April 4, 2015. It’s been a long time since then, but that’s when my AS-501 model flew. Waaaaay back in March, I posted my previous AS-501 entry. In our last episode, we left the bird all in white. Here’s the reset of the story. AS-501 is, in the true sense of the word, unique. For […]

Fie on burned-through delays. A pox on them and their progeny! It was an absolutely beautiful day out at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field for the monthly LUNAR launch. Cloudless, light winds (almost no wind until about 11!), pleasantly warm but not hot, fun people, a good crowd. Paul Pittenger started us off […]

When last we visited Bed Knobs and a Broomstick, the nose cone had just been finished. I am very please to say that the first flights were very successful! It was a simply gorgeous day at Snow Ranch in Farmington for LUNAR’s May 1st launch. We were treated to lots of wonderful flights: Steve Jurvetson’s […]

Freedom. A fitting name for the second small step. Freedom 7. The second small step for the inhabitants of this planet to leave this planet. On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard climbed aboard Freedom 7, atop a Redstone booster, admonished his support team to “light this candle” (after they had given him the go to […]

In my recent blog entry that mentioned the C5-3 CATO, I said I’d post some pictures of the CATO. With thanks to Ryan Coleman, fellow LUNARtic who sent them over, and Shaina Pierce, his friend who took the pictures, here they are. The recovery parachute and the upper portion of the rocket are intact; the […]