems can seem mundane until mismatched units threaten engineering, navigation, and mission success.
NASA's "Snoopy" Award: Honoring the Heroes Behind the Scenes
NASA’s Snoopy Award honors the quiet excellence behind missions, where small decisions can protect lives.
Principles of NASA's Mission Operations: A Guide to Everyday Excellence
NASA mission operations offer practical principles for excellence that reach beyond control rooms into everyday work.