Kessler syndrome

[_canpakes]

I have a trivia question. The oldest man made space junk was once on my parent’s dining room table. What is it?

Hint - it was called 1958 beta (2).

Did they use this to hold flowers, or condiments?

[_richardMdBorn]

I have a trivia question. The oldest man made space junk was once on my parent’s dining room table. What is it?

Hint - it was called 1958 beta (2).

Did they use this to hold flowers, or condiments?

You got it. Congratulations! The solar cells powered the transmitter on Vanguard 1 for six years. My Dad built the smaller TV (test vehicle) satellites for Project Vanguard and helped design the Minitrack system. He used to tinker with the satellite on our dining room table.

I have a couple of stories which may be of interest. The first rocket launch my Dad saw was Viking 8 in June 1952. The contractor Martin changed the way it was bolted down for a test firing. The vibration of the test firing caused the bolts to come loose and the darn thing took off. Dad said that Milt Rosen, the head of Viking, was very upset. I heard Milt speak at the 75th anniversary of the Naval Research Lab in 1998 and spoke with him briefly in 2009.

Marty Votaw worked with my Dad on Viking and Vanguard. He recalled that on 10/2/57 a memo went out that there would be no more paid overtime for Vanguard. Two days later Sputnik was launched and the memo was ignored.

PM me if you’re interested in more details. I could send you links to my articles and radio/C-SPAN talks about the early space program. A fair bit of what you read on the net about the origins of GPS is wrong.

[_canpakes]

Did they use this to hold flowers, or condiments?

You got it. Congratulations! The solar cells powered the transmitter on Vanguard 1 for six years. My Dad built the smaller TV (test vehicle) satellites for Project Vanguard and helped design the Minitrack system. He used to tinker with the satellite on our dining room table.

I have a couple of stories which may be of interest. The first rocket launch my Dad saw was Viking 8 in June 1952. The contractor Martin changed the way it was bolted down for a test firing. The vibration of the test firing caused the bolts to come loose and the darn thing took off. Dad said that Milt Rosen, the head of Viking, was very upset. I heard Milt speak at the 75th anniversary of the Naval Research Lab in 1998 and spoke with him briefly in 2009.

Marty Votaw worked with my Dad on Viking and Vanguard. He recalled that on 10/2/57 a memo went out that there would be no more paid overtime for Vanguard. Two days later Sputnik was launched and the memo was ignored.

PM me if you’re interested in more details. I could send you links to my articles and radio/C-SPAN talks about the early space program. A fair bit of what you read on the net about the origins of GPS is wrong.

You sound like a good person to quaff a pitcher of beer with while learning something new at the same time, to boot.

I owe a couple of folks a PM. Now you’re on the list, too. I’m no rocket scientist but I love this stuff. : )

[_MeDotOrg]

From Space.com

The first spacecraft to demonstrate active space debris-removal technologies — such as a harpoon, a net and a drag sail — in orbit has been released from the International Space Station to commence its mission.

Astronauts at the space station sent the 100-kilogram (220 lbs.) RemoveDebris spacecraft off for its pioneering mission using Canadarm2, the 17.6-meter-long (57.7 feet) robotic arm used for servicing and capturing cargo ships.

The spacecraft is the largest payload deployed from the space station, according to NanoRacks, the Houston-based company coordinating RemoveDebris' deployment. The spacecraft drifted away from the orbital outpost at about 11:30 p.m. BST (7:30am EDT) on Wednesday, June 20. [7 Ways to Clean Up Space Junk]

Engineers at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom confirmed about 2 hours later that they had contacted the spacecraft from their facilities in Guildford, Surrey, a small town in southern England.

[_Res Ipsa]

Cool. If they can just automate it, we can have an orbital roomba.