University payloads aboard the Away 118 platform. Fly, Fly Fly, and when you do take everybody with you. Exploration belongs to everyone.

We're gearing up for Sub launch #5. A week away but still lots to do. This one will see the team of new JPA pilots getting there first time out.

Good Morning Earth! One from the Archives. Up top aboard Away 60.

We just got a very generous donation of a new support boat for the submarine. This is an Achilles SD-124 rescue boat. It needs a little TLC then it will be ready to support submarine operations

Engage! Little red wagon kicking in warp drive. (micro plasma engine test #115)

Some days I get to work on submarines, some day I get to work on spaceships. Today I got to work on a violin. This is my stunt violin. I found it buried and broken years ago in a thrift store. Then it needed quite a bit of patching. Today it just needed cleaning, a new bridge carved and tuning.

The NASA Scientific Ballooning Handbook 50th Anniversary Edition is out! It's amazing, it's free and it's here: ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20...

Tandem airship cruising at the edge of space.

Two balloons on a stick. Launch of the Tandem high-altitude airship.

Security Cows! All the security cams went off at our launch site. This means our crack team of security bovines are on the job at Area 42.

Submarine code update. We've completely rewritten the sensor display. It takes sensor data, logs it, evaluates it for actions then displays it. It also highlights anything significant (like a smoke sensor going off) & gives verbal warnings. 8 are fire and smoke sensors.

Mission start! We are in the planning stage for the flight of Away 136. It will fly this spring. A36 will be a high, fast climb vehicle. It will carry PongSats and test airship components at altitude. The pic is up top on the Away 120 mission.

We are experimenting with plastic coated nylon for structures on our airships. One of the best ways to learn about a material is to make something real out of it. We made a kayak! This was kit. The best part was it came with instruction, videos and tips on using the material.

Just a moment up top aboard the Away 47 mission. We really do live on a pretty nice planet. Let's be good to each other down there.

Video: youtu.be/2QzmxERwDRQ?... Recipe: magnets, electrodes, potassium, glowing nerf balls and 30 volts. The glowing magnetohydrodynamic thruster demo!

Our CNC machine is awake. Time to make some parts!

Our Hall Effect magnetohydrodynamic thruster in action.

translation: "Happy Monday!"

I'm working on a new tee shirt design. What do you think?

Hanging out with the Little Joe II in Houston two years back. An awesome, but largely forgotten rocket that played a critical role in heading to the moon.

New Video: youtu.be/KNYTQl8FYgA?... I added 30 seconds to video I just posted and put it up on YouTube.

Sometimes we work on the big ones, sometimes we work on the little ones.

Ascender 9 airship heading out.

New Video for New Years Eve: youtu.be/Ygexoz8W96s?... Just a minute and a half of images we're taken up top. It really is a beautiful place.

Submarine troubleshooting. Yesterday the sensor display on the sub showed it was at a depth of 500 feet & water temp was 2000 degrees F. Both unlikely while sitting in the shop. 2 hours later, after starting at the sensors & working inward, the culprit, a bent I2c pin was found.

When I want to look at the moon, I like to get a little closer. Up top on a JP Aerospace mission.

New Video: youtube.com/shorts/5DHYT... A 20 second cheeky summary of our Tandem edge of space airship.

Magnetohydrodynamic test firing #139. Nothing new on this one. This firing is part of a series to get base line data for the sensors. I love seeing the curls of the charged bits dancing around the edges.

New Video: youtube.com/shorts/0xB8D... "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood" Daniel Burnham

Ascender H1 airship in orbit. We've built 11 airships. I think we're three away from a space demonstrator.

Bridge Christmas! With the storm approaching I did my annual Christmas eve trek across the Golden Gate Bridge a day early. There was a crisp breeze and the ships were running. A beautiful day. You can have 'Elf on the Shelf', I prefer 'Jabba on the Bridge'. Note: It rhymes in Huteese.

Nothing says Christmas like Symphony d'Oro's Christmas Concert in the grocery store. Out reach at its best. Did you even know that our humble Rancho Cordova has a symphony?

Artists concept of the Ascender Load airship up top.

Term of the Day: Extralinguistic Realities. It's from the study of ancient scripts. It's part of the transition from symbols that mean ideas (glyphic) to symbols that represent sounds of a spoken language (alphabet). The push for more meaning. It's hyperspace for language nerds.

Project Hazel reimaged. Hazel was a SR-71 competitor in 1958. It was a designed to be a completely inflated, foldable, Mach 3, 150k feet cruise aircraft. Yes, it was a balloon. It's amazing what you can learn from old programs.

Little red wagon thruster work. Last night we did three MHD test firings. All were calibration and data tests. We're working on getting the firings as uniform as possible before the next step in the development.

The gang working away on the back deck of the submarine.

Today is an engine firing and submarine training day at JP Aerospace.

Video! youtu.be/fdfTCBRwijI This is the updated animation for the Airship to Orbit launch system. We put in all the new updates & we show how this huge crazy project works. This is just an animation but we're building it in the real world, one mission at a time.

Bellavia heading out.

Back to engine work on our little red wagon test stand. Last night we did two MHD firings, #135 and #136. No new breakthroughs, these were getting baseline data and testing sensors.

Gemini 6 seen from Gemini 7. These were two seater 'sports car' spacecraft. They were hugely successful. Today the US is focused on big capsules. Little ones are cool too.

New Video! youtube.com/shorts/ZXBEZ... Space Kitten! Just a fun clip from a mission we flew a few years ago.

Monday morning. 100,000 feet, the no man's land between the sky and space. Love my job.

New Video Short: youtube.com/shorts/yZwYj... Inside the Ascender 9 airship envelope.

New Video Short: youtube.com/shorts/6qZTh... Where we are and where we're going.

Never stands still. We got the latest CAD work on our sub and last night the modifications already made them out of date. If all your drawings are up to date you're not innovating fast enough.

New YouTube Short: youtube.com/shorts/DVRXp... Just a quick peek at airship valve development.

Starry Night The H1 Orbital Airship under power. Video about the H1 and the program building it: youtu.be/fdfTCBRwijI?...

Good Morning Earth! It's Monday, start building your spaceship!