Some books are a call to action. Such was Andrew Chaikin’s A Man on the Moon. This book set me off on two paths of discovery: one on the U.S. space program before the space shuttle era; the other was one to see if I could be part of that program. It started with the HBO miniseries From…
When the human spaceflight program began in the U.S. varies depending on who you are and when you were born. For me, it began with the publication of the July 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Of course, others will say that it began on May 5, 1961 just as others will claim it ended…
Atlantis is on her way to the International Space Station. And the space shuttle program comes to an end with this mission. I was in second grade at Cedar Hill Elementary school when the Columbia made it’s first launch on April 12, 1981. I remember our class went to another classroom, across the library, and…
For those who follow these things, there has been much chatter about s.f. writer Charles Stross‘s blog essay in which argues why he thinks we will never colonize space. He has some good arguments, but I’ve been somewhat disappointed that no one has taken up the other side of the debate. And then I saw…
Space shuttle Discovery is on its way to the International Space Station. I watched the launch, the first night time launch in more than 4 years. MECO (main engine cutoff) was nominal with no residual burn required. Nine minutes to orbit. It was pretty cool to watch!
Today is, of course, the 65th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It seems to me that a lot of people of my generation don’t realize this, but the date was burned into me by my Grandpa, and from my reading of American history. On a brighter note, we are just about 13 hours…
So the next shuttle launch, STS 121 is still go for this coming Saturday, July 1. Launch time is scheduled for 3:49 PM EDT. Anyone interested in watching the launch can do so from NASA TV, and I’m sure the major networks will be covering it too. It’s the second shuttle launch in about a…
This coming Saturday, January 28, 2006, will be twenty years since the space shuttle Challenger exploded during its launch, killing all of the crew onboard. Twenty years! While I can’t remember that day as clearly as I used to, I can remember aspects of it pretty clearly. I was in junior high school at the…