William Shatner: Now The Oldest Person In Space?

As an actor who played Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek TV series over 50 years ago, is William Shatner now the oldest person to travel to space?

By: Ringo Bones

Its official, as of October 13, 2021, William Shatner, the actor who played Captain James T. Kirk in the original Star Trek TV series that first aired over 50 years ago is now the oldest person to have gone to space at the age of 90. While his space travel exploits on TV five decades or so ago has been the stuff of science fiction during the infancy of the United States manned space exploration program, William Shatner has finally achieved real space travel making him indeed earn the moniker “rocket man”.

For a number of years, it was the Star Trek: The Next Generation guest star Lt. Mae Jemison who actually experienced actual space travel as a Space Shuttle era astronaut. It wasn’t until the advent of space tourism start-up companies – like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin private space travel / space tourism firm in the 21^st Century – where almost anyone with enough money can experience what used to be the domain of tenured astronauts from NASA and other nations fortunate enough to afford costly space exploration programs.

William Shatner’s most touching quote on his travel to near space on the Blue Origin New Shepard is: “You look down, there’s the blue down there and the black up there… there is Mother Earth and comfort and there is, is there death? I don’t know, but is that death? Is that the way death is? It was so moving; this experience, it was something unbelievable.” He said while the crew celebrated behind him. Speaking to Jeff Bezos after the Blue Origin flight, the 90-year-old actor told him: “What you have given me is the most profound experience I can imagine.” Shatner also continued: “It hasn’t got anything to do with the little green men and the blue orb. It has to do with the enormity and the quickness and the suddenness of life and death.”

Being a lifelong Star Trek fan, Bezos flew Shatner as a “comped guest”. Shatner’s three other crewmates are Chris Boshuizen, a co-founder of the satellite company Planet Labs and software executive Glen de Vries – who are both paying customers. And Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations.

Before William Shatner became the oldest space traveler, the record was previously held by Wally Funk, who at 82 years old was part of the crew of the Blue Origin New Shepard’s inaugural manned flight earlier in July 2021. Funk was originally part of the Mercury 13 program that included women astronauts that was scrapped by NASA back in the early 1960s. Back in 1998, 77 year old former NASA astronaut and Senator John Glenn previously held the title of the oldest astronaut during his STS-95 mission onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery back in October 29, 1998.

Nokia: First Mobile Phone Network On The Moon?

After winning a contract from NASA in the wake of Project Artemis, could Finnish mobile phone company Nokia be the first one to provide mobile phone coverage on the Moon?

By: Ringo Bones

After winning a contract bid and granted by NASA $14.1-million to build the first ever 4G mobile phone networks on the Moon, it seems that the Finnish mobile phone company Nokia could be the first ever to establish a working 4G mobile phone network on the Moon that would be used by astronauts. In the wake of NASA’s Artemis Project that aims to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024 (and about time, given that the last time NASA sent a men to the Moon was back in 1972). By 2028, NASA hopes to have the beginnings of a working lunar base and, ultimately, a sustainable human presence.

If NASA’s current timetable goes as planned, Nokia says that their Lunar 4G Network will be completed by late 2022, with humans due to arrive shortly after in 2024 as part of NASA’s Project Artemis. Nokia decided to choose to establish a 4G network first because given its long track record has proven reliability and robustness in the previous years, although Nokia says that it already has plans for 5G purpose built for space applications in the near future.

Nokia says the proposed 4G network will provide connectivity for any activity that astronauts need to carry out on the Moon, including using the network for transmitting biometric data, remotely controlling autonomous exploratory lunar rovers, streaming high-definition video in order to allay the concerns of “Moon Landing Hoax Conspiracy Theorists”, and enabling voice and video communications. Although how all of this will work with the expected one and a quarter second travel time delay of the radio waves between the Earth and the Moon is yet to be determined given that the 186,000 miles per second speed of the radio waves still have to travel a quarter of a million miles to the Moon and back to Earth again. And let us also hope that the “roaming charges” does not carry an astronomical price tag.

Virgin Orbit’s Satellite Launching System: The Most Cost Effective Way To Reach Low Earth Orbit?

Though launching rockets from 8 miles up to reach low earth orbit has been done before, could the Virgin Orbit’s satellite launching system the “cheapest” way to do it?

