Author Archives: Gray Rinehart

Maybe We Should’ve Been Indelicate

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[Grain of salt statement: This is something of a rant. It is my unqualified opinion, as I’m not an oil man and the only floating oil rig I’ve ever been on had been converted to a space launch platform. This post is for entertainment and stress-relief purposes only: primarily my own entertainment and stress relief.]

I fail to understand why British Petroleum hasn’t written off the failed Deepwater Horizon as a total loss and taken steps to entomb it forever in order to stop it from leaking. Instead, it seems to me, they’ve been working hard to save their equipment and preserve this particular access point by trying small-scale, piecemeal fixes. (Here’s a nice article about some of the methods they’ve tried.)

Note that I don’t fault them for their statements to the press or misunderstanding the magnitude of the problem. Long ago I learned from one of my commanders that in the first hours of any major crisis, nothing is correct. Nothing you know, and usually nothing you do, will be correct until the situation begins to sort itself out.

So I understand that the first thing for BP to do was to try to activate the so-called “blowout preventer” — the device that was supposed to keep a disaster like this from ever happening. But once that failed, and especially once the amount of oil emerging from the well was known to be far greater than anticipated, it seems it was time to stop pussyfooting around and squash the thing like an undersea bug.

The nearest metaphor I can come up with is that the Deepwater Horizon wellhead is like a coffee straw sticking out of a Dixie cup at the bottom of a really deep swimming pool, and we’ve been trying to plug that straw by dropping grains of sand into it. The objective should have been to leave the thing sunk and bury it forever.

I understand that forced-in drilling mud (which is a special mineral slurry used in oil extraction) could overcome the well pressure and stop the flow, and I understand that now they’re drilling relief wells (see this article) in order to pump in mud and eventually concrete, but those are delicate operations at a time when brute force seems necessary.

Maybe we — BP and all of us — should’ve been indelicate. It seems to me that we have seen too much footage of smart bombs going through windows, and have forgotten (or no longer believe) that sometimes overwhelming force is required to solve an intractable problem.

Why not drop something big and cylindrical like a farm silo down over the thing, right over the blowout preventer, stand it up on the ocean floor and dump concrete in it until the concrete spills over the top. If that doesn’t stop the oil from coming out — if the oil bubbles up through the concrete as it’s setting — build a bigger cylinder and drop that over the first one and fill it up, and so on until the thing is encased in as many cubic yards of concrete as it takes to stop it from leaking into the ocean. If we have to build a five-hundred-foot-tall mountain of concrete on the ocean floor to seal the thing up, it seems a lot better than hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil spreading across the water.

They could’ve cut their losses, learned a big lesson, and moved on to the next project. Instead, we’re all learning some much more difficult lessons ….

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First U.S. Spacewalk: Ed White Steps Out of Gemini-IV

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Forty-five years ago today — June 3, 1965 — astronauts James A. McDivitt and Edward H. White launched from Cape Canaveral on a Titan-II rocket.


(Ed White on the first U.S. spacewalk. NASA image.)

A little over four hours into the flight, Ed White stepped out of the Gemini-IV capsule for the first-ever extravehicular activity (EVA) by a U.S. astronaut. His EVA lasted about 20 minutes and met all the mission objectives, though he and McDivitt had some trouble getting the hatch closed when he got back in the spacecraft.

Some great high-resolution images of the EVA are available at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/gemini_4_eva.html.

McDivitt and White stayed in orbit for four days. One interesting side note to the mission was a famous UFO sighting by McDivitt while White was sleeping, of an object shaped “like a beer can with an arm sticking out”; it is likely he saw the second stage of their Titan-II. The claim is disputed by UFO enthusiasts, but the 1981 article by James Oberg linked above asks,

Is any conclusion possible after so many years, when the supporting evidence has been trashed and the eyewitness testimony has become fossilized by countless repetitions? The principal leg of the [UFO enthusiasts’] endorsement — that there weren’t any candidate objects within 1,000 miles — has been demolished by the recognized presence of the beer can-shaped Titan-II stage. McDivitt, more than a decade after the fact, refused to believe he could have misidentified that object — but both his degraded eyesight [because of issues in the Gemini capsule] and different viewing angle at the time of the sighting eliminate any reliability from that claim — and years of UFO research have taught us the surprising lesson that pilots are, in truth, among the poorest observers of UFOs because of their instinctive pattern of perceiving visual stimuli primarily in terms of threats to their own vehicles.

As to that last bit, about pilots perceiving objects as threats until proven otherwise … that’s probably a good thing. And possibly a lesson we could apply to other endeavors.

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Another Space Shuttle Precursor Flies

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Forty years ago today — June 2, 1970 — NASA test pilot William H. “Bill” Dana flew the Northrop M2-F3 lifting body on its first flight.


