Forward Biased

Goodbye, Atlantis

 

…and all shuttles forever.

Now, this is what 375,ooo pounds of thrust looks like.

Hooo-ly cow.

As yet we have no replacement way to launch anything except to use Russian Soyuz vehicles.

(Photo of Atlantis actually taken on 2 Dec 1988 during STS-27. Via Space.com.)

This is, too, from another perspective, aloft over the Florida spaceport in a Shuttle Training Aircraft, astronaut Stephen R. Nagel snapped this incredible shot of Columbia beginning STS-52 on 22 Oct 1992.  (Same source.)

Bob Pease is gone

We’ve lost a true legend in analog electronics.  Each of us probably has, or should have, a couple of his books, and has read countless articles of his.  As Staff Scientist at National Semiconductor Corp., that industry giant was shaped by his influence for a very long time.

Electronic Design magazine has an excellent memoir by Richard Gawel here.  If it requires registration or is otherwise a problem to read, googling “Bob Pease” will bring a flood of returns.

We were fortunate enough to have him for 70 years, but 70 more would have been much better.