SPB > More stories
Norkoshop: How Pyongyang well and truly forked Adobe
The recent news that North Korea had been caught red-handed indulging in some not-so-light hovercraft cloning, led our beloved Reg commenters to ponder just what software Pyongyang uses to big up its military capabilities.
One initial suggestion was that the communist state's Illustrious Father and Leader, Kim Jong-Un, had …
LOHAN must suck juice while mounted on rigid rod - but HOW?
Over the past couple of weeks, the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team has been chewing the fat with readers over just how to hook up the Vulture 2 spaceplane's rocket motor heater.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic
There's more on the current state of play with the heater right here, and a …
Rocket boffinry in pictures: Gulp the Devil's venom and light a match
Feature It's been more than 70 years since the first successful test flight of the German Vergeltungswaffe 2 (V2) - the weapon that paved the way for subsequent rocket-based efforts to escape Earth's surly bonds.
On 3 October 1942, a team headed by Wernher von Braun watched its creation rise from the launchpad at Peenemünde, little …
Lost CASSiE search moves up a gear
Elite teams of Warwick University quadcopter operatives will take to the skies this weekend in search of CASSiE the Cosmic Hedgehog, missing since a high-altitude ballooning (HAB) mission went off the radar somewhere over Oxfordshire or Warwickshire.
CASSiE the Cosmic Hedgehog Missing: CASSiE the cosmic hedgehog
Following a …
Watch the skies: SPACE HEDGEHOG plunges to Earth in Oxfordshire
Reg readers in the Leamington Spa area are asked to keep an eye out for a knitted hedgehog which may have fallen from the skies thereabouts, and is currently the focus of a frantic search and rescue operation.
CASSiE (Cosmic Ambassador for Space Science and Engineering), aka the Cosmic Hedgehog, was sent aloft last Friday on a …
LOHAN fans drawn to magnetic coupling
Earlier this week, we published results of some tests on the proposed heater for our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) rocket motor heater, designed to keep the Vulture 2 spaceplane's powerplant toasty at altitude.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic We also invited our tech-savvy ballocket mission …
Voyager goes off a (helio) cliff
Probably the most-loved survivor of 1970s space optimism, Voyager, has sent back signals indicating that it's left the heliosphere.
Scientists are now discussing whether they should consider the 35-year-old probe to be in interstellar space, or to have entered a new region of space that hasn't been previously described.
The …
LOHAN slips into tight rubber outfit
Last week, the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team welcomed rocketeer Paul Shackleton aboard our audacious spaceplane mission.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic Accordingly, it's an opportune moment to report on progress on the Vulture 2 motor heater, which will hopefully prevent the aircraft's …
LOHAN hooks up with top-flight rocketeer
The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team is delighted to announce our audacious ballocket mission now has a top-flight rocketeer on board to handle the power plant for our Vulture 2 spaceplane.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic So, ladies and gentlemen, raise your glasses to welcome Paul …
Plucky Swede glides spaceplane to Earth from edge of stratosphere
Pics+Vid The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team would like to raise a pint or two today to David Windestål - a Swedish radio-controlled aircraft enthusiast who recently pulled off an impressive "Space Glider" flight from a dizzying 33,000m.
David's audacious mission involved taking an off-the-shelf Muliplex FunJet (picture …
LOHAN seeks rocketeer for explosive relationship
Despite an apparent lull of late on the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) front, we are moving apace towards finally getting our Vulture 2 aircraft aloft.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic There have been some dramatic developments recently regarding a launch site for our audacious ballocket mission …
The DIY spy-in-the-sky: From kites to octocopters
Last week, we offered a brief history of aerial surveillance, with a promise to give a few pointers to the budding DIY spy-in-the-sky.
Interest in airborne photography has skyrocketed in the past few years, driven by the availability of lightweight cameras packing plenty of pixels at bargain basement prices.
Such kit allows …
Reg readers brew up the ultimate cuppa
We're one step closer today to defining just what constitutes the ultimate cuppa as our reader poll results show a definite leaning towards broadly classic tea-brewing methodology.
Mug with our Vulture logo For those of you who missed the last installment of our probe into the perfect cha experience - presumably because you …
Raspberry Pi-powered Tardis blasts off from 'Blighty's Baikonur'
Video The diminutive Raspberry Pi celebrates its first birthday today, and by way of a toast to the million-selling miniature kit, we bring news of high altitude geezer Dave Akerman's latest Rasberry Pi In The Sky tomfoolery - a geekgasmic combination of ARM power and Time Lord tech.
