Missing Brit SPACE HEDGEHOG RISES from the GRAVE
The Brit space hedgehog which went missing back in March during a high-altitude ballooning mission has miraculously been recovered, battered and bruised but otherwise intact.
CASSiE (Cosmic Ambassador for Space Science and Engineering) took off from Frome in Somerset as part of the MARSBalloon project to send student experiment …
Our magnificent Vulture 2 spaceplane: Intimate snaps
The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team is gearing up to get our magnificent Vulture 2 spaceplane airborne, and while we fiddle with servos and autopilots, we thought you might enjoy a few intimate snaps of the world's first 3D-printed, rocket-powered aircraft.
Before we get down to to it, it's hats off once again …
LAST CHANCE to get yer cut-price Iridium satellite comms unit
Before heading off to the pub for a well-deserved pint this fine Friday, we'd like to remind readers that you only have a few days left to get 10 per cent off a Rock Seven RockBLOCK Iridium satellite comms unit, as used by our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team, as part of its emergency abort system.
Top and …
LOHAN twangs BRASTRAP to unfetter mighty orbs
Capping a hectic month for the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team - in which we revealed the magnificent Vulture 2 spaceplane, rescued our heroic playmonaut from the side of a Spanish mountain and finally got a rocket motor igniter to go bang at 20,000m - we're delighted to report that the Big Red Abort Switch To …
LOHAN rocket motor igniter goes pop at 20,000m
Fans of our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) mission will know that the issue of getting a rocket motor to fire at altitude has given our Vulture 2 spaceplane team plenty of sleepless nights.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic Last year, we constructed the Rocketry Experimental High Altitude …
Our LOHAN rocket ship team exits Spain with a bang
It's been a hell of a couple of weeks at the Special Project Bureau's mountaintop headquarters, as we took delivery of our Vulture 2 spaceplane, welcomed the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team to sunny Spain and then spent a frantic 10 days putting things together, blowing stuff up and rescuing lost playmonauts …
Our sensational rocket ship Vulture 2 REVEALED: LIVE at 3pm
Cue the traditional fanfare of trumpets, because this afternoon at 3pm UK time, we'll be whipping the covers off our sensational Vulture 2 craft for the first time: so you can get an idea of just what the world's first 3D-printed, rocket-powered spaceplane looks like.
Here's the beast in component form last week, straight out of …
Live now: LOHAN igniter test flight
The Register's mighty Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team is, as you read this, in the field preparing a second test flight of our Vulture 2 spaceplane's rocket motor igniter assembly, following Monday's dramatic first attempt which ended on a Spanish mountainside following premature balloon burst.
Click here for a …
Our second attempt to give LOHAN a good banging: Live tomorrow
The Register's mighty Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team is gearing up for a second test flight of our Vulture 2 spaceplane's vital rocket motor igniter assembly, following Monday's dramatic first attempt which unfortunately ended on a Spanish mountainside without the essential test firing carried out.
Click here …
DRAMA at 75,000 FEET: Our Playmonaut's TERROR PLUNGE from EDGE of SPACE
We're delighted to report that our plucky Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) playmonaut pilot is safe and well, following his dramatic rescue yesterday from a Spanish mountainside.
What started as a routine test flight of the igniter for our Vulture 2 spaceplane's rocket motor, launched in perfect conditions southwest …
LOHAN hero playmonaut STRANDED on Spanish mountain
The Special Project Bureau's mountain rescue team has been mobilised today to recover our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) playmonaut – stranded since yesterday on the side of a Spanish mountain.
What should have been a routine test flight to put our improved rocket motor igniter through its paces ended dramatically …
LOHAN test flight LIVE: All the launch action
As you read this, the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team is preparing the test flight of our all-new custom rocket motor igniter.
We need to know once and for all if we can get a rocket motor to ignite at altitude, following our first pop back in July.
That ended with the igniter's E-Match going bang, but with the …
Radioaficionados españoles: Echadnos una mano
Este lunes 16 de septiembre a las 2 de la tarde el equipo LOHAN (Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator) lanzará un globo meteorológico cerca de Piedrahita (Avila).