By: Ringo Bones

Virgin Orbit is a spin-off of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and had been operated independently by its CEO Dan Hart since 2017. Their satellite launch system consists of a modified Boeing 747 christened as Cosmic Girl that could launch a two-stage rocket christened LauncherOne that could launch a new generation of micro-satellites into low Earth orbit after the Cosmic Girl launch plane reaches 39,000-feet. A series of test launches had been done, but the most recent one back in May 25, 2020 ended in failure. But despite of the setbacks, it could be considered a miracle that Virgin Orbit still exists as a commercial entity back in May 2020 because since the COVID 19 pandemic lockdown, it was feared that the satellite launching company will be closed – citing reasons that it is no longer economically viable. Despite of this, is Virgin Orbit’s satellite launching system the most energy efficient and therefore cheapest way to launch commercial payloads into low Earth orbit?

The first ever manned hypersonic experimental aircraft – the X-15 – was launched in a similar manner by being flown to 39,000 feet via a modified Boeing B-52 Stratofortress that was christened as “The High And Mighty One” during the latter half of the 1950s. And its scores of test pilots of this program includes astronaut Neil Armstrong whose flight took them to altitudes that borders the region of the point marking the start of orbital space.

From a physics standpoint, Cosmic Girl’s 39,000-foot head start off the ground is not that much of a help in terms of fuel savings and energy conservation because the modified 747 does not have much upward velocity considering its 600-mph top speed. The launch vehicle – i.e. the LauncherOne rocket – still needs to accelerate to a speed of 18,000-mph to make the satellite achieve a stable orbit around the Earth.

The greatest advantage of Virgin Orbit’s launch system is that this allows the modified 747 known as Cosmic Girl to be essentially a mobile launchpad, enabling the flexibility of offering rocket launches from many more locations. If there is a thunderstorm, the jet can fly around or over it. And by flying over the ocean immediately reduces the risk of people below if the rocket explodes. The two-stage LauncherOne can lift up to 1,100-pounds to low Earth Orbit. Only smaller satellites can fit within the rocket’s four foot wide payload section. Using this method to launch a typical micro-satellite via Virgin Orbit will set you back 12-million US dollars.

Rockets: The Only Viable Way To Reach Outer Space?

From Robert H. Goddard’s first working prototypes to the Apollo’s Saturn V to the current SpaceX Crew Dragon, are rockets the only viable conveyance to reach outer space?

By: Ringo Bones

A few months before the Wright Brother’s first successful flight back in December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, space travel visionary Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published his work – including the pertinent mathematics - detailing how rockets would be necessary in space exploration. Fast forward to the successful SpaceX Crew Dragon docking with the International Space Station and the Falcon 9 rocket’s lower section successfully landing for reuse to slash the cost of reaching low earth orbit, are “Goddard style rockets” currently the only viable vehicles for space exploration in the foreseeable future?

Anyone old enough to remember the early successes of the McDonnell Douglas Delta Clipper Experimental DC-X single stage to orbit launch system would probably think that this kind of space vehicle – as in the classic “rocketship” – is the only viable way to explore space for the foreseeable future – that is until we can create a working Alcubierre style warp drive used by Zefram Cochran in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek. I mean, around the early 1990s when a suitable replacement for the NASA Space Shuttle fleet was already sought due to its cost and safety issues, it seems that the upstart DC-X single stage to orbit upstart was seen as the most promising replacement for the NASA Space Shuttle fleet – that any potential space vehicle that’s a cross between an airplane and a rocketship – i.e. a space vehicle that can reach low earth orbit but can take-off and land on a conventional 10,000-foot runaway like a passenger jet – was inevitably seen as a “technological dead end”. I mean probably anyone old enough to remember the successes of the McDonnell Douglas DCX single stage to orbit launch vehicle back in the first half of the 1990s would probably state that the design is probably what “influenced” Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon combo.

Then came 9/11 and in the intervening years on what rogue states are capable of or are willing to do. Imagine a crew of astronauts landing in hostile territory and eventually taken hostage by a terror group or a rogue state just because a ballistic computer malfunction had sent them to land in “unfriendly territory”. Such a nightmare scenario gained an air of plausibility when back in April 19, 2008 a Soyuz TMA capsule carrying South Korea’s first astronaut Yi So-yeon, Commander Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenachenko got almost 300 miles off course due to a malfunctioning ballistic computer.

