Comments | flakaseagulls: 15 years in the making

flakaseagulls

15 years in the making

Dec 29, 2006 10:27

As of 1am EST my company is now the proud owner of the FIRST OPERATIONAL US Hall Thruster (and 1/8" cathode). This is the company's first thruster firing in space, so it's a huge milestone for us and US electric propulsion. Note I had absolutely zero to do with this particular program, but I think it's a great new phase for the company, and a ( Read more... )

Comments 10

jror_tholin December 29 2006, 16:16:15 UTC

TacSat 2 I presume? Send my congrats to the Hall team and the rest of Busek.

flakaseagulls December 29 2006, 17:12:00 UTC

You presume correctly, your AF colleagues are pretty happy. I'll pass the high fiver to Larry and the rest.

jror_tholin December 29 2006, 17:20:20 UTC

There were a few scary moments after it launched... apparently comms weren't established on schedule. It also managed to launch into the biggest geomagnetic storm in a while. Glad it's up and functioning though.

flakaseagulls December 29 2006, 21:30:16 UTC

yeah our hearts were in our mouths there for a while, and we thought it was toast but when the re-established comms a few passes later, we were friggin euphoric.

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flakaseagulls December 29 2006, 17:12:44 UTC

:-) are you going to stay for a PhD or do you want to get out after the MS?

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flakaseagulls December 29 2006, 21:31:10 UTC

well gimmie your updated resume for the may area of time and i'll put it back in the que. of course assuming we get more grants. ;-)

anonymous December 29 2006, 16:30:12 UTC

very cool. congrats. :)

lucasthegray December 29 2006, 16:33:56 UTC

That was me. lj apparently randomly logged me out.

rosrua December 30 2006, 18:52:10 UTC

I have to admit - i am totaly confused.

but..um.. cool?

merlin_v12 December 30 2006, 21:18:55 UTC

And here I was thinking that YOU were the owner of the world's first eighth inch cathode.

Heh heh.