The Stars My Destination: Elliot See & Charles Bassett

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—In Memoriam Elliot See & Charlie Bassett
Fifty-seven years ago to the day, 28 February 1966, Mister Elliot McKay See Junior & Major Charles Arthur Bassett II, U.S.A.F., died when their T-38 Talon crashed into the McDonnell Aircraft factory in foggy conditions; See had been selected as part of N.A.S.A. Astronaut Group 2 in September 1962, Bassett as part of N.A.S.A. Astronaut Group 3 in October 1963.

The Wayback Machine Tour of Elliot See & Charles Bassett
The Explorers' Club, № DCCCII

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: In Memoriam
The Phenomenauts, "Heroes" from For All Mankind (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Requiescat in pace.

The Stars My Destination: Crew-6 Scrub

In the wee hours of this morning, 27 February 2023, the launch of the Crew Dragon Endeavour (Dragon C206) from Florida's Kennedy Space Center's LC-39A atop a Falcon 9 rocket was scrubbed two minutes before engine ignition (T minus 02:12) due to an issue with the ignitor fluid necessary to ignite the Falcon 9's nine Merlin engines. This scrub is not inherently alarming: spaceflight is difficult, crewed spaceflight even moreso, & scrubbed launches are a part of the process. This was the first scrub of a Crew Dragon launch attempt due to problems with the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. The initial attempted launch of Demo-2 on 27 May 2020 was scrubbed due to weather conditions, before the successful lauch on 30 May of that baleful year.

Assuming the ignitor issues are resolved, the next lauch attempt will be in the wee hours of Thursday, 2 March.

The Wayback Machine Tour of Launch America
2020
Demo-2 Launch & Demo-2 Splashdown
Crew-1 Launch, Crew-1 Relocation, & Crew-1 Splashdown
2021
Crew-2 Launch & Crew-2 Splashdown
Inspiration4 Launch & Splashdown
Crew-3 Launch & Crew-3 Splashdown
2022
Ax-1 Launch & Splashdown
Crew-4 Launch & Crew-4 Splashdown
Crew-5 Launch

Ad astra per aspera.

The Explorers' Club, № CMXXXV

Operation AXIOM: The 30th Anniversary of the World Trade Center Bombing
26 February 1993: A rental van packet with explosives, parked beneath the North Tower of the World Trade Center, was detonated; seven persons were killed in the explosion & more than a thousand wounded; the bombing did not cause the North Tower to collapse into the South Tower, as the jihadist bombers had hoped; mastermind Ramzi Yousef was captured in 1995 & convicted in 1996.

Commentary: If the bombing had succeeded as the jihadists had planned & one tower had collapsed into the other, it would have been a worse mass-casualty attack than 9/11, because there would not have been any time to evacuate either tower.

Lest we forget.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the I Sunday of Lent

The First Sunday of Lent
For King & Country, "Middle of Your Heart" from Crave (Penitent Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: "Middle of Your Heart" is not a particularly Lent-y song, but I woke up this morning with it running through my noggin, which is everywhere & always the preferred method for selecting the R.B.D.S.O.T.D.

Bonus! Song o' Trivia Night

Project MERCATOR
Jonathan Winters, "Too Smart for the Room" from Crank Calls (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: Trivia Night @ Saint Matthew Catholic Church, tonight in downtown Flint!

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Better Late than Never | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

"Weird Al" Yankovic, "It's All about the Pentiums" from Running with Scissors (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Lenten Fish Fry

Dropkick Murphys, "Captain Kelly's Kitchen" from The Warrior's Code (Mike Papa Whitebait)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the War

Golem, "Train Across Ukraine" from Citizen Boris (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Operation AXIOM: The 1st Anniversary of the Russian Re-invasion of Ukraine
One year ago to the day, 24 February 2022, ground, air, & naval forces of the Russian Federation crossed the frontiers of both Russia & Belarus into Ukraine, a thrust aimed at capturing Kyiv & decapitating the Ukrainian government. The Kremlin's aim has been clearly stated, to erase the Ukrainian national identity & re-absorb the country into their sphere of influence, the Russkiy mir ("Russian world" & "Russian peace," mir being a multivalent word).