Necesitamos la ayuda de los radioaficiondos españoles y portugueses para recibir señales de nuestros cuatro transmisores a bordo:
CHAV (434.075MHz), BUZZ (434.200MHz …
LOHAN Spanish team touches down... to prepare for lift-off
Our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team members touched down in Madrid last Thursday night, and after a few beers and some refreshing kip, were ready to pose for the camera before getting down to spaceplane business.
The LOHAN team poses with the Vulture 2
Above (from left to right) we have Rob Eastwood, Claire …
LOHAN doomsday box dubbed BRASTRAP
The results of our reader poll are in, and we're delighted to report that our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) doomsday box will forthwith be officially known as the Big Red Abort Switch To Release Aerial Payload, aka BRASTRAP.
Dave Akerman's emergency cut-down box
So, it's congratulations to reader Steve Davis for …
Here at last, our 3D beauty: Vulture 2 spaceplane flies in
Cue the traditional portentous drumroll, fanfare of trumpets and roar of the crowd as we announce that yesterday evening, a bloke in a white van rolled up to the door of the SPB's mountaintop headquarters bearing a big box...
The unopened box containing our Vulture 2 spaceplane
....containing the components of the Low Orbit …
In pictures: El Reg hooks up with rain-lashed Spanish rocketeers
Take one muddy airfield, persistent rain and a cluster of brave souls huddled under pop-up gazebos and you've got the perfect recipe for a rocketry shindig.
"You've brought the weather from your country, then," quipped one member of the Spanish tentacle of the Tripoli Rocketry Association as I rolled up on Sunday morning to a …
400 million Chinese people can't speak Chinese: Official
In very agreeable news for those who fear that everyone on homogenised Planet Earth will eventually end up speaking an unholy mix of English, Chinese Mandarin and Spanish – with a soupçon of Portuguese, Russian, Hindi and Javanese thrown in for good measure – the Chinese authorities have admitted that 400 million of their …
Ultralight party balloons in WEEK-LONG marathon flight
A couple of ultralight balloon payloads have for the past week traced suggestive paths over Europe, and continue to transmit from the skies over Belarus and Bulgaria (click pic for a bigger version):
The rather phallic tracks of the balloons seen on spacenear.us
Leo Bodnar's B-11 and B-12 missions were launched from Blighty's …
Vulture 2 autopilot reports for duty
As you can imagine, it's all go here at the Special Projects Bureau's mountaintop headquarters ahead of the imminent arrival of the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic Blokes in white vans have been bowling up to the door for the past month, their couriers' …
Vote NOW to name LOHAN doomsday box
Right, you lovely people, the time has come to name our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) doomsday box – the device which will, if required, command the mission's onboard Iridium-Arduino sandwich to release the mighty helium-filled orb carrying our Vulture 2 spaceplane aloft in case of emergency.
Dave Akerman's …
Autogyro legend Ken Wallis hangs up wings at 97
Wing Commander Ken Wallis, who soared to international fame at the controls of James Bond's Little Nellie, has died at the age of 97.
The former RAF Wellington bomber pilot passed away at his home in Norfolk on Sunday, the end of an illustrious career which saw him set the 3km speed record for autogyros (207.7km/h), and - most …
LOHAN cops a faceful of smutronyms
There's nothing quite like a Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) backronym challenge to bring out the sniggering schoolboy in our beloved spaceplane fans.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic Earlier this week, we challenged you lot to come up with a snappy name for our mission abort box - in the best …
LOHAN slowly strips lens caps off hi-def imaging arsenal
It's all go at the Special Projects Bureau's mountaintop headquarters as we await the imminent delivery of our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) Vulture 2 spaceplane, currently being hewn from the living nylon down at 3T RPD Ltd.
We've got plenty to be getting on with while we wait for the bloke in the big white …
South Carolina couple cop cuffing for shed shag
An amorous South Carolina couple copped a cuffing last Wednesday while allegedly making the beast with two backs inside a Home Depot display shed.
According to the Smoking Gun, cops were called to the DIY chain's North Charleston branch shortly after 8.30am "in reference to a male and female entering a display shed on the …
WIN a RockBLOCK Iridium satellite comms module
As followers of our epic Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) project will know, we recently laid our grubby mitts on a RockBLOCK Iridium satellite comms unit, courtesy of Rock Seven, and we're now giving one linguistically deft reader the chance to do the same.
