Category Archives: Cold War Competition
Redirect: “5 Changes in Space Travel Since Yuri Gagarin’s Flight”
On Friday, April 12, 2013, journalist Luna Shyr wrote a good story for National Geographic Daily News entitled ”5 Changes in Space Travel Since Yuri Gagarin’s Flight.” Of course, I like the story in part because she quoted me in the … Continue reading
Nuclear Power Systems for Spacecraft: The Transit Navigational Satellite Connection
Flying in space requires reliable, uninterrupted, stable electrical power, not only for engines to maneuver and navigate but for systems on spacecraft performing a range of functions. During the first two decades of the space age in the 1950s and … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age”
Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age. By Matthew Brzezinski. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2007. The fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, sparked the publication of … Continue reading
A Chronology of Space Anniversaries for 2013
Many people have asked what anniversaries are upcoming in 2013 in space history. Here is a quick list. Are there items that I should add to this accounting? 1923—90 years ago December: Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (The Rocket into … Continue reading
A Truly Hilarious Cartoon on the Apollo/Saturn Stack
This cartoon from the XKCD website helps explain with considerable humor the awesomeness of the Saturn V. It uses onlty the most common words in English to rescribe the stack. You may find the original here. Enjoy!
Announcing a New Book: “Coming Home: Reentry and Recovery from Space”
Dennis R. Jenkins and I have just published a new book, Coming Home: Reentry and Recovery from Space, issued as NASA Special Publication-2011-593. It’s available now, free as a downloadable a PDF here. One of the most difficult tasks with which … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “America’s Space Sentinels: DSP Satellites and National Security”
America’s Space Sentinels: DSP Satellites and National Security. By Jeffrey T. Richelson. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999. ISBN 0-7006-0942-3. Figures. Tables. Notes. Bibliographic Essay. Index. Pp. xix, 329. $35.00. Although now more thana decade old, this book is still … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “Area 51: The Dreamland Chronicles”
Area 51: The Dreamland Chronicles.By David Darlington. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1997. Area 51, the highly classified military installation at Groom Lake in the Nevada desert about 90 miles north of Las Vegas, may be more a state … Continue reading
The Declining Significance of the Frontier in Space History?
It began to be perceptible in the late 1960s, and was certainly recognized in the 1970s, that the intermix of frontier imagery, popular culture expectations, and Cold War concerns was beginning to break-down. This was true across broad swaths of … Continue reading
Would Apollo Have Been Successful had Kennedy Served Two Terms as President?
The assassination of John F. Kennedy looms large in the history of the United States during the middle part of the twentieth century, no doubt, but what role did it play in the unfolding of the history of spaceflight? If … Continue reading
