Archive for September, 2008
Privately-launched rockets = cool
In my last post lamenting the state of government activity in the space program, I mentioned SpaceX. Little did I know that shortly after I wrote that post, SpaceX made the first successful launch into orbit by a privately-funded company. WOW! This is a landmark achievement, and I look forward to seeing more successes from [...]
China in Space – This is BIG!
I personally don’t believe a recent news story has received nearly enough attention: on Saturday, 27 September 2008 a Chinese astronaut made a successful spacewalk from a Chinese craft. HOLY ****! Why do I say this? In less than two years the Space Shuttles are scheduled to be retired, leaving the United States without the [...]
Cambridge MBA – My first week
This last week was an incredibly busy, invigorating, slightly frustrating but incredibly enjoyable week. I’m guessing that it’s pretty much par for the course for a typical MBA program, but it was still great to experience. First impressions? LOTS and LOTS of information; stacks and stacks of forms, papers, passwords, cards and the like. Doing [...]
Getting ready for the Singapore F1 Grand Prix
I promise that I’ll post more on my first few days at Cambridge shortly. Suffice it to say that it’s been busy, fascinating, invigorating, but with hints of a typical English paperwork hell. I just saw this video via the Times Online (the F1 blog) and had to share it. It’s a hilarious parody advert [...]
Hazards in pushing the envelope
Pushing the envelope can be a very dangerous business. This is even more true in the aerospace industry. There is a company in California that I have always admired: Scaled Composites. Burt Rutan and his team have built some of the most interesting aircraft ever. (My favorite being the Boomerang.) Their most high profile project [...]
RIP Richard Wright: 1943-2008
Richard Wright, the keyboardist for Pink Floyd, died today of cancer. While I wasn’t part of the generation that grew up with Pink Floyd, I certainly grew up listening to them. (The only album I bought when it first came out was The Division Bell.) My first honest-to-goodness rock concert was seeing them in the [...]
Today’s thoughts
I mentioned in an earlier post that I’ve been reading and re-reading Meditations, the diary/book written by Marcus Aurelius. Lately I’ve gone back to keeping it in my bag more often and reading bits of it on the Tube/train each day. Every time I read it I’m reminded of things that I want to do [...]
Heading to Cambridge to get my MBA
I’m very happy to announce that I’m off to Cambridge to get my MBA, starting in just a few short weeks. And not Cambridge, Massachusetts; I’m off to the original Cambridge, in the UK. As a bit of background, the University of Cambridge is the second-oldest English speaking university in the world, having been founded [...]