The Interstellar Soundtrack Album Debacle
A look at the various controversies surrounding the release of the soundtrack album for Hans Zimmer’s score to Interstellar
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Everything Old is New Again
The AIAA Houston Chapter brings back a great series of magazine articles about space exploration
Space Shuttle First Flights: John Aaron (“Exceptional” Flight Software)
NASA’s John Aaron set high standards for IBM, and Space Shuttle onboard software came closer to “error-free” than any large, complex software ever built.
R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury’s R is for Rocket is a welcomed perspective of future space travel from years past. Because just like NASA’s Orion test launch, space matters.
Space Shuttle First Flights: John Aaron (Software Failure Is Not An Option)
I met with John Aaron to explain why IBM couldn’t fulfill a Shuttle software contract that required zero errors. His answer changed my mind.
Space Shuttle First Flights: John Aaron (Error-Free Code?)
NASA required IBM’s Space Shuttle software to be delivered “error-free”. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the likelihood of that was extremely low.
Indie Book Review: “Passing in the Night” by Michael Kingswood
Keith West begins a series looking at “teaser” fiction from the indie publishing world.
PHILAE IS ON ITS WAY
Rosetta’s lander should touch down on comet 67P at approximately 11 am est today
Space Shuttle First Flights: Phil Shaffer (Again)
During the Apollo Program, NASA’s Phil Shaffer had subjected me to what I’d describe today as a version of “Shark Tank”. I wasn’t looking forward to presenting to him again on Shuttle.
The Antares Rocket Explosion: October 28, 2014
An eyewitness account of the explosion of the Antares rocket: it looks very bad on TV. Close up it was horrific.
Space Shuttle First Flights: Ten Pounds in a Five Pound Sack
The first version of the Shuttle flight software had two serious problems: it couldn’t fit in the computer, and it ran way too slow. IBM was two years into the contract and basically nothing worked. All hell broke loose.
Do Black Holes Really Exist?
Black Holes are probably here to stay, says our resident investigator of quasars
Review: RIGMOVES by Victor Gibson
RIGMOVES takes readers into the corporate world of near future asteroid mining. But can the technical viewpoint hold the reader’s attention long enough to find out how it ends.
“Space Station 76”—A Movie Review
The characters dress as a ‘70s designer would have thought future people might dress, when they’re not dressing in actual ‘70s style…
Anime roundup 10/2/2014: Brain Drain
In this week’s viewing: Terror in Resonance wraps up, and humanity is repeatedly under threat… from bad TV shows!
Nearby Galaxy Harbours the Rarest Kind of Black Hole
A rare, mid-size black hole may have been discovered in a nearby galaxy
Space Shuttle First Flights: Bob Crippen and Dick Truly – Working with Astronauts
Hearing about the near-legendary competence of NASA astronauts was one thing, seeing it in action was humbling. Bob Crippen and Dick Truly, the two I got to work with on Space Shuttle, were the most impressive professionals I’ve met.
Into the Comet by Arthur C. Clarke
Into the Comet by Arthur C. Clarke is one of the writer’s many short story looks at futuristic problems where the solutions may come from the most basic of means.
Lagrangian Points – In Reality and Fiction (Part 1)
Lagrangian points are well known to anybody interested in astronomy or astrophysics. But even if you are not into the science part of SF, chances are you came across them in fiction anyway – because they are quite a […]
Space Shuttle First Flights: Engineering the Onboard Software
By comparison to the Space Shuttle, Apollo was a Model-T Ford – no set of computer-controlled spaceship operations like this had ever been attempted. Nothing that got us to the Moon could be reused here, and so it was discarded.
Space Shuttle First Flights: “Fly-by-Wire”
During high speed atmospheric flight, the extreme forces buffeting the Space Shuttle produced abrupt, violent oscillations that, left unattended, would cause it to spiral out of control. No human was capable of flying the Shuttle unassisted.
Asni’s Art Blog: Black Hole
Black holes represent a deep seated fear of being sucked into the void, propelled out of existence.
All I Ask is a Tall Ship… and a Window Seat!
What good is traveling through space if you can’t look out the window? A spaceship voyage is no good without a window to look out of.
Space Shuttle First Flights: Onboard Computers (Shuttle vs. Apollo)
The Space Shuttle’s onboard computer system alone weighed more than the entire Apollo Command Module.
The Galapagos Incident: Chapter 1
“When the evacuation tug docked, the asteroid squatters staged a sit-in that rapidly turned into a shoving match. Elfrida heard what they were screaming. Something about a missing child. She pushed off and flew through the cargo bay airlock, cartwheeling into the Staten Island-sized interior of 2974 Kreuset.”
Watch Out Mars, Here We Come
The spacecraft it is hoped that will take man to Mars has passed its first parachute tests with flying colors. NASA’s Orion spacecraft has been designed to take astronauts to an asteroid, sometime in 2018, […]
I Want To Believe: the “Impossible Space Drive”
“To dream, the impossible dream, to reach the unreachable star…”
About Author
Steve Davidson is the publisher of Amazing Stories.
Steve has been a passionate fan of science fiction since the mid-60s, before he even knew what it was called.
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