-balettiedotcom-

Random Ramjet Ramblings

Various thoughts and musings that tumble from my brain onto Ye Olde Interwebbes.
Go. Read. Comment.
Last 4 blog posts:
50 Years

50 Years

The Artemis I mission occurred 50 years after Apollo 17. What will it take to not have this happen again?

Becoming Santa

Becoming Santa

Santa Claus. Father Christmas. Kris Kringle. St. Nicholas. Papa Noel. Me.

Select the button to go straight to the main photo album or choose one of the categories below.
-photos.balettie.com-

Vacation Photos

Our Family

Random photos

Family Events

Texas Football

Lake Travis

-THE TRENCH-
FLIGHT DYNAMICS OFFICER
MISSION CONTROL
BLOG

-THE TRENCH-

The space exploration advocacy website of Roger Balettie, former Flight Dynamics Officer in NASA’s Space Shuttle Mission Control Center.

Select a menu tab to the left for detailed links or one of the main sections below:

FLIGHT DYNAMICS OFFICER

The Flight Dynamics Officer (FDO, pronounced “fido”) is a Flight Controller in the Mission Control Center responsible for the overall trajectory, or flight path, of the Space Shuttle and all related payloads or other space-bound vehicles associated with the Shuttle.

Read about the:

MISSION CONTROL

"Houston… Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

Since 1965, the Mission Control Center (MCC) has been the nerve center for America’s manned space program.

-THE TRENCH- blog

Space- and NASA-based blog entries.

Last 3 blog posts:
50 Years

50 Years

The Artemis I mission occurred 50 years after Apollo 17. What will it take to not have this happen again?

Countdown

Countdown

It’s been 40 years since the launch of STS-1, and the excitement of that day never faded.

50 Years

50 Years

by | Dec 22, 2022 | NASA, Space

50 years.5 decades.Half-a-century. No matter how you describe it, there’s something about that particular passage of time that brings nostalgia, reflection, and sometimes a bit of “where did the time go?” Certainly when I turned 50 myself, that was...
13 Minutes – a podcast review

13 Minutes – a podcast review

by | Sep 23, 2021 | NASA, Space

13 Minutes to the Moon In an excellent combination of my personal history and passion for space exploration as well as my Anglophile travel leanings, my dear friend John sent me a link to a BBC audio podcast that he had been enjoying.  “13 Minutes to the...
Countdown

Countdown

by | Apr 12, 2021 | NASA, Personal, Space

Countdown It’s been 40 years… and the experience still feels like glimpsing the future. April 12, 1981 Columbia sits on launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center ready to lift off on the first flight of the Space Shuttle Program.  I was in absolute...
Tango Delta

Tango Delta

by | Feb 25, 2021 | NASA, Space

In these times, when a not-unprecedented but definitely generational winter storm overwhelmed my state’s power infrastructure and it’s made immediately polarizing (pun mildly intended) and political, it’s nice to have an event that lifts...
Words on a Chalkboard

Words on a Chalkboard

by | Jan 27, 2021 | NASA, Personal, Space

January 28, 2021 Today marks 35 years since the Challenger Accident. Hard to believe, as it continues to feel like yesterday and not approaching the era of ancient history.  Just doing the math, though, shows that fateful morning in 1986 as being closer to end of the...
Apollo 11: What We Saw

Apollo 11: What We Saw

by | Aug 11, 2020 | NASA, Space

I’ve posted a space commentary video before from my friend and commentator Bill Whittle, but I can’t believe that I missed his fantastic four-part reflection series – Apollo 11: What We Saw. He has such a gift for telling stories, bringing new...