Weightless at last
Posted in "cosmonaut training", Russia, logistics, space travel on Jan 21st, 2009 1 Comment »
In which I experience weightlessness for the fifth time.
Archive for the 'space travel' Category
I can see clearly now
Posted in "cosmonaut training", logistics, space travel on Jan 11th, 2009 No Comments »
wherein I learn to appreciate home….
The NASA report
Posted in "cosmonaut training", Russia, Uncategorized, space travel on Jan 5th, 2009 No Comments »
I paged through the NASA report on the last moments of the Columbia crew’s lives this weekend. The main report, published way back in August 2003, focused on what went wrong with the mission (and how it could be prevented). Basically, some insulation fell off and poked a hole in the spacecraft. This report […]
Bike update: Snow gets in your tires
Posted in "cosmonaut training", space travel on Dec 30th, 2008 No Comments »
Snow gets in your tires
They asked me how I knew my black bike was true,
I of course replied, something here inside cannot be denied.
They said someday you’ll find all who ride are blind,
When your legs’re on fire, you must realize,
Snow gets in your tires.
So I chaffed and then I gaily laughed,
To think that they could […]
Getting around - and outside - Star City
Posted in "cosmonaut training", Russia, space travel on Dec 29th, 2008 No Comments »
How to get around Star City – and outside of it? It’s actually quite a large place, and I haven’t seen most of it. There is one main gate, as far as I know, that sits about 200 meters from the “elektrickhka,” an electric suburban train that goes into Moscow. You can also […]
New Year’s resolution: a public declaration
Posted in Uncategorized, space travel, the industry on Dec 27th, 2008 No Comments »
Most New Year’s resolutions *begin* on New Year’s Day, but there’s no real completion date, and the resolutions are usually vague. I prefer to make my resolutions about what I will accomplish *before* New Year’s, even though some years I have to stretch it to December 32 or even later.
This year, my resolution […]
Star City blog: Day 1 = another Day 0
Posted in space travel on Oct 28th, 2008 No Comments »
Well, I’m back! I took a week off after the first Day 1 (or week 1, of medical tests) to take care of business in the US: paperwork and collecting medical files on the weekend, the Personal Genome Project on Monday in Boston, a colonoscopy and a gastroscopy, a heart calcium scan and […]
Back to (flight) school!
Posted in space travel on Oct 7th, 2008 No Comments »
I’m about to go into training in Moscow as a backup astronaut, shadowing Charles Simonyi. The press release from Space Adventures is here.
I started this blog a couple of years ago in honor of “Flight School,” the name of my annual conference for entrepreneurs in air and space. Last June, we canceled this […]
Flight School 08 RIP. Long live Flight School 09!
Posted in Uncategorized, finance, logistics, marketing, on-demand air, space travel, the industry on Apr 25th, 2008 No Comments »
I’ve just finished writing to all the speakers and signed-up participants for this year’s Flight School, announcing its cancellation. Please stand by for Flight School 2009!
It’s incredibly frustrating to do this, but we (Imaginova and I) just weren’t signing up a critical mass of participants, despite a great speaker list. […]
Xcor announcement – the 74-mile view
Posted in space travel on Apr 6th, 2008 No Comments »
[Disclosure/context: I’m an investor in Xcor, the company that announced its Lynx rocket-powered, two-person vehicle last week.]
Last month I was invited to give the outsider’s perspective at XCOR’s press conference announcing the Lynx, which was fully covered elsewhere, including the Wall Street Journal and WIRED. Here’s what I said (slightly […]