Top and bottom views of the RockBLOCK
In fact, this is …
Vulture 2 spaceplane rises from the powdered nylon
There's mounting excitement here at the Special Project Bureau's mountaintop headquarters as we prepare to receive the parts of our Vulture 2 spaceplane.
Our chums down at 3D printers 3T RPD Ltd have just dusted off the outer wings and wingtip rudder assemblies, seen here in these rough CAD views. The top couple of images show …
Dopey dope-growing dope smoked out by own dope dope-growing vid
A New Hampshire judge has jailed an Auburn dope-grower who inadvertently blew his cover in a series of YouTube vids of his marijuana cultivation operation.
Police were alerted last year to Kyle Berry's handy online guides, but the cops did not require the services of Sherlock Holmes to lead them to his home's weed-packed …
Selfie twerks its way into the dictionary
Our beloved and accommodating mother tongue is officially a few words richer with the announcement that the Oxford Dictionaries Online, from the chaps who bring us the Oxford English Dictionary, has gathered "selfie" and "twerk" into its lexicographical embrace.
Our net-savvy readers will need no introduction to selfie, which is …
Air mattress blast blows German man across room
A German chap who attempted fix a leaking inflatable mattress with "industrial strength" puncture repair spray prompted an industrial strength blast which caused €150,000 (£129,000; $200,600) worth of damage to his rented gaff.
The unnamed 41-year-old had just moved into a house in Diepholz in Lower Saxony and, being a bit short …
Bionic Brit Babbage Bear boards brilliant balloon, bests ballsy Baumgartner
We're delighted to report that Raspberry Pi mascot Babbage Bear wrested the world skydiving record crown from Felix Baumgartner on Monday - by leaping into the void from a breathtaking 39,000m.
Stepping from his foam launch platform, Babbage took the plunge into the history books, pipping the Austrian's 38,969m jump, as this …
Rasp Pi skydive: Ballsy Baumgartner best beware Brit bionic Babbage Bear
Austrian high-altitude geezer Felix Baumgartner had better watch his back, because there's a furry Brit contender for the world skydiving record preparing to leap into the void from a breathtaking 39,000m.
Tomorrow (Saturday), weather permitting, Raspberry Pi Mascot Babbage Bear will ascend to the stratosphere over the green …
Our Vulture 2 spaceplane sprouts sleek pointy beak
The nylon dust has almost settled on the epic design and build saga of our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) Vulture 2 spaceplane as 3D printer 3T RPD Ltd fires up the machine to craft the last pieces of our revolutionary aircraft.
Yes indeed, ladies and gentlemen, the crack design team of Southampton Uni postgrads - …
3D printers stroke LOHAN's shapely midriff
Those UK readers living close to rapid prototyping firm 3T RPD Ltd's Newbury headquarters are invited to open their windows and listen for a distant whirring sound as our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) Vulture 2 spaceplane is meticulously hewn from the living nylon.
Last week, the crack team of Southampton Uni …
Oz sawbones extract fork from old boy's todger: Gents, start your wincing
Sawbones at Canberra Hospital have published an illuminating, if eye-watering, account of how they extracted a 10cm fork from a septuagenarian's penis.
According to the report by doctors Krishanth Naidu, Maurice Mulcahy and Amanda Chung, published in the The International Journal of Surgery (PDF, images NSFW), "a 70-year-old man …
In case of LOHAN flight emergency, gobble THIS Iridium-Arduino sandwich
We recently reported that we'd laid our grubby mitts on a second RockBLOCK Irdidium satellite comms unit - courtesy of Rock Seven.
Top and bottom views of the RockBLOCK
The RockBLOCK, pictured above, can "send and receive short messages from anywhere on Earth with a view of the sky", and it's this latter capability which has …
Portuguese chicken invades Spanish airspace
A plucky Portuguese cockerel has added extra weight to the theory that model aircraft and High Altitude Ballooning payloads are magnetically drawn to trees by soaring to a heady 33,252m before crash landing in a bewildered Spanish villager's fig tree.
The flying rooster seen in the stratosphere
The Galo de Barcelos (Rooster …
Flab-fighting LOHAN fettles fantastical flying truss
Amid all the excitement surrounding the imminent appearance of the Vulture 2 spaceplane, the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team has been beavering away on the fantastical flying truss which will carry our magnificent aircraft heavenwards.
