Tag Archives: Wernher von Braun
Chronology of Key Space Anniversaries for 2017
1942—75 Years Ago 3 October—Germany launched its V-2 rocket and is the first spacecraft to cross the Kármán line (100 km). 1947—70 Years Ago 20 February—The United States sent fruit flies into space. 1952—65 Years Ago 1 April—The U.S. Army … Continue reading
Timing of the Apollo Landing in Relation to the Soviet Lunar Program
Americans have long known that the American effort to land on the Moon served as an enormously effective response to a Cold War crisis with the Soviet Union. When Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in July 1969 few recalled … Continue reading
Chronology of Key Space Anniversaries for 2015
1945—70 Years Ago 4 July—The NACA’s Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD) launched from Wallops Island, Maryland, its first test vehicle, a small two-stage, solid-fuel rocket to check out the installation’s instrumentation. The group soon began serious work to learn about … Continue reading
A Short History of Reentry and Recovery from Space in Less than 1,000 Words
The atmosphere surrounding the Earth and supporting life here makes spaceflight harder than it would be if it did not exist. It is said, only half-jokingly, that getting to orbit is like getting “halfway to anywhere” because of the energy … Continue reading
A Brief Account of the Origins of Rocketry in Less than 1,000 Words
Although it is unclear who first invented rockets, many investigators link the first crude rockets with the discovery of gunpowder. The Chinese, moreover, had been using gunpowder for some 1,800 years. The first firecrackers seemed to have appeared about the … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century”
Imagining Outer Space: European Astroculture in the Twentieth Century. Edited by Alexander C.T. Geppert. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. Hardcover. 393 pp. Color plates, notes, index. ISBN 978-0-230-23172-6. US $105.00. In 1997 Howard E. McCurdy published the path-breaking Space and … Continue reading
Proposed Syllabus for “Spaceflight and Society” Course, Fall 2013
I am the instructor for a course at Johns Hopkins University in the Fall 2013 semester with the title, “Spaceflight and Society.” I taught this class in the fall of 2011 as well and had a great time doing it, … Continue reading
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: “Testing the Limits: Aviation Medicine and the Origins of Manned Space Flight”
Testing the Limits: Aviation Medicine and the Origins of Manned Space Flight. By Maura Phillips Mackowski. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2005. Centennial of Flight Series. Maura Phillips Mackowski has written a very interesting, readable, and significant book that I … Continue reading
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