Armadillo Aerospace lunar lander qualification flight.
The future of lunar landers (Video)
Previous post: Aircraft OSs
Next post: Knowing where the accident hotspots are
About the Editor
Matthew Stibbe is CEO of Articulate Marketing and Turbine, the easy, online way to deal with office paperwork. He writes the Bad Language blog and the Forbes Aviator column. He has a CPL/IR and flies a Cirrus SR-22.
Airport Guides
Find the best golf courses, hotels, bars, restaurants and attractions near airports with our free online airport guides. Detailed airport info and listings for pilots.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Something about rockets never ceases to amaze me. The precision of this is unbelievable, I know it's necessary but it still makes me shake my head in wonder.
This is utterly cool. It also highlights the fact that it took 40 years to get a machine to do what a crew of two did by hand in a crude aircraft over an alien landscape far away from home on July 21st, 1969. Which makes the first moon landing in Apollo 11 an even more momentous achievement in perspective.
Back on Earth, drones have already replaced military pilots for some type of missions, and space exploration seems to be headed in that direction too. All for good reasons certainly. Reducing costs and sparing human lives.
However I can't help but be saddened by she shrinking domain of flying activities that still require human pilots. My belief is that we'll soon see pilot-less freight airplanes moving parcels over our heads while we're sleeping. Pilot-less passenger airplanes face a harder acceptance challenge, but if the price is right and the regulator can be convinced this may become the low-cost carrier model of the future.
Once thing though sets human pilots apart from their electric counterparts: all the fun and excitement we experience in the cockpit. And machines cannot take that away from us.