The war is not our fault, the war is the fault of Russian strongman Vladimir Putin & his personalist authoritarian regime. But we failed to deter Putin & we are to blame for our fecklessness. Putin, as prime minister under President Boris Yeltsin, cemented his legitimacy by re-invading Chechnya in 1999, returing the breakaway region to Moscow's control; we did nothing, despite the brutality of the Russian invasion. In 2008, Putin's Russia (at the time, he was prime minister under President Dmitri Medvedev) invaded Georgia, establishing a permanent military presence inside Georgia within the breakaway republics of Abkhazia & South Ossetia; we did nothing. In 2014 (when Joe Biden was vice president of the United States), Putin's Russia invaded Ukraine, illegally annexing the Crimean Peninsula & beginning an insurrgency in the Donbas; we did nothing. In the run-up to 2022's re-invasion of Ukraine, President Biden spent more time ruling out potential American responses than threatening an effective American response; that this utterly failed to deter the invasion became lamentably undeniable on 24 February last year.

Russia invaded the Ukraine, again, one year ago today, 24 February 2022.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Better Late than Never | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

Reel Big Fish, "Cheer Up" from Cheer Up! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Cheer up, it's only the second day of Lent.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Ash Wednesday

Alan Powell, "Chasing after the Wind" from The Song Album: Music from the Motion Picture (Sinner Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: Our Lenten self-denial is meant to open our eyes to the emptiness, the vanity of worldly pursuits.

"Why have everything?
You're leaving here with nothin',
Can't take anything
'Cause you have to move on…

"Why should you be
If no one's there to see?
All of your deeds
Are raindrops in the sea.
What do we mean
If nothing has meaning?
If in the end
We're chasing after wind?…

"Why should I be
If nothing has made me?
All that I've done,
The flame I wear, the sun,
Why should I sing
If nothing has meaning?"

Pray. Fast. Give alms. Die to self—to selfishness, to self-centeredness—& come alive in Christ.

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Ash Wednesday Edition

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 340.0 lbs (Wednesday,1 February)
This weigh-in: 342.2 lbs.
Difference: +2.2 lbs.

I haven't been living the asceticism pillar of Exodus 90 (prayer, ascenticism, fraternity), but instead living a personal carnival.

Bonus! Lied von ÖSTERREICH
Fountains of Wayne, "Bright Future in Sales" from Welcome Interstate Managers (Mike Papa Whale)

Commentary:

"And if I make it home alive—

"I'm gonna get my shit together,
'Cause I can't live like this forever…"

Saints + Scripture: Ash Wednesday

Simplex Edition | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

The Explorers' Club, № CMXXXIV

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 62nd Anniversary of Mercury-Atlas 2
21 February 1961: Mercury-Atlas 2 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, carrying an unnamed Mercury capsule atop an Atlas LV-3B rocket; the booster had been reinforced & the suborbital flight flew a more shallow trajectory than Mercury-Atlas 1, to reduce the maximum dynamic pressure (max Q); the capsule withstood the simulated abort re-entry & splashed down in the Atlantic.

Commentary: I freely admit that I made a dunderheaded mistake, a blunder so obvious that it took me forever to see the thing right before my eyes: Gus Grissom's Mercury-Redstone 4 was followed by Enos the Astrochimp's Mercury-Atlas 5 & my mind, enchanted by four naturally following five, was slow to recognize that this was a coincidence not a sequence. There were four Mercury-Atlas test flights—both suborbital & orbital—before Mercury-Atlas 5, conducted in parallel with the suborbital Mercury-Redstone test flights. This year, as we mark the sixtieth annivesary of the final Mercury flight, Gordon Cooper's day-long Mercury-Atlas 9 in 1963, we aim to catch up on 1960-1961's four Mercury-Atlas test flights.

