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Military Uses of the American Space Shuttle
There was originally supposed to be a “blue” (Air Force) Shuttle. Military missions benefit from retrograde orbits, so there was originally supposed to be a west coast launch facility (Vandenberg) as well. The shuttle was saddled with large cross-range landing requirements which were entirely due to the DoD’s involvement (and never used). The STS was used for several DoD payloads…
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Hasekura Tsunenaga: 1571–1622?
A replica of the Japanese-built galleon San Juan Bautista, in Ishinomaki, Japan. December 1613. A samurai retainer from northern Japan stands on the deck of his ship as it clips along, sails billowing in the wind. For centuries, craft of all kinds have ferried passengers, troops and trade goods around…
Vitus Jonassen Bering I
RCHKG8 Fur Traders of the Russian-American Company. Museum: State Central Navy Museum, St. Petersburg. Author: Pshenichny, Igor Pavlovich. On November 5, 1724, Peter the Great waded waist-deep into the icy waters of the Gulf of Finland to help rescue some sailors whose boat had capsized. Fever and chills followed, later…
Vitus Jonassen Bering II
Post-mortem reconstruction of Vitus Jonassen Bering’s face. On July 14, 1728 – three and a half years after leaving St. Petersburg – Bering’s newly constructed ship, the St. Gabriel, stocked with enough food to sustain its crew of forty for a year, sailed from the mouth of the Kamchatka River.…
Muslims in the Indian Ocean I
The Dhow is not an Arab ship, it is a veritable family of vessels sharing common characteristics, such as the hull, large (about 4 to 1), with straight cut lines, with three masterpieces whose bow, long and the keel, and the stern, less inclined, and one or two masts carrying…
Muslims in the Indian Ocean II
Piri Reis’ Book on Navigation (Kitab-i Bahriyye) Grose also approved of the coir rigging: ‘more harsh and intractable than what is produced from hemp’, but they lasted longer than hemp in salt water. Even the cotton sails were fine: true, they were not as strong as European canvas, but they…
Military Uses of the American Space Shuttle
There was originally supposed to be a “blue” (Air Force) Shuttle. Military missions benefit from retrograde orbits, so there was originally supposed to be a west coast launch facility (Vandenberg) as well. The shuttle was saddled with large cross-range landing requirements which were entirely due to the DoD’s involvement (and…