I was just watching National Geographic about launching satellites from the equator in the middle of the ocean – for a company called SeaLaunch. It was interesting to watch this show since they also talked about the original satllite they launched called DemoSat. Now, why am I talking about a TV show? Well, DemoSat was an interesting satellite, with no electronics on board. It was only steel and concrete used to simulate the weight of a real satellite.

A few weeks before launch they asked a friend of mine if he could add an active payload to the rocket. The killer… He only had 10 days to get the device built and delivered. For the cost of abut US$2000 he actually built the satellite and got it to the launch platform. Unfortunately he could not get an export permit for the satellite in time from the US government. Ignore for a moment the fact that the hardware was a five year old design with a ten year old CPU. But anything going into space needs an export permit, and he needed one. Unfortunatly he did not get it. Not to worry… The satellite eventually got launched through some other means.

CNN has a story about the 10th anniversary of LASIK laser eye correction. It looks like a lot of work has been done on this in the last few years… And it is starting to get close to what I would call safe.