Semper exploro.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' Fat Tuesday

"Weird Al" Yankovic, "I Love Rocky Road" from "Weird Al" Yankovic (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: I'm an expert at feasting, but a persistent failure at fasting.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Better Late than Never | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

Spinal Tap, "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" from This Is Spinal Tap (Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the VII Sunday in O.T.

Better Late than Never | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

The Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
For King & Country, "Fix My Eyes" from Run Wild. Live Free. Love Strong. (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Explorers' Club, № CMXXXIII

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 54th Anniversary of the N1-3L Debacle
21 February 1969: N1-3L lifted off from from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome, the first test flight of an N1 rocket, carrying a Zond L1S-1 spacecraft; within seconds of liftoff, several of the thirty engines in the first stage malfunctioned; pogo oscillation ruptured fuel lines, starting a fire; the engine control system shut down the remaining first stage engines & the entire rocket crashed to earth.

Commentary: Pray pardon me for the delay in circling back to the first of the four failed flights of the N1. The Soviet Moonshot was doomed due to the late start of N1 development (October 1965), the early death of chief engineer Sergei Korolev (January 1966), & the petty rivalries between different Soviet design centers. After the cancellation of the Soviet lunar program in May 1974, the official U.S.S.R. line denied they had ever worked on a Moon landing program, not admitting the truth 'til the glasnost era (1990).

Before the end of 1969, the Soviets would suffer another N1 failure, N1-5L, which destroyed its own launch pad. Meanwhile, the Americans would have four triumphant Saturn V launches—Apollo 9, Apollo 10, Apollo 11, & Apollo 12—including three flights to & from lunar orbit, two Moon landings, & four Moonwalkers, definitively winning the Space Race.

Bonus! Destination Moon Song o' the Day: The N1-3L Debacle
Dennis McCarthy, "Out of Control / The Crash" from Star Trek Generations (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Wayback Machine Tour of the N1 Rocket
№ DCCLVII: The 51st Anniversary of the N1-5L Debacle
№ DCCCXXVI: The 50th Anniversary of the N1-6L Debacle
№ CMXVII: The 50th Anniversary of the N1-7L Debacle

Semper exploro.

Bonus! Song o' the Day

Spring Heeled Jack, "Jolene" from Songs from Suburbia (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Catchy! Not just catchy, but one of the catchiest openings of the whole era.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Eric Nally, Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, & Grandmaster Caz, "Downtown" from the Downtown single (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: Much of "Downtown" is simply silly fun, yet such is the fallen state of Mankind that much of the lyrical content is lewd. At the same time, there is something undeniably tender in these lines, sung by Eric Nally of Foxy Shazam:

"She has her arms around your waist,
With a balance that will keep her safe…"

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Better Late than Never | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

William Shatner featuring Joe Jackson, "Common People" from Has Been (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"'Cause everybody hates a tourist…"

Bonus! Song o' the Lenten Fish Fry

The Wombats, "Here Comes the Anxiety" from The Wombats Proudly Present A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation (Mike Papa Walleye)

Bonus! Song o' the Day

Soul Coughing, "Super Bon Bon" from Irresistable Bliss (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: YouTube-link.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Slow Gherkin, "Trapped Like Rats in Myers Flats" from Shed Some Skin (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Explorers' Club, № CMXXXII

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 51st Anniversary of Luna 20
14-25 February 1972: The Luna 20 probe lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton-K rocket; the probe landed on the Mare Fecunditatis—120 kilometers from Luna 16—collected soil samples, & sealed those samples inside an ascent stage, which lifted off from the Moon & landed back in the Kazakh S.S.R.; Luna 20 was the second Soviet lunar sample-return mission.

Commentary: Luna 20 returned thirty grams (30 g) of lunar soil samples, less than one-third of the mass of samples returned by Luna 16 in 1970. By contrast, Apollo 16, two months later in April 1972, returned almost ninety-six kilograms (95.7 kg, that's 95,700 g) of lunar samples.

