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In recent years there has been a steady increase in the offering of web sites in relation to astronautics and space exploration. Thanks to the work of many enthusiasts, a wealth of information about the past and present of astronautics is now on-line. In addition, the availability of a great number of important technical documents, as well as of information provided by different historical services and archives, has created a critical mass of information that now requires effort to get ordered and organized, at least from a knowledge management view point. 

However not all the web sites are 'good enough' for those die-hards who find engineering applied to space exploration one of the great achievements of our age: many enthusiasts often "drool" after an astronaut picture in training but they do not look at the technical details being accomplished or the engineering details of the tools/instruments at use. Only after the Apollo 13 movie, did people start to learn about the heroic efforts of 'those nerds' in mission control, but again that was the tip of an iceberg of engineers and technicians that made it happen. The truth is that very seldom discussed, or hinted at, are the heroics of those thousands and thousands of engineers who, working behind the scenes of their own companies and agencies, made the impossible, possible and, borrowing from the British Interplanetary Society, built the bridges from imagination to reality.

This web site starts empty and aims to fill some gaps in the ocean of information about spaceflight, detailing aspects, concepts and ideas that are appreciated by those who have always liked to know "how things work" and like the challenge and the interdisciplinarity of spaceflight. In doing so, it also aims to point out the amazing level of detail that went into designing, building and flying spacecrafts, including therefore the procedural aspects and those techniques that went into the overall picture under the name of spaceflight. This does not exclude discussions about booster rockets, but we definitely decided to limit the site to the context of the more complex element of a space mission and the one in which human beings had to elect as their home while traveling in space.

Of course, this site is not only dedicated to "those engineers", but it will try to speak about their work and will try to underline how difficult things were when rulers and graphs were the daily tools, and when drawing meant using a pencil and eraser, when solid state electronics was in its infancy and when documentation was neat and good looking without use of word processors.

In closing, we do hope that some gaps will be filled and a new road will be explored to satisfy the curiosity of open minds. The format of this site is organized as a collection of articles that may be critiqued and made to grow with the contribution of readers. We discarded the forum format because it doesn't lend too much in terms of gathering knowledge, and the wiki format because we needed to keep some tight control (at least initially).

So, you are welcome to this new site and apologies for its emptiness. If things go well, more and more articles will start to appear. Please register to access to the whole content (it is free of course) and if you wish to author (or submit modifications to) articles just turn to the contacts and let us know that you want to join the team.

PS In its initial period the web site will be mostly open (incomplete sections will be hidden). Only the downloads sections requires registration to download files.