For LOHAN newbies, and those of you who haven't been paying attention at the …
Attention, addicts: LEGO meth lab pays homage to Breaking Bad
Fans of Lego and TV series Breaking Bad can now put together their very own miniature methamphetamine lab, assuming they've got pretty deep pockets.
The Lego Breaking Bad lab with figures
The Citizen Brick "Superlab Playset" features 500 pieces and three minifigs, designed to offer solace to those "bummed out" that Breaking …
Is NASA planning to send LAVA LAMPS to Jupiter?
You know how it is: you're crashed on the sofa quaffing a beer and staring pensively at your hypnotic lava lamp when you're suddenly struck by the overwhelming desire to find out if the 1960s design classic* would work on Jupiter.
Well, the good news is that Google software engineer Neil Fraser has answered this vital galactic …
Vulture 2 spaceplane flies to the 3D printing press
It's a portentous timpani drumroll, a tremendous fanfare of trumpets and a huge roar from the crowd as the first parts of our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) Vulture 2 spaceplane are hewn from the living nylon down at 3D printers 3T RPD Ltd.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic
Yes indeed, ladies …
ULTIMATE cuppa contenders prepare to go mug-to-mug
We're one step closer today to deciding the ultimate cuppa with the announcement of the 12 contenders which will go mug-to-mug in the pursuit of tea perfection.
Our crack team of shopping experts has braved multiple supermarkets in search of your nominations, and we're set to turn the matter over to our panel of tasting experts …
Brit Skylon spaceplane moves closer to lift-off
The European Space Agency (ESA) has chipped in €1m to study the viability of the Skylon spaceplane concept - a radical single stage to orbit (SSTO) vehicle whose motors use "a synthesis of elements from rocket and gas turbine technology".
Artist's representation of the Skylon. Pic: Reaction Engines The Skylon
According to the …
Bloke straps shed to Ford Zephyr and chases it on bike
Reg reader Richard Smith has called for one Brit to be awarded a Special Projects Bureau medal after strapping a shed to a Ford Zephyr and and chasing it on a bicycle.
Custom bike frame wrangler Tom Donhou hit 128km/h as he powered his improbably-geared machine behind the classic motor. The project wasn't planned to break the …
Behold, replica Nazi-code-cracking Colossus computer IN LEGO FORM
A Lego fan's miniature representation of the famous codebreaking Colossus Mark 2 has agreeably gone on show at Bletchley Park, where the original machine did vital wartime work breaking Germany's Lorenz ciphers.
James Pegrum's homage to Colossus is entertaining visitors as part of the The National Museum of Computing's (TNMOC) …
Transdimensional rift appears above Australian bolt supplier
Shaken Oz reader Christopher Scott has been in touch to say he's just stumbled upon a transdimensional rift, spotted by Street View's all-seeing eye menacing Ringwood, Victoria:
Strange tear in the fabric of space time in the skies above Ringwood
It's difficult to ascertain just what lies beyond this sinister portal ripped …
LOHAN lays mitts on second Iridium sat comms kit
We're pleased to announce that the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team has got its grubby mitts on a second Iridium satellite comms unit, courtesy of Rock Seven.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic
Those of you who've been following our audacious spaceplane mission will recall we took delivery of …
Who's who: 12th Doctor has been chosen, will meet you on Sunday night
The question of who will be the 12th incarnation of Doctor Who will be answered this weekend in a live TV special, the BBC has declared.
Milking the appointment of the latest Time Lord for all it's worth, the Corporation will dedicate 30 minutes to the matter on BBC 1 on Sunday from 7pm. Fronted by Zoe Ball, the programme "will …
LOHAN serves up Raspberry Pi sensorgasmotry
The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team is battling away on several fronts ahead of next month's launch of the Vulture 2 spaceplane, and while there's still plenty of work to do, we do at least have the mission electronics fit for duty.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic Our recent test flight of …
SPEARS joins the 19-mile-high club: Intimate snaps
The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team is just about done sifting through the photos and vid from our recent test flight of the Special Project Electronic Altitude Release System (SPEARS) control board, and we hereby present highlights for your viewing pleasure.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic …
