Published inFAUN Publication·PinnedMoon Landing AnniversaryList of SRE Lessons from the Lunar Landings — This week is the 53rd anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing — Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins launched on July 16th 1969, landed on the Moon on July 20th and returned safely to Earth on the 24 of July. …DevOps5 min readDevOps5 min read
2 days agoHow can you land 5 kilometers above the Moon?The near success and crash of the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 In April of 2023 the Japanese space exploration company ispace attempted to land the HAKUTO-R Mission 1 on the Moon. …Technology6 min readTechnology6 min read
May 2Is there such a thing as a system that’s too reliable?NASA’s Voyager Will Do More Science With New Power Strategy — The year 1977 was a landmark for the computer and hi-tech industry. Revolutionary systems appeared, ranging from the first affordable and practical home computers like the Commodore PET, the Apple II, and the TRS-80 to the first VMS system — the VAX-11/780 “super-minicomputer”. …Sre7 min readSre7 min read
Mar 23Elementary, My Dear SRESRE Lessons from Sherlock Holmes — Introduction. Inspired by my recent SRECon2023 Americas talk, I’m going to make a digression from my usual space exploration articles and discuss some lessons we can learn from the master detective Sherlock Holmes. After all, Holmes solved crimes using tools such as magnifying glasses…Programming2 min readProgramming2 min read
Published inFAUN Publication·Jul 11, 2022Day 2 Operations with the James Webb Space Telescope is about to beginSuccess through Reliability — Webb Lesson 5 — On July 12th 2022, after six months of deployment and testing, NASA will host a press conference and present the initial results of the James Webb Space Telescope. …Sre8 min readSre8 min read
Jun 30, 2022My IBM CIO team welcome boxI recently transferred to a new role in IBM, as a Site Reliability Engineer architect in the office of the CIO. While this isn’t the first time I’ve changed jobs within IBM, it is the first time it’s been a complete break from my previous job and former colleagues. I…IBM3 min readIBM3 min read
Jun 14, 2022Known Unknowns —Webb Struck by Meteoroid!Success through Reliability — Webb Lesson 4 — If it bleeds, it leads — and nothing bleeds like a potential crisis in a 10 billion dollar space telescope which has not yet started working! Last week NASA announced that the James Webb Space Telescope had been struck by a meteoroid which (if you only skimmed media headlines) “struck…Technology8 min readTechnology8 min read
Jun 2, 2022I Wanted to Write a Biographical Piece About Judy Resnik.2978Emily CarneyThanks very much for this article.Thanks very much for this article. Judy Resnik is a fascinating character and Mullane's writings about her were some of the best in his great book. Are there any details on the contents of the Collins-Resnik conversation?1 min read1 min read
Apr 21, 2022Gyros and Gimbals, oh my! — The James Webb Space Telescope Reliability LessonsSuccess through Reliability — Webb Lesson 3 Apollo 16 landed on the Moon 50 years ago this week & the James Webb Space Telescope took its first test image last month. The story of these two different milestones has a thread connecting them which is a reliability story with many…Space7 min readSpace7 min read
Mar 2, 2022Let’s create with IBMMany of my earliest memories of computers while growing up in the 1980s revolve around IBM. Whether playing games on my PC or watching NASA videos with Mission Control computers in action, computers meant IBM. Fast forward to the late 2000s and I joined IBM as a consultant for our…IBM5 min readIBM5 min read
