Dick Stafford's Rocket Dungeon Blog

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Other Rocketry / DARPA

DARPA's Falcon HTV-2 to go hypersonic on April 20th (2010-04-18)

Parabolic Arc reports that the Falcon HTV-2 will launch from Vandenburg atop a Minotaur Lite rocket. If successful, it will transverse about 4,100 nautical miles of the Pacific in less than 30 ... [Read More]

100-year starship projects (2012-05-23)

Tonight,  High Power Rocketry points us to a proposed fantasy-scale project that would Build the Enterprise .   The term fantasy-scale, borrowed from NAR contest rocketry, implies a flying ... [Read More]

Unlearned lessons of the X-15 (2010-02-01)

I really don't like reading on a computer.  Especially a netbook.  Maybe a e-reader designed for this would be better.  Anyway, I started looking at "X-15: Extending the Frontiers of ... [Read More]

A Thursday twofer - the Falcon HTV-2 also launched yesterday (2010-04-23)

The first Minotaur IV Lite launch vehicle roars into the skies above California carrying DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 on April 22, 2010. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class ... [Read More]

Falcon HTV-2 is on-track updated (2011-08-11)

DARPA was giving some mission status via Twitter and reports that they lost telemetry after the HTV-2 successfully entered the glide phase about 30 minutes ago. The attached graphic depicts the ... [Read More]

Crowdsourcing the next great UAV (2011-10-06)

Via the Wired Danger Room : Darpa is holding a contest to design the military’s next spy mini-drone. So far, the entrants include a flying pogo stick, a sail that lands on mosques, and an ... [Read More]

Army hypersonic success (2011-11-17)

Space.com reports that the Army's AHW (Advanced Hypersonic Weapon) had a flawless first flight, streaking across the Pacific at "several times the speed of sound." To be considered hypersonic, that ... [Read More]

Feed reader stars and interesting links (2012-02-03)

Mavericks, Paton Group, and Inspirtech to open 5 Space Education Research Center s, ROL - "The Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation, The Paton Group, and Inspirtech LLC today announce the ... [Read More]

Links roundup (2012-04-23)

Falcon 9/Dragon Launch Delayed One Week - Parabolic Arc Graupel alert! - DCist - before this Spring, I had never heard of graupel. More info in coming out about Planetary Resources in ... [Read More]

Links roundup (2012-07-12)

Boris Katan's HellBoy, set up to fly on 19 E9's NASA Johnson Space Center’s Shuttle II (1988) , Wired Science (7/12, Portree) A Bugatti spaceship from Elysium has crashed into the San ... [Read More]

Links roudup (2012-09-05)

from “Nuclear-powered aircraft” (“Применение... , xplanes (9/5) DARPA's Cheetah Bolts Past the Competition  (video) - Worlds fastest legged robot hits 29+ mph. ... [Read More]

UAV + remote manipulator arm (2012-12-12)

A DARPA-funded research team has successfully demonstrated the precise, automatic placement of objects using a UAV outfitted with a remote manipulator arm. The UAV is the MLB Company’s V-Bat ... [Read More]

New hypersonic space plane and precision munitions proficiency (2013-09-18)

I found both these items vis the Unwanted Blog. First up is an artist's concept of DARPA's Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) program . They have issued an RFI for a hypersonic 'airplane like' vehicle ... [Read More]

Photos for while the paint is drying... (2014-04-01)

I'm taking advantage of the great weather to paint the POS SPEV build. Keeping with the trashy nature of the beast, I laid on a coat of Rustoleum gloss black directly onto the untreated tube. I'll ... [Read More]