On Wednesday, Dave and Anthony Stirk - they of Low …
Spies in the sky: The leaps and bounds from balloons to spook sats
Picture special In just 230 years, humanity has progressed from its first faltering flights to the capability to photograph from space an object the size of a grapefruit - a testament both to technological progress and our need to keep a close eye on the world around us.
The advancement of aerial surveillance and imaging has been driven in …
BBC: Monster cargo ship delivers '863 million tins of baked beans'
The BBC has sensationally quantified the cargo capacity of a new behemoth container ship as "863 million tins of baked beans".
Auntie's penchant for describing very big, heavy, strong or long things in terms mere mortals can get their heads round is well known to Reg regulars. Last year, it described the constricting force of a …
Crucial question after asteroid near-miss: How big was rock in Olympic pools?
The services of Bruce Willis were mercifully not required over the weekend as asteroid 2012 DA14 came to within 27,700km of Earth.
As we reported on Friday, the space rock measures 45 metres across and weighs in at 130,000 metric tonnes, although it fell to the BBC to put that into proper perspective. The corporation described …
Reg readers scuffle over the ultimate cuppa
Poll We weren't much surprised that last week's call for readers to explain just what makes the ultimate cuppa resulted in a rush of experts eager to chip in their two bits' worth, offering some strong opinions, and even stronger brews, as evidenced by tales of billy-can-boiled industrial-strength infusions sweetened with condensed …
Register reader Ray revs radio-controlled Raspberry Pi race rover
Pics and vid As geeks worldwide continue to come up with inventive ways to deploy the hit Brit minikit Raspberry Pi, and the publication of a 101 uses for a...* guide is surely just a matter of time, Reg reader Ray Brooks has been in touch to show off his prototype carbot powered by the diminutive ARM-compatible computer.
Ray is a JavaScript …
Playmobil punts bank-heist set to wide-eyed kiddies
El Reg's fave toy manufacturer Playmobil has provoked a miniature rumpus by punting a bank-heist set to children.
The Playmobil bank set, complete with armed robber
The "Bank with Safe" ensemble boasts a working cash machine although nippers are encouraged to make over-the-counter withdrawals via a pistol-waving blonde …
El Reg contemplates the ultimate cuppa
As regular readers know, we at the SPB are tireless in our pursuit of culinary excellence, and many of you share our penchant for gourmet grub, including the pinnacle of pork perfection that is the bacon sarnie.
Last year, you responded magnificently to our invitation to submit nominations for the ultimate sliced-pig-in-bread …
Schoolgirl's Hello Kitty catonaut soars to 93,000ft
Pics'n'vid A 13-year-old Hello Kitty fan has made her mark in the world of High Altitude Ballooning (HAB) by sending her fave feline toy to a heady 28,537m (93,625ft).
The Hello Kitty in its rocket
Seventh-grader Lauren Rojas, of Cornerstone Christian School in Antioch, California, hit the heights for a class assignment designed to …
Space Shuttle Columbia disaster remembered 10 years on
Feature On February 1st, 2003 at 08:00 CST residents of Texas witnessed the once mighty Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrate into a 12,000mph fireball. Almost 17 years to the day since the Challenger disaster, President G. W. Bush delivered the news to the world, “The Columbia is lost. There are no survivors.”
Space Shuttle Columbia …
LOHAN teases with quick flash of spaceplane
It's with a portentous drumroll and fanfare of trumpets that we reveal today the design of our Vulture 2 spaceplane - the rocket-powered vehicle at the centre of our audacious Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) ballocket mission.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic At the end of 2011, a heavyweight …
LOHAN premieres intimate REHAB vid
As the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team continues to advance inexorably on various front towards the launch of our Vulture 2 spaceplane, we've taken a bit of time to look back at our REHAB experiment.
LOHAN fans will know that the purpose of the Rocketry Experimental High Altitude Barosimulator was to test solid …
Entire Reg readership would fill 205 Olympic-sized swimming pools
Last week, we announced that according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, a record 7,326,907 unique users visited El Reg in November 2012.
An Olympic-sized swimming pool Impressive stuff, which prompted one reader to ask: "Is it just me, or does anyone else want to know how many Olympic-size swimming pools that number of …
Nipper's toy train enjoys journey to edge of SPAAAAACE
Video Toy train stories are like number 13 buses - you wait ages for one and then two turn up at once. Following our report earlier this week on wooden train outfit Bigjigs' audacious bid to run the West Coast Mainline franchise, we received news of a US dad who dispatched his young son's model locomotive to the stratosphere.
It seems …
'Leccy-starved Reg hack: 'How I survive on 1.5kW'
Here's a provocative question for readers in these power-hungry times: could you survive in a house where the total power draw of all your electrical appliances and fittings at any one time can't exceed 1.5kW?