Semper exploro.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day

Mike Hilliker & Melanie Rea, "Lord Have Mercy" from Mercy: Songs for Holy Week (Sinner Mike Papa Whiskey)

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Exodus 90 Edition

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 340.0 lbs

The Rebel Black Dot Song against Valentine's Day

"Weird Al" Yankovic, "Close but No Cigar" from Straight Outta Lynnwood (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"Jillian was her name,
She was sweeter than aspartame…
She was gorgeous, she was charming,
Yeah, she was perfect in every way,
Except she was always using the word "infer"
When she obviously meant "imply"
And I know some guys would put up with that kind of thing
But frankly, I can't imagine why.

"And I told her, I said,
'Hey, are we playing horseshoes, honey?
No, I don't think we are,
You're close, but no cigar'…

"Then I met sweet young Janet,
Prettiest thing on the planet…
She had a smile so incredibly radiant
You had to watch it through a piece of smoked glass,
I thought after all these years of searchin' around
I'd found my soul mate finally,
But one day I found out she actually owned a copy
Of Joe Dirt on DVD.

"Aw, no! I said,
'Hey, are we lobbing hand grenades, kiddo?'…

"Julie played water polo…
And did I mention she's a world famous billionaire
Bikini supermodel astrophysicist?
Yeah, she was so pretty she made Charlize Theron
Look like a big fat slobberin' pig,
The only caveat is one of her ear lobes
Was just a little tiny bit too big.

I said,
'Hey, are we doin' government work here?'…"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: In Memoriam

Burt Bacharach & The Posies, "What the World Needs Now Is Love" from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery—Original Sountrack (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: In Memoriam Burt Bacharach (12 May 1928-8 February 2023). Requiescat in pace.

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' the Day

Ross Lynch, "Not a Love Song" from Austin & Ally (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"I can't guess the meaning
When you don't say what you're feeling,
If you got a broken heart
You can punch me in the arm…

"I love the things you do,
It's how you do the things you love,
But it's not a love song,
Not a love song.
I love the way you get me,
But correct me if I'm wrong,
This is not a love song,
Not a love song…"

The Explorers' Club, № CMXXXI

Destination Moon
The LK spacecraft—The Lunniy korabyl ("Lunar Craft") was designed like the Apollo Lunar Module, with discrete descent & ascent stages, to land a single Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon & return him to lunar orbit; three uncrewed LKs flew test flights in low Earth orbit (Kosmos 379 in 1970 & Kosmos 398 & Kosmos 434 in 1971) & two boilerplate LKs were destroyed in the N1-6L & N1-7L launch failures.

Commentary: Welcome to "The Explorers' Club's" Soviet Lunar Program Week, episode I of III.

Semper exploro.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the VI Sunday in O.T.

Better Late than Never | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Meredith Andrews, "The Gospel Changes Everything" from the Behold Your Savior E.P. (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Day: In Memoriam

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "What the World Needs Now Is Love" from the What the World Needs Now Is Love single (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: In Memoriam Burt Bacharach (12 May 1928-8 February 2023). Requiescat in pace.

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' the Day

Go Sailor, "I'm Still Crying" from Go Sailor (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"I'm still crying and I don't know what to do,
I'm still trying to forget all about you.

"Soon enough I will be over you,
It won't matter where you are or what you do,
Someday I hope to forget that we ever met,
Just as soon as I'm through crying…"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: In Memoriam

The Hippos, "Always Something There to Remind Me" from Heads Are Gonna Roll (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: In Memoriam Burt Bacharach (12 May 1928-8 February 2023). Requiescat in pace.

The Rebel Black Dot Anti-Valentine's Song o' the Day

Taylor Swift, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" from Red (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: I made the mistake once of trying to remain friends with an ex-girlfriend. Once.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: In Memoriam

Fountains of Wayne, "Trains & Boats & Planes" from Out-of-State Plates (Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary: In Memoriam Burt Bacharach (12 May 1928-8 February 2023). Requiescat in pace.