Tag Archives: transportation
Is Space Tourism Soon to Become a Reality?
With the successful test flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) at the end of April, 2013, we are one step closer to commercial space tourism. This is not orbital tourism, of course, but the ability to fly above 100 km … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “Realizing Tomorrow: The Path to Private Spaceflight”
Realizing Tomorrow: The Path to Private Spaceflight. By Chris Dubbs and Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2011. Hardcover with dustjacket. 344 pp. Illustrations, notes, index. ISBN 978-0-8032-1610-5. US $34.95. Should spaceflight in the United States be dominated by … 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
Venturing to the Outer Solar System: Pioneer 10 and 11 and the Technology of Long Duration Space Exploration
As the first attempt to send robotic probes to any part of the outer solar system, in 1964 NASA scientists first conceived of what became Pioneer 10 and 11, missions that undertook a “windshield tour” of Jupiter and Saturn as … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “The Race: The Complete True Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon”
The Race: The Complete True Story of How America Beat Russia to the Moon. By James Schefter. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1999. Anchor Reprint, 2000. It is becoming increasingly obvious with every passing year that the Apollo program … Continue reading
Remembering the Challenger Seven: 27 Years On
Since the loss of STS-51L took place on this date in 1986 I thought I would reflect on the lives of the crew that was lost in that tragedy. These seven astronauts—including the specialties of pilot, aerospace engineers, and scientists—died … Continue reading
New Study Available: “Toward a History of the Space Shuttle: An Annotated Bibliography Part 2, 1992–2011″
Twenty years ago I compiled with Aaron Gillette an annotated bibliography of the Space Shuttle program entitled Toward a History of the Space Shuttle. We intended it as a starting point for serious historical investigation into the program’s history. At … Continue reading
NASA’s Space Shuttle and the Department of Defense
During the 1970s, the Space Shuttle became the “sine qua non” of NASA, intended as it was to make spaceflight routine, safe, and relatively inexpensive. Although NASA wanted the shuttle for its purposes, the Department of Defense (DOD) agreed to … Continue reading
Do You Know Me? The Legacy of Neil Armstrong
Do You Know Me? That was the unforgettable phrase that opened a series of classic American Express commercials from the 1970s. In them, people with well-known names but whose faces were not so memorable pitched how that charge card gave … Continue reading