An overloaded kilowatt meter Preposterous, we hear you cry. Stick a load in the washing machine and put the kettle on …
Toy train company bids for West Coast Mainline
We offer the Vulture Central tip of the hat today to toy train outfit Bigjigs for its audacious bid to run the UK's West Coast Mainline rail franchise.
For those of you not up to speed on the West Coast Mainline fiasco, entertain yourselves with this blow-by-blow account down at the Beeb as to how the nation that invented the …
El Reg's 'Chuck Norris' faces down charging elephant
Reader Miguel Barreiro has proposed that the El Reg Standards Soviet adopt the charging adult elephant as an official unit of force following its deployment as a measurement of thrust of Copenhagen Suborbitals' HEAT-1XP rocket motor.
The engine in question is the "most powerful amateur rocket ever flown", and according to a …
LOHAN fabricates full-fat fantastical flying truss
The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team has bounced back from the recent loss of our heroic playmonaut and the Special Project Electronic Altitude Release System (SPEARS) control board, and is busy advancing our audacious spaceplane project on various fronts.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic …
Tearful, poetic Reg readers hail heroic, departed Playmonaut
We're obliged to all those readers who've offered condolences at the loss of our heroic playmonaut, who disappeared in the English Channel last week during a Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) mission.
Our heroic Playmonaut atop the PARIS cocktail
Many of you were moved to quote from High Flight by John Gillespie …
Hero Playmonaut lost at sea as SPEARS ditches in Channel
It's with heavy hearts that we report the loss of the Special Project Bureau's heroic playmonaut, after the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) balloon launch on Saturday ended in the English Channel off the coast of Sussex.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic The flight was intended to test the Special …
LOHAN's mighty orb launch live NOW
Today's Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) balloon launch is go, and you can follow the ground preparations in Berkshire live right now, right here - courtesy of the chaps at batc.tv
There are full details on the mission team and payload here. To summarise, the primary objective is to see whether our Special Project …
Watch live! Crack LOHAN team to send SPEARS to stratosphere
Our report yesterday that the Special Projects Bureau had ordered its intrepid playmonaut back to base ahead of a vital Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) mission, led some of you to suspect that we were poised to wave off the Special Project Electronic Altitude Release System (SPEARS) control board on a high-altitude …
RETURN of the PLAYMONAUT: El Reg's space hero suits up again
We at the Special Projects Bureau are of the opinion that our heroic playmonaut - who guided the Vulture 1 spaceplane to Guinness World Record glory - has been a bit idle of late.
Our intrepid playmonaut in his new spacesuit Back in May, he jetted off to Blighty to assist in the design of the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator …
LOHAN cooks up tempting Raspberry Pi spiced with Iridium
The electronics buffs among you should brace for explosive geekgasm, as the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team serves up a tasty dish of Iridium-spiced Raspberry Pi, with a tempting side dish of Python.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic You'll recall that back in September, our audacious …
SPEARS fired up for explosive climax
Our Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) project reached a major milestone over the weekend with the completion of the first Special Project Electronic Altitude Release System (SPEARS) control board.
Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic Neil Barnes, who put together LOHAN's silicon heart with the able …
Warming up the thruster that will ram LOHAN to glorious heights
Our audacious Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) spaceplane project continues to advance on multiple fronts, and while Neil Barnes and Anthony Stirk put together the Special Project Electronic Altitude Release System (SPEARS) control board, we've been doing some more work on the Vulture 2 rocket motor heater set-up. …
Reg boffins blow lid on sheepsecs
Vid Many, many moons ago, Reg boffin Lucy Sherriff provocatively stated that the "comet-tailed" red giant Mira was thundering across the heavens at "roughly 150,000 times" faster than the speed of the average sheep.
This prompted lively debate about just how fast sheep might in fact travel in the vacuum of space, and Vulture Central …
Extreme teleworking: A Reg hack reports from the internet's frontier
"You lucky, lucky bastard," was how a fellow Reg hack responded to my announcement back in 2004 that I was upping sticks and establishing a Vulture Central outpost in rural Spain, far from the rain-lashed shores of Blighty.
In September of that year, I was sardined in cattle class on a London-bound train packed with misery- …
US paper spaceplane disintegrates at 107,000ft
The University of Southern Indiana's second attempt to claim PARIS's Guinness World Record for the highest launch of a paper plane ended dramatically on Saturday when the Geronimo aircraft (pictured below) disintegrated at around 107,000ft (32,612m).
The Geronimo paper plane
On 27 October, the uni's first pop at the record …