Maybe NASA should work with Richard Branson in order to make a version of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo that could reach the International Space Station given that the SpaceShipOne can be controlled aerodynamically to land in a more or less conventional airport runway. I mean a design like the SpaceShipTwo is less likely to get off course and crash in a Taliban controlled territory in Afghanistan compared to the Soyuz TMA capsule returning from the International Space Station.

Crew Dragon: Most Eagerly Anticipated Space Mission?

Given that it finally regained NASA’s ability to launch space missions from American soil, was the Crew Dragon launch the most eagerly anticipated space mission for more than a decade?

By: Ringo Bones

Since the NASA’s fleet of Space Shuttles has been retired back in 2011, it seems that the United States has lost its ability to launch crewed missions into the International Space Station and return them safely using launch systems on American soil. NASA has, for almost a decade, became dependent on the Russian Soyuz launch system as the only way to send American and other astronauts to the ISS and back. But could a private space start-up by Elon Musk provide a more cost effective and safer alternative?

Since the private space transportation company was established back in 2002, Elon Musk’s SpaceX primary mission was to provide launch systems that can make space missions make fiscal sense to be economically viable enough to make space industry – and even space tourism – a reality. And since the NASA Space Shuttle fleet was retired in 2011, it only spurred on SpaceX’s plans to provide a suitable new and improved launch system.

With the successful SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A back in May 30, 2020 with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley onboard. The crew successfully docked to the International Space Station back in June 1, 2020 and with a reusable and returnable lower stage, it seems that Elon Musk’s system could prove to be a cheaper and safer alternative to NASA’s now retired Space Shuttle program – and even the existing Russian Soyuz launch system.

Farewell Katherine Johnson

Could the United States have won the so-called space race against the then Soviet Union without the help of NASA's African-American mathematician Katherine Johnson and her team?

By Ringo Bones

Fortunately, she got her due credit while still alive given that her most important mathematical works were done during Jim Crow era America. As of February 24, 2020, former NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, also known as Katherine Goble passed away in Newport News, Virginia. Born in August 25, 1918 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, USA became well known as America’s NASA mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics during her employment at NASA were critical to the success of the first and subsequent manned spaceflights.

Katherine Johnson was better known to the generation born after the Apollo moon missions as the NASA African-American mathematician portrayed by Taraji P. Henson in the 2016 movie Hidden Figures about a group of trailblazing African American women mathematicians employed by NASA during the start of America’s Civil Rights movement at the start of the 1960s. Although Katherine Johnson’s mathematical work began earlier in the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics / NACA – the predecessor of NASA – back in 1953. Before being made famous by the movie Hidden Figures in 2016, Katherine Johnson was awarded with the Presidential Medal of freedom – America’s highest civilian honor – by President Barack Obama in 2015.

During the early days of programmable digital computers – whose active components of which were still largely made with subminiature vacuum tubes first manufactured during 1947 – astronauts were not exactly keen on putting their lives in the care of these early electronic calculating machines, which were prone to hiccups and blackouts according to NASA. So pioneering astronaut John Glenn asked the NASA engineers to “get the girl” – referring to Katherine Johnson to run the computer equations by hand for improved reliability. Johnson and her team of African American women mathematicians did vital work for NASA that eventually made the United States won the space race by successfully landing the first men on the moon and  taking them back safely to earth before President John F. Kennedy’s end of the 1960s deadline.

Japanese Billionaire Seeks Date To Fly With Him To The Moon: One Giant Step For Space Tourism?

Even though it had become the romantic gesture of the moment, does a Japanese billionaire seeking a date for his lunar jaunt represent a one giant step for space tourism?

By: Ringo Bones

His name is Yusaku Maezawa and he is a 44 year old Japanese billionaire fashion mogul who back in January 13, 2020 is seeking for a date to accompany him on a round trip to the moon on a SpaceX rocket by 2023 – maybe the three years preparation includes the spaceflight training for the lucky woman. The lucky woman will be selected via a TV reality dating show. The requirements are she must be single over 20 years of age and has a positive disposition. But whatever the outcome will be, it could represent a “giant leap” when it comes to making space tourism that much affordable for the rest of us.

Before the Douglas DC 3 went into service, it was the very rich who were subsidizing the cost of civil aviation between World War I and World War II. Given that Elon Musk has yet to create a DC 3 equivalent of a space vehicle that could make space tourism affordable for the masses, it is up to the world’s billionaires to foot up the bill for R n’D ing space vehicles whose ticket prices mere mortals can afford.