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Two Views of The Vision
Last week, the Augustine Commission held another public meeting in Washington DC and Dr. John Marburger testified. For those just joining our story in progress, Marburger was President Bush’s Science Advisor and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House between...
August 11, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
Magnificent Isolation
Rather, the end of it. The crew of Apollo 11 didn't realize how magnificent it was until they were thrust into a frenzied world after 19 days of quiet quarantine. From the moment they splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969, they'd been penned up like three men in an episode of The Twil...
August 11, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
NASA's Office of the Future
NASA used to have a research institute—a tiny one—that funded scientists and engineers to develop far-out ideas, stuff that was still 40 years in the future, or well beyond the horizon of the current space station or even the proposed moonbase. The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts was among the...
August 07, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Deadline Approaching
On Tuesday, August 5, the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee, also known as the Augustine panel after its chairman, Norman Augustine, held its next-to-last public meeting. The series began in Washington, D.C., on June 16 and moved on to Houston, Huntsville, and Cocoa Beach.The meetin...
August 05, 2009 |
By Mike Klesius
Next Step or No Step
The Moon versus Mars controversy has reared its ugly head yet again. For the newcomers, this is the perennial “debate” among space buffs about what the next destination in space should be. I do not mean to suggest that all possibilities are encompassed by these two options; it just seems that mos...
August 03, 2009 |
By Paul D. Spudis
The Electric Airplane
Quiet, smooth, dependable—shouldn’t we be flying these by now?
August 2009 |
By Peter Garrison
The Art of a Moonwalker
Alan Bean’s moonscapes show what photographs can’t.
August 2009 |
By The Editors
Into the Mushroom Cloud
Most pilots would head away from a thermonuclear explosion.
August 2009 |
By Mark Wolverton
Secret Space Shuttles
When you’re 200 miles up, it’s easy to hide what you’re up to.
August 2009 |
By Michael Cassutt
The Airport That Wouldn’t Die
An embattled Florida field had more than history on its side.
August 2009 |
By Carl Posey
A&S Interview: Brig. Gen. Iftach Spector
Israeli Air Force Ace, teacher, author
August 2009 |
By Peter Mersky
For All Mankind, or just for scientists?
In an essay published recently in the New York Times, novelist Thomas Mallon made a provocative comment: "If any real scandal attaches to Project Apollo, it’s the extent to which hard science was allowed to dominate the astronauts’ hours on the moon. With less geology and more ontology, they might ...
July 31, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The Apollo Disappointment Industry
Space historian Matthew Hersch writes:This year marks the 40th anniversary not only of Apollo 11’s historic moon landing, but of the vigorous public debate that accompanied it—debate that, decades later, shows no signs of weakening. Human spaceflight has always been controversial, and condemnation ...
July 31, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
The moonwalkers' doctor, and sometime bartender
Riding in a helicopter with the Apollo 11 astronauts following their Pacific Ocean splashdown on July 24, 1969, Bill Carpentier might have had a thousand questions for the first men to return from the moon. But there would have been no point in asking. Even if Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins hadn't ...
July 30, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
Andrew Dawson's handmade space program
Twenty years ago, performer/director Andrew Dawson, who calls his type of art "physical theater," accepted a challenge. Could he create a one-man show using only a table as a stage? With such a small set, he realized he'd need a big subject. "And I couldn't think of anything bigger than going to th...
July 30, 2009 |
By Tony Reichhardt