(M2-F3 lifting body on the dry lakebed at Edwards AFB. NASA image.)

The M2-F3 was one of a series of lifting bodies flown by NASA and the USAF to test spacecraft reentry. On this flight, it was dropped from its B-52 mothership and Dana glided it to an unpowered landing on the dry lake bed at Edwards AFB, much the way Shuttle pilots glide their vehicle back to Earth.

The M2-F3 was rebuilt from the crashed M2-F2, with a center stabilizer added to reduce the pilot-induced oscillations that had caused the M2-F2 landing mishap. Powered flights of the rocket-equipped M2-F3 eventually took it up to Mach 1.6 and over 70,000 feet of altitude.

On a personal note, I wish I had known more of this history back in the late 1980s, so I could have asked Mr. Dana some pertinent questions when I met him at Edwards.

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Mapping the Universe … in X-Rays

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Twenty years ago today — June 1, 1990 — the US-UK-German Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT) launched from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II.


(X-ray image of Comet Hyakutake, taken by ROSAT’s High Resolution Imager. NASA image.)

True to its namesake, ROSAT was an X-ray observatory, designed to last 18 months and to conduct both a full survey of the sky and detailed observations of points of interest. The mission far exceeded expectations, as the spacecraft operated into 1999. ROSAT not only discovered X-ray emissions from comets, as seen in the image above, but specifically observed emissions from the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy on Jupiter.

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Another Apollo Boilerplate Mission

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Forty-five years ago today — May 25, 1965 — NASA launched Apollo boilerplate mission BP-26 from Cape Canaveral. This mission, like the previous mission in February, carried a satellite experiment.


(Launch of Pegasus-2, 3:35 a.m. EDT, May 25, 1965. NASA image.)

The Pegasus 2, like its predecessor, had large wings that detected impacts from micrometeoroids. The boilerplate Apollo command and service module acted as a protective shroud over the Pegasus experiment during launch.

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Infrared Space Surveillance, a Half Century Ago

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Fifty years ago today — May 24, 1960 — the Midas-2 spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas booster.


(The “launch cover” for Midas-2. Click to enlarge. Image from http://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/dev/hillger/military-wx.htm. Note the price of the postage.)

Midas-2 was the first satellite to carry an experimental IR surveillance payload into orbit. (The Midas-1 launch attempt in February 1960 failed because of a problem with the booster.)

The Air Force’s “Missile Defense Alarm System” proceeded through a series of launches to test gradually more powerful detectors, but did not produce workable missile warning satellite coverage. However, the technical lessons from Midas launches were applied to the Defense Support Program series of missile warning spacecraft: the very same DSP satellites that provide launch detection today.

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NC Aerospace Aspirations: Report from the Aerospace Executive Forum

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The state of North Carolina intends to be a “world-class player” in the aerospace and defense sectors, as Governor Beverly Perdue said yesterday at the “Aerospace Executive Forum” in New Bern.

I was privileged to attend the forum, which was the third such event put on by the North Carolina Department of Commerce. The Commerce team did a great job organizing everything; the event seemed to run perfectly.

The forum actually began with a reception Thursday evening. I am not a very gregarious person, but I enjoyed conversations with several colleagues and new acquaintances — and the food was superb.

On Friday morning, NC Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco welcomed everyone and we heard from several industry leaders:

  • Colonel Scott Loch, the commander of Fleet Readiness Center East,
  • Rick Davis, Spirit AeroSystems operations director, and
  • Ray Jones, CEO of VX Aerospace and President of the NC Aerospace Alliance.

I’m humbled that Ray singled me out by name with respect to our work at the North Carolina Aerospace Initiative to characterize R&D needs and capabilities throughout the state. (Want to help us? If you’re part of an aerospace company, take our R&D survey!)

After the first round of speakers, the attendees chose between three breakout sessions: workforce, military-related business opportunities, and R&D collaborations. I helped facilitate the third session, along with UNC Associate VP of Economic Development, Policy and Planning, Leslie Boney. We didn’t have as many industry participants as I would’ve liked, and I probably talked more than I should have, but in all I thought our session went well.

Senator Kay Hagan started off the keynote session. She spoke about the importance of aerospace to the economy and of her efforts to promote job growth — two things that go very well together. After Senator Hagan, Kimberly Gavaletz of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics gave a terrific presentation about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. She pointed out something that I’ve talked about for years: our tendency to be risk-averse and, because of it, to miss opportunities. The key to success, she said, is to know the risks and manage them.

Finally, Governor Perdue spoke on “A Vision for the Aerospace Industry in North Carolina.” She challenged Secretary Crisco and his team to produce a systemic plan, with timelines and deliverables, to ensure North Carolina is “positioned to excel” in aerospace. She charged them:

  • to ensure we have a robust and sustainable aerospace workforce,
  • to expand opportunities and relationships for aerospace companies in the state, and
  • to increase efforts to recruit aerospace companies to North Carolina

— and she laid out an ambitious schedule, asking for an interim report in six months and to have the complete strategy presented in a year.

Governor Perdue hearkened back to the Wright brothers and their “big dream,” and she challenged the attendees also to dream big — but I got the impression that she will only be satisfied if we can take action to reach the dreams. She said we are “deadly serious” about succeeding in becoming an aerospace state.

And because of my role in the NC Aerospace Initiative, it sounds as if I may be pretty busy over the next few months….

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Spektr: Demilitarized Space Station Zone

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Fifteen years ago today — May 20, 1995 — the Russian Spektr (“spectrum”) module launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Proton-K rocket.


(Mir space station, photographed from STS-81. The Spektr module is in the upper right, with the two straight and two angled solar arrays. NASA image.)

Spektr was originally designed as a military outpost for surveillance and anti-missile experiments. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the module was grounded until U.S.-Russian cooperative missions began in the mid-90s. The Russians removed their military hardware, refurbished the module, and installed additional solar panels and several U.S. experiment packages, in what might be thought of as the space age equivalent of beating a sword into a plowshare.

Spektr was mated to the Mir space station and served as an experimental laboratory and crew quarters for U.S. astronauts until it was damaged by a Progress resupply ship in 1997. Mir residents closed off the damaged module and eventually succeeded in routing power cables from its solar arrays into the interior of the station. Because of an air leak that was never located, however, the Spektr module could not be occupied again.

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ATLANTIS at the Space Station, a Decade Ago

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Ten years ago today — May 19, 2000 — the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center on mission STS-101.


(Launch of STS-101. NASA image.)

Astronauts James D. Halsell, Jr., Scott J. Horowitz, Mary Ellen Weber, Jeffrey N. Williams, James S. Voss, and Susan J. Helms, along with cosmonaut Yuri V. Usachev, carried the SPACEHAB module into orbit and took part in International Space Station Assembly Flight ISS-2A.2a. They installed new equipment, delivered a ton of supplies, and made repairs to the station.

And today, of course, Atlantis is taking part in another space station mission at this very moment: installing equipment, delivering supplies, and making repairs. Its current mission also happens to be the last scheduled mission for Atlantis.

We look forward to a successful conclusion and a graceful retirement for shuttle Atlantis.

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Sputnik-4, the Controversial Manned Spaceflight Pathfinder

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Fifty years ago today — May 15, 1960 — the Soviet Union launched Sputnik-4 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The mission was designed to test the systems for launching men into space, but sources conflict about the design and operational details. It is clear that Sputnik-4 was launched by a modified SS-6 ‘Sapwood’ intercontinental ballistic missile, the same rocket that would become known (if it wasn’t already) as the Vostok. But spacecraft details vary.

Sputnik-4’s mass is listed on the National Space Science Data Center page (above) as 1477 kg, but this fascinating page, complete with detailed illustration, lists its mass as over 4500 kg. Some sources say the spacecraft carried a pressurized cabin in which sat an instrumented mannequin, others that it only carried a mock-up of the manned cabin.

The sources agree that the orbiting spacecraft malfunctioned when its retro rockets fired while the vehicle was oriented incorrectly. Instead of descending into the Earth’s atmosphere, it was actually boosted into a higher orbit. The effect of the malfunction became the subject of some controversy, as the spacecraft did not re-enter the atmosphere where it was supposed to. It is said to have de-orbited in October 1965, but this Wikipedia page mentions that debris from the spacecraft impacted in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in September 1962.

But the biggest controversy about this launch is the theory that it contained a living person rather than a mannequin or mock-up. Radio calls were apparently overheard between the spacecraft and the ground that had the character of distress calls, but they were attributed to taped transmissions meant to test the communications equipment.

This final controversy also includes an unlikely witness: author Robert A. Heinlein, the science fiction Grand Master.

This Wikipedia page about the so-called ‘lost cosmonauts’ reminded me that Heinlein had been touring the Soviet Union in the same timeframe as this launch (and of Francis Gary Powers’s crash in his U-2). Of course I pulled my copy of Expanded Universe down off the shelf to find this tidbit in the article “‘Pravda’ Means ‘Truth'”:

I am sure of this: At noon on May 15 a group of Red Army cadets were unanimously positive that the rocket was manned. That pravda did not change until later that afternoon.

You must decide on your own, of course, if you believe the